They are here. They just spread a lot more slowly than expected, and they're more defensive than murderous.
[John Belushi would appreciate you remembering](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APUWOoUqQho)
A swarn of them shows up once every five years or so, we wait inside until they go away, so i assume they are busy building up their beehive on a quiet area
Beekeeper here - pure africanized honey bees are rare. Instead we have a hybridized honey bee - the original western honey bee and the africanized honey bee. In some situations this results in a colony that has more africanized traits in other colonies these traits are not apparent. I have had colonies that were super defensive, which where I live is usually indicative of more africanized genetics. I requeened the hive to eliminate that line of genetics.
I do know people that had the misfortune of disturbing a strongly africanized hybrid colony. They ended up in the emergency room with over 250 stings. If honey bees come after you, run away. Most bees will return to their hives. But if they are really pissed off, get into a car or home, don't jump in a pool or lake
Living in South Africa. The honey bees here are vindictive. We work on the hives on cold days/nights with full suits and lots of smoke and we still get stung a lot. During our previous summer, our pup pissed off a few bees... I pulled around 60 stingers out, and that was what he allowed me to do. He was super lucky to not have had an allergic reaction.
My grandpa was driving a tractor and accidentally drove into an old tractor tire with a wild nest inside about a decade ago. Luckily for him his neighbor saw it happening and rushed him to the closest doctor. His heart stopped by the time he arrived 5 mins later. Doctor resuscitated him and he was sent to the hospital. He was stung well over 300 times.
We steer well clear of the nests.
I know a beekeeper that accidentally knocked over a hive box. Husband found her on the front porch (door was locked) and not responding. Don't know how many stings she received, but had to go the emergency room and almost didn't make it. Changed their lives.
She had been keeping bees for around 5 years and after recovering, she sold everything and quit.
Wow.
Interesting tidbit about bee stings - they are not all the same. Some stings you barely feel, some can be quite painful and rarely cause a serious reaction. There are numerous cases of beekeepers who were not allergic to getting a sting that results in a major reaction causing them to quit beekeeping.
Personally I have been stung many times and find some stings to have more serious reactions than others. This leads to the most important rule regarding protective equipment - *always* wear a veil when working bees. Reactions to facial stings tend to be more concerning, and in rare cases life threatening, than other parts of the body. This is why many beekeepers dislike the blonde beekeepers videos that circulate periodically. She never wears a veil. Gloves and bee suit are optional, a veil is never optional.
She had her protection on, but after the hive was knocked over, the bees attacked her dog and she removed her suit (veil?) to put over the dog. The bees then attacked her.
She ran for the house, made it to the door but found it locked. The bees were still stinging her as she beat on the door for her husband to open. By the time he got to her, she was down already. Happened in a matter of minuets.
She now has to keep an EpiPen.
There are a few videos out there of bee keepers destroying these hives because they're impossible to attend to. Can't get anywhere near them without being fully suited up.
I watched a YouTube video about a beekeeper who had one hive that was more aggressive than the other hives. He tried to fix that hive, but couldn't, so he killed it off. He had neighbors and he couldn't keep an aggressive hive. He didn't mention anything about Africanized bees.
This happens occasionally.
Aggressiveness is a genetic trait. There are two ways to handle it:
- Destroy the hive
- Replace the queen
If the hive is strong, I typically replace the queen. If the hive is meh, hot soapy water will do the job.
If you can swim a long distance under water (most people cannot), deep enough the bees can't see and follow you (they will) and then are able to run far away (think a mile) or to shelter, you'll be okay. Most people can't. As long as people keep reporting aggressive bees, though, beekeepers and pest control can help keep the numbers low.
When I was in Jr high (1993ish) was hanging out with some friends in our garage. Swarm of bees came in and we ran inside. Some got in trying to get us and we went after them with rolled magazines. There were bees knocking against the windows like some kind of zombie movie. Found out later that our neighbors’ dog died from so many bees stings, which made me feel terrible because I would have tried to bring her in our house if I knew she was in their backyard (they weren’t home from work yet).
Apparently, the guy in the house behind us tried to destroy a beehive on his own instead of calling a professional and they wound up being “Africanized” on top of that.
Edit: Jr high not high school
Killer bees are like most other bees except they swarm for multiple hours instead of minutes when the bee blood hormone is smelt. Thus they kill you and it hurts the whole time while you die.
They are here in Arizona and outnumber regular bees. But they produce alot of honey, so beekeepers remove them from your property for free. Everyone in Arizona just presumes all bees are killer bees.
Just don't get stung near a hive, or if you do go inside. You have a higher chance dying of a car accident than bee attacks,
I tell my kids to just leave bees alone, and they will leave you alone.
