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Home » wasps

Category - wasps

Bee nests and wasp nests look very similar, but there are reliable ways to tell them apart.
wasps

Honey bee and wasp nests: how to know the difference

2 months ago
8 Comments
8 min read
The beewolf in this photo has a belly-load of pollen you can clearly see. With it, he inadvertently pollinates the flowers he touches. Photo by Rusty Burlew.
wasps

Introducing beewolves: watch them pollinate flowers as they eat bees

3 months ago
7 Comments
4 min read
mason bees • wasps

What happens when shrewd solitary wasps kill mason bees

7 months ago
9 Comments
8 min read
wasps

When yellowjacket traps don’t work

2 years ago
20 Comments
4 min read
wasps

Vespid-19: the Asian giant hornet in North America

3 years ago
18 Comments
4 min read
wasps

Making a beeline for lunch

4 years ago
7 Comments
2 min read
wasps

Lessons from the year of the wasp

4 years ago
68 Comments
9 min read
wasps

A showstopper of a wasp: the great golden digger

6 years ago
11 Comments
4 min read
The striped pattern results from different types of wood fibers the wasps used for construction.
wasps

If you thought swarm traps were for honey bees

6 years ago
45 Comments
5 min read
Yellowjacket-nest
wasps

A delicious meal of wasp larvae

8 years ago
12 Comments
3 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
wasps

I’m stuck on you

10 years ago
8 Comments
1 min read
wasps

Not all wasps are yellowjackets

10 years ago
19 Comments
3 min read
wasps

Great black wasp

10 years ago
10 Comments
2 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
other pollinators • wasps

The forgotten wasp

10 years ago
3 Comments
1 min read
wasps

Equal opportunity housing

10 years ago
6 Comments
2 min read
Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay
wasps

A wispy water wasp

10 years ago
4 Comments
2 min read
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This website is made possible by people like you. Its purpose is to discuss contemporary issues in beekeeping and bee science. It is non-discriminatory, encompassing both honey bees and wild bees. Your support matters. Thank you.

Books for Bee Folks

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. This book started zillions of people on their path to beekeeping. If you haven't read it, you should.

QueenSpotting: Meet the Remarkable Queen Bee and Discover the Drama at the Heart of the Hive by Hilary Kearney. You have to be a scrooge not to love this book. It even includes 48 queenspotting challenges.

The Bees in Your Backyard by Wilson & Carril. If you have any interest at all in the "other bees," you need this book. These are the bees we need to save.

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Bee Wise

Go to the bee, thou poet: consider her ways and be wise.

—George Bernard Shaw

Bee-yond Bees

Bees are more than a hobby; they are a life study, in many respects a mirror of our own society.

—William Longgood

Why Honey Bee is Two Words

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

State Insects

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.

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A Song of the Bees

In case you missed it: A Song of the Bees

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