Bees are flying insects with hairy bodies, related to wasps and ants. Their colors vary from black to brown with white, yellow, blue and even orange stripes. Bees feed on flower nectar and pollen. They are unique insects, playing a great role in pollinating flowering plants and crops. 

Bees are also stinging insects and their venom may be dangerous for allergic people.  But unlike wasps they can use their sting only once and they die a few minutes afterwards. Bees only attack for the sake of self-defense and to defend their colonies.

Just like wasps, bees are divided into solitary and social. Solitary female bees make burrows for their young, laying each egg in a separate cell. Social bees live in hives, inhabited by 10,000 to 50,000 individuals.

There are more than 20 000 species of them living almost on every continent. Here are a few words about some wide-spread species:

Bees Species

Honey Bees are light brown social insects, living in hives and producing honey.  They are divided into three classes: workers, queens and drones. Most of us never see any other class of bees but workers. Workers are 0.4 to 0.6 inches long. They gather pollen and nectar from flowers, build and protect hives. An ordinary colony of bees has a single queen, responsible for laying eggs and giving birth for the next generations. Every hive is also inhabited by several hundreds of drones or male bees, larger in size than workers, whose purpose is to fertilize the queen. Drones are driven away from the hive when winter comes. Honey bees stop flying when temperature goes down to 10 C and spend the whole winter inside the hive eating stored honey.

Carpenter Bees are solitary black-colored bees with yellow markings up to 1 inch in size. They’ve got their name because of making their nests in burrows of wood and structured timbers. Carpenter Bees are represented by males and females. They make tunnels inside the wood that are used as a nursery for the new generations.  The Carpenter Bees generations are not as numerous as those of social species and are generally limited by 6 to 10 individuals.

Bumble Bees are social bees living in colonies with a single queen. Their colonies are less numerous than those of Honey Bees and reach only up to 400 individuals. Bumble Bees have round black and yellow hairy bodies about 1 inch in size. They make their nests either underground or above ground in thick grass and burrows of trees.    

Africanized Honey Bees were brought from Africa and bred with European honey bees. They are 10% smaller than their European counterparts but much more aggressive and attack people and animals in large groups and may cause a lot of injury and even death. That is why they are also known as “killer bees”. Africanized Honey Bees live everywhere from burrows in trees to walls and even garbage containers.   

These are only a few species of bees that can be met in your surroundings. Anyway if you are not a beekeeper and you find bees living close to your house, make sure to address pest control company to check the danger coming from your new neighbors and get advice or help if needed.

Wasp Control Toronto provides professional bee nest removal and bee nest control for residents of Toronto and the surrounding communities including Greater Toronto Area. If you noticed a bee nest near or inside your house, call us today at 416-729-5657 or visit our Contact Us page to email us for quick and friendly service.