One queen can produce 1500 eggs a day. Swarming is more important than queen egg laying in population expansion. The actual mating takes place during swarming events, which have seasonal synchrony between colonies, thus increasing potential mates and reducing inbreeding. Queens have the ability to mate with multiple drones, and store the sperm internally, allowing them to fertilize eggs for their entire lifetime. Colonies reproduce by frequent swarming, and one colony can result in 17 colonies after a year when both reproduction and mortality are taken into account (Masterson, 2007).

Research has shown that African bees deter African elephants from damaging vegetation and trees near where hives are located. African bees have the potential to be used to protect both selected trees and selected area from elephant damage (Vollrath et al. 2002). Further research has shown that hearing played-back recorded sounds of disturbed wild African bees (Apis mellifera scutellata) caused a large majority of elephants to walk or run away from the source of the noise (King et al. 2007).

It should be stressed here that their main impact is not by taking over colonies through killing queens, but rather through mating, resulting in inbred colonies. These inbred colonies have increased aggression, are less tolerant to winter temperatures, and abandon nests more frequently (Ojar, 2002). Hives of AHB are abandoned at a much higher rate than European Bees – abandonment rates of up to 10% have been recorded. AHB also invest less energy into the storing of honey then European bees, with more energy invested in rearing brood (GISP profile (word doc)). These are attributes which are not desirable within cultivated honeybee hives (Masterson, 2007).

Beekeepers' business is threatened by the high labor costs of workers willing to harvest A. m. scutellata honey and frequently re-queen nests. It is also a concern that some ecosystems could be at risk because A. m. scutellata outcompetes native pollinators when they invade their territory.

A. m. scutellata 's largest impacts are economic and ecological. They affect the beekeeping industry by competing with A. mellifera, causing them to produce less honey and taking over the A. mellifera nest by killing its queen and replacing it with their own. The AHB is also a less effective pollinator than the European Honey Bee. Increases in numbers of AHB could put the honey industry (worth $140 million dollars annually in the US) at risk, as well as cause a general reduction in pollination of field crops and orchards (estimates of value range from $10 billion to over $14 billion dollars annually in the US) (Ojar, 2002; Masterson, 2007). The ecological dominance of the AHB, coupled with their rapid rate of spread (200 miles per year) means the AHB has the potential to make many species of native bees extinct (Ojar, 2002).

Public prejudices against bees and the beekeeping industry would be an unfortunate result of fear caused by media over-dramatisating an attack by the AHB. This may lead to calls to ban bee keeping in urban areas, which will cause empty suitable habitats for bees. The AHB will fill these voids, and establish to a greater extent, causing even more problems.

Public education programs in areas where AHB is becoming a problem will allow the public to know how to report the location of a swarm to the relevant authorities for removal (Ojar, 2002). Bees can be easily immobilised and killed by wetting agents (surfactants), including dishwashing detergent, as well as nonfoaming fire control chemicals and foams (USDA-ARS, 2008). Bees are generally immediately immobilised, and killed within one minute.