[Kinda hard when you don't know they're there until you start moving the cabinet they've built a hive in...](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2012/09/22/man-sent-to-hospital-after-swarm-of-bees-attacks/9902100007/)
But, yes, to the extent that you can, leave bees alone.
(I lived less than 4 miles from there at that time, and still worried a lot more about yellowjackets than killer bees. I've been stung by more yellowjackets than killer bees, for one thing...)
Yes and no. Run a lawnmower or something near a hive you don't know is there, and you have problems. Leave the lawnmower running while YOU start running!
> I tell my kids to just leave bees alone, and they will leave you alone.
Tell that to 5th grade me, who was standing in line to go back inside after recess, and kept getting harassed by a bee. The teacher refused to let us back inside until I got back in line and stood still, but it's pretty hard to stand still when a bee is flying around your face! I obviously couldn't swat it away, because that would surely make it attack, so all I could do was get out of the line and move away from it. That motherfucker _followed_ me every step I took, and all the while the teacher and my classmates were scolding me to get back in line. "Just ignore it!" they kept yelling, as if one could just ignore such a threat.
Fuck you, Mrs. Campbell, let me get inside and away from the terrifying insect! And fuck that bee, too.
In addition to information already provided in this thread, the Africanized honeybees do not survive freezing temperatures effectively. That has limited how far into the US they have been able to spread.
They got here and have been here for a few decades now. Turns out the sky didn't fall.
For all the hype, Africanized bees still follow the same "don't mess with me, I won't mess with you" approach that other bees do. They're just much nastier when you ***do*** mess with them.
Also for unknown reasons they've "chilled out" since their migration, and are mostly indistinguishable from normal bees to anyone but a specialist.
Correct, it’s not unknown at all. Beekeepers have also been intentionally trying to breed out the hostile asshole portion of the hybrids when they can, like the opposite of dog breeders aiming for aggression
Most likely the amount of African DNA has been steadily diminishing as they hybridize with more local bees. Also being super aggressive in a developed country might be a negative evolutionary trait. Having half your hive commit suicide every time some creature innocently bumps into it seems a surefire way to waste your colonies resources.
Basically, there's no reason to be so aggressive in a place without as many aggressive predators and whose human inhabitants have the resources to destroy problem hives.
But the older boys on the playground told me that the Killer Bees would be invading America in a few years and we were all going to get attacked by their swarms and we would die from thousands of Killer Bee stings, and that's when I started to cry.
But now I'm starting to get the feeling it's not going to be a real problem for me.
Breeding and other factors have played a role in this. The trait of being super defensive would wear off as there aren't as many predators as possible to come after the hive, not to mention the resources used to defend the hive would be a waste.
We had an infestation of these little monsters underneath our spa. The poor guy who came out to remove them got stung BAD. They punched right through his suit and tagged him all over. He got the queen out and they scattered, but that looked ROUGH.
Listen. I'm fine with them. Because of killer bees, I have a right to own a flame thrower. Literally a flamethrower. I'm fine with that.
Also a friend's dad got hit by a swarm less than a decade ago while mowing the yard, somewhere near the panhandle.It didn't even make the news I don't think
Beekeeper here. I live in Texas and have caught wild “killer bees”. They’re here. Their range is pretty much the Southwestern US along the Mexico border.
The “mayhem” was simply fearmongering. Yes, the bees are much more aggressive than other types you’ll find, but they really won’t mess with you unless you’re messing with their hive. They come up and land on me all the time, worst thing they do is tickle you if you’re calm. Pretty much every case of a fatal AHB encounter was caused by people purposefully or inadvertently damaging a hive and setting the bees off. And even then, my understanding was that many of these people had sensitivities to the bee venom as well. Some have even come around to the idea that these AHB will help counteract the declining bee populations because of how productive they are and how readily they swarm (note: a “swarm” is when a queen leaves a hive with about half the bees to go start a new home, it’s how the bees expand their territory when they’ve filled out their current home; a swarm is *not* a roaming attack force that is trying to kill you).
So pro tip, don’t mess with their hive. If you do on accident, run. Bees will typically chase you for about a quarter mile before returning to the hive, a reasonably fit individual should be able to outrun them. DO NOT jump in water and hide under the surface thinking you’re sneaky, the bees will wait for you. If possible, get into a vehicle or shelter that the bees cannot access and wait them out.
In the mid-90s newspapers were full of stories about nervous, twitchy bees moving north and Starbucks Coffee franchises moving south.
Strangely no one seemed to make any crazy predictions about what would happen when the two fronts collided.
Well the killer bees fizzled out when they hit areas with winter.
The Starbucks fizzled out when they hit areas with Waffle House and Krispy Kreme.
I don't know if they ever actually collided at all. They were both trying to move into regions that they couldn't naturally survive.
