Japanese Honey Bee

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Japanese Honey Bee

The Japanese Honey Bee

Apis cerana japonica, commonly known as the Japanese honey bee, is one of the subspecies of European honey bees. These bees get their common name because they have migrated from Japan.

HOW TO IDENTIFY JAPANESE HONEY BEES

These eastern bugs can be differentiated by the western ones by noticing the number of bands on their abdomen. While the eastern ones have four abdominal bands, the western ones have three. A very distinctive feature of Japanese honey bees can be “pollen baskets” which help them to carry pollens while pollinating flowers.

Appearance and Behavior

Japanese Honey Bee. By Pekachu – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

Although these bugs look almost the same as the European or western ones, there are certain differences in their appearances, like European honey bees have three abdominal bands, and Japanese have four bands. Queen bees can be distinguished from the worker bees as queens have larger abdomens and are slightly darker in color.

Japanese honey bees do not sting generally if left undisturbed. However, they can sting if you disturb them or go near their nests. Their sting can be painful and cause allergies too.

One can easily observe the presence of a Japanese honey bee colony. Getting stung can be one of the most usual and basic signs that you have a beehive near you. Moreover, if you notice these bugs going into and coming from cracks or vents or any other place frequently, then this can serve as a sign too.

HOW DO YOU GET JAPANESE HONEY BEES

These insects usually enter from the cracks near windows and build their hives in voids. They can, alternatively, enter through bathroom vents, stove vents, or chimney exteriors. Most common places in which Japanese honey bees build their nests are cracks in walls or holes or voids in trees.

HOW TO GET RID OF JAPANESE HONEY BEES

Since such insects can cause painful stings and cause serious allergies, it is never advisable to invade their nests without any supervision. There are, however, some home remedies to your rescue if you don’t want to hire a pest control team. You can try the following to get rid of these bugs:

If you want to go by the chemical way, use D-force HPX. It is a pressure can fill with insecticide and provides 8 weeks of protection from these bugs.
If you want to go by more of a natural way, make your own bee spray by mixing vinegar and water in equal quantities. Pour the mixture into an empty spray bottle and spray on the nests at night when the bees are inactive. Also, spray on the plants and other areas which have chances of getting infected.
Use their temptations to kill them. Cut a plastic bottle into half and pour sweet soda in it. Place the bottle near the beehive or wherever the bees are the most active. This will serve as a trap for these insects. They will get attracted to the soda and once they enter the bottle, they will drown.
Hang mothballs in or around your house. These can make the Japanese honey bees stay away from your home, as well as all other insects.

Always wear protective clothing and cover your body as much as you can while trying to kill or make the bees go away. The sting can be very painful and they can attack you together in large numbers.