Africanized Honey Bees

Behavior and Habitat of Africanized Honey Bees

Africanized Honey bees are more aggressive than most bees, hence the name killer bees. They attack in larger groups, make less honey, and make less wax than their European cousins (European Honey bees). They hate high pitched sounds and swarm (abscond) more often than European Honey bees. Depending on the generation of Africanized Honey bees, some are appearing to be less aggressive than others, meaning that their pre-domestication behaviors (high aggression, less honey, absconding more) could potentially be fading away. In 1957, twenty-six African Honey bee queens escaped from an experimental apiary in Brazil, causing a hybridization between native Honey bees and African Honey bees, which resulted in the Africanized Honey bee hybrid. Since that time, these hybrid bees have gradually spread northward into the southern US. They are progressing some 100 to 200 miles per year, and have been found in many locations in South Florida. Feral hives are found inside hollow trees and, occasionally, in caves or cracks in rock formations. In some cases, a colony will decide to nest inside an attic, a crawl space, or a wall void in a home.