From Wikipedia:
“The western honey bee can be found on every continent except Antarctica. The species is believed to have originated in Africa or Asia, and it spread naturally through Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Humans are responsible for its considerable additional range, introducing European subspecies into North America (early 1600s), South America, Australia, New Zealand, and eastern Asia.” So, depends where you live. Especially South and Central American honey bee populations have been overtaken by the africanized honey bee though, which is a feral human-bred hybrid that escaped the lab in Brazil.
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
They’re “invasive” if you’re not on Eurasia.
Humans took them everywhere else.
1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
They’re native to Africa, Europe, West Asia & Central Asia, which covers around 3 billion people
East & South Asia have the Asiatic Honey Bee which is closely related enough that their introduction wouldn’t disrupt the ecosystem as they fill the same niche in the same way
That leaves only around 15% of the global population somewhere European Honey Bees even have potential to become invasive, so it’s a safe bet that they aren’t for most people
prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
“Only the colonized need fear the colonizer”
Welt@lazysoci.al 2 weeks ago
Apis mellifera is a much better pollinator for most cultivars produced by agriculture around the world, so it’s been introduced into East, South and Southeast Asia too.
Also, you’re not accounting for species uniqueness, which is highest in Australia/NZ/PNG, southern Africa and parts of South America. These places also have native bees that are outcompeted and outright attacked by Eurobees.
The truth is complicated, but also simple - this invasive species we tolerate and even introduce because it massively benefits food production for humans.
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
That brings up an interesting point, they’ve been here 400 years, at one point does something stop being classified as invasive?
If we say never, then the term invasive kind of loses all meaning, but I wonder where the logical cutoff might be.
KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The definition of a non-native species in ecology is if it was introduced by human activity after the year 1492.
Invasive species are non-native species that displace native species.
Aux@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Humans don’t live outside of Europe.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Quite so, quite so. Harrumphs