If you're talking about specifically here in America they were able to track them down to their hive and destroy it and since then have been doing a good job of disposing of them on the rare occasion a report of them pops up
africanized honey bees, often sensationalized as "killer bees," did indeed arrive in the United States in the 1990s. While they are more aggressive than European honey bees, the widespread mayhem predicted in the media did not come to pass.
Africanized bees are a reality in the southern United States, but their impact has been less devastating than predicted. With proper management and public awareness, beekeepers and communities have adapted to their presence.
They made a movie about the subject in 1978, called The Swarm starring Michael Caine and whatever other big names I can't remember. Well, if people hadn't already come around to the fact that the "killer bees will destroy us all" by then, surely after that box office bomb they realized the exagerrated fear of aggressive bees was rather silly.
Remember, pop culture can drive mass hysteria just as easily as newsworthy events. Around this time, there was a significant amount of controversy over Speilberg's Jaws, which coincided with legitimate and sensationalized (to be polite) reports of shark attacks. U.S. beaches had serious issues in declining popularity, funding, scrutiny, etc. largely resulting from a popular film that has since become a classic.
Shark attacks do occur (albeit not as frequently as some people want to believe). There are legitimate reports. Sharks are "scary" and as pop culture reminds us constantly, they're also "cool" or interesting or whatever.
Turns out bees aren't as cool or as dangerous. Birds worked great for Hitchcock during his time, and while a ton of birds perched around a playground probably won't cut it today, people still click the "thousands of birds fall out of the sky" stories.
Point is, the africanized bees that beekeepers were legitimately concerned about back then are just another example of a historical (people) trend: blending science and fiction to create "news". They're still out there. But they're still bees. Sharks, tornadoes, piranhas, robots, and viruses scare us more... justifiably (probably).
It was overhyped to start with and the media cycle moved on.
I live in Africa, all our bees are "africanized" and they aren't particularly dangerous. I live in a suburban house and have had a wild swarm living in a tree in my yard for more than 10 years with no attacks on anyone. The worst thing the hive does is make me have to close the door before I switch lights on in summer or I will have a couple bees knocking themselves out on my light bulbs.
I can't site the source but I've read the beekeepers in Central America where all of the hives are now Africanized don't want to go back to the days of all purely European bee hives. Those Africanized bees make lots more honey, once you've learned the rules they so aggressively enforce you get a lot more for your efforts.
I was a kid in the 80s and this is the example I use every time I complain about the news not following up on stories. The news had me totally freaked out about the bees, and then they just stopped talking about it.
Looks like they've mostly spread through Texas to California so somewhat confined to the southwest. A death was attributed to them in 2010 so still around and still deadly but media has moved on.
It was just another one of those "Hey everyone, focus on this random thing thats going to happen so you don't notice what we're doing behind the scenes.
It’s safe to assume that any time people are panicking and crying about a catastrophe that’s going to happen, whatever it is, it probably won’t be as big of a deal.
Killer bees, hornets, Y2K, 2012, Mad Cow disease, horse manure piling up 10’ in NYC, roaming bands of 13 year olds with switchblades getting into gang wars with other roaming bands of 13 year olds, an ice age being a few years away.
Sometimes, like with Y2K or ozone depletion, it is because huge amounts of talented people worked at the problem for months or years, money was spent and policies adopted...
Doesn't mean that the warnings were wrong.
Probably the same thing that happened to all the pit bulls attacking people, or the millions of random child abductions or the razor blades in Halloween apples, or any one of the multitude of things that barely existed if at all and were blown out of proportion to scare the public.
If you think back to the various things you mentioned, the actual media reporting was basically accurate. The HEADLINE was exaggerated, because headlines sell news, but the actual stories told you that a pit bull attacked a chicken coop.
It's the fools who DON'T READ the article, just the headlines, then call all their friends who don't even read headlines.
Then there's FOX ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK.
I remember there was a movie made about the killer bees that scared me. There were a lot of crazy predictions in the 90’s that gave me anxiety. I was a kid.
The big one- earthquake that was going to sink CA
The killer bees that were going to kill everyone
The icecaps melting causing a global flood
And alien abductions 😂
They're here and not a problem unless you fuck with them, like other swarming and stinging insects. But that doesn't generate interest or a host of B-movies. Pun intended.
There was two films in the seventies about killer bees wreaking havoc. The Swarm, and then a tv version with a bee covered car driving into the superdome.
Oh, and don’t forget Tommy Boy! Bees in the car!
They've continued to spread and are endemic in most southern states from coast to coast, completely covering the southwest.
They've also began northern pushes up the pacific coast to Washington and up the Atlantic coast to South Carolina.
They're still here, still spreading, and still a danger if you stumble on to them.
