STEPHENVILLE — Erath County on Friday was added to the state quarantine restricting the movement of commercial bee operations following the detection of Africanized honey bees there. Texas now has 91 counties quarantined for Africanized honey bees.
The honey bees were found in a trap during routine inspection about five miles north of Hico on Texas Hwy. 6, according to Paul Jackson, chief inspector for the Texas Apiary Inspection Service, a unit of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station. A sample was analyzed at the Texas A&M Honey Bee Identification Lab in College Station and found to be Africanized.
State bee inspectors continue to monitor a series of bee traplines that extend across the state from Louisiana to New Mexico, Jackson noted.
The Africanized bee was first detected entering the United States near Brownsville in October 1990. Since then, the bee has spread through the southern half of the state, along a line roughly from south of Houston to Temple to Lamesa and El Paso. Africanized honey bees also have been found in Arizona, California and New Mexico.
The quarantine allows beekeepers to move bee hives within but not out of the zone in an effort to prevent assisting the spread. Africanized honey bees look just like regular domestic honey bees but are more defensive in protecting their hives.
Counties included in the quarantine are: Aransas, Atascosa, Austin, Bandera, Bastrop, Bee, Bell, Bexar, Brewster, Brooks, Caldwell, Calhoun, Cameron, Colorado, Comal, Crane, Crockett, Culberson, Dawson, De Witt, Dimmit, Duval, Ector, Edwards, El Paso, Erath, Falls, Fayette, Fort Bend, Frio, Gaines, Gillespie, Glasscock, Goliad, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Hays, Henderson, Hidalgo, Hudspeth, Irion, Jackson, Jeff Davis, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Karnes, Kenedy, Kerr, Kimble, Kinney, Kleberg, La Salle, Lavaca, Limestone, Live Oak, Martin, Matagorda, Maverick, McLennan, McMullen, Medina, Menard, Midland, Milam, Navarro, Nueces, Pecos, Presidio, Reagan, Real, Refugio, San Patricio, Schleicher, Starr, Sutton, Terrell, Tom Green, Travis, Upton, Uvalde, Val Verde, Victoria, Ward, Washington, Webb, Wharton, Willacy, Williamson, Wilson, Zapata and Zavala. Total: 91 as of 7-25- 97.
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