Killing Machines?

The Africanised honey bee, sometimes known as 'The Killer Bee'' is a hybrid of Southern African and various European honey bee species. It tends to defend the hive more aggressively than other bee types which has led to its fierce reputation. They also sometimes attack European colonies, killing the queen and taking over the hive, a hive usurpation-this gives them the name ''Assassin Bees'' in Brazil. Personally I think this is kind of cool, I wouldn't mind being part of an army capable of usurping a whole hive, survival of the fittest right? Apparently the bees hailed from Brazil where a biologist mated African bees with European bees in an attempt to create a hybrid more suited to tropical conditions. Basically despite some sort of bee fence the larger (and apparently more aggressive) queens of these hives escaped and mated with the local drones creating lots of more angry bees who in turn created lots more and so on.

So how dangerous are these bees? WELL I WOULD NOT RECCOMMEND PISSING THEM OFF. More dangerous than your normal everyday European cos they attack in greater numbers and sting more frequently. If you allergic your done for either way but more deaths have been attributed to these bees than any other species. So thank you Mr Biologist, not as if we didn't have enough to worry about now we have killer bees, and they appear to be migrating. I still wouldn't worry about it too much though until you actually come close to a colony its highly unlikely you will suffer death by bee sting.

The buzz on the Africanised Bee Vs buzz on European:

• Respond to a threat more aggressively, sting in larger numbers


• More Gardai


• Larger alarm zone, detect a threat 50ft or more from the nest


• Nest in small cavities


• Swarm more frequently


• Pursue the enemy for longer


• Are slightly smaller

Link to Wikipedia