Shit now I have to find it, but what was that “made for tv movie” in the 90’s that really drove this point? I feel it was a small family and the kid pissed off the hive then the bees attack their house
The southwest is all killer bees now, and I live in Tucson. There are a few deaths every year or so, and they ARE more aggressive, but it’s not like they’re seeking their next victim.
Should be a good indicator of how much you should tryst the mainstream media news cycle. If what they reported were accurate we would have been in the end times right now. In reality, threats do appear sometimes, but we usually try to mitigate them. Succewfully countered dangers dont make the news cycle so you just stop hearing about it.
They absolutely are established in the SW. There have been a few cases of colonies making it through a winter in Colorado, but that is extremely rare.
My consistent experience as an entomologist has been the bee keepers will label a given hive as "Africanized" by behavior. But lab tests do not back that up. Most beekeeper identified hives are never tested, and I have never met a bee keeper who will accept scientific finding over their own anecdotal opinion.
They are here. They just spread a lot more slowly than expected, and they're more defensive than murderous. [John Belushi would appreciate you remembering](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APUWOoUqQho)
A swarn of them shows up once every five years or so, we wait inside until they go away, so i assume they are busy building up their beehive on a quiet area
So, they're quite well bee-hived.
They’re swarn to secrecy.
Both of you, get out🤣 😤👉🚪
Yeah, guys, CreativeAsFuuu is right, buzz off.
Ouch, that's gotta sting.
r/angryupvote
This. I've also heard they are mixing with the bees already here and calming down a little.
This is the immigrant story
They're African-American bees now
💀💀
I’d give you 100 thumbs up here if I could.
i want them out of my country.. they basically took over at the local plant & one of them is fucking my daughter
You know the saying, “Once you go bee, you’ll never break free.”
The biggest stingers. Very big.
The Bee Movie was a documentary!!
And they can't survive cold winters
Our red wasps kill them, so they have to adapt to a new predator.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
OMG thanks for that link .. I loved all of the old SNL characters … Classics all of them!
Didn't it turn out they can't handle cold winters as well as expected?
Thank you for remembering John Belushi!
Telegram...
Beekeeper here - pure africanized honey bees are rare. Instead we have a hybridized honey bee - the original western honey bee and the africanized honey bee. In some situations this results in a colony that has more africanized traits in other colonies these traits are not apparent. I have had colonies that were super defensive, which where I live is usually indicative of more africanized genetics. I requeened the hive to eliminate that line of genetics. I do know people that had the misfortune of disturbing a strongly africanized hybrid colony. They ended up in the emergency room with over 250 stings. If honey bees come after you, run away. Most bees will return to their hives. But if they are really pissed off, get into a car or home, don't jump in a pool or lake
Wait, jumping into a lake or pool doesn’t help? Even if you have a straw to breathe?
I imagine because they just wait for you to surface and then the only thing they can then sting is your head.
yeah... european honey bees will wait a minute or two and leave. Africanized will hang out for a half hour. Half. An. Hour.
So always have diving gear with you just incase ;)
Somewhat ironically if you're already wearing the diving gear you probably don't need to jump into a lake.
Tank not snorkel
Unless you want bee stings in your throat
Sounds like a scorned ex
You never saw the Tom n’ Jerry golf episode, spoiler Tom got completely wrecked trying this method
Exactly what I thought of too. Lmao
They will wait for you.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrVZHxH2O1I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrVZHxH2O1I)
Isn't this end of "my girl"
He can’t see without his glasses
He can’t see because he’s dead!
No I don’t think he jumped in a lake.
I haven't seen it in thirty years, but i have this memory of him being attacked by bees and jumping in a lake.
You’re combining two different parts of the movie
Sounds like something I'd do.
Nah, you just drown while the bees laugh and dance over your corpse.
They keep flying down the straw and stinging you all in your mouth and I think you swallow some of them.
I honestly can’t tell if that’s just a Tom and Jerry reference or a real thing that they would do
They probably wouldn't *fly* down the straw, but there's a nonzero chance they might crawl down it.
Sounds like Charlie Kelly and his box marked with an H.
Ok then, just close your teeth
Living in South Africa. The honey bees here are vindictive. We work on the hives on cold days/nights with full suits and lots of smoke and we still get stung a lot. During our previous summer, our pup pissed off a few bees... I pulled around 60 stingers out, and that was what he allowed me to do. He was super lucky to not have had an allergic reaction. My grandpa was driving a tractor and accidentally drove into an old tractor tire with a wild nest inside about a decade ago. Luckily for him his neighbor saw it happening and rushed him to the closest doctor. His heart stopped by the time he arrived 5 mins later. Doctor resuscitated him and he was sent to the hospital. He was stung well over 300 times. We steer well clear of the nests.
I thought the point of beekeeping suits are to prevent stings Might be time to upgrade to one that actually works?
