Honey Bee

The Honey Bee

The honey bee is a stinging insect found flying in all continents except Antarctica. As the name suggests, these bees make honey and are thus appreciated for making many businesses flourish. In some cultures, these insects are believed to bring an abundance of love, wealth and prosperity in households where they live. But who wants stinging and buzzing bees inside their house?

HOW TO IDENTIFY HONEY BEES

If you’re not sure whether the insects in your home are honey bees or some other, look out for the following features of honey bees:

  • Segmented bodies
  • Black striped alternating with golden-yellow or brown.
  • About 15 mm long usually.
  • Bodies covered with fine hair.
  • Barbed stinger coming off their thorax.

Appearance and Behavior

Honey Bee

Honey Bee. By Ivar Leidus – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, 

  • Honey bees are yellow and light brown in color. Although the color of honey bees varies with different species, there are usually dark to light striations on their body.
  • Most of the honey bees are oval shaped and have golden-yellow and brown colored bands.
  • These bees have segmented bodies: legs, antenna, stinger, three segments of the thorax and six visible segments of the abdomen.
  • They make their hives from wax made by their special abdominal glands.
  • These bees are social creatures, however, they do show some aggressive behavior and thus, can pose danger to pets and humans.
  • Honey bees play a very important role in pollination, but should not be allowed anywhere near households.
  • They live in groups consisting of queen bees, many worker bees, and some male drones. The worker bees make the nests with wax from their abdominal glands.
  • Although these bees usually have the same characteristics overall in the world, they can, however, behave more aggressive in certain areas.
  • If you see more than a usual number of bees around your house, then it is a definite sign that there is a honey beehive around you.
  • If you drop something sugary and have honey bees gathering over it too soon, then also you can be sure that there is a nest in or around your home.

HOW DO YOU GET HONEY BEES

Honey bees get attracted towards sunlight and therefore gravitate towards windows. They come inside through open windows or fireplaces generally. They usually build their nests in vents such as the bathroom vent, dryer vent, or stove vent, etc. Or they can also make their hives in cracks, holes, or gaps in the walls of your house. Pipes, gutters, chimney exteriors can also serve as doors for honey bees to enter homes.

HOW TO GET RID OF HONEY BEES

While it is always better to have a pest control team to help you get rid of the dangerous beehives, there are still some measures you can take to kill or repel them

  • Tarping the nest can be an eco-friendly but risky solution. In this method, a tarp is placed on the bee nest, and bricks are placed on all sides of the tarp.
  • Watering your garden can keep the ground bees away since they tend to live in dry sands.
  • Make a bee spray. Mix peppermint oil, tea tree oil, or cinnamon oil with an unscented shampoo and pour the mixture into an empty bottle. The smell of these oils keep the bees away from your home,
  • Sprinkle ground cinnamon around their nest. This can take about a week, the smell of cinnamon will deter the bees and make them go away.

Honey Bee Facts

  • A honey bee can identify colonies by smelling, so they know where to live.
  • These are the only insects that produce food for humans.
  • Honey has all the ingredients to sustain life and also improves brain function. In fact, honey is the only food that can improve brain functions!
  • There can be thousands of worker bees in a colony of bees but only one queen bee.
  • A queen bee can lay as much as 1500 eggs a day!
  • A honey bee has two stomachs. One for food and one for nectar alone.
  • Bees can communicate by their special “dances”.

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