Africanized honey bees, sometimes called killer bees for their tendency to be more aggressive, were found in Goleta earlier this spring according to DNA test results received this week by Santa Barbara County.
A member of the Santa Barbara Bee Keepers Association had been called out to collect the colony when he started getting stung by the aggressive swarm. He was told to freeze a sample and send it to the county's agriculture commissioner's office.
The bee samples were then sent to the State of California by the county, with the results returning as positive for African strains.
"European honey bees—the regular ones that we have—if you disturb their nest they'll attack too, but the Africanized bees will attack you for a longer period of time over a longer distance, that's one of the big difference," said Brian Cabrera, an entomologist with the ag office. " If you come upon a hive, it may be Africanize or it may not be, the best thing to do is just to leave it alone."
Cabrera says Africanized bees were first found in the county back in 2002. This is the first confirmed case in many years, he says.
Todd Bebb, one of the founders of the Beekeepers Association, says the genetics testing by the state only confirms that the bees have some African ancestry, but not to what degree. He says just about every colony of feral bees in the county probably has some level of African DNA at this point.