How did the killer bees, which scare people to death, sweep across America? It all started with a species improvement

Brazil is the seventh largest honey producer in the world today, but did you know that in the past, if Brazil wanted to eat honey, it had to rely entirely on imports.

The increase in honey production in Brazil started with a species improvement. It was also because of this species improvement that a very aggressive bee appeared and eventually swept across the Americas. It is the killer bee that makes people tremble with fear. Brazil is located in South America and has a hot climate. Almost all bees with high honey production cannot live here, which makes Brazil's honey completely dependent on imports. A Brazilian genetics expert named "Kerr" is determined to change this situation. So are there any bees in the world that can survive in tropical areas? Yes, it is the African honey bee. African honey bees are adapted to hot climates and produce a good amount of honey. The only disadvantage is that they are quite aggressive.

Although ordinary African honey bees are highly aggressive, they are not very toxic and therefore do not cause much harm to humans. So Kerr decided to introduce this type of bees to Brazil and improve them using genetic technology, striving to breed a type of high-honey-producing bees that can adapt to tropical climates.

So in 1956, Kerr brought 63 African queen bees back to Brazil, of which 48 survived. Kerr immediately improved these 48 queen bees by crossbreeding these African bees with European bees that produce high amounts of honey, hoping to combine the advantages of the two bees. The entire improvement process was relatively smooth, and in the end 29 queen bees completed the experiment and survived. After that, it was breeding and observation. In order to prevent African bees from escaping, Kerr built special beehives for them.

The queen bee is significantly larger than the worker bees, so Kerr only left some small holes in the hive and plugged the large holes with plugs. This way, the queen bee has no way to leave the hive, but the worker bees can come and go freely.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, but less than a year later, an accident happened. A beekeeper passed by Kerr's breeding base, observed Kerr's beehives, and found the plugs on the hives. He thought to himself: "The beekeeper here must be a novice", because for ordinary bee breeding, there is no need to plug the hives unless it is the egg-laying season. So he took the initiative to do a good thing and pulled out the plugs. What happened next was not unexpected at all. The queen bee escaped from the hive and a species invasion began.

If it was just a normal species invasion, it would not be a big deal. The key is that after these African bees hybridized with wild native Brazilian bees, they became a new species that is extremely poisonous. This new species has the extremely strong aggressiveness of African bees and is also highly toxic, so it soon made people "scared to death" by the mere sight of them. This type of bee also has a new name, which is "killer bee."

Can killer bees really kill people? There are two independent glands in the body of killer bees. When they are ready to attack, the venom in the two glands will enter the venom sac and mix to form a highly toxic venom. The venom sac is connected to the stinger through a catheter, and the venom can be injected into the body of the victim through the stinger. These venoms will cause the red blood cells of the victim to rupture, and the ruptured red blood cells will release myoglobin and hemoglobin to block the renal tubules, thereby causing acute renal failure.

If it were just highly aggressive and toxic, that would be fine, but the most important thing is that this type of killer bee can carry out continuous attacks on humans.

Ordinary bees can only attack once at the cost of their lives, because their stingers have barbs, and after piercing the human body, there is no way to pull them out, so the sting will remain in the human body, and the bee's internal organs will be taken out by the sting, and the bee's life will come to an end. But this killer bee is different, its stinger has no barbs, so not only will it not die from the attack, but it can also launch continuous attacks, and this killer bee never acts alone, when someone annoys them, they will always be besieged by the swarm, which is undoubtedly fatal.

Generally speaking, if an adult is stung by this killer bee more than five times, he or she will soon die of acute renal failure and is basically difficult to treat. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to call them "killer bees."

Killer bees lay eggs regardless of season. A female bee can lay 2,000 eggs a year. So it took them only two or three years to sweep across Brazil, and then quickly spread to the surrounding areas. Now, this kind of bee can be seen frequently in both South America and North America. There is no doubt that the example of killer bees sweeping across the Americas is a terrible invasion of alien species, but for Brazilians, there is one benefit, which is the increase in honey production. In the early days of the killer bees, it took a lot of effort to kill them, but in the end it was in vain. Later, as Brazilians became familiar with the habits of these African bees and improved their breeding techniques, Kerr's original wish was realized.

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