Bees, Wasps and Hornets

When being invaded by stinging insects, it is important to know what is invading your space. Bees are distant relatives of wasps and hornets and each type of insect has its own markings and distinct behavior. There are many different kinds of wasps and their close relatives, hornets. Some are social and live in colonies, both above ground and under ground. Others are solitary, like the Cicada Killer, hunting and paralyzing living insects to provision their nests and feed their young. Wasps are capable of stinging multiple times and some species, such as yellow jackets, are highly defensive. If you are stung by one of these stinging insects, there is a good chance that it will be a yellow jacket sting.

Most species of bees are valuable pollinators. Honeybees, in particular, are essential in the production of food crops for humans. Certain species of bees, such as honeybees, die after stinging because their stingers, which are attached to their abdomen, have little barbs or hooks on them. So, after stinging something, when the bee tries to fly away, part of the abdomen is ripped off. Other bees, like bumblebees, can sting more than once because their stingers are smooth. By and large, bees are much more docile insects than wasps and hornets and do not sting unless they are disturbed.

Bees

Honeybees: The majority of honeybees in the US exist as managed colonies, living in wooden boxes called hives, which can be transported for crop pollination and from which honey can be harvested without harming the bees. They are essential to our system of agriculture. Here, in New Jersey, crops like blueberries and cranberries, of vital importance to NJ agriculture, rely on honeybee pollination. Most fruit, nut, and many legume crops require honeybee pollination. The only major food group that does not depend on insect pollination is that of grains, which are wind-pollinated.

Honeybees are protected under New Jersey law! In New Jersey, except for colonies residing within buildings or other indoor structures, it is illegal to kill honeybee colonies without approval from appropriate agencies in New Jersey. If a honeybee swarm lands on your property, please do not try to remove it or disturb it. You can contact a beekeeper through the New Jersey Beekeepers Association who will remove the swarm. However, unfortunately, sometimes a swarm establishes itself in an undesirable place such as in the wall of a home. For that you need a bee removal specialist such as Cowleys Termite & Pest Services. Beekeepers will not remove honeybees from inside structures. Also, after removal, it is advisable to remove honey and combs or they will attract rodents and insects and the cavity should be filled with foam insulation because the nest odor will be attractive to future swarms. Cowleys will do this after-work to help prevent future swarms.

Bumblebees: Bumblebees have round yellow and black bodies covered with fine hair. They build nests in cavities in the ground, but can be found above ground in patio areas or decks. They will sometimes build their nests in attics or under roof beams. If disturbed, bumblebees will buzz in a loud volume and will aggressively defend their nests as well as chase invaders for long distances. The bumblebee sting is one of the most painful stings. Swelling and irritation can last for days.   Because bumblebees will sting when threatened, homeowners are advised not to address the infestation themselves. A pest management professional should be called in to help. Although bumblebees pollinate as do honeybees, their colonies are much smaller and they are not used for large-scale crop pollination. Beekeepers generally keep and manage only honeybees because of their ability for large-scale crop pollination and for their honey production capabilities.

Carpenter Bees

Carpenter bees are solitary bees. They look something like a large bumblebee but their abdomens are black and shiny. They build nests just for themselves and only to feed their young. They get their name from their ability to drill through wood. Carpenter bee stingers are not barbed so they are able to sting multiple times. Carpenter bees bore through soft woods to lay eggs and protect their larvae as they develop. Female carpenter bees will chew a tunnel into a piece of wood to build a nest gallery. They frequently choose the fascia or siding of homes for their nests, leaving visible pencil-sized holes. The bits of wood chewed and deposited outside the nest are called “frass” and is a telltale sign of either a carpenter ant or carpenter bee infestation. The tunnel openings look shallow, but these bees are capable of building tunnels 10 feet long with several rooms to hold their eggs and food. Carpenter bees, like carpenter ants, are wood-boring insects not wood-consuming insects like termites. Nevertheless, if left untreated they are capable of causing significant damage. Carpenter bees can drill into almost any wood, but prefer bare wood, so painting and staining can sometimes deter them. Their nests can be hard to reach and a pest control professional should be contacted to help.

Wasps & Hornets

Yellow Jackets: The common yellow jacket is a type of wasp about a half-inch long with jagged bright stripes of yellow and black on the abdomen. They can be a bigger menace than many insects because of their painful stings and aggressively territorial behavior especially if their nest is inadvertently disturbed. They are known as “meat bees” because, like all wasps, their larval stage is carnivorous and the adults must obtain animal proteins to feed their young.   Workers scavenge for meat and sweets; it is why yellow jackets are attracted to picnics and open trash cans, especially when there are half-opened cans or bottles of soda.

Some species of yellow jackets nest in a hole in or near the ground such as an abandoned rodent’s nest or cavity in a rock wall. All that is visible from above is a hole in the earth with yellow jackets coming and going. They are fairly aggressive and can become easily agitated, such as from a rumbling lawnmower overhead. Other species of yellow jackets are aerial, building grey, roughly football or teardrop-shaped paper nests. They make this paper themselves, like all wasps and hornets, by chewing on tiny slivers of wood or other organic materials and using their sticky saliva to glue it together into organized cells. The young are hatched and food is stored in the nest’s core. When yellow jackets nests outside in trees, shrubs, or in the eaves of a house, their nest is visible and easy to identify. However, when they nest inside your home the nest is not visible; you’ll see them flying in and out some small crack or crevice of your home. On occasion one can hear yellow jackets inside. The crackling sound is the noise of yellow jackets chewing through plaster or drywall to build their hive. Yellow jackets die in the fall with only the fertile queens over-wintering.

Paper (Red) Wasps: Paper wasps have the slender “wasp” waist and long legs most people associate with wasps. They may be brown, reddish brown, or black and yellow depending on the specie. They build a small paper nest with open cells in a single layer, attached to the underside of an eave, picnic table, or other structure where the nest can be attached by a short paper stem. If the nest is located near a door or other location placing people near their nest, there is the risk of stinging.

Cicada Killers: Cicada killers are big black, yellow and red wasps up to o1¾ inches in length. These are solitary wasps that tunnel nests in bare soil, flower beds, or areas of scant vegetation. They can be threatening because of the stingless and territorial male dive-bombing intruders. These wasps rarely sting people; the females hunt and paralyze cicadas to provision their nests and feed their young. They overwinter as larvae in the soil and emerge in spring.

Bald-faced Hornets: Bald-faced hornets are three-quarters of an inch long and black with ivory markings on their faces and abdomens. They build a grey spherical paper nest sometimes 12” or more in diameter. The nest is abandoned in the fall when the colony dies and is usually not reused. Fertile female hornets over-winter under tree bark or in other small cavities and start new nests in the spring.  They are a physically strong insect and are capable of stinging through a layer of thick clothing.

You can read more about us and about our company history. See why you should choose Cowley's.  We offer customers help with residential pest control, commercial pest control, residential termite management, and offer other additional services.  We help customers exterminate bed bugs, termites, wood destroying insects, beetles, carpenter bees, ants, rodents, ticks, stinkbugs, and offer bird control and nuisance wildlife services.