Brazilian scientist who defied a dictatorship bought 63 African queen bees in 1956; a year later, 26 escaped and became one of America’s most notorious invasive insects

By Rana Sarkar – The Economic Times

In 1957, twenty six African queen honey bees slipped out of an experimental apiary in Brazil. In reality, it was the start of an extraordinary bee-voyage, one that would reshape beekeeping, stir controversy on ecology and carry the bees across an entire hemisphere before they reached the United States as Africanized honey bees, better known as “killer bees.”

Today, the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) lists Africanized honey bees among America’s “Top 5 Most Wanted Invasive Insects.” Yet despite the nickname, these bees were never native to the Americas in the first place.