Eddy County is virtually 100% killer bee territory now — and the woman who knows that better than anyone is back on Community Forum.
Christina Mann, known countywide as the Bee Lady, returns to join host Johnny Chandler for a wide-ranging conversation about what is happening to the bee population in Eddy County and why it matters to everyone, not just beekeepers. She named the title herself — a gift from Olivia Salcido — and she has earned it.
The conversation covers the near-complete displacement of European honeybees by Africanized killer bees, the critical difference between the two species that too many people — and too many official sources — still get wrong, and why New Mexico remains one of the only states without active USDA bee inspections. Christina is direct about what it would take to change that, and equally direct about the human cost of ignoring the problem. She shares the story of Randy Elliott, who died on August 1, 2024, after an encounter with a killer bee colony at an oil field site — a death she believes did not have to happen.
There is also a recent callout to Christian Prep Academy, where a swarm with two queens had taken up residence in the playground trees, and a mid-March emergency call to Slaughter Cave, where an 11-year-old girl was trapped in a restroom by wasps nesting in the ventilation tubes. The Eddy County Sheriff’s dispatcher talked the girl out without a single sting.
Christina still keeps European honeybee hives of her own — 12 good hives across two colonies — and she is clear-eyed about the stakes. If the community does not make a collective effort to preserve European bees, they will be gone from Eddy County within five years.
To reach Christina Mann for bee removal:
575-885-0258 (leave a message)
Facebook: Christina HuntnLady
Aired on KCCC 930 AM Radio and available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and through the Eddy County Dispatch (kccc930am.substack.com) or our website (www.kccc930am.com).
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