Killer Bees Are Moving North — Is Colorado at Risk?

As a kid, one of my biggest fears was easily the dreaded killer bee. I hear about them all the time, and after the first newscast, I was petrified that I might be taken out by a swarm of these notorious bugs.

As an adult, I never really heard much about them until recently. According to USA Today, there have been killer bee attacks that have killed a man who was mowing his lawn, hikers running over a mile to escape a swarm, and a woman who was mowing her lawn spooked a hive, and the angry bees ended up killing three horses with thousands of stings.

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Killer bees are pretty much nightmare fuel in my book. Hearing of these instances in the past few months, it made me wonder, are killer bees in Colorado?

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The term "killer bee" is the nickname that has been given to the Africanized Honey Bee. These bees first appeared in the United States in the 1990s and can currently be found in 13 states.

Why Killer Bees Are So Dangerous

The reason why they have been given the nickname of the killer bee is that they have a really bad temperament, and these bees use it as a defense. Just like a regular honey bee, killer bees can only sting once, and the sting feels pretty much the same. What is most alarming about the killer bee is that the hive will send out many more bees in response to a threat. Africanized honey bees are also much more sensitive to a threat.

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A lawnmower hundreds of feet away can trigger the killer bees' hive defense, sending any unsuspecting person, pet, or living creature right into the path of the killer bees' defense of the hive.

Are Killer Bees in Colorado?

Experts are concerned that the movement of the Africanized honey bee is moving further north as the years pass. Currently, there have been no reports of the Africanized honey bee in Colorado; however, our neighboring states, such as Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, have confirmed the presence of these killer bees.

Hopefully, these angry bees that tend to be too aggressive stay out of the state of Colorado. Because no one wants to deal with killer bees while taking a nice stroll on a trail or while simply mowing the lawn.