LEHI, Utah (ABC 4 News) - A hive of Africanized honey bees has been discovered in Cedar City. The big news from that discovery is the hive removal and the way the bees survived the winter indoors, in the eaves of a house.
They used to be called killer bees, after a cross-breeding experiment went awry between European and African bees in Brazil, back in 1957.
The bees have been cross-breeding and became tamer as they moved north, reaching Texas in 1990, and Utah this past February 11th. Now, they've reached Cedar City in Iron County. But how far will they go?
Lee Knight of Knight Family Honey says they'll probably come up, but won't do well in cold climates.
Even if the Africanized honey bees make it so far north, our first-line of defense is the local beekeepers themselves.
"Africanized honey bees are no friend to local bee keepers. They don't make much honey and they are aggressive. We can re-queen the hives and take other steps to reduce their impact," said Knight.
Beekeepers such as Lee work closely with the Utah Dept. of Agriculture, by actually marking their queens, looking out for swarming bees, and keeping their own hives healthy to ward off their takeover. The bees themselves are no longer the threat that they once were.
The bottom line is the bees are finding new ways to make the trip north, but are running out of tricks.
The reason that the discovery in Cedar City is such a big deal is because the climate there is even colder than that of most of the Wasatch Front.
We'll be on the alert in months to come.
