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In this photo, you can see a mature seed capsule from last year along with this year's flowers.

bee forage

Witch hazel: the unusual feast bees need in the off...

July 22, 2023

12 Comments

bee forage

Bees and blue: beautiful blue blossoms for happy honey...

April 19, 2023

11 Comments

The Bee Inspired Garden welcomes pollinators of all types.

gardening for bees

The Bee Inspired Garden: spectacular blooms for bee...

April 8, 2023

8 Comments

A-Z hives are traditionally kept in a decorated bee house to protect the bees.

hive stands and structures

A-Ž hives in a Slovenian-style apiary: awesome yet...

January 21, 2023

41 Comments

Microplastics stick to a bee just as pollen does. It gets caught in the bees' hair and packed into pollen baskets. Bees also drink plastics in water.

honey bee threats

A looming honey bee threat: colorful little...

January 2, 2023

13 Comments

bee biology

Surprising ways to identify a honey bee like a pro

November 25, 2022

37 Comments

bee biology

Why is it so difficult to breed better bees?

November 1, 2022

42 Comments

Female carpenter bee nectar robbing. Robert Noble.

wild bees and native bees

The eastern carpenter bee: an unloved nectar-robbing...

August 23, 2022

7 Comments

Honey bee drinking from a hose bibb. Rusty Burlew

water for bees

Bees and water: the ladies drink for free

July 16, 2022

14 Comments

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

apiary creatures

Black Bears Destroy a Beeyard

June 29, 2022

16 Comments

pollination

Two Pollination Myths You Shouldn’t Believe

May 19, 2022

13 Comments

bee biology

The many styles of bee sociality

April 21, 2022

7 Comments

varietal honey

Spotted lanternfly honey: a gift to beekeepers or an...

March 20, 2022

13 Comments

bee biology

Hey Bee, Stick Out Your Tongue and Say “Ahh”

February 14, 2022

23 Comments

pollination

The special way bees and flowers help each other

January 17, 2022

19 Comments

bee feces

Waste management: even the bees do it

November 28, 2021

12 Comments

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.