COLLEGE STATION -- Five West Texas counties on Thursday were added to the state quarantine restricting the movement of commercial bee operations following the detection of Africanized honey bees in one of the counties. Texas now has 82 counties quarantined for Africanized honey bees.
Kimble County was quarantined after Africanized bees were found on a small bush near 6th and Hackberry streets in Junction, according to Paul Jackson, chief inspector for the Texas Apiary Inspection Service, a unit of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Because the Kimble County quarantine resulted in four counties being surrounded by quarantined counties, Jackson said, those counties also were quarantined. No Africanized bees have been found as of yet in Sutton, Crockett, Schleicher and Irion counties, however.
Earlier this week, Ward County was quarantined after bees involved in a stinging incident were analyzed by the Texas A&M University Bee Identification Lab in College Station and found to be Africanized. Jackson said as spring brings more nectar and pollen from flowers, bees become more active.
State bee inspectors are monitoring a series of bee traplines, and are expanding the line across the state from Beaumont to Seminole.
The Africanized bee was first detected entering the United States near Brownsville in October 1990. Since then, the bee has spread through the southern half of the state, along a line roughly from Houston to Temple to San Angelo and El Paso. Africanized honey bees also have been found in Arizona, California and New Mexico.
The quarantine allows beekeepers to move bee hives within but not out of the zone in an effort to prevent assisting the spread. Africanized honey bees look just like regular domestic honey bees but are more defensive in protecting their hives.
Editor's Note: Here is the complete list of the 82 Texas counties under quarantine because of Africanized bee finds:
Aransas, Atascosa, Austin, Bandera, Bastrop, Bee, Bell, Bexar, Brewster, Brooks, Caldwell, Calhoun, Cameron, Colorado, Comal, Crane, Crockett, Culberson, Dawson, De Witt, Dimmit, Duval, Ector, Edwards, El Paso, Falls, Fayette, Fort Bend, Frio, Glasscock, Goliad, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Hays, Hidalgo, Hudspeth, Irion, Jackson, Jeff Davis, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Karnes, Kenedy, Kerr, Kimble, Kinney, Kleberg, La Salle, Lavaca, Live Oak, Maverick, Matagorda, McMullen, Medina, Menard, Midland, Nueces, Pecos, Presidio, Reagan, Real, Refugio, San Patricio, Schleicher, Starr, Sutton, Terrell, Tom Green, Travis, Upton, Uvalde, Val Verde, Victoria, Ward, Washington, Webb, Wharton, Willacy, Williamson, Wilson, Zapata and Zavala.