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Africanized bees pose threat but most bees harmless, necessary
by Kathleen Thurber
Midland Reporter-Telegram
By Kathleen Thurber
Staff Writer
With bees buzzing in front of his face and crawling over the edge of his shoulder, Tom Cleverdon calmly scraped a chuck of gooey honeycomb from inside the bee hive housed on his back porch.
"They think something's up," Cleverdon said as the audible buzz of hundreds of all American honey bees increased. "They'd be right."
Cleverdon methodically sprayed smoke into the hive in response to the rambunctious behavior -- a tactic that slows the critters down because the smell makes them think the hive is on fire. To protect their livelihood, the bees immediately gorge themselves with honey, making their bodies heavier and therefore incapable of stinging or buzzing too quickly. The process also makes Cleverdon's tasks of collecting honey, checking for mites or maintaining the hives much simpler.
"They're great," Cleverdon said of his bees. "All they want to do is make honey and that's fine with me."
Cleverdon hasn't always been a bee enthusiast. The former oil and gas marketing man stumbled into the hobby when he was living near Denver in 1989 and found a swarm of bees in his yard. A friend showed him how to capture the bees and the one-time venture turned into a long-time hobby.
Then in 2004, the first Africanized Bees were spotted in Midland and Cleverdon turned what had been a hobby into a new part-time career.
He said there are a lot of exterminators in the area, but few specialize in bees because of the risk involved.
Often people will try to treat the problem themselves by spraying the area and plugging the hole the insects swarmed in. But, he said, usually the poison doesn't kill all of the bees and when they find a new hole to come out of, it might mean they're inside the home or closer to the structure.
The ultra-aggresive Africanized bees came about as a result of an experiment to crossbreed African and European bees in the 1950s, according to Texas A&M University's Department of Entymology. The breeding was meant to create an insect that would be a better honey producer than either of the pure breeds, but some of the Africanized bees escaped in 1956 and since the aggressive bees have spread.
Experts hoped the bees wouldn't cross from South to North America because of the bodies of water, Cleverdon said, but in 1998, they showed up in McAllen.
Even then, officials thought the breed would be diluted by the prevalence of other bees. But since then they have spread throughout the southwest and also have been transported to Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
With European bees like the type on his porch, Cleverdon said, they will protect the hive when threatened, but don't usually follow when people leave. Africanized bees will much more aggressively protect the hive, have a higher pitched buzz and will follow people up to 40 yards or more.
"Like fire ants with wings," he said.
Because their only real enemies are bears, the bees instinctively attack the weak spots of a bear, which include the eyes, nose, mouth and throat. When applied to humans, this attack method can cause death, he said.
Bee season is peaking right now, but in the fall and winter threats are minimal, Cleverdon said. Bees stay inside during the winter and can survive sub-zero temperature because they regulate the heat of the hive by staying closer together and moving their wings, Cleverdon said.
Even when outside, he said, most bees are nice and vital to keeping the human food chain running. That's why he urges people to not immediately kill off all buzzing insects or to heavily fertilize their yards at times when bees will be out forging. Some reports have said the bee population has decreased as much as 40 percent in recent years, which can cause real problems for the agriculture industry that depend on the insects.
There are three types of bees in each hive.
Worker bees are the females that create the honeycombs, are smaller, more yellow in color and have forward-facing eyes so they can see flowers to pollinate from. These European forgers aren't looking to sting, simply to forge and return to the hive, he said. The color of honey produced depends on the types of flowers they pollinate from, he said, holding up a jar of light-colored honey next to a darker brown jar.
The drone bees are the male bee that are bigger, heavier and have eyes that wrap around so they can see the queen bee, with whom it is their sole purpose to reproduce. They look more intimidating than worker bees, but don't actually have stingers.
Each hive has one queen bee who has a longer abdomen than the other bees and produces whichever type of bee is most needed in her particular hive. When other queens are created, she will either kill them off or take part of the hive and swarm elsewhere while letting a new queen take over, Cleverdon said.
Each of Cleverdon's three hives of non-Africanized bees likely has more than 9,000 insects, he said. And though he doesn't have a special attachment to each one, his interest in the buzzing critters is not one that's likely to subside.
"The hardest thing is naming them all," he joked as he put the hive back together.
