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5/12/08 | Quail
Honey bees are about 0.5 inch long with a fuzzy light brown to black appearance, with striped brown and black abdomens.
Honey bees, Apis mellifera, are beneficial insects -- pollinating plants and producing honey and bee's wax. However, because they sting in defense of their nest, honey bees may become a pest if nests are in the wrong location.
Honey bees live in colonies, where tasks are divided among three castes: queens, males and workers. Queens are responsible for nest establishment and egg laying. Workers are all females equipped with stingers.
When a bee stings its victim, the barbed stinger is pulled from the bee's body and remains in the victim's skin. The bee dies after this one sting.
The colony population reaches 75,000 bees during the summer, which includes 30,000 or more field bees. Such a colony should produce 60 pounds of honey for itself to overwinter and 50 to 100 pounds of surplus honey each season for the beekeeper.
Bees use thousands of plant species. In the spring, honey bees collect nectar and pollen from plants such as clovers, legumes, dandelions and maple trees. Corn, sorghum and grasses are also important pollen sources. In summer and fall, bees find nectar and pollen in soybeans, garden plants, milkweed, and morningglory.
Wild colonies of honey bees nest in existing cavities such as hollow trees. Domestic bees are housed in manufactured hives. Unlike other bees and wasps, the honey bee occupies the same nest from year to year. The queen and many workers survive the winter in the nest.
At various times new queens are produced, resulting in the old queen and a number of workers leaving the hive to "swarm" in search of a new home. If this swarm settles in a place where bees are not welcome, such as the wall of a house, then they become pests.
Ideally, honey bee swarms should be picked up before they start to establish a nest in an undesirable location. Some beekeepers will capture and remove swarms. If you need to contact beekeepers, police departments and Extension offices can direct you to them.
Once a swarm has established a nest inside a wall, it usually requires killing the bees. Some professional pest control operators will provide such a service for a fee.
Pyrethroid dusts or sprays can be injected into the nest to kill bees in a wall. Wear protective clothing. A second treatment should be made as a precaution about seven to 10 days after the first. After all activity in the nest has ceased, open the wall and remove all dead bees, honey and wax. Otherwise, the wax may melt, allowing the honey and wax to run, damaging the finished side of the wall. Remains of the nest may also attract pests such as dermestid beetles.
Updated 1/17/08