72 



economic analyses demonstrate that not to be the case and beekeepers who operate 

 only as crop pollinators lose money — more money the more colonies rented. Our 

 challenge is to reduce man-assisted movement of this bee while protecting the avail- 

 ability of bees to meet crop pollination needs. 



Suggestions for future actions 



Federal involvement beyond the current level is needed for the Africanized bee. 

 USDA, ARS in coniunction with USDA, ES (extension) and CSRS (Cooperative State 

 research) has conducted and continues to perform excellent research, training and 

 educational efforts with the Africanized bee. There is need for expansion of all of 

 these functions. Target audiences include beekeepers and the bee industry, State, 

 county and municipal authorities (elected and non-elected that now or in the future 

 will have to deal with this alien introduced species) and the general public that may 

 face accidental encounters with defensive behaviors of Africanized bees. 



A high priority for dealing with Africanized bees is to reduce man-assisted move- 

 ment of Africanized bee genetic material while protecting the availability of honey 

 bee colonies for pollination of crops and allowing beekeepers a reasonable oppor- 

 tunity to pursue their business or nobbyist interests. This is a formidable challenge 

 and a contradiction to how parasitic bee mites and introductions of other alien in- 

 sect species programs have functioned. 



Possible ports of entry and isolated geographical enclaves such as the Islands of 

 Hawaii and Puerto Rico need continued interdiction efforts and continued destruc- 

 tion of accidental invaders. Since the population of Africanized bees is both external 

 to our shores and also currently within three States (and likely to continue to ex- 

 pand its range into additional U.S. territory), the possibilities of man-assisted 

 spread has expanded making the task more difficult. 



Federal assistance is needed to help monitor the spread of Africanized bees within 

 the U.S. Currently, USDA, ARS assists in training on Africanized bee ID and in ID 

 confirmations for APHIS intercepts. USDA, APHIS initially assisted with trapping 

 swarms at monitoring stations in south Texas but has now withdrawn. It was un- 

 clear, at least to many of us outside of the Federal Government, what role APHIS 

 would assume after the Africanized bee population reached the U.S. This in part 

 hampered other governmental and non-govemmental agencies for establishing their 

 territories as part of the solution puzzle, due to this major player holding a stage 

 it eventually has seemingly abandoned. Assistance in the form of a cooperative trap- 

 ping program or, as a minimum, purchasing of traps and pheromone lures for State 

 deplojrment is recommended. 



USDA, ARS, ES and CSRS all have training and educational programs but their 

 outreach is limited. One program need is to reach youngsters to teach them about 

 the need for bees and avoid having bees become part of the mindset that "the only 

 good bug is a dead bug." Recently the American Association of Professional 

 Apiculturists (AAPA), of which I am a member, has assisted with a contribution to 

 Arizona for a public school and native American bee education program. Kits are 

 available for further distribution but funds are needed to expand this worthwhile 

 effort. 



I have pointed out that research is still needed to provide answers. The lead 

 USDA, ARS bee lab for Africanized bee studies is short two scientists. There has 

 been a shift of funding from research to implementation in the U.S. resulting in less 

 funds to find solutions. State and industry sources are not adequate although they 

 help. Just this year, my group, the Eastern Apicultural Society established a foun- 

 dation, primarily from member contributions, to fund honey bee research to help fill 

 the gap. Producers of crops that rely on honey bees for pollination have been sup- 

 portive and have funded bee studies. 



The mechanism that seems to be most effective in reducing man-assisted move- 

 ment of Africanized bees is establishment of a quarantine zone. So far this has been 

 done only in Texas which had in place an action plan to deal with the Africanized 

 bee before its arrival. Now with multistate distrioution we need Federal involve- 

 ment. A national conference of USDA-NASDA (National Association of State De- 

 partments of Agriculture) sponsorship held in 1991 was directed toward develop- 

 ment of a national certification plan. Now seems an appropriate time to again get 

 all segments of the industry together with governmental and research agencies to 

 listen to what is working in Texas and develop a workable, effective national action 

 plan for Africanized bees. 



Finally this recommendation — although the Africanized bee is not your standard 

 non-indigenous species, it represents a significant danger, as does the invasion of 

 many other alien plant and animal species. Only with a strong effort by dedicated 

 employees in the trenches and enlightened supervision at field and top administra- 

 tion levels, can we spend our tax dollars wisely. Money spent now to keep an alien 



