Quarantine Slapped on Suspect Honeycombs in Riverside

A Riverside warehouse was quarantined Friday by agriculture officials who believe it contains commercial honeycombs smuggled out of an area where Africanized honeybees have been discovered.

According to officials, two honey trucks belonging to beekeeper Milton Knoefler of Riverside attempted on Wednesday to leave the 462-square-mile quarantine area established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to contain the possible spread of Africanized honeybees discovered in a Kern County oil field last month.

Labeled killer bees because of their aggressive nature, the Africanized bees have been the subject of an intense search by state agriculture officials since the colony was discovered last month near Lost Hills in Kern County. State officials have banned the removal of commercial hives and honeycombs from the area until they can be inspected to make sure no Africanized bees have taken up residence with domestic insects.

One of the Knoefler trucks was stopped by inspectors before it could leave the area, according to James Wallace, Riverside County’s assistant agriculture commissioner. The second truck drove off and was traced to Knoefler’s bee operation in Riverside and quarantined, but only after inspectors called police to gain access to the property.

Wallace said that when his inspectors tried to look at the 250 boxes containing honeycombs that they believe came from the Lost Hills area, they were refused access to the Knoefler property. The boxes, called “supers,” usually contain a few bees that are lifted from the hives along with the combs.

Knoefler, angered by the quarantine regulations that hamper his honey harvest, at first contended the honey-laden boxes on the truck came from “outside the restricted area.” But he said later in a telephone interview that he wasn’t sure where the quarantine boundaries are and complained that his employees, who picked up the honey, were being harassed.

Wallace said the honey containers, the truck and the warehouse where they are stored all have been quarantined while lab tests are run to detect if there is any Africanized bee contamination and, perhaps more important, any sign of tiny bloodsucking insects called Vorroa mites.

The possible infestation of California honey bees by these pinhead-sized mites that are sometimes carried by Africanized bees is considered a major threat to the domestic bee industry.