HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE AFRICAN BEES?
Many Oro Valley residents may be surprised to know that honeybees are not native to Arizona. The first honeybees to arrive in Arizona were brought in by Spanish explorers and during the mission building phase of our Arizona history. These honeybees were of the domesticated Italian variety (Apis Mellifera Ligustica) and through periodic swarming became our first wild (feral) honeybee population. Arizona has always had a diversity of native short tongued and long tongued pollinators and many of these pollinators are plant specific, which means they forage only on specific plants. In fact, Arizona is well known as having one of the richest bio-diverse pollinator populations throughout the world.
In 1993, the first known Africanized bee colony was discovered in Arizona. The African bees (Apis Meliffera Scutellata) had most certainly crossed into Arizona before that, but it is unknown exactly when they did. After extermination the honeybees were collected and taken to the USDA Carl Hayden Bee Research Lab in Tucson, Arizona and were confirmed as being African honeybees. Quickly, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA) set up trapping stations to test our feral wild bee population. By 2005, the USDA declared that our wild bee population was now Africanized and then that Arizona was now the only state that was Africanized from border to border.
Our Oro Valley Beekeepers Service was founded in 1993 as a result of the introduction of this invasive bee species into Arizona. Our parent company, Arizona Bee Products is a large commercial beekeeping operation that specializes in wholesale Arizona honey production and bee products. In fact, because of our unique experience as professional Arizona beekeepers and bee researchers, we were called to perform the first African killer bee extermination in Tucson, Arizona in 1993. Our Oro Valley Arizona Beekeepers Service has been proudly serving Oro Valley and other cities in Arizona ever since.
Oro Valley Beekeepers Service is internationally known and recognized as the best and most experienced Bee Removal Specialist, Honeycomb Removal Specialist and Wasp Removal Specialist Company in the industry. There are many inexperienced pest control companies in Oro Valley that will tell you that you do not have Africanized honeybees or African honeybees because your bees have not been aggressive. These pest control companies and licensed or unlicensed bee removal companies are only exterminators and are not beekeepers. Be advised that they will treat an Africanized bee infestation just like they would any other pest problem that they encounter. Basically, they just spray the target insect with poison and walk away. Pest control methods will not solve your bee problem. Be assured that unless you are living beside a commercial bee farm vigilantly managed by professional beekeepers, your chances of having anything besides African bees are slim to none according to the USDA and from our experience as Oro Valley professional beekeepers.
African honeybees are not always aggressive at certain stages in their development, especially if a new colony is busy building honeycomb and smearing and urinating bee pheromone scent in a structural cavity on your Oro Valley home or in a cavity somewhere on your property, but they always will be aggressive if they feel threatened in any way. Just because the African honeybees have not reacted to you so far, does not mean that they are not African honey bees and African bee colonies are a very significant danger to you and your family, thereby earning the name of "killer bees", not to mention the structural bee damage they will cause to your Oro Valley home or commercial building if left to develop honeycomb and bee brood. Frankly, the longer an African bee colony is left to develop before a proper bee removal and proper honeycomb removal, the more defensive and aggressive and dangerous African honeybee colonies will get.