Though they look like regular honey bees, African bees behave very differently. Originally imported into Brazil in the 1950s to try to increase honey production, many African bee queens escaped and mixed with local honey bee populations.
They spread northward up to 200 miles a year reaching the United States in the 1990s.
They were an unwelcome arrival. African bees are much more aggressive than honey bees and will react to a smaller disturbance with violent attacks. They have been known to chase people more than a quarter mile away from their nest. Hundreds of people have died from African bee attacks. All honey bees can sting and should be avoided, but African bees are especially sensitive to being bothered. Be careful out there!
People have tried to solve the problem of these spreading dangerous bees by replacing the queen with the calmer European bee queen.
