What are Killer Bees?

(Lansing State Journal, July 23, 1997)

Now that summer has arrived, a variety of insects are again making their presence felt here in Michigan. We've already talked about why we get mosquito bites.

Some of our readers would like to know if "killer bees" make honey. First of all, "killer bees" are more properly called Africanized honeybees. Brazilian honeybee breeders wanted to create bees that produced more honey, so in 1956 they imported African honeybees which were known to make more honey than the native bee population.

Unfortunately, these bees hybridized with and displaced the local bees. They produce more honey but they are also more dangerous than European bees because they attack intruders in larger numbers.

African bees are expected to spread into the United States but the extent of their spread throughout the country is expected to remain limited due to cold weather. Some bee breeders are even predicting that these Africanized bees will become less aggressive as they interbreed with North American bees.

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