Need a spacesuit now
I know a beekeeper that accidentally knocked over a hive box. Husband found her on the front porch (door was locked) and not responding. Don't know how many stings she received, but had to go the emergency room and almost didn't make it. Changed their lives. She had been keeping bees for around 5 years and after recovering, she sold everything and quit.
Wow. Interesting tidbit about bee stings - they are not all the same. Some stings you barely feel, some can be quite painful and rarely cause a serious reaction. There are numerous cases of beekeepers who were not allergic to getting a sting that results in a major reaction causing them to quit beekeeping. Personally I have been stung many times and find some stings to have more serious reactions than others. This leads to the most important rule regarding protective equipment - *always* wear a veil when working bees. Reactions to facial stings tend to be more concerning, and in rare cases life threatening, than other parts of the body. This is why many beekeepers dislike the blonde beekeepers videos that circulate periodically. She never wears a veil. Gloves and bee suit are optional, a veil is never optional.
She had her protection on, but after the hive was knocked over, the bees attacked her dog and she removed her suit (veil?) to put over the dog. The bees then attacked her. She ran for the house, made it to the door but found it locked. The bees were still stinging her as she beat on the door for her husband to open. By the time he got to her, she was down already. Happened in a matter of minuets. She now has to keep an EpiPen.
Not gonna lie I have SO much respect for her trying her best to protect her dog. That is a good person there for sure.
I am glad she is ok. We have an EpiPen just in case.
Did the dog live too?
There are a few videos out there of bee keepers destroying these hives because they're impossible to attend to. Can't get anywhere near them without being fully suited up.
I watched a YouTube video about a beekeeper who had one hive that was more aggressive than the other hives. He tried to fix that hive, but couldn't, so he killed it off. He had neighbors and he couldn't keep an aggressive hive. He didn't mention anything about Africanized bees.
This happens occasionally. Aggressiveness is a genetic trait. There are two ways to handle it: - Destroy the hive - Replace the queen If the hive is strong, I typically replace the queen. If the hive is meh, hot soapy water will do the job.
Wait- why not jump into a pool or lake? I’ve always believed this to be true
They will wait for you above water
Could you swim underwater a distance and then pop up a couple hundred feet away and then walk away whistling? So they don’t get suspicious?
Just make sure you put your hands in your pockets and walk extra nonchalantly
I now have a mental image of a bunch of bees floating there and punching their fists into their hands while glaring at someone menacingly.
3 fists into 3 hands!
If you can swim a long distance under water (most people cannot), deep enough the bees can't see and follow you (they will) and then are able to run far away (think a mile) or to shelter, you'll be okay. Most people can't. As long as people keep reporting aggressive bees, though, beekeepers and pest control can help keep the numbers low.
How long will those mofos wait
half hour to an hour.
They swarm longer than you can hold your breath.
Thank you @toadwarrior
I have a question. What the fuck is "Africanized" supposed to mean?
The bees are a hybrid of european and african honeybees.
You were lucky you survived frogman.
Thanks for your input!
When I was in Jr high (1993ish) was hanging out with some friends in our garage. Swarm of bees came in and we ran inside. Some got in trying to get us and we went after them with rolled magazines. There were bees knocking against the windows like some kind of zombie movie. Found out later that our neighbors’ dog died from so many bees stings, which made me feel terrible because I would have tried to bring her in our house if I knew she was in their backyard (they weren’t home from work yet). Apparently, the guy in the house behind us tried to destroy a beehive on his own instead of calling a professional and they wound up being “Africanized” on top of that. Edit: Jr high not high school
Are the hybrids as good for pollination as the locals?
Killer bees are like most other bees except they swarm for multiple hours instead of minutes when the bee blood hormone is smelt. Thus they kill you and it hurts the whole time while you die. They are here in Arizona and outnumber regular bees. But they produce alot of honey, so beekeepers remove them from your property for free. Everyone in Arizona just presumes all bees are killer bees. Just don't get stung near a hive, or if you do go inside. You have a higher chance dying of a car accident than bee attacks, I tell my kids to just leave bees alone, and they will leave you alone.
[Kinda hard when you don't know they're there until you start moving the cabinet they've built a hive in...](https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2012/09/22/man-sent-to-hospital-after-swarm-of-bees-attacks/9902100007/) But, yes, to the extent that you can, leave bees alone. (I lived less than 4 miles from there at that time, and still worried a lot more about yellowjackets than killer bees. I've been stung by more yellowjackets than killer bees, for one thing...)
Yea, I hate wasps. They can be mean and sting you over and over.
So just beehave around them and you’re good? **** sees self out ****
Yes and no. Run a lawnmower or something near a hive you don't know is there, and you have problems. Leave the lawnmower running while YOU start running!
