Contact: Paul Jackson, (979) 845-9714, p-jackson28476@tamu.edu
COLLEGE STATION -- Bees that killed two dogs in Navarro County last week were determined to be Africanized, according to lab results announced Wednesday at Texas A&M University.
The finding means that Navarro becomes the 86th Texas county placed under a quarantine that restricts the movement of hives by commercial beekeepers, said Paul Jackson, chief inspector of the state's Apiary Inspection Service.
Jackson said the bees were found and killed in an abandoned hive in the small town of Angus, just south of Corsicana on Interstate 45. The dogs had been tied to a bush next to the hive, and could not escape when the bees became disturbed.
This is the first county quarantined this year, Jackson noted. Africanized bees had been found last in Milam County, which was quarantined in August.
Jackson said the bees found in Navarro County were heavily infested with Varroa mites, parasites that attach to the bodies of bees and drink their fluids. The mites also attack bees in the larval stages, causing deformities.
"For a bee, having mites is like carrying around a 20-pound tumor," he said.
Jackson said the mites have taken a heavy toll on bee colonies in the wild, and Africanized bees have been no exception. The mites, coupled with the drought conditions statewide, have helped slow to a crawl the advance of Africanized bees into other parts of the state.
The Africanized bees spread rapidly through South Texas soon after they were first found in the Rio Grande Valley in the fall of 1990.
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