Western Honey Bee

The Western Honey Bee

The western honey bee, is another subspecies of honey bees. These are subdivided into different classes, namely queens, drones and worker bees. One colony of western honey bees can be as large as 30,000 to 80,000 bees in total.

HOW TO IDENTIFY WESTERN HONEY BEES

Western honey bees are reddish or brownish in color with yellow or orange bands over their abdomen. They have hairy bodies but have less hair on their abdomens. They have a unique feature known as “pollen basket” in which they carry pollen for the process of pollination. This pollen basket is present on their hind legs.

Appearance and Behavior

Western Honey Bees. By Ricks, CC BY-SA 3.0, 

Western honey bees are about three-eighths to three-fourths of an inch long. Queen bees are more elongated and have straight stingers. Worker bees have barbed stingers and are lighter in color. Drones are stout-bodied and have large eyes.

These bugs prefer to live in areas which are abundant in flowering plants. Wester Honey Bees best survive in areas where there is a sufficient supply of water, such as gardens, grasslands, fields, etc. Usually, a western honey bee colony makes their nests in hollow places such as cracks in walls or voids in trees, etc.

They feed on nectar and pollen from flowers and honey of course. If you start seeing these pests more regularly and more than usual in numbers then it is a definite sign that there is a western honey bee nest somewhere near or inside your house.

HOW DO YOU GET WESTERN HONEY BEES

These insects usually enter from windows or vents. They build their nests in rock crevices, hollow trees, cavities in walls, or any other place that they find suitable. They get attracted to flowering plants and try to stay close to them. It is easy to get infested with Western honey bees if there are cavities in your walls or there are blooming flowers nearby.

HOW TO GET RID OF WESTERN HONEY BEES

Honey bees serve as a pivotal force in maintaining our ecological balance and are responsible for pollinating many species of flowers and plants. Since their population is reducing day by day, you should opt for ways which “repel” them, but not “kill” them. The following are some such remedies:

• Place some ground cinnamon. The smell of cinnamon repels Western honey bees.
• Call a beekeeper. They usually remove the nests with the bees still inside it and put it into a beehive box. If the nest is hard to reach, they use a vacuum to remove the hive without killing the bees.
• Make a vinegar spray. Fill half of a spray bottle with vinegar and the rest with water. Spray it near the infested area. Small quantities of this spray will make the bees stay away without posing any harm to them.
• Hang bug zappers around your house. This is the best way to get rid of western honey bees. Many people have successfully used bug zappers to get rid of pests in their houses, especially the ones with lures in case of honey bees.

Western Honey Bee Facts

• Western honey bees can get aggressive if they do not find any flowers nearby.
• Eating honey can help you get smarter!
• Bees have been around us for more than 30 million years!
• Bees make different kinds of honey that taste different by collecting nectar from different flowers.
• Beekeepers use only the honey that is not useful to honey bees, and this can be about 45 kg from one beehive.