Research Information — Stinging Insect Pests
Stinging insects send thousands to the hospital every year. But, some stinging insects, like bees, are very beneficial to our environment—helping flowers and other plants grow and reproduce. Our professionals will attempt to relocate bee colonies and swarms to better locations.
Yellow jackets, wasps, and hornets can be very annoying and a public health concern. In the early spring, the queens search for nesting sites, but wasp traps can catch them before they have a chance to start a nest, thus reducing the amount of activity around homes and businesses. Throughout the summer, our field service team can locate nesting sites and eliminate the source of stinging insects. They can even propose a long term solution just for you.
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Quick Facts
(click on an image to view its quick facts)
African Honey Bee
European Honey Bee
Bumble Bee
Carpenter Bee
Solitaire Ground Nesting Bees
European Paper Wasps
Solitaire Wasps (mud dauber)
Yellow Jackets
Africanized Honey Bees
Color: brownish black with wings and looks very similar to our European honey bee. It is the action of this bee that is a better identification tool. They look like honey bees but they are very aggressive and fast to swarm like a yellow jacket.
Size: 3/8- to 1/2-inch
Feeding & Habits: feeds on pollen and nectar, dies when it stings as the stinger stays in the skin and continues to inject venom. The venom is no different than the EHB, the difference is that the AHB’s swarm and sting in large numbers. The AHB population has been seen in the most southern areas of Colorado and has been moving from the southeast to the northwest since 2003.
(Caution – This insect is a public health conern)
European Honey Bees
Color: brownish-black with wings (Caution-Africanized Honey Bees look exactly the same by the necked eye).
Size: 3/8- to 1/2-inch
Feeding & Habits: feeds on pollen and nectar, dies when it stings as the stinger stays in the skin and continues to inject venom. The venom is no different than the AHB, the difference is that the AHB’s swarm and sting in large numbers.
Bumble Bees
Color: black or gray hairs variously tinged with yellow, orange or red
Size: ranging in size from 1/3 to 1-3/8 inches long
Feeding & Habits: Collects masses of pollen and moistens this with nectar to produce a stored food called "bee bread. Usually only has up to 200 workers in a nest, and the sting is very painful.
Carpenter Bees
Color: black, with a metallic sheen
Size: ¾ - 1 inch
Feeding & Habits: solitary insects that do not form colonies. Male and female carpenter bees over winter as adults within their old nest gallery. Adults emerge in the spring (April and early May) and mate. Females excavate a clean-cut, round nest entrance hole on the lateral surface of wood in exposed or unexposed locations. Feeds on pollen and nectar.
Solitaire Ground Nesting Bees
Color: brownish black very similar to a honey bee
Size: 3/8 – 1 in long
Feeding & Habits: feeds on pollen and honey from honey bee nests, prefers to nest in sandy and clay soils individually. Non aggressive and usually does not sting.
European Paper Wasps
Color: brownish black very similar to a honey bee
Size: 3/8 – 1 in long
Feeding & Habits: feeds on pollen and honey from honey bee nests, prefers to nest in sandy and clay soils individually. Non aggressive and usually does not sting.
Solitaire Wasps (mud dauber)
Color: long, skinny black insects with wings and long legs
Size: ½ - ¾ inches
Feeding & Habits: feeds on spiders and other insects, nests look like small mud that has been splattered on the side of a building and usually do not sting.
Yellow Jackets
Color: alternating black and yellow bands
Size: 1/2-inch long
Feeding & Habits: feeds on human food such as carbonated beverages, cider, juices, ripe fruits and vegetables, candy, ice cream, fish, ham, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. Social insects which swarm and can pose as much of a treat to health and safety as Africanized honey bees.
(Caution – This insect is a public health concern)
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