Family Fears Africanized Bees Could Be In Kansas
June 6

It may be just a matter of time before the dreaded africanized bees, sometimes called killer bees, come to Kansas. No confirmation of them being here yet, but one Kansas family is concerned that a colony of bees near their home may be africanized.

Karen and Brad Tharp have lived east of Ark City for seven years. They've always had bees around, which was fine with Karen because she knew they pollinated flowers.

Now, two things make them suspicious of these bees. They say the bees dissappeared for several months at one point, and recently Karen was stung by a bee for the first time since moving there. Plus, they've been around the bees numerous times before with no problems.

Realizing that Africanized bees have already been confirmed in Oklahoma, and they live only two miles from the Oklahoma border, makes them wonder if Africanized bees replaced the former bee colony.

They both say they could ride the noisy lawn mower into the shed where the bees were without provoking them, but this time there was an attack.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture is monitoring the migration of Africanized bees, and has done several tests on bees people suspected of being Africanized. So far there has been no confirmation.