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Here, yellowjackets are lined up on the door to a storage shed, making it difficult to enter. The nest is protected inside the shed.

predators

The ultimate yellowjacket trap is in your trash

October 6, 2022

32 Comments

8 min read

A robber fly catches a honey bee for dinner. © Erik Luthy.

predators

Robber fly dining on a honey bee

June 25, 2019

10 Comments

3 min read

Three hives where the varroa drawers were pulled out by rats.

predators

Rats as honey bee predators

January 5, 2018

16 Comments

2 min read

honey bee threats • predators

Bald-faced hornet nests in New York

October 10, 2016

5 Comments

3 min read

guest posts • predators

Beekeeping with Asian hornets in France

September 25, 2016

132 Comments

9 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

predators

Spiders that eat bees

September 2, 2016

5 Comments

3 min read

predators

Colony postmortem: a glistening pile of abdomens

August 19, 2016

47 Comments

3 min read

predators

You’ve never seen yellowjackets like this

December 1, 2015

10 Comments

2 min read

predators

Colony death by yellowjacket attack

November 9, 2015

54 Comments

9 min read

predators

The blaming of the shrew

August 26, 2015

26 Comments

4 min read

predators

Honey bee: It’s what’s for dinner

November 16, 2014

5 Comments

2 min read

predators

Robber flies grab bees in flight

September 11, 2014

16 Comments

2 min read

predators

The sign of the sting

September 7, 2014

5 Comments

1 min read

honey bee threats • predators

Italian mob takes down a wasp

September 5, 2014

17 Comments

3 min read

honey bee threats • predators

Protect your bees from autumn wasps

March 24, 2014

40 Comments

3 min read

Bear Crossing sign: The county kept dropping hints, but I didn’t pay attention. Photo by Rusty Burlew.

photographs • predators

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.