Bees & Wasps

Most people have experienced a bee or wasp sting at some point in their lives. Not only are bees and wasps annoying, but they can be responsible for serious health complications when they come into contact with humans. Being stung can be dangerous if the stung person or animal is allergic, and unfortunately, bees and wasps have a tendency to get into homes. Stinging insect infestations are common on properties, so if you are facing a bee or wasp infestation, call Wildlife X Team® at (817) 431-3007 today to get rid of your problem quickly and effectively!

What's The Difference Between Bees & Wasps?

Bees and wasps are both members of the Hymenoptera order, which includes wasps, bees, and ants. The majority of the species in this order are solitary, and they're more likely to escape than to fight.

 

Bee & Wasp Appearance

Bees

• Bees are hairy/fuzzy
• Major pollinators—estimates say anywhere from 70–90% of the entire world's food sources are pollinated by bees
• Eat nectar and pollen
• Not known for being aggressive
• Legs are tucked up while flying

Wasps

• Smooth-bodied
• Eats other insects like flies, beetles, and spiders
• Also pollinators, though their smooth body makes them less likely to carry stuck-on pollen
• Also eats human food
• Known for their aggression and willingness to sting
• Legs dangle when flying

More About Bees & Wasps

Social hymenopterans, including yellow jackets, honey bees, bumblebees, and fire ants have soldiers in the colony whose task it is to defend the nest. If the nest is disturbed, these individuals will defend the colony vigorously. Foraging members of the colony also will sting if they are disturbed as they go about their activities.

Some, such as the yellow jacket, are much more likely to attack than anything else. Africanized honey bees are closely related to the European honey bees, which are used in agriculture for crop pollination and honey production. The two types of bees look similar, and their behavior is similar in many respects. Neither are likely to sting you when gathering nectar and pollen from flowers, but both will sting in defense.

The Africanized bee can only sting once and has the same venom as the European honey bee. However, the Africanized honey bees are a lot less predictable and more defensive than the European honey bees. A main difference between the two is the aggression and determination with which the Africanized honey bees will attack and pursue. The Africanized honey bees are also more likely to defend a larger area around their hive, and they respond faster and in greater numbers than the European honey bee.

Bees & Honey

• Honey bees may make 10,000,000 trips to gather enough nectar to make a pound of honey.
• Their activity for 1 pound of honey means a total distance flew of 50,000 plus miles and over 2,000,000 flowers visited.
• Honeybee workers move to different jobs as they grow in the colony:
  1. Week 1 – Clean the hive
  2. Week 2 – Feed the larvae
  3. Week 3 – Do repair work on the honeycomb cells
  4. Week 4 – Guard the hive
  5. Week 5 and beyond – Collect pollen and nectar from flowers
• Fun Fact: The term “honeymoon” used to be when a newly married couple was provided with enough honey wine to last them for the first month of their new life together.
• Bees & wasps feed on sweet liquids & juices.
• The State of Utah has been named “The Beehive State"; however the top producers of honey are traditionally California, Florida, and South Dakota.
• China produces more honey from honey bees than any other country in the world.
• Americans eat a little over 1 pound of honey each year per person.
• Honeybees do not actually “make” honey, but instead, they convert the nectar they gather to honey, by constantly regurgitating it and allowing it to dehydrate.

About Honey Bees

• When searching for food sources, a honey bee may travel up to 60 miles in a day.
• The honey bee is not native to the USA. They were introduced to this continent by some of the first European settlers.
• The wings of honeybees beat around 11,000 cycles per minute.
• Honey bees have a total of 5 eyes. This gives the honey bee excellent eyesight.
• Native American Indians referred to the honey bee as the “White Man’s Fly”.

About Bee & Wasp Stings

• Most everyone has been stung by an insect at one time or another. It’s an unpleasant experience, but for the majority of people, insect sting damage is temporary.
• Only a very limited portion of the population—two people out of 1,000—are allergic or hypersensitive to bee or wasp stings.
• The stinger of bees, wasps, and ants is a modified egg-laying apparatus, so only female ants, bees, and wasps can sting. Males do not have the egg-laying “ovipositor” that is modified as the stinger on female stinging insects.

More About Bees & Wasps

• The average flying speed of a bee or wasp is only around 15 miles per hour.