Bees & Wasps
Wasps
Wasps have a slender body with a narrow waist, slender,
cylindrical legs, and appear smoothed-skinned and shiny. Some are black
and yellow, black and red, or brown and red. Wasps create a nest
which is grey and round. It ranges from softball to beach ball size.
These nests are made from cellulose and are quite strong. Likely nest
sights include trees, shrubs and around overhangs of buildings. They
will readily fly toward sweat, perfume, food, flowers, dead insects and
other things commonly found around the home.
Yellow Jackets
A typical yellowjacket worker is about 12 mm (0.5
inches) long, with alternating bands on the abdomen while the queen is
larger, about 19 mm (0.75 inches) long (the different patterns on the
abdomen help separate various species). Workers are sometimes confused
with honey bees, especially when flying in and out of their nests.
Yellowjackets, in contrast to honey bees, are not covered with tan-brown
dense hair on their bodies and lack the flattened hairy hind legs used
to carry pollen. Yellowjackets have a lance-like stinger with small
barbs and typically sting repeatedly, though occasionally the sting
becomes lodged and pulls free of the wasp's body. All species have
yellow or white on the face.
Honey Bees
The honey bee is covered with short, dense hair, usually
golden-brown and black, and its abdomen is striped. There are three
castes of honey bees in the colony: workers (2/5 to 3/5 inch long),
drones (3/4 to 5/8 inch long), and the queen (3/5 to ¾ inch long). Honey
bee's are usually found around flowers and flowering trees. The queen is
responsible for reproduction. The drones are fertile male bees that mate
with new queens. The workers are sterile females responsible for feeding
the queen, maintaining the hive, gathering the pollen and nectar, and
protecting the hive. Honey bee workers have a barbed stinger that
becomes detached along with a venom sac after the sting.
Bumble Bees
Bumblebees are social insects that are characterized
by black and yellow body hairs, often in bands. However, some species
have orange or red on their bodies, or may be entirely black.
Another obvious characteristic is the soft nature of that hair, called
pile, that covers their entire body, making them appear and feel fuzzy.
They are best distinguished from similarly large, fuzzy bees by the form
of the female hind leg, which is modified to form a cubicula; a shiny
concave surface that is bare, but surrounded by a fringe of hairs used
to transport pollen (in similar bees, the hind leg is completely hairy,
and pollen grains are wedged into the hairs for transport).
Carpenter Bees
Although they buzz, hover and look like bumble bees,
carpenter bees are very much different in appearance and habit. Unlike
bumble bees, which have hairy (usually yellow and black) abdomens,
carpenter bees have hairless, shiny blue-black abdomens. Also, carpenter
bees lack pollen baskets on their hind legs.
Female carpenter bees have strong jaws which they use to bore into,
primarily, unfinished wood. Although the damage may appear minimal (all
one sees is the 3/8-inch circular opening), the tunnels in the wood may
be 6 inches in length.
