History

• European honeybees came to the United States with the early colonists. Africanized honeybees escaped from a failed agricultural experiment in Brazil in the 1950s and invaded the United States from Mexico and as stowaways on cargo ships.
  
  

Identification

• To the untrained observer, Africanized honeybees and European honeybees are virtually identical in appearance. However, their behavior is decidedly different.
  
  

Location

• Wild European honeybees can be found throughout the United States. As of early 2010, Africanized honeybees were limited to the southwestern United States and south Florida.
  
  

Behavior

• European honeybees have been selectively bred for centuries to be gentle and mild-tempered. Africanized honeybees have developed extremely aggressive behavior because of living in the wild.
  
  

Attack Response

• When attacked, European honeybees may send out dozens of guard bees to protect the hive and may chase the attacker a short distance. Africanized bees may send out thousands of guard bees that will pursue the attacker for hundreds of yards.
  
  

Legal Issues

• European honeybees are kept by hobbyist and commercial beekeepers for honey, beeswax and pollination purposes. It is illegal to keep Africanized bees in the United States for anything other than approved research purposes.