Killer Bees Attack!

Beekeepers work on a traditional straw hive.



Bees clumping on a honeycomb in a modern hive.
Photo: David Noyes



Most Americans know about the African honey bee. Starting with a series of sensationalist movies in the 1970s, there have been fears of African/European hybrid bees rampaging across the United States, making it unsafe even to step outdoors. Killer bees were portrayed as a menace to humanity, advancing across the continent with unstoppable ferocity. Is the description fair?

The story of these so called killer bees began in the 1950s when African bees were brought to Brazil to mix with the European species already established in the Americas. The goal was to create a heartier, more productive bee by combining the best traits of each species. Instead, the experimental bees escaped from the laboratory and outcompeted existing colonies across Brazil and then the continent of South America. By the 1980s they had spread through Central America into Mexico, and were first spotted in Texas in 1990. Now they occupy much of the Southwest and Southern California.

Fortunately the real threat of killer, or Africanized, bees, has been widely overblown. Though they have killed people, they are far from numbers that would reflect a public health threat, or even much surpass deaths from regular European honey bees. Most deaths are due to allergic reactions regardless of the type of bee involved. South and Central American beekeepers have become accustomed to working with the more aggressive species and in fact, the original goal of the experiment has been realized: the hybrids are more productive than the European bees in tropical environments, once the beekeepers know how to control them.

However much the dangers of killer bees may have been exaggerated, there is no doubt that African bees are more aggressive, quicker to sting, and more likely to attack en masse than their European cousins. For example, once aggravated, African bees can take up to a half hour to calm, compared to three to five minutes for Europeans. While a European swarm might chase an intruder for 100 meters, the Africa bees are liable to pursue for up to a kilometer.

With these facts in mind I was a little nervous my first night out collecting honey in the bush, despite my full beekeeper’s suit, complete with mask, gloves, and boots. Alexandre kept fussing over the zippers and fasteners, saying, “We can’t leave any holes, because if one bee finds a way in the rest will follow.” I tried to calculate how long it would take me to run a kilometer wearing a heavy jumpsuit and boots, in the dark.

The bees did seem easily riled, swarming and buzzing angrily when we so much as approached the hive. I could see them crawling on my face mask, mere centimeters from my face. My suit did its job, however, which allowed me to do mine. I was in charge of the smoker, pumping continuous billows of smoke into the hive to calm the swarm. Alexandre, also wearing a protective suit, lifted the wooden planks out of the hive one by one to check for honey, which we set aside in a bucket. Turning to examine our harvest, I felt a little silly when I noticed Abdulaye, the third member of our group, not only wasn’t wearing any protective gear, he wasn’t wearing a shirt at all. “Don’t they sting you?” I asked. He shrugged. “I’m not scared of bees,” was his response.

With our suits, smokers, and hives with removable parts, we had the benefit of modern equipment that most African beekeepers don’t have access to. The most traditional method of harvesting honey was to simply go out in the woods and look for naturally occurring hives. Finding one, the hunters would climb the tree, stick a torch in the hive, and knock it to the ground. People still succeed in finding honey in this manner but there are four major problems.

The first is that the search for wild hives is time consuming and difficult. The next two problems derive from the method of harvest. Sticking a torch in a hive and knocking it to the ground is a sure way to destroy it, not to mention most of the bees, so each colony is good for only one harvest. Furthermore, if not careful the flame from the torch can burn the honey and ruin the taste. The fourth problem, of course, is that despite the calming/killing effect of the torch, the hunters still have a number of furious bees to contend with.

Africans solved the first problem long ago, figuring out how to construct hives out of reeds, straw, mud, or other locally available
materials. Various remedies are used to coat the inside of the hives to attract the bees. With the fabrication of hives the job evolved from hunting to beekeeping, as there was no more need to go tramping through the woods following bees; the bees came to the people. However, beekeepers still had to destroy the hives, risk ruining the honey, and brave major pain and suffering for their troubles.

This is where modern equipment comes in. Well constructed wooden or metal hives can be disassembled piece by piece instead of being torn apart like traditional ones. The problem is that modern hives require precisely measured, processed parts and cost a minimum of 50 dollars, far beyond the means of the typical African beekeeper. In recent years, however, some innovators have improved traditional hive construction to include an opening at both ends, instead of the usual one. Now, by going in the back door, the beekeepers can remove honey without destroying as much of the hive’s infrastructure, and if careful leave a functioning colony so the hive can be reused several times.

The smoker is the most important piece of modern equipment. There is simply no substitute for a steady, continuous, flame free source of smoke. Even if the honey isn’t actually burned by the torch, large buyers won’t accept flame harvested honey because of negative effects on the flavor. Buying a smoker is also a stretch for most Africans but no alternatives have been developed yet with nearly the same effectiveness.

Finally, the protective suit is apparently a matter of preference. For those of us who grew up watching killer bee movies it seems essential. On the other hand, humans have been harvesting honey without protection since long before recorded history. It just takes a combination of steady nerves, resistance to pain, and people like Abdulaye, who are just plain not scared of bees.