Kathleen Thurber can be reached at kthurber@mrt.com.
Staff Writer
With bees buzzing in front of his face and crawling over the edge of his shoulder, Tom Cleverdon calmly scraped a chuck of gooey honeycomb from inside the bee hive housed on his back porch.
"They think something's up," Cleverdon said as the audible buzz of hundreds of all American honey bees increased. "They'd be right."
Cleverdon methodically sprayed smoke into the hive in response to the rambunctious behavior -- a tactic that slows the critters down because the smell makes them think the hive is on fire. To protect their livelihood, the bees immediately gorge themselves with honey, making their bodies heavier and therefore incapable of stinging or buzzing too quickly. The process also makes Cleverdon's tasks of collecting honey, checking for mites or maintaining the hives much simpler.
"They're great," Cleverdon said of his bees. "All they want to do is make honey and that's fine with me."
Cleverdon hasn't always been a bee enthusiast. The former oil and gas marketing man stumbled into the hobby when he was living near Denver in 1989 and found a swarm of bees in his yard. A friend showed him how to capture the bees and the one-time venture turned into a long-time hobby.
Then in 2004, the first Africanized Bees were spotted in Midland and Cleverdon turned what had been a hobby into a new part-time career.
He said there are a lot of exterminators in the area, but few specialize in bees because of the risk involved.
Often people will try to treat the problem themselves by spraying the area and plugging the hole the insects swarmed in. But, he said, usually the poison doesn't kill all of the bees and when they find a new hole to come out of, it might mean they're inside the home or closer to the structure.
The ultra-aggresive Africanized bees came about as a result of an experiment to crossbreed African and European bees in the 1950s, according to Texas A&M University's Department of Entymology. The breeding was meant to create an insect that would be a better honey producer than either of the pure breeds, but some of the Africanized bees escaped in 1956 and since the aggressive bees have spread.
Experts hoped the bees wouldn't cross from South to North America because of the bodies of water, Cleverdon said, but in 1998, they showed up in McAllen.
Even then, officials thought the breed would be diluted by the prevalence of other bees. But since then they have spread throughout the southwest and also have been transported to Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
With European bees like the type on his porch, Cleverdon said, they will protect the hive when threatened, but don't usually follow when people leave. Africanized bees will much more aggressively protect the hive, have a higher pitched buzz and will follow people up to 40 yards or more.
"Like fire ants with wings," he said.
Because their only real enemies are bears, the bees instinctively attack the weak spots of a bear, which include the eyes, nose, mouth and throat. When applied to humans, this attack method can cause death, he said.
Bee season is peaking right now, but in the fall and winter threats are minimal, Cleverdon said. Bees stay inside during the winter and can survive sub-zero temperature because they regulate the heat of the hive by staying closer together and moving their wings, Cleverdon said.
Even when outside, he said, most bees are nice and vital to keeping the human food chain running. That's why he urges people to not immediately kill off all buzzing insects or to heavily fertilize their yards at times when bees will be out forging. Some reports have said the bee population has decreased as much as 40 percent in recent years, which can cause real problems for the agriculture industry that depend on the insects.
There are three types of bees in each hive.
Worker bees are the females that create the honeycombs, are smaller, more yellow in color and have forward-facing eyes so they can see flowers to pollinate from. These European forgers aren't looking to sting, simply to forge and return to the hive, he said. The color of honey produced depends on the types of flowers they pollinate from, he said, holding up a jar of light-colored honey next to a darker brown jar.
The drone bees are the male bee that are bigger, heavier and have eyes that wrap around so they can see the queen bee, with whom it is their sole purpose to reproduce. They look more intimidating than worker bees, but don't actually have stingers.
Each hive has one queen bee who has a longer abdomen than the other bees and produces whichever type of bee is most needed in her particular hive. When other queens are created, she will either kill them off or take part of the hive and swarm elsewhere while letting a new queen take over, Cleverdon said.
Each of Cleverdon's three hives of non-Africanized bees likely has more than 9,000 insects, he said. And though he doesn't have a special attachment to each one, his interest in the buzzing critters is not one that's likely to subside.
"The hardest thing is naming them all," he joked as he put the hive back together.
Kathleen Thurber can be reached at kthurber@mrt.com.
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