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Small hive beetle adult. iNat photo by Jesse Rorabaugh

Bee a boss: How to banish small hive beetles from your hives

March 17, 2024

17 min read

Dead bees are a common sight, but knowing the cause can be difficult.

We are still free of Tropilaelaps mites, but for how long?

January 23, 2024

14 min read

The slippery life of the small hive beetle

April 14, 2018

13 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

Kairomones and honey bee parasites

February 27, 2016

3 min read

My zombie flies: pets I could do without

May 8, 2013

4 min read

Two varroa mites feeding on a sick honey bee with deformed wing virus.

diseases • parasites • varroa mites

Varroa mites feeding on a sick honey bee

December 1, 2012

1 min read

Honey bees bite using their powerful mandibles.

bee biology • parasites

Watch out for those mandibles! Honey bees bite!

October 17, 2012

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

honey bee threats • parasites

Zombees arrive in Washington

September 24, 2012

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

bee biology • parasites

Mite it bee the scutellum?

July 24, 2012

2 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

parasites • varroa mites

Of mites and men

June 1, 2012

5 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

bees in the news • parasites

A fly in the hive causes bees to flee

January 4, 2012

3 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

parasites • varroa mites

HopGuard section 18 approvals

February 28, 2011

1 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

HopGuard: update

February 25, 2011

2 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

diseases • parasites

Tropilaelaps clareae: another scary creature for bees

December 18, 2010

2 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

apiary creatures • diseases • parasites

Small but mighty: mites in the beehive

November 23, 2010

3 min read

Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an aphislion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.”

—From Anatomy of the Honey Bee by Robert E. Snodgrass

The non-native European Honey Bee is the state insect of:

Arkansas
Georgia
Kansas
Louisiana
Maine
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin

Not one native bee is a state insect. The closest relative of a North American native bee to make the list is the Tarantula Hawk Wasp, the state insect of New Mexico.

Minnesota now has a state bee as well as a state insect. Bombus affinis, the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee, has been so honored. Good work, Minnesota!

Connecticut’s state insect is the European “praying” mantis. Although they are beneficial insects, they are not native to North America.