The lore
In Brazil, the Afrucab bee and its hybrid are known as the Assassin Bee, for its supposed habits in taking over an existing colony of European bees. According to this lore, their queen waits outside while several worker bees infiltrate the hive by bringing in food, where they will then locate and kill the queen. The new queen will then enter and take over the hive.
The danger to apiculture and agriculture
It has been established that in a partially Africanized hive these aggressive bees can even “recruit” more gentle bees in attacks upon intruders. If true, this habit can make Africanized bees dangerous in areas where European bees are kept for agricultural purposes, since an existing queen may be replaced without the usual out-swarming or supersession, conditions more readily observable by the beekeeper. To the extent that the Africanized bees make pollination management more difficult, they are a threat to the production of all crops which require bee pollination.
Genetic evidence
Evidence for the accuracy of the assassin report can be found in the fact that of Africanized bees in Brazil, about one third have mitochondrial DNA indicating a female ancestor of African origin. If the Africanization was attributable only (or even mostly) to the well known superior breeding efficiency of Africanized (male) drones, such “mother” DNA would be much less prevalent. Although some bee species (such as the Cape Bee Apis mellifera capensis of South Africa) are known to be able to propagate additional females via egg laying female workers, this is not believed to occur in either A. m. adansonii or A. m. scutellata.
Behavioral evidence
Apis mellifera scutellata is well known for sending from the hive numerous tiny swarms - a queen and only a few attendants. Such a small swarm should be incapable of starting a colony on its own, lacking enough workers for all the tasks required to support a queen and in particular incapable of beginning a new colony. For this behavior to have survived through natural selection it likely has some utility to the survival and propagation of the sub-species. The supposed assassin behavior is consistent with this argument and is actually reinforced by it.
I love insects, so many nasty little behaviors going on.
Hey, did anyone ever write the screenplay for that survivor bee versus the Japanese wasps thing from that video posted a long time ago? 'Cause I remember the thread being absolutely brilliant.
Grackles. My friend worked for years at a pond shop/fish farm and they were constantly at war with the grackles. They love frogs, little lizards, minnows, etc. If you ever catch a grackle, they smell fishy 'cause they spend all their time at the edge of ponds/lakes catching food.
Carpenter bees are an interesting problem, because they’re annoying and destructive, but also key pollinators. If you have a lot of nice flora then you want them around. So the way I keep the peace is I kill any fucker that starts drilling into my deck or porch or house.
A badminton racket works great. You smack 'em out of the sky, but they’re so tough that it’s hard to kill them like that. So you follow up with the Bruce Lee Stomps on O’Hara move from Enter the Dragon.
We decided to put a groovy fish pond in our hillside backyard in San Francisco. Dug the pond, added water, plants, and last but not least, a bunch of feeder goldfish. Later that evening, we saw several raccoons up to their little furry elbows in the pond, stuffing fish into their mouths as fast as they could go. So…we had basically set up a fabulous fish buffet for raccoons (the “feeder” in “feeder goldfish” was accurate, at least). Fucking raccoons.
Well, it depends. In the ring, some styles work great against the bee, but the minute you’re in the tree or, God forbid, in the wild, all those fancy forms and strikes go to complete hell. I mean, what rules are we talking about here?
Picking the best method to fight bees really depends on the bee, the situation, the fighter, and the rules. If it’s up to me, I’m bringing my Raid Bee & Wasp Spray…with a lighter. But some would argue that that doesn’t prove anything since anyone can use a spray can.
I hope I never have to fight a bee in the wild, but I think that if it happens, I’ll be prepared.
I used to euthanize them, but it made me feel bad when one wasn’t as nasty as normal. So now we re-locate them - along with the opossums.
Which reminds of a really gross story. A few years ago I kept sunflower seed in a plastic container on the deck. A raccoon, pull the safety latch and lid offand proceeded to eat 10 lbs of seed in one setting. He ate the whole friggen lot. When I went out there to scare him away, it was obvious he climbed between the 2x4’s that make up the deck fencing. Well, he’d eaten so much when he tried to squeeze back through, he didn’t fit… but tried anyways. He proceeded to poop out raw seed and red stuff all over our deck. About 2 gallons worth (imagine the stuff from inside of a pumpkin <– that consistency). It was horribly disgusting.
sara tonin - thanks. I think I need to get a BB gun or pellet gun to take them out. I’m sick of them bringing their poop and dropping it in my pond - not to mention all the things they eat.
First of all Kun, that’s getting old and certainly isn’t true - and is frankly exceptionally insulting. I can take a lot of ribbing, but that goes too far. Second, for pets, besides our nice indoor cat, we have ~40 pond fish (30 of which were born in our pond), and previously - some very nice frogs.
The following pic shows the “pebble beach for frogs”, that the birds enjoy so much.
The pic below is our fav frog from last year that didn’t make it thorugh the winter. She would come out of the water, up to our feet, and beg us for food (worms) when we’d go outside.
Am I the only person who screamed a bit like a little girl when he saw that frog? It’s like, looking at me, smiling, thinking “I know where you live, Bacon. I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE…ribbit”
