Tag - solitary bees

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

attracting wild pollinators

Distinctive domiciles for solitary bees

4 years ago

2 Comments

A newly emerged mason bee peeks from its nesting tube. Rusty Burlew

English for beekeepers • wild bees and native bees

Is a solitary bee a mason bee?

10 years ago

5 Comments

other pollinators • pollinator threats • wild bees and native bees

Pollinators are not going to change, so we have to

13 years ago

6 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

infrequently asked questions • plant-pollinator mutualisms • pollination

Pollinators and vegetable gardens

14 years ago

4 Comments

mason bees • wild bees and native bees

Make room for mason bees

14 years ago

10 Comments

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.

Manuka: The biography of an extraordinary honey by Cliff van Eaton. The discovery of manuka honey and its medicinal properties.

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.