They’re also attracted to perspiration.įor growers of certain types of vining vegetables, the squash bee ( Peponapis pruinosa) is a welcome sight. Key Characteristics: With more than 500 species and multiple colors, sweat bees can be difficult to identify, although many have a metallic sheen and are relatively small. To minimize the pain of a sweat bee bite, brush the bee off as soon as it stings. Only female sweat bees sting, and when they do sting, they continue to pump venom into their victims until they’re removed. They nest underground in colonies and gather pollen and nectar to feed the colony and themselves. Sweat bees live in all countries, but they tend to like temperate regions the best. Adults range from ¼ to ¾ inches long, with most species at the smaller end of the scale. Some sweat bees feature bands of color, and all are valued for their contribution to pollinating plants. Named because of their attraction to perspiration, the sweat bee ( Halictidae) is a small bee that bears colorful metallic shades of green and blue, although some in this species of more than 500 are brown and black. They drill long tunnels in wood to create nests. Key Characteristics: Approximately ½ inch to just under 1 inch in length, carpenter bees have a black tail end and a yellow upper body. Instead, male carpenter bees exhibit aggressive, dive-bombing behavior to keep predators away from their nests. Both male and female carpenter bees drill tunnels for nests, but only the female bee will sting. In reality, the tunnels can be up to 10 feet long. At first glance, the tunnels they drill might look relatively shallow, only an inch or two deep. Carpenter bees nest in wood, drilling holes and creating tunnels in dead trees, wood fences, decks, and even the wood structural parts used to build homes. While valued for their ability to pollinate plants, which makes them beneficial to home gardeners and growers, carpenter bees also have a shady reputation. The difference, however, is that carpenter bees have a black tail end and a yellow upper body rather than stripes. Sometimes mistaken for bumblebees, carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.) range in size from about ½ inch to nearly an inch long and are black and yellow. RELATED: How to Keep Bees in Your Own Backyard They seek out colorful blooms to pollinate and to collect pollen and nectar. They appear fuzzy and emit a loud buzz that people can hear from a distance. Key Characteristics: Bumblebees have large, round bodies with dark brown or black stripes interspersed with bright yellow or orange coloring. Unlike on honeybees, the stinger on a bumblebee is smooth, so it doesn’t pull off when the bee stings, and the bee can sting multiple times. Only the queen lays eggs, and the other bumblebees collect pollen and nectar from blooms to feed themselves and the queen. Like honeybees, bumblebees choose a queen who rules the colony. Bumblebees are social by nature and live in colonies ranging from 50 to 500 members. Bumblebees are found worldwide and typically build their nests near the ground, in abandoned rodent tunnels, in the foundations of structures, or even in piles of dead limbs. It features a fuzzy rotund body with dark brown or black combined with bright yellow or orange stripes. Larger than honeybees, the bumblebee ( Bombus dahlbomii) ranges in size from about ½ inch to 1 inch in length, although with more than 255 species of bumblebees, some species are notably smaller. This bee carries pollen on its legs, appearing as large yellow or orangish clumps when it’s gathered as much as it can hold. Key Characteristics: Western honeybees are ⅓ inch to ½ inch long, brown and yellow striped, and find brightly colored blossoms most attractive. After the worker bee stings, its barbed stinger remains in the victim, and the bee dies. Only worker bees can sting, but they don’t set out to do so-they only sting to protect the hive. The other females are nonreproductive and become worker bees. The queen bee, chosen at the larval stage and fed a diet of royal jelly and nectar, is the only female that lays eggs. The eggs are haplodiploid, meaning they can become either female or male-unfertilized eggs become male drones, while fertilized eggs become female worker bees. These honeybees congregate in colonies that have a single queen bee. The western honeybee encompasses at least 20 subspecies throughout the world, some occurring naturally and others resulting from species blending by beekeepers. Bearing recognizable brown stripes on a mustard yellow body, the western bee is prized not just for honey production but for its ability to pollinate crops, which increases harvests. When most think of honeybees, they’re picturing this fellow, also called the “European Honeybee.” Beekeepers raise the western honeybee ( Apis mellifera) for its honey, bee pollen, and other bee-related products.
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