Differences Between Africanized Honey Bees

The presence of a bee generally scares people. So they swat at it, which makes the bee angry and defensive, which causes the bee to sting. Once the bee stings someone, it dies. Most people might think their death is a good thing. Unfortunately, various species of bees have been added to the endangered species list (Kennedy). Bees pollinate about 70% of the crops used by 90% of the world (What Would Happen) and as of February 2017, 10 million bees have died since 2010 ( Bennett). Bees need to be saved to ensure the Earth’s survival, along with our own.

The European honey bee interacts with a wide diversity of flora (over 200) and native Australian fauna, especially through the sharing of floral resources. These interactions can be harmful to threatened species if the resources are limited, and due to the degree of how much the honey bee consumes, relative to the other species.

Africanized Honey Bees are another South American import. European and southern African honey bees were interbred

They are named killer bees because of the aggressive attitude they have. Their venom is powerful enough to kill a living creature if there are hundreds of them. Some beekeepers prefer africanized bees over normal honey bees because they tend to produce a lot more than honey bees. Some even call them the producers of ‘liquid gold’. The africanized queen can mate with both European and Africanized drones. Doing so makes some the produced queens Africanized and the others European. Because africanized queens leave their cells one day before the European queens they will kill the other queens. This will cause a what once was a European colony to become an Africanized colony. This can cause problems as Africanized bees are more likely to migrate if their food supply is low. They are also very defensive of their hive and will guard them with extreme aggression.

Invasive species have a variety of impacts, many of which are unpredictable. The Africanized honey bee (also known as the “killer bee” in the media community or apis mellifera scutellata among scientists) provides an excellent case study of how even an intentionally introduced invasive species can become uncontrollable and problematic.

Insect pollinators play a vital role in the majority of terrestrial ecosystems and the survival and productivity of many wild and agricultural plants depends upon successful pollination by insects [1,2]. In a 2005 assessment of the potential impact of pollinator decline, it was estimated that the total economic value of insect pollination worldwide amounted to €153 billion annually, representing 9.5% of the total value of world agricultural production of human food in that year [3]. The European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the world’s most economically

Today, scientists are looking to combat, letting in new creatures to prevent a change in the area. To make sure organisms aren't wrongfully transferred there are more pallet inspections, checking containers, and other shipping materials. Government and ecologist officials are adding tougher fines if an unknown species are brought over to a different place. This should stop the amount of illegal predators/species brought over to foreign places. This information can be found here: http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/invasive-species/544407#. The Africanized honey bee was accidentally released when a geneticist tried to produce a honey bee to replace European ones. The Africanized honey bee is referred to as the "killer bee" and can attack people and animals. They travel in large numbers, very fast and cause harm to a lot of things. This shows just how bad invasive species can be, and the honey bee has already spread to 10 U.S. states. This information is provided here:

The honeybee’s scientific name is Apis mellifera, Apis meaning “swarm”, and Mellifera meaning “honey-bearing”. Bees are widely known and appreciated for their ability to make honey. To make honey, they go through an intricate and devoted process.

From their tremendous hives to their venomous stings to their countless hours of vigorously pollinating, honeybees are amazing. There are seven types of radical honeybees around the world.1 Humans are responsible for most deaths of these humble creatures. Little do we know that our harmful actions against honeybees could change the world forever.    Honeybees currently reside on every continent in the world, except for Antarctica.1 Honeybees live in hives and are widely known around the world for their ingenious production of honey. What honeybees do for their hive is dependent on their gender; females are workers and males are drones.5 The queen bee is another type of bee along with the worker bees and the drones, the queen bee is a bit bigger than the others and their is one of them in each colony.5 The hives are usually created by the bees themselves. In these hives they also store the contents of honey as well as the honey itself.5 Many beekeepers keep special hives to collect honey.5

These bees need a certain habitat and climate to survive. "Researchers believe that the original habitats of the honey bee are tropical climates and heavily forested areas." (http://www.orkin.com/stinging-pests/bees/habitat-of-a-honey-bee/) Most Honey Bees are kept in Bee Yards which

To do this many farmers have established their own hive of the European Honey Bee to ensure that this happens. While the crop may have a good yield because of this, introducing a large amount of a nonnative species can have a negative impact on the community at large. Large amounts of pollinators like the bumble bee and moths are declining every day and by introducing the honey bee those native pollinators struggle to get what they need before the honey bee gets to it. And often times, the crop that the cultivated honey bees are meant to pollinate only bloom for a short period of time leaving the rest of that time for the bees to go and pollinate other plants that the native species need for their survival. Alongside the competition, the honey bee has also been found to spread disease around to those already declining pollinator populations (Geldmann and González-Varo

The Western Honey Bee can be severly hurt by Sacbroad, a disease caused by a virus, and Varroa mites (Moore, Wilson, et al). Western Honey Bees do tend to have medicinal purposes due to their ability to make honey. According to medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com, studies show that “since bees are as major cause of life-threatening anaphylaxis in sensitised individuals, homeopathy, a homeopathic remedy obtained from honey bees, can help treat bee stings and other insect bites, oedema, and other causes of burning and swelling, including cystitis, allergies and sore throat.” For commercial purposes, only A. mellifera and A. cerana have been used to gather honey. But, only A. mellifera has been used expansively for commercial pollination of plants and other crops. This honey helps consumers alleviate pain, allergies and naturally sweetens drinks. Honeybees have many adaptations for defense: Adults have orange and black striping that acts as warning coloration. Predators can learn to associate that pattern with a painful sting, and avoid them. Honeybees prefer to build their hives in protected cavities (small caves or tree hollows). They seal small openings with a mix of wax and resins called propolis, leaving only one small opening. Worker bees guard the entrance of the hive. They are able to recognize members of their colony by scent, and will attack any non-members that try to enter the

It is believed that the bees have appeared on Earth about 125 million years ago in conjunction to Angiosperms. The tribe Meliponini or native bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae) comprises about 300 species that in addition to obtaining food resources in plant species, they use them as a shelter. In Brazil these bees are found in all ecosystems, and the Caatinga, despite environmental limitations, comprises the largest number of stingless bees worldwide. The presence and the quality of the arboreal vegetation present in an area is essential to the establishment of the stingless bees, showing an urgent demand for research on these animals and their interactions in the places where they occur. Therefore, this chapter aimed to evaluate the prevalence of

The european honey bee can cause unwanted pollination to invasive plants that can ruin an environment such as weeds, benefitting the wrong species instead of the plants they were brought over to pollinate. The species also has a track record for creating unnecessary competition with opposing pollinators by fighting for nest sites and pollination of floral resources. European honey bees can also irritate the local ecosystem by co-introducing natural enemies such as pathogens that have the possibility to infect native

There are around 25 000 species of bees describes worldwide Michener (2007). Most information available comes from those bees that are integral part of human development and provide any kind of benefit to human societies such as honey, wax, pollen and even pollination services. Bees are important pollinators of flowering plants and most fruit plants. Only in the United States 75% of fruits, plants and vegetables produced annually are bee pollinated (Moisset & Buchmann, 2011). By 2009 around $11 billion profit was estimated by pollination services of honey bees, plus $3.5 billion by other non-Apis bees (Calderone, 2012). Crop production of apples, oranges, tomatoes, almonds, blueberries, among other depends on bee pollination for a successful