Word: bees
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When the first wave of Africanized killer bees reaches the Texas border as early as next year, some of the restless insects may be turned into informants for the scientists who are plotting against them. The aerospace company Martin Marietta has designed a solar-powered microchip transmitter that can be glued snugly onto a bee's back, enabling entomologists to follow the swarm's movements and observe the bees' mating and foraging habits. The transmitter emits an infrared signal that can be detected up to a mile away. The company is still testing the tiny bee tracer, which it hopes...
...year 6 million households spent $46 million growing herbs, in contrast with 5 million spending $39 million the year before. Some make tea from them, some bathe in them, some swear to their healing powers. Having mastered the basic basil, rosemary and sage, gardeners move on to lovage stems, bee-balm blossoms and lemon grass. The health conscious prize herbs as a salt substitute, while the cost conscious find that pricey, herb-flavored vinegars and oils are easily made at home...
...Panama, where the Canal Commission maintains 24-hour bee-control teams to stop stowaway killer bees, quarantine posts are being established on roads leading out of the southern Mexico defense area to prevent swarms from hitchhiking. Whole colonies have made their way to California on board freighters, but all the known stowaways have been destroyed...
While the showdown looms in Mexico, U.S. scientists are looking for further clues to the Africanized bee's physiology. There is some evidence, for example, that killer bees do not thrive in colder climates. But even if they colonize only in the warmer Southern states, there is plenty of reason to worry about the potential costs. Lost sales of honey and damage to fruit, nut and vegetable crops worth billions of dollars each year could be substantial, not to mention lives lost to fatal stings...
Already killer bees have exacted a toll in fear that shows no signs of abating. "The bees are coming," says Fowden Maxwell, an entomologist at Texas A & M. "There's no way to stop them. But I'm optimistic we can minimize their impact." Still, says Houston Beekeeper Darrell Lister: "I'm afraid we're going to have a panic when they finally arrive. Everyone will be out with a spray can, and the only good bee will be a dead bee...