Killer bees, the name itself, can send chills to your spine, sounding like some horror movie. Africanized honey bee is also known as “killer bees.” It is a hybrid produced by cross-breeding of African honey bees with Western honey bees. They are known for their defensiveness and easy provocation.
And how can we forget that the victim of killer bees makes the headlines from time to time? These bees tend to attack in large swarms. The venom of killer bees is not as poisonous as European bees, but the number of stings they inject inside a victim increases the venom dosage and its effect.
Learning more about their dangers and behavior will help you be aware and safe from these killer bees.
How to recognize Africanized Honey bees?
Africanized honey bees are similar to European honey bees, and so the identification is left with the professionals. However, disturbing killer bees can be very dangerous.
Some of the characteristics that make killer bees different from European honey bees are as follows:
- Body:
Killer bees have 10% smaller bodies than European honey bees. However, we cannot identify the difference with the naked eye. Laboratories use metamorphic analyses to know whether the colony is Africanized or complete African.
- Aggression:
If the colony feels threatened, European honey bees will send only ten to twenty bees to defend the bee colony, whereas killer bees will send hundreds of bees to protect their beehives.
- Time to calm down:
European bees will naturally calm down quickly after about twenty minutes. However, killer bees are aggressive and take several hours to calm down.
- DNA Testing:
If you want to know whether an individual bee is Africanized, DNA testing of that particular bee is the only option. DNA testing confirms the African bloodline in the specimen.
- Foraging alone:
Killer bees are more solitary than European honey bees. They love to forage alone. Also, the timing pattern for searching food sources is different from that of European honey bees.
- Nesting locations:
Killer bees are less picky about the nesting locations than European honey bees. Killer bees can live in smaller places and even build their nests near the ground surface or even at underground recesses.
Dangers of killer bees:
Heightened defensive behavior makes killer bees dangerous to humans. These bee species love to nest around humans. They are irritated by the vibrations and noise of the machinery. So, beware of noise when these species nest around your property.
Take precautions such as staying away from a beehive or removing wild colonies from human intervention.
If bees are frequently flying in your area, it indicates the presence of the beehives.
Killer bees sting a particular victim several times, injecting the venom and making it more effective.
Help! Call the pest control professionals:
Most of the homeowners get freaked out by hearing the name of killer bees. Since they are aggressive and attack in large swarms, these bees can kill large mammals and even humans.
However, without laboratory testing, one cannot distinguish the killer bees from other native bee species.
Hence, never try to remove the beehive by yourself. Consult and call the pest control experts to deal with the killer bee infestation.
