Released May 15, 2008
STILLWATER, Okla. – State entomologists have been “busy as bees” recently, after Africanized honey bees were thought to have been discovered in Payne County.
After further testing, it appears as though Africanized honey bees may not have come as far north as Payne County, at least, not yet.
“The bees collected in Stillwater tested positive for Africanized honey bee DNA,” said Rick Grantham, director of Oklahoma State University’s Plant Disease and Insect Diagnostic Laboratory. “Our preliminary tests came up positive.”
The laboratory, part of the OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, works closely with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry in the monitoring of insect-related issues in the state.
“As part of our normal procedure, we send positive samples to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Arizona for further verification,” Grantham said.
USDA scientists perform a battery of measurements to further confirm whether or not samples are Africanized honey bees. After an extensive battery of measurements, the samples were determined to be European honey bees. The European variety is common throughout the United States, and is less aggressive than their Africanized cousins.
“The USDA results lend more evidence that hybridization is occurring between these two groups,” Grantham said. “Our DNA test only indicates that at some point the honey bee collected has an Africanized queen in its lineage.”
Grantham said when such a queen breeds with a European drone, Africanized traits may be reduced but the DNA will always indicate Africanized, essentially rendering a false positive during testing.
“It’s always best to err on the side of caution,” he said.
Africanized bees are more likely to attack perceived intruders simply because of noise from devices such as mowers and weed trimmers. In addition, they are likely to attack with up to 10 times more bees than a colony of European honey bees. Further complicating the situation is that these defensive bees have been known to pursue an intruder up to a quarter mile and stay agitated for up to an hour.
How about when the reverse occurs, a European queen mating with an Africanized drone?
“We can’t detect this with a DNA test,” Grantham said. “We generally only know about this type when a serious stinging incident occurs or when there are other signs present. As always, we will continue to monitor the situation.”
Phil Mulder, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service entomologist, said people who are outdoors need to be aware of their surroundings and use caution in approaching any potentially dangerous situation involving honey bees.
Disturbing colonies of established bees of either variety poses the potential for a stinging attack; however, foraging honey bees are rarely a threat.
“If several honey bees are actively visiting blooms for nectar or pollen, they are usually quite harmless unless somebody attempts to threaten them,” Mulder said. “Even then, they will often simply retreat or fly away.”
Additional information on Africanized honey bees and related species is available through DASNR at http://entoplp.okstate.edu/ahb/ on the Internet, as well as the ODAFF Web site at http://www.state.ok.us/~okag/cps-beeshome.htm.
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Contact: Donald Stotts, (405) 744-4079, donald.stotts@okstate.edu