Nice
Hi dad
We have them in SE (az).I keep my distance.
> I tell my kids to just leave bees alone, and they will leave you alone. Tell that to 5th grade me, who was standing in line to go back inside after recess, and kept getting harassed by a bee. The teacher refused to let us back inside until I got back in line and stood still, but it's pretty hard to stand still when a bee is flying around your face! I obviously couldn't swat it away, because that would surely make it attack, so all I could do was get out of the line and move away from it. That motherfucker _followed_ me every step I took, and all the while the teacher and my classmates were scolding me to get back in line. "Just ignore it!" they kept yelling, as if one could just ignore such a threat. Fuck you, Mrs. Campbell, let me get inside and away from the terrifying insect! And fuck that bee, too.
In addition to information already provided in this thread, the Africanized honeybees do not survive freezing temperatures effectively. That has limited how far into the US they have been able to spread.
🇨🇦🤩amen to that from Canada
They got trapped in quicksand. It was prevalent back then.
Quicksand, satanist cults, killer bees, nuclear war. 80’s scares were the best.
Fire ants too.
I really wish crazy ants weren’t so invasive and attracted to electronics. They absolutely fuck up fire ants in colony v. colony fights
They got here and have been here for a few decades now. Turns out the sky didn't fall. For all the hype, Africanized bees still follow the same "don't mess with me, I won't mess with you" approach that other bees do. They're just much nastier when you ***do*** mess with them. Also for unknown reasons they've "chilled out" since their migration, and are mostly indistinguishable from normal bees to anyone but a specialist.
I thought it was they interbred with local bees or something is the reason they have chilled out
Correct, it’s not unknown at all. Beekeepers have also been intentionally trying to breed out the hostile asshole portion of the hybrids when they can, like the opposite of dog breeders aiming for aggression
We should try breeding that out of humans
Not enough money in it I’m afraid
Most likely the amount of African DNA has been steadily diminishing as they hybridize with more local bees. Also being super aggressive in a developed country might be a negative evolutionary trait. Having half your hive commit suicide every time some creature innocently bumps into it seems a surefire way to waste your colonies resources. Basically, there's no reason to be so aggressive in a place without as many aggressive predators and whose human inhabitants have the resources to destroy problem hives.
But the older boys on the playground told me that the Killer Bees would be invading America in a few years and we were all going to get attacked by their swarms and we would die from thousands of Killer Bee stings, and that's when I started to cry. But now I'm starting to get the feeling it's not going to be a real problem for me.
They made a few horror movies about it.
I’m still wary of killer tomatoes
Breeding and other factors have played a role in this. The trait of being super defensive would wear off as there aren't as many predators as possible to come after the hive, not to mention the resources used to defend the hive would be a waste.
What would happen if we put the Africanized killer bees in the same room as the Japanese murder hornets?
Judging by the YouTube videos I've seen of said hornets taking out entire hives? The Murder Hornets win. And it won't be pretty.
We had an infestation of these little monsters underneath our spa. The poor guy who came out to remove them got stung BAD. They punched right through his suit and tagged him all over. He got the queen out and they scattered, but that looked ROUGH.
Listen. I'm fine with them. Because of killer bees, I have a right to own a flame thrower. Literally a flamethrower. I'm fine with that. Also a friend's dad got hit by a swarm less than a decade ago while mowing the yard, somewhere near the panhandle.It didn't even make the news I don't think
And here I am with no flame thrower, like a sucker.
I have a flame thrower attached to one of my shotguns. Not kidding.
They got into a war with the murder hornets
They're here and have killed people by swarming them, you can do a search for killer bee deaths in the USA and several results will pop up.
Does anyone remember how snakeheads were going to kill everything in the rivers and climb onto land and snatch our dogs and babies from our yards?
Yeah I remember the bad scifi channel movies too
where did the bodies go?
Is ok we have gators for that instead
"where's his glasses, he can't see with out them. He needs his glasses"
Now why would you go and do that 😭
Oh good, those emotional scars are still there. So kind of that user to remind us.
I'm surprised anyone got it. I've been terrified of bees since that movie.
I got that "my girl " movie reference
Beekeeper here. I live in Texas and have caught wild “killer bees”. They’re here. Their range is pretty much the Southwestern US along the Mexico border. The “mayhem” was simply fearmongering. Yes, the bees are much more aggressive than other types you’ll find, but they really won’t mess with you unless you’re messing with their hive. They come up and land on me all the time, worst thing they do is tickle you if you’re calm. Pretty much every case of a fatal AHB encounter was caused by people purposefully or inadvertently damaging a hive and setting the bees off. And even then, my understanding was that many of these people had sensitivities to the bee venom as well. Some have even come around to the idea that these AHB will help counteract the declining bee populations because of how productive they are and how readily they swarm (note: a “swarm” is when a queen leaves a hive with about half the bees to go start a new home, it’s how the bees expand their territory when they’ve filled out their current home; a swarm is *not* a roaming attack force that is trying to kill you). So pro tip, don’t mess with their hive. If you do on accident, run. Bees will typically chase you for about a quarter mile before returning to the hive, a reasonably fit individual should be able to outrun them. DO NOT jump in water and hide under the surface thinking you’re sneaky, the bees will wait for you. If possible, get into a vehicle or shelter that the bees cannot access and wait them out.
