Category - smoke for bees

Some beekeepers use liquid smoke to calm their bees instead of traditional smoke. Does it work? Is this okay for the bees?

smoke for bees

Is liquid smoke helpful or risky for calming honey bees?

July 24, 2023

13 Comments

4 min read

Learning how to smoke bees is a necessary beekeeping skill.

smoke for bees

How to smoke bees: 10 tips for best results

November 19, 2022

25 Comments

7 min read

how to • smoke for bees

How to light a smoker so it stays lit

July 25, 2016

41 Comments

5 min read

smoke for bees

How often do you smoke your bees?

July 22, 2016

40 Comments

6 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.