An Africanized honeybee is a honeybee hybrid strain, originated in Brazil, that is a cross-breed between a European honeybee and an African honeybee subspecies, apis mellifera scutellata, a.m. adonsonii, or a.m. intermissa.  The Africanized honeybee, called the “killer bee“, is an aggressive strain that has migrated through Central America to the southern United States, into Texas and west to California.

Africanized honeybee colonies are feral, except in research facilities, and Africanized bees generally spread by breeding with local bees that swarm.   Africanized bees are not raised by private beekeepers, since they are so hard to manage and since it is illegal in the U.S. to raise this bee outside an approved research facility.

Africanized bee hybrids demonstrate most of the African bee’s characteristics, including hyper-defensive, aggressive protection of the colony, smaller nests, farther foraging distances, shorter life expectancy, and a high tendency to abscond or swarm.  However, Africanized bees are extremely similar in appearance to European bees, and only close, expert observation can differentiate the two.  You cannot tell the difference between Africanized honeybee and European honeybee with just a casual visual inspection.

The Africanized honeybee has not dominated the honeybee population in the southern United States as many had predicted.  This lack of dominance is primarily due to the diseases and pests to which the feral Africanized honeybee colonies fall prey, including tracheal mites, varroa mites, foulbrood and nosema.  Since Africanized honeybee colonies are not in managed apiaries where such conditions can be prevented or treated, they have not fared well in the wild.  One curious phenomenon is that the Africanized honeybee has apparently not yet spread to the southeastern US.  It appears to have restricted its occupation to Texas and west to California.  Honeybee researchers have not concluded the reason for the odd halt in their eastward progress.

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