Africanized Bees Have Colonized Most of County

Officials on Tuesday declared much of Los Angeles County to be colonized by Africanized honey bees--although no new bee colonies have been discovered since last month.

The declaration that the stretch of Los Angeles County south of the Ventura and Foothill freeways has been colonized essentially serves to put residents and local agencies on increased alert, said Cato Fiksdal, the county agricultural commissioner. The only discoveries of the bees have been in an apartment building in Lawndale last month and in an oil line in Carson the month before. Both clusters were killed, Fiksdal said, and bees may not arrive in force until the end of the year.

“We have to prepare to live with them,” Fiksdal said. “We are not able to eradicate them.”

Fiksdal urged residents to seek help from county bee fighting squads or pest control firms rather than try to deal with the bees on their own. The bees have earned the nickname killer bees through ferocious swarming attacks on those who disturb their hives. So far the attacks have killed five people in the southern United States.