The Story of the Killer Bee

Bees are important to our economy. We need bees to pollinate many of our agricultural products – particulary fruit. Bees also produce honey which is used as a food product and sweetener. Bees are also a threat to humans. The sting of one bee is enough to cause some people to have an allergic reaction and die. Bees that swarmare even more likely to cause death in those they sting due to multiple stings.

There are bees that live in Africa that have a different temperament and a different genetic make-up than the bees that live in the United States. These African bees can fly 35 miles non-stop without fatigue. They have very strong muscles in their wings. These muscles contain larger mitochondria and many more of them than the regular bees we have in the United States.

When these killer bees make their way to the United States, we have problems. They tend to swarm every time they are disturbed and they do not get tired very quickly. Therefore, they do not stop “chasing” their victims. Those who become their victims are stung by many of these bees and therefore are musch more likely to die – thus the name African Killer Bees.

Why are the Killer Bees so strong? The mitochondria produces so mush power that these bees may have as much as 30 mg of glucose in their stomach. Because of relatively large amount of glucose (sugar) the bees have energy for a long time and do not suffer fatigue.

This story is a good lead in to the importance of the mitochondria. It also shows that an increased number of large mitochondria help the Killer bee to reduce the amount of lactic acid produced, therefore enabling the bee to travel far.