By Faith Peppers
University of
Georgia
Researchers in Georgia are keeping a watchful eye for invaders
from the south. Tiny attackers, Apis mellifera scutellata, also
known as Africanized honeybees or killer bees, have begun a
steady march north and could reach Georgia borders soon.
Fear not, said University of Georgia Cooperative Extension
entomologist Keith Delaplane. But do be aware. Know the dangers
and how to react to keep as safe as possible.
“If you are outdoors and happen on an Africanized bee colony and
the insects attack you, run and get indoors and stay indoors,”
he
said. “Don’t stay in one spot and swat the bees or roll on the
ground. Run away. React the opposite to if you were on fire.”
Staying indoors a key to safety
“If you are attacked and run and jump in your car and 10 bees go
in the car with you,” Delaplane said, “don’t leave the car to
escape the 10, because a thousand are waiting for you outside.
Stay inside even if a few follow you in.”
Avoiding a massive number of stings is the key. “With
Africanized
bees,” Delaplane said, “they can attack in such large numbers
that it’s possible to receive a toxic dose of venom. This is in
contrast to the more familiar allergic reaction in which
susceptible individuals can have dangerous reactions to even one
sting.”
Recognizing an Africanized colony is critical.
“You can’t tell by sight,” Delaplane said. “One negative
backlash
to our educational efforts has been oversightings. To look at
the
bees, you can’t tell. They’re smaller than European bees. But
even the scientific tests we use to differentiate can be
inconclusive.”
So how do you tell?
“Their behavior is the best key,” he said. “Everything
(Africanized) bees do, they do it off the chart, pushed to the
extreme. If you bump into a regular colony, you might get 20
bees
chasing you. But if you bump into an Africanized colony, you may
get 1,000 chasing you. It’s the same response, just
multiplied.”
The best defense is avoidance.
“Don’t go near a nest,” Delaplane advised. “They’ll nest in
unusual places that European bees won’t bother with, like a
discarded can or drink bottle. Their unusual nesting habits
increase the chance for bee-and-human contact. The nest is
central to understanding their behavior. A bee visiting a flower
is not a problem. It’s only when they’re in their nest and
perceive it threatened that their defense response is
triggered.”
If you see a swarm hanging on a limb, call your county UGA
Extension agent, a local beekeeper or a professional bee removal
service for help.
Delaplane has been busy distributing UGA Extension bulletins and
working with local media to educate Georgians about the bees.
First responders
Another target group is emergency responders. “Fire fighters and
other first responders will have to deal with mass stinging
incidents,” Delaplane said. Throughout the year he and his
colleagues have been conducting statewide seminars for EMTs,
fire
fighters and police forces.
Delaplane has been working with beekeepers too. “We’ve been
talking about it for a long time with them,” he said. “They’re a
very important part of this process in many ways. First, the
European honeybees they keep are a natural defense against
Africanized honeybees taking over.”
Some areas have passed zoning rules to eliminate beekeeping to
try to stave off the Africanized bees. Delaplane says that’s the
wrong tactic.
“Beekeepers are friends, not enemies in this process,” he said.
“Some areas tend to zone out beekeeping, which is ill-advised.
If
you withdraw the gentle European bees, you’ve just opened up the
environment to allow the Africanized bees to take over. A large
local European bee population is the only way to restrict the
African variety.”
(Faith Peppers is a news editor for the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
