In the early 1600's when European Honey Bees (EHB) were introduced to North and South America. Those bees were found to be good honey producers in the temperate climates of North America, but did very poorly in the tropical and subtropical South. To increase the honey production the Brazilian government was looking for a more suitable species of honey bees. They found a strain of bees from South Africa to be good honey producers, but they were rather aggressive. In the 1956 scientists in Brazil tried to crossbreed the European Honey Bee with the African Honey Bee to produce a hybrid that would have the gentle European characteristics and the increased honey production of the African Honey Bees.

Unfortunately the experiment didn't work they way it was supposed to and the hybrid turned out to be a good honey producer, but highly aggressive. About one year later some bees escaped out of their hives and developed into feral or wild colonies and soon began to spread throughout South America. These feral bees were called Africanized Honey Bees (AHB), since they still showed the aggressiveness and the characteristics of the African bees. Later the media gave them the name of "Killer Bees" to describe there aggressive behavior and since multiple stinging incidences had killed several humans, domestic animals, and livestock.

The first AHBs arrived in the US in October 1990 and were found in Texas. From there they spread throughout the state and then moved on to New Mexico and Arizona. In October 1993 a swarm of AHBs were detected in California, west of Blythe in Riverside County. By now AHB is established in all of Imperial County, eastern San Diego and eastern Riverside County. In 1998 more AHBs were detected in Laughlin, Nevada and in San Bernardino County.

The closest find to the Antelope Valley was in July 1998 in Oro Grande (by Victorville), only 19 miles from the Los Angeles County line.