'Killer bees' found in 13 states are on the move. Could they come to New Jersey?

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19 hours ago

In recent days, you may have seen some unnerving headlines about "killer bees" making their way across the United States.
As reported by USA TODAY, several incidents involving these bees have taken place over the last three months alone. In Texas, for example, three people were taken to the hospital after disturbing a colony with tree trimmers. Hikers in Arizona ran a mile to get away from an agitated cloud of bees.
In April, a Texas man died after being attacked by a swarm of bees while mowing his lawn.
Africanized honey bees, often called "killer bees," are currently found in several states across the country, primarily in the South. Per USA TODAY, they first made headlines in the 1990s when they began to appear in the United States, leading to alarming news articles and a surge of horror films.
Notorious for their temperament, Africanized honey bees are known to quickly defend their hives and pursue intruders across longer distances than the more docile and common European honey bee, according to Clemson University.
In the coming decades, scientists believe that warming temperatures due to climate change may allow these bees to move further north.
Honey bees are not native to the Americas. According to the University of Georgia, most of the bees we see today are descendants of bees brought here by European settlers beginning in the 1600s.
While European bees fared well in North America, they were not as well adapted to tropical and subtropical Latin America. So, in 1956, researchers imported honey bees from Africa to Brazil in an effort to improve beekeeping in the tropics.
Per the University of Georgia, the African bees were well suited to the conditions in Brazil and began to colonize in South America, eventually hybridizing with European bees and leading to what we now call "Africanized" honey bees.
The bees eventually began to move north. Today, every country in Latin America has established populations of Africanized honey bees except Chile.
The first natural colony of Africanized honey bees in the U.S. was found in 1990 near Hidalgo, Texas. By 1993, according to the National Park Service, Africanized honey bees had made their way into Arizona.
Africanized honey bees have established themselves in 13 states, USA TODAY reported. These states include California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
New Jersey's temperate climate may spare us from these killer bees as researchers say they do not survive in areas with cold winters. According to the University of Georgia, the bees' tropical adaptations are less advantageous in more temperate areas with cold weather limiting their defensiveness and overwintering capacities.
In South America, the bees do not overwinter south of 34 degrees S latitude, according to UGA. This corresponds roughly to Atlanta, Georgia. However, it is important to note that Africanized bees are found north of this latitude in the western United States.
Juliana Rangel, a professor of apiculture (beekeeping) at Texas A&M University told USA TODAY that, with increasing temperatures, these bees will likely move northward in the Western half of the country by 2050.
The Garden State is currently home to about 350 species of native pollinating bees, according to the DEP. Some of the state's other insect pollinators include butterflies, moths, wasps and beetles.
Although they play a very important role, many of these species are in decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation as well as from introduced parasites and pathogens, the DEP says. To learn more, including information about what you can do to help pollinators in the Garden State, visit https://dep.nj.gov/njfw/wildlife/bees-and-other-pollinating-insects/.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Killer bees in NJ: How likely after bees found in 13 states?