Texas Stops Quarantine Over 'Killer Bees'

LUBBOCK, Texas - When Africanized "killer bees" first buzzed into South Texas, alarmists warned the rest of the state to brace for deadly swarms.

While there have been untold attacks and 11 deaths in Texas in the 15 years since, that's far short of the doom projected by some. In fact, the bees have become so common they're now in most Texas counties, prompting agricultural officials to announce publicly this week that restrictions on the movement of commercial bees have been lifted.

More than 60 percent of the state's 254 counties _ 159 counties _ now have populations of the more defensive bee.

One expert said the bee's "killer" reputation was overstated.

"I feel like it was exaggerated, and partly due to media wanting to make a big splash," said Bill Baxter, a bee inspector with the Texas Apiary Inspection Service. "People didn't know and we did not know what was going to happen."

When in place, the quarantines prevented beekeepers from moving hives to an Africanized honey bee-free county without first having samples taken to certify they were not contaminated with the African variety.

The tests for contamination cost some beekeepers as much $600, Baxter said.

Much was learned by the quarantines, said Paul Jackson, the state's inspector for the service. Specifically, beekeepers weren't the reason for the spread of killer bees, he said.

"The quarantine proved that the spread of Africanized honey bee in Texas is the result of natural migration of the insect," Jackson said.

After the bees were first detected in the United States near Brownsville, they moved westward and north, and have since been found in Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico. There is no way to accurately count individual bees but scientists say there are thousands of colonies in the country.

No other state opted to quarantine their counties upon detection of the bees.

African honey bees are slightly smaller than domestic honey bees, but otherwise resemble them closely. Killer bees don't roam in giant swarms seeking victims. Like most animals, these bees attack to defend only when they feel threatened.

The Africanized bee or a crossbred variety has killed 11 people in Texas since being discovered in the United States in 1990, according to the Texas Honey Bee Identification Lab in College Station. Hundreds more have been stung, and nearly 100 animals have been killed.

"In some situations, they can be deadly," said Anita Collins, a research geneticist with the U.S. Deparment of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. who has studied the bee since the early 1970s in South America. "But usually it's been people who've had other health problems."

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On the Net:

Texas A&M University: http://honeybee.tamu.edu/

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