Wild Facts

Welcome back to day two of “Animals that can Kill” on Wild Facts.  We talked about the deadly sting of the bark scorpion yesterday.  Today we will take a look at another sting that you will want to avoid.  I am of course talking about the sting from an Africanized Bee better known as the Killer Bee.  Now isn’t that a nice reassuring name.  It sounds bad but are they really that deadly?  We will find out soon enough.

The “Killer Bee” is actually a hybrid of the African Honey Bee and various European Honey Bees.  This hybrid is much more aggressive and will actually take over the hive of European honey bees by killing the European queen and establishing their own.  I guess this proves the old theory wrong that only humans cause war.

Originally these killer bees could only be found in Africa, however, they have managed to find their way over to the Americas.  They can now be found throughout South America, Mexico and some Southern US states such as Texas, Arizona, Florida and California.  So how poisonous are these hybrid bees? To tell you the truth the potency of their sting is the same as the European honey bee.  So why are they so deadly? Why have cheap B-rated movies been made about these bees? Is it all an exaggeration? These are all excellent questions and to answer them we have to learn about the killer bees behaviour.

The africanized bee has what is called “hyper-defensive behaviour”.  Basically, they will attack a perceived threat on their hive at the drop of a hat.  If you look the wrong way at a killer bee hive then they will attack.  The problem is when they attack they come at you in great numbers.  The number of deaths to humans are increased because of the greater number of stings that occur when you startle a hive as well as the fact that killer bees tend to sting more readily.  As you can imagine the media has caused a lot of hype over the killer bees but the fact remains that they can be deadly and 1-2 Americans are reported to die each year from killer bee stings.  Whether or not these people are allergic is unknown.  The hype may not be completely justified but I wouldn’t go trying to pet these hybrid bees anytime soon.

Killer Bee Fast Fact: Not all killer bee hives are are defensive and aggressive as described above.  For this reason beekeepers have been able to create a strain of gentler killer bees.  Apparently these “domesticated” killer bees are the bee of choice in South America.

I have attached an interesting 3 minute clip on the killer bees below but it may not be suitable for the really young ones.  As well, it may instill fear into people regarding these bees.  Enjoy!