Presence of Africanized Bees Growing in Southland
They’re heeeere.
Africanized honey bees--the so-called killer bees that have been inexorably marching toward urban Southern California for years--are finally showing up.
One swarm of the aggressive bees arrived in Lawndale without wearying their wings, presumably stowing away on a cargo ship from South America to the Port of Los Angeles and hitching aboard a local freight train, county agricultural officials said. The bees then set up housekeeping in an existing bee colony between an apartment house and a city maintenance yard, officials said.
On Tuesday, DNA tests conducted regularly on the colony showed that it had been taken over by Africanized bees. The colony was destroyed Tuesday night without anyone sustaining stings.
There have been a handful of incidents in recent years in which Africanized bees have entered Los Angeles County by cargo ship, county officials said.
Of greater concern, according to public officials, is the recent discovery of Africanized bees in urban areas of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. They have been trapped as far west as Corona, Norco and Fontana, and entomologists have been waiting for them to rear their stingers on unwitting victims.
That occurred Tuesday near downtown San Bernardino after a bee colony was startled by the abrupt noise of a weed cutter and attacked a 68-year-old gardener, San Bernardino fire officials said. The victim was stung more than 90 times and on Wednesday was recovering in a local hospital. A mother and two children, walking past at the time of the attack, suffered a few stings before retreating to a car. Two firefighters responding to the scene also were stung several times before killing the colony with a foam that drowns the bees.
The Africanized bees had established their colony in an abandoned hive maintained by a retired beekeeper who, ironically, volunteers his time teaching about bees at local schools and helping fire departments eliminate nests of bees, hornets and wasps.
Aggressive When Provoked
The Africanized bees’ arrival has long been feared because of their hyper-aggressive nature when provoked. And it has long been anticipated because of their steady northward migration from Brazil in the late 1950s up to the border with Mexico.
When they crossed from Arizona into the Imperial County desert several years ago, their migration slowed. But last winter’s El Nino weather pattern provided them the conditions for a final push into the Los Angeles Basin.
San Bernardino County officials say they now consider all of the county to be colonized by the Africanized honey bees, given how they have been detected both in the High Desert and the urban valley.
Riverside County officials say that based on captured samples, they assume Africanized bees have established themselves in all but the southernmost parts of their county.
The only Africanized beehive found so far in urban Riverside County was in a ground-level water valve at a Moreno Valley school. It was detected by maintenance crews and safely eliminated in October, and more recently was confirmed as Africanized.
Orange County has yet to report the presence of Africanized bees, officials say.
Africanized bees have settled in the foothills separating San Diego County’s desert and urban valleys, but have not colonized farther west, officials there say.
Rod Lampman, an entomologist with the San Bernardino County agriculture office, said he assumes that the Inland Empire bees flew in through the Cajon and San Gorgonio passes from the desert, where they have been established for several years.
Los Angeles County agricultural Commissioner Cato Fiksdal said that although the migration has not yet reached his county, the bees are assumed to be buzzing at the door.
“They’re going to come,” he said Wednesday. “We won’t be able to stop them, and we’ll have to learn to live with them.”
In Lawndale, a beehive in a concrete wall between a city yard and the next-door apartment house on 159th Street had pestered city workers for years, said Lawndale city spokeswoman Diane Fillman. But the bees had become increasingly unruly in recent weeks, and had stung workers twice in recent days. Los Angeles County officials had tested the bees several times to determine whether Africanized bees had invaded the colony. On Tuesday, the tests came back positive, and the bees were killed Tuesday night.
Whether colonies of naturally migrating Africanized bees will begin showing up in Los Angeles or Orange counties today, tomorrow or in a week or month is anybody’s guess, experts say.
The bees tend to swarm through the dry summer and fall months in search of new food and water. During that stage, they are not considered dangerous.
But after establishing a colony they become hyper-defensive and attack if startled, said Bill Routhier, an expert on Africanized honey bees with the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
March Started in 1957
The aggressive bees have been heading northward ever since they escaped from a Brazilian laboratory in 1957--where they were being crossbred with more tame European bees to test for heat tolerance. They arrived in California’s eastern desert in 1994.
Imperial County was soon declared colonized, but the bees’ migration stalled in the desert because there wasn’t enough water to sustain their march and because they were suppressed by parasites.
Last winter’s El Nino rains provided enough water and flower bloom to nourish the pioneers’ migration through the desert this summer, experts say, and they set up colonies in the Coachella Valley and Barstow.
The Africanized bees either establish their own colonies or invade and eventually take over European honey bee colonies.
For residents of Imperial County, the bees have become a fact of life. This year, officials there have received 550 reports of bees--75% of which proved to be Africanized, compared to 210 bee calls in 1997.
There were three Africanized bee-stinging incidents in Southern California desert areas in 1997--and 16 in the state this year, said Connie Valenzuela of the Imperial County agricultural commissioner’s office, who has tracked the bees’ movements.
Despite the “killer bee” moniker, no one has died in California from the bees’ stings. Two people have been killed in Texas, and three in Arizona.
“People here aren’t panicking,” Valenzuela said. “We’ve gotten the message out about how to avoid them, and people know to call us as soon as they see a bee colony.”
Bees foraging for food, and swarms of bees leaving one colony to establish another, are not considered dangerous. It’s only after they set up a colony that they aggressively defend it when startled by sudden noise or movement.
Cal Kaminskas, Riverside County’s assistant agricultural commissioner, said the bees’ local presence has been assumed “for years, but it was in such low numbers, nobody noticed. Now their numbers have grown to a large enough proportion that we’re starting to run across them.”
He said the bee attack in neighboring San Bernardino was a classic scenario: The bees attacked a perceived threat, the victims quickly fled to safety and responding firefighters eliminated the colony with foam.
Will Defend a Wide Area
The Africanized bees anger more quickly and easily than their European counterparts. More frightening: They respond in far greater numbers and will defend an area up to half a mile of their colony, versus the average 450 yards protected by European bees.
Bee officials say homeowners should inspect their property weekly for squadrons of bees flying into holes in walls and other hiding places--a typical sign of the presence of a bee colony--and notify either vector control officials or a commercial bee exterminator.
Because there is no visual difference between Africanized and European honey bees, experts advise that residents should warily assume that all bee colonies are Africanized.
Times staff writer Jean Merl contributed to this article.
