ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 1997) — Africanized honeybees in southeastern California's Imperial Valley region are once again moving west, according to a UC Davis bee expert.

Because winter is approaching and the bees don't store a lot of food, they are currently swarming in a westerly direction looking for food sources, according to Eric Mussen, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis entomology department.

Many of the Africanized honeybees won't find food by the end of November and will die of starvation, he notes.  But, while the bees are swarming in search of food, they pose a potential threat to folks using public parks, golf courses and other places where there are a lot of plants and flowers.

Members of the public should not try to deal with any type of swarming bees, rather they should call a local county agricultural authority or a pest control expert, Mussen stresses.

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