What does the African bee mean to the state of Florida?
Florida’s honey industry is consistently ranked among the top five in the nation with an annual worth of more than $13 million. Honey bee pollination is of even greater value, enabling farmers nationwide to harvest a bounty of crops from soybeans to avocados. Now that African bees have become established in Florida, beekeepers’ bees may find they have less forage areas. If stinging incidents occur without public understanding of the threat, unwarranted fear could result in an unnecessary curtailing of beekeeping operations. However, if the public is willing to learn some basic safety measures and the necessity of reporting feral (wild) nests, and if the beekeepers, regulatory and public safety agencies work together, we will be able to safely co-exist with the African bees.
