Block That Bee!

Like an insect version of Genghis Khan, the fierce Brazilian bees are coming. Millions of them are swarming northward from the Amazon basin at the rate of 200 miles a year, liquidating passive colonies of native bees in their path, quick to sting--and sometimes kill--any unwary animal or person. At their present rate they will conquer all of South America in the next ten years, and start to invade Central America. Unless stopped by man, the bees will eventually invade Mexico and the southern U.S.

Ironically, it was man who loosed the troublesome bee in the first place. In 1956 Warwick Kerr, a Brazilian geneticist in the state of Sao Paulo, decided to breed the perfect honey-producing bee. He wanted to combine the best attributes of the hard-working but highly aggressive African bee (Apis mellifera adansonii) with gentler but lazier European strains. Before the hybridization could occur, 26 swarms of African bees accidentally escaped, mated with native bees, flourished and spread. The offspring, known as Brazilian honey bees, are precisely what Kerr wanted to avoid; they have inherited none of the redeeming qualities of European bees, while keeping the African strain's viciousness and wanderlust. As a result, according to a report recently released jointly by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council, they have taken over an area from Argentina's temperate pampas to the Amazon's tropical forests.

Wherever it goes, the Brazilian strain attracts attention--most of it bad. When provoked, even by the vibrations caused by nearby farm machinery, the bee releases a hormone chemical that starts it off on a sort of kamikaze attack on anything that moves. The bees are now officially blamed for the deaths of ten Brazilians (one farm worker near Rio de Janeiro succumbed to more than 1,000 stings) and, unofficially, for any bee "bite" anywhere in Brazil. Even horses, mules and chickens have been killed by them. Nonetheless, they produce quantities of honey, and intrepid beekeepers raise them, though the hives are moved well away from populated areas. These bees work longer and harder than native species, even in light rain and after dark. But they chase any hapless victim that has aroused their wrath for long distances, are prone to rob other hives of honey, and often migrate suddenly from their hives to establish colonies in the wild--a clear loss for the commercial beekeeper. All in all, says the study, "it is essential to minimize the likelihood of this bee moving into North America."

To block its advance, the report recommends setting up a kind of anti-bee Maginot Line across the natural bottleneck of Central America. All it would take is the development of a completely new species whose dominant traits would make it "relatively unaggressive, nonswarming, nonmigratory and equal to the Brazilian bee in foraging activity." This "genetic barrier" would in effect tame the Brazilian bee by breeding out the worst qualities.

The problem is to get this newest bee off the drawing boards. Latin countries do not have funds for the necessary research, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not committed itself to the project. Besides, there is always the chance that the new strain would escape before it was fully developed and...

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