Tag - screened bottom

beekeeping equipment

Tantalizing and weird things found on a bottom board

5 years ago

44 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

beekeeping equipment • ventilation

Hive five: equipment to improve summer ventilation

12 years ago

30 Comments

beekeeping equipment • how to

What size hardware cloth is best for bee hives?

12 years ago

28 Comments

spring management

Measuring the bone pile: death in the hive

12 years ago

7 Comments

honey bee management • wintering

Bees benefit from an energy conservation professional

13 years ago

10 Comments

ventilation

Ventilation in a hot & humid climate

13 years ago

24 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.