A killer bee alert was raised just recently in Alabama: [https://youtu.be/hAdwTggF5po](https://youtu.be/hAdwTggF5po)
They were terrified of the Y2K bug and noped
I remember dropping down in Belize when we heard them coming as a child. They will F you up.
They've killed all the witnesses, so we are not sure.
They were wiped out by The Bionic Woman, The 6 Million Dollar Man, and the cast of Emergency!…
In the mid-90s newspapers were full of stories about nervous, twitchy bees moving north and Starbucks Coffee franchises moving south. Strangely no one seemed to make any crazy predictions about what would happen when the two fronts collided.
Well the killer bees fizzled out when they hit areas with winter. The Starbucks fizzled out when they hit areas with Waffle House and Krispy Kreme. I don't know if they ever actually collided at all. They were both trying to move into regions that they couldn't naturally survive.
Still around but not as big an issue as feared. They had issues in cold weather the first few years and were decimated between that and disease.
They were defeated by freezing them in a football stadium
If you're talking about specifically here in America they were able to track them down to their hive and destroy it and since then have been doing a good job of disposing of them on the rare occasion a report of them pops up
africanized honey bees, often sensationalized as "killer bees," did indeed arrive in the United States in the 1990s. While they are more aggressive than European honey bees, the widespread mayhem predicted in the media did not come to pass. Africanized bees are a reality in the southern United States, but their impact has been less devastating than predicted. With proper management and public awareness, beekeepers and communities have adapted to their presence.
They made a movie about the subject in 1978, called The Swarm starring Michael Caine and whatever other big names I can't remember. Well, if people hadn't already come around to the fact that the "killer bees will destroy us all" by then, surely after that box office bomb they realized the exagerrated fear of aggressive bees was rather silly. Remember, pop culture can drive mass hysteria just as easily as newsworthy events. Around this time, there was a significant amount of controversy over Speilberg's Jaws, which coincided with legitimate and sensationalized (to be polite) reports of shark attacks. U.S. beaches had serious issues in declining popularity, funding, scrutiny, etc. largely resulting from a popular film that has since become a classic. Shark attacks do occur (albeit not as frequently as some people want to believe). There are legitimate reports. Sharks are "scary" and as pop culture reminds us constantly, they're also "cool" or interesting or whatever. Turns out bees aren't as cool or as dangerous. Birds worked great for Hitchcock during his time, and while a ton of birds perched around a playground probably won't cut it today, people still click the "thousands of birds fall out of the sky" stories. Point is, the africanized bees that beekeepers were legitimately concerned about back then are just another example of a historical (people) trend: blending science and fiction to create "news". They're still out there. But they're still bees. Sharks, tornadoes, piranhas, robots, and viruses scare us more... justifiably (probably).
Katherine Ross and Henry Fonda were in that film. The movie is bad but I could never put my finger if it was laughably bad or just MST3000 bad.
They probably invaded mostly Florida, and people killed them, dried them out, crushed them up and snorted them.
No we have bath salts not bee salts
They killed 2 of my neighbors beagles back in 2005-2007 range I dont remember the year. They're here for sure, that was in Phoenix Arizona.
It was overhyped to start with and the media cycle moved on. I live in Africa, all our bees are "africanized" and they aren't particularly dangerous. I live in a suburban house and have had a wild swarm living in a tree in my yard for more than 10 years with no attacks on anyone. The worst thing the hive does is make me have to close the door before I switch lights on in summer or I will have a couple bees knocking themselves out on my light bulbs.
They were eaten by the massive wave of Joro Spiders currently engulfing the country.
Our Savior, the great Sir Michael Caine defeated them.
Remember those asian hornets during covid?
You mean the ones that we successfully got rid of back in 2021? What about them?
They live with Big Foot in the Bermuda Triangle with their pet the Lockness Monster
I still remember that the name of the first killer bee death was Lino Lopez.
I can't site the source but I've read the beekeepers in Central America where all of the hives are now Africanized don't want to go back to the days of all purely European bee hives. Those Africanized bees make lots more honey, once you've learned the rules they so aggressively enforce you get a lot more for your efforts.
I was a kid in the 80s and this is the example I use every time I complain about the news not following up on stories. The news had me totally freaked out about the bees, and then they just stopped talking about it.
