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I have heard of people who have severe allergies to insect bites. A very
good friend claims that bee stings can kill him. I laughed until I saw a
documentary on killer bees. In 1963, a Brazilian farmer went to the rescue
of his dog and two horses when a swarm of bees suddenly attacked them. The
farmer died when the bees turned on him instead. The horses also died.
Two years later, a Brazilian teacher slapped a bee that had stung her
outside the school. In a few minutes thousands of bees appeared and swarmed
around her. She ran, tripped and fell. There were many witnesses but no one
could help her. The Fire Department was called and even when high pressure
hoses were used the bees stayed. Then someone suggested using fire. The
firemen used flaming torches. This worked but when the firemen finally got
to the teacher, they found that she was dead.
Then in 1977, the National Geographic Society sponsored an expedition to
South America to study the killer bees. The report was shocking. The bees
were once confined only to Brazil in South America, but there is now
evidence that these bees are now moving northwards. They are now in Mexico
and the southern states of the United States of America. Scientists have
even calculated that the bees are moving at the rate of about 320 kilometers
a year. While this piece of information may have alarmed some people living
in the southern states, nothing serious involving killer bees has happened
yet.
Not many people are aware that the killer bee is actually the result of a
scientific experiment. Dr Warwick Kerr, a specialist who specializes in
breeding insects, had been invited by the Brazilian government to produce a
bee that would produce more honey and that would be better adapted to
tropical climates. Dr Kerr's plan was to cross the gentle European bee with
the African bee. The African bee was stronger, bigger, fiercer and produced
more honey. The intended result of cross-breeding was to create a strong and
productive honey bee that was calm and gentle.
The initial results were encouraging. The new Africanized bee produced
twice as much honey. However, they did not inherit the European bee's gentle
nature. In fact they were even more aggressive than the original African
bee.
Kerr realized this and tried immediately to correct his mistake. He gave
instructions to his assistants to isolate the new bees. Unfortunately, a
beekeeper accidentally released 26 vicious queen bees. It did not take long
for the queens to interbreed with local bees and the results were
devastating. In only ten years, 90 per cent of all new bees in South America
were found to be descended from Africanized honey bees.
Stories such as this make us wonder about experiments with animals and
plants. On one hand, we want to make progress. We want to improve crop
yields and make crops more resistant to disease. On the other hand, you have
incidents like this where scientific experiments get out of hand with
alarming results. |
