Rising Unease about Killer Bees

By John Borrell/Mexico City

For years Texas residents have been abuzz about the imminent invasion of Africanized honeybees. But in recent months the hum over the so-called killer bees has reached frenzied proportions. Local television stations have been running tapes from crews dispatched to Central America, showing ferocious swarms attacking researchers and news crews. Mosquito eradication units have been readied with special gear to wipe out the expected insect intruders. Several times a week, Houstonians sound the alarm, phoning pest-control agencies with the urgent and disquieting news: "They're here."

Well, no, not quite yet. The nervous callers apparently mistook the gentler European honeybees for the aggressive killer bees, which U.S. officials say have proceeded no farther northward than central Mexico. But the Texans' growing unease is understandable: unless the bees are headed off or at least slowed down, they may reach the Texas border as early as next year. Mexican and American scientists are doing their level best to keep that from occurring. Near the narrowest part of southern Mexico, where the rugged Sierra Madre sweeps close to the coast, they have prepared a stand against the marauders, a kind of apiarian Thermopylae.

The insects have been migrating northward by the millions since 1957, when several swarms imported to Brazil from Africa were accidentally released. Sounding like a small airplane in flight, the hordes have been traveling at the rate of more than 300 miles a year. The bees are more aggressive than most domestic strains; when disturbed or defending their nests, they frequently attack animals and humans. Although their venom is no more potent than that of European bees, they are much likelier to sting, and so many sting at once that serious injury, even death, can result. Hundreds have died from such attacks in Latin America.

Once the bees cross the Rio Grande, scientists fear, they could wreak havoc among U.S. beekeepers and farmers whose crops depend on bees for pollination. Reason: aggressive Africanized bees, which will interbreed with their gentler domestic cousins, are less efficient pollinators and honey producers.

The sites chosen for the coming standoff are two coastal strips centered on Puerto Escondido on the Pacific Coast and Huatuxco on the Caribbean. The bees, which are reluctant to fly higher than 3,000 ft., will be funneled into passes, where they will be trapped and killed or tricked into doing themselves in. The U.S. and Mexico are sharing the $6.3 million price tag for the two- year project.

Right now the migrating bees have begun to reach the Pacific Coast killing fields, where hives baited with pheromones, or sexual scents, await them. Once the insects are enticed inside, plastic bags will be pulled tight over the hives to suffocate them. To prevent the bees from taking over the working hives of the more docile European honeybee, all European queen bees in the area are being marked with a bright spot of acrylic paint. Their hives will be checked every month for the presence of Africanized queens.

As in Panama, where the Canal Commission maintains 24-hour bee-control teams to stop stowaway killer bees, quarantine posts are being established on roads leading out of the southern Mexico defense area to prevent swarms from hitchhiking. Whole colonies have made their way to California on board freighters, but all the known stowaways have been destroyed.

While the showdown looms in Mexico, U.S. scientists are looking for further clues to the Africanized bee's physiology. There is some evidence, for example, that killer bees do not thrive in colder climates. But even if they colonize only in the warmer Southern states, there is plenty of reason to worry about the potential costs. Lost sales of honey and damage to fruit, nut and vegetable crops worth billions of dollars each year could be substantial, not to mention lives lost to fatal stings.

Already killer bees have exacted a toll in fear that shows no signs of abating. "The bees are coming," says Fowden Maxwell, an entomologist at Texas A & M. "There's no way to stop them. But I'm optimistic we can minimize their impact." Still, says Houston Beekeeper Darrell Lister: "I'm afraid we're going to have a panic when they finally arrive. Everyone will be out with a spray can, and the only good bee will be a dead bee."