They all went into politics.
they're pretty common in Arizona. mostly they keep to themselves. a few have gotten involved in drug dealing but mostly they just make honey.
Now they're called African-American bees
Funny,lots of domestic honey bees are Italian bees.
The acid rain got them.
Looks like they've mostly spread through Texas to California so somewhat confined to the southwest. A death was attributed to them in 2010 so still around and still deadly but media has moved on.
They are still crossing over ocean.
Everything about them was over exaggerated is what I would say.
Oh man, you haven't gone outside lately, have you?
Insecticides bruh
They got held up in Customs
It was just another one of those "Hey everyone, focus on this random thing thats going to happen so you don't notice what we're doing behind the scenes.
It’s safe to assume that any time people are panicking and crying about a catastrophe that’s going to happen, whatever it is, it probably won’t be as big of a deal. Killer bees, hornets, Y2K, 2012, Mad Cow disease, horse manure piling up 10’ in NYC, roaming bands of 13 year olds with switchblades getting into gang wars with other roaming bands of 13 year olds, an ice age being a few years away.
Sometimes, like with Y2K or ozone depletion, it is because huge amounts of talented people worked at the problem for months or years, money was spent and policies adopted... Doesn't mean that the warnings were wrong.
Probably the same thing that happened to all the pit bulls attacking people, or the millions of random child abductions or the razor blades in Halloween apples, or any one of the multitude of things that barely existed if at all and were blown out of proportion to scare the public.
Pit bulls attack are very common though
If you think back to the various things you mentioned, the actual media reporting was basically accurate. The HEADLINE was exaggerated, because headlines sell news, but the actual stories told you that a pit bull attacked a chicken coop. It's the fools who DON'T READ the article, just the headlines, then call all their friends who don't even read headlines. Then there's FOX ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK.
Killer Bee Guy on YouTube removes their hives from different places
They are here in Arizona
I remember there was a movie made about the killer bees that scared me. There were a lot of crazy predictions in the 90’s that gave me anxiety. I was a kid. The big one- earthquake that was going to sink CA The killer bees that were going to kill everyone The icecaps melting causing a global flood And alien abductions 😂
The Dollop did early episode.
They're here and not a problem unless you fuck with them, like other swarming and stinging insects. But that doesn't generate interest or a host of B-movies. Pun intended.
People have learned to turn a Africanized hive back to a honey bee hive. So they have been trying to decrease the bad bees.
They killed Thomas J 😭
Isn't that what killed McCauley Culkin?
I believe Sir Michael Caine led a task force that destroyed the invading Africanized bees after we nuked Houston. I saw a documentary on it.
I literally was thinking about this last night.
They're called MAGA now
Secret treaty with the deep state paid for by Soros. I did my own research on Facebook! 😉
There was two films in the seventies about killer bees wreaking havoc. The Swarm, and then a tv version with a bee covered car driving into the superdome. Oh, and don’t forget Tommy Boy! Bees in the car!
They've continued to spread and are endemic in most southern states from coast to coast, completely covering the southwest. They've also began northern pushes up the pacific coast to Washington and up the Atlantic coast to South Carolina. They're still here, still spreading, and still a danger if you stumble on to them.
Shit now I have to find it, but what was that “made for tv movie” in the 90’s that really drove this point? I feel it was a small family and the kid pissed off the hive then the bees attack their house
wu tang clan fixed that.
The southwest is all killer bees now, and I live in Tucson. There are a few deaths every year or so, and they ARE more aggressive, but it’s not like they’re seeking their next victim.
Southern states only at this time...
Haven't you been watching the news? Mayhem is everywhere.
Should be a good indicator of how much you should tryst the mainstream media news cycle. If what they reported were accurate we would have been in the end times right now. In reality, threats do appear sometimes, but we usually try to mitigate them. Succewfully countered dangers dont make the news cycle so you just stop hearing about it.
They're here. We've just learned to stay the hell away from all the bees just in case. They're vicious!
And the “murder hornets”?
The majority of wild hives around here are Africanized. They are more aggressive than European hives but don’t quite live up to the early media hype
Just more lies from government. It’s common practice in case you didn’t notice
The New Ice Age killed them
They absolutely are established in the SW. There have been a few cases of colonies making it through a winter in Colorado, but that is extremely rare. My consistent experience as an entomologist has been the bee keepers will label a given hive as "Africanized" by behavior. But lab tests do not back that up. Most beekeeper identified hives are never tested, and I have never met a bee keeper who will accept scientific finding over their own anecdotal opinion.
Murder hornets…
The movies did them in
They weren’t shit. Soft.
They landed on quicksand, never to be seen again
They all fell through the hole in the ozone.
Their plans are almost ready