Bees & Wasps

Quick Facts

Wasps/Hornets Lack of hair Sting multiple times Considered more aggressive Nests made of paper Considered a nuisance insect

Bees Lots of hair (furry) Most are considered docile Hives/nests not paper Feeding habits, pollen & nectar Beneficial insect

Bees

Bumble Bee

These are social bees that establish small colonies, using many kinds of available cavities. Nests may be in the ground, in hollow logs or trees, in walls or structures, or in other cavities they can find. Nests do not survive the winter months. Colonies grow to a few hundred workers, sometimes more, by the end of the summer. The nest consists of wax “honey pots” that are filled with nectar, and adjacent cells that contain the eggs and larvae. The nest is often lined with grass or other dried plant material. The workers generally are not aggressive unless their colony is threatened.

Identification: Bumblebees can usually be separated from other bees by their large size and densely hairy bodies, as well as by the compound eyes that are not hairy. Coloring is normally black with patches of yellow or orange hairs.

Characteristics Important in Control: These are beneficial bees that normally do not warrant control. However, if their nest is in a sensitive location it can be treated with a residual dust product, and the nest and cells removed and disposed of.

Honey Bee

Honeybees are social bees, with colonies composed of a single Queen and many hundreds of workers. New colonies are begun when additional Queens are produced in a colony and all but one leave, each newly fertilized Queen taking a consort of workers with her. Honeybees can sting humans only once, losing their stinger in the process. Honeybee hives remain active year-round, and often will be located within structures. Queens may live as long as 5 years while workers live less than 2 months in the active summer months.

Identification: The workers are about a half inch long and are various shades of brown and black colors, with very dark head, legs, and antennae. They are densely covered with short, pale hairs. The antennae are bent at their middle, or “elbowed”. The mouth is an elongate tongue formed by several parts, and enables the bees to reach into fairly deep flowers to take up the nectar there. .

Characteristics Important in Control: Bee activity may be reduced around eating areas with good sanitation, by keeping food spills cleaned up and keeping trash receptacles closed. Colonies located within walls or other voids may be removed by professional beekeepers if possible. If necessary they may be treated with a dust insecticide to kill the bees, and the hive should then be removed. If the hive is left, future problems will occur from melting wax and honey, as well as the attraction of the materials to ants and carpet beetles.

Wasps & Hornets

Wasps are generally considered to be pests because of their ability to sting. They can become a problem from the middle of summer to late fall when they may disrupt many outdoor activities. Wasps live in colonies that are ruled a queen and maintained by workers.

Appearance

Wasps have a slender body with a narrow waist, slender, cylindrical legs, and appear smoothed-skinned and shiny. Yellowjackets, bald-faced hornets, and paper wasps are the most common types of wasps encountered by people.

Food Preferences

Wasps are predators, feeding insects and other arthropods to their young, which develop in the nest. During late summer and fall, as queens stop laying eggs and their nests decline, wasps change their food gathering priorities and are more interested in collecting sweets and other carbohydrates. Some wasps may become aggressive scavengers around human food and may be common around outdoor activities where food or drinks are served.

Nesting Sites

Yellowjackets, bald-faced hornets, and paper wasps make nests from a papery pulp comprised of chewed-up wood fibers mixed with saliva. Yellowjacket and bald-faced hornet nests consist of a series of rounded combs stacked in tiers. These combs are covered by an envelope consisting of several layers of pulp. Paper wasps construct only one comb without any protective envelope. These insects are sometimes known as umbrella wasps because of the shape of their nest.

Life Cycle

Wasps have annual colonies that last for only one year. The colony dies in the fall with only the newly produced queens surviving the winter. The new queens leave their nests during late summer and mate with males. The queens then seek out over-wintering sites, such as under loose bark, in rotted logs, under siding or tile, and in other small crevices and spaces, where they become dormant. These queens become active the following spring when temperatures warm. They search for favorable nesting sites to construct new nests. They do not reuse old nests.

Wasp Stings

Wasps sting to defend themselves or their colony. Stinging involves the injection of protein venom that causes pain and other reactions.
Wasps can sting more than once because they are able to pull out their stinger without injury to themselves. If you are stung by a wasp, the stinger is not left in your skin.
An allergic reaction may include hives or rash, swelling away from the sting site, headache, minor respiratory symptoms, and stomach upset. These allergic reactions are not life-threatening and can be readily treated with an antihistamine.

Control of Nests

The first step in wasp control is to correctly identify the insect and locate its nesting site. Most situations can be solved with one application. Exposed nests that have been treated should be left for at least 24 hours before removing them. Access holes should be sealed a couple of days after all activity has ceased. It is also possible to prevent wasps from nesting by treating likely harborage areas with a residual insecticide prior to their nesting.

 

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