Africanized
honeybees a.k.a. killer bees, are physically almost
indistinguishable from the
European honeybees common to this
country. It takes an entomologist and a microscope to tell the
difference.
However,
disturb a hive and you will quickly (and painfully) learn the
difference for yourself. If it is the hive of a European bee,
a few dozen bees will come after you and chase you for maybe a
hundred feet and give up.
If you are unfortunate enough to disturb the
hive of the African bees, hundreds of angry bees will begin
aggressively sting and pursue you for hundreds of yards.
Each
type of bee can only sting once per bee and the impact of that
individual sting will be the same. The key is that the number
of Africanized bees attacking will be far, far greater.
Fortunately, these insects have only reached the most southern
parts of Texas at this point. Most entomologists believe that
they cannot survive our cold winters. They also are unsure of
what affect interbreeding with large numbers of European
honeybees will have on their aggressive natures.
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