Killer Bees Attack New Orleans

Africanized honeybees, also called killer bees, have settled in New Orleans. Earlier this year, demolition workers found and captured a colony of the bees. Recently more bees were found close to the same spot and they may have come from the same colony or may have come from a ship or barge.

The Department of Agriculture put traps along the north-south line throughout the state and at all of the deepwater ports to monitor the bees. Killer bees have the same venom as honeybees, but attack in groups instead of alone. They are also smaller than honeybees. If anyone sees a killer bee, it is recommended to find cover quickly.

Africanized bees first came from an experiment to increase honey production in Brazil that went wrong. A swarm escaped the lab in 1957 and went north. Then they mated with native bees. They reached Texas in 1990 and spread to California and Florida. They were first found in Louisiana in 2005.