Native Indiana Bees and Wasps

BEES FOUND IN INDIANA: (not necessarily native and I will try to indicate which ones are not native. I will also try and indicate the beneficial ones or harmful ones.)

(1.) Bumblebees: (Native and beneficial)
Bumblebees are fat, fuzzy, black and yellow bees only alive in the summertime. Their colonies survive only from spring until fall, when all but a mated queen will die. By the fall, only the queen, who starts a new colony in the spring, is alive. Her workers are extremely defensive and are capable of inflicting multiple sting wounds. Bumblebees usually live in smaller hives that are at ground level. Bumblebee species are rapidly declining and are presently the subject of proposed legislative protection to ensure their continued proliferation. Bumblebees (Bombus spp.) are probably the most widely recognized of our native pollen bees. They’re also among the hardest working pollinators in the garden. As generalist bees, bumblebees will forage on a wide variety of plants, pollinating everything from peppers to potatoes. Bumblebees fall within the 5% of pollen bees that are eusocial; a female queen and her daughter workers live together, communicating with and caring for one another. Bumblebees nest underground, usually in abandoned rodent nests. They love to forage on clover, which many homeowners consider a weed. Give the bumblebees a chance – leave the clover in your lawn.

(2.) Carpenter Bees: (Native and beneficial)
Carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.) are quite good at pollinating many of the crops in your garden. They rarely do serious structural damage to the wood in which they nest. Carpenter bees are solitary bees that are generally harmless to humans. The holes are made by a female carpenter bee chewing out the wood. Male carpenter bees are all black and do not sting. Female carpenter bees are black and yellow and do sting (but very rarely). Both male and female are shiny and relatively hairless. Carpenter bees are quite large, usually with a metallic luster. They require warm air temperatures (70º F or higher) before they start foraging in spring. Carpenter bees sometimes tear a hole into the base of the flower to access the nectar and so don’t come into contact with any pollen. Still, these native pollen bees are worth encouraging in your garden.
(2a.) Dwarf Carpenter Bees: (Native and beneficial)
At just 8 mm in length, dwarf carpenter bees (Ceratina spp.) are easy to overlook. Don’t be fooled by their small size, though, because these native bees know how to work the flowers of raspberry, goldenrod, and other plants. Females chew an overwintering burrow into the stem of a pithy plant or old vine. In spring, they expand their burrows to make room for their brood. These solitary bees forage from spring to fall, but won’t fly very far to find food.

(3.) Digger Bees:
Digger bees (family Adrenidae) (aka mining bees) There are over 1,200 species found in North America. These medium-sized bees begin foraging at the first signs of spring. Digger bees, as you might suspect by their names, dig burrows in the ground. They often camouflage the entrance to their nest with leaf litter or grass. The female secretes a waterproof substance, which she uses to line and protect her brood cells.

(4.) Honeybees: (non-native to North America but beneficial for pollination)
Honeybees are the bees that pop to mind most. They are short bees, usually less than an inch long, that like to form a loudly buzzing swarm, although they sometimes congregate in numbers as low as five to 20. Honeybees live in giant hives that may hold up to 50,000 bees and 80 pounds of honey. Honeybees will sting if provoked, but they die afterward, because they lose their stinger. If honeybees swarm a person and sting, the result could be deadly. Honeybee hives should not be approached. Instead, call a professional for prompt removal.
(4a.)Africanized Honey Bees: (Non-native to North America)
African honey bees (aka killer bees) look just like honeybees, but are characterized by their behavior. These bees are not native to Indiana or North America.They traveled up from South America and then they were bred to supplement the honeybee population and provide honey. They are aggressive….unlike other bees found in Indiana. Their aggressiveness is triggered by loud noises, heavy vibrations and other attempts at approaching or removing them. Killer bees will remain aggressive for long periods of time after a disturbance. Immediate removal by a professional is the only safe response to sighting killer bees.

(5.) Leafcutter Bees:
Like mason bees, leafcutter bees (Megachile spp.) nest in tube-shaped cavities and will use artificial nests. They line their nests with carefully sheared pieces of leaves, sometimes from specific host plants – thus the name, leafcutter bees. The leafcutter bees forage mostly on legumes. They’re highly efficient pollinators and they pollinate in mid-summer. Leafcutter bees are about the same size as honeybees. They rarely sting, and when they do, it’s quite mild.

(6.) Mason Bees: (Native and beneficial for pollenation)
Like tiny mason workers, mason bees (Osmia spp.) build their nests using pebbles and mud. These native bees look for existing holes in wood rather than excavate their own. Mason bees will nest in artificial nest sites made by bundling straws or drilling holes in a block of wood. Just a few hundred mason bees can do the same work as tens of thousands of honeybees. Mason bees are known for pollinating fruit crops, almonds, blueberries, and apples among their favorites. Mason bees are slightly smaller than honeybees. They’re fairly fuzzy little bees with blue or green metallic coloring. Mason bees do well in urban areas.

(7.) Polyester Bees:
Though solitary, polyester bees (family Colletidae) sometimes nest in large aggregations of many individuals. Polyester or plasterer bees forage on a wide range of flowers. They’re fairly large bees that burrow in the soil. Polyester bees get their name because females can produce a natural polymer from glands in their abdomens. The female polyester bee will construct a polymer bag for each egg, filling it with sweet food stores for the larva when it hatches. Her young are well-protected in their plastic bubbles as they develop in the soil.

(8.) Squash Bees:
If you’ve got squash, pumpkins, or gourds in your garden, look for squash bees (Peponapis pruinosa) to pollinate your plants and help them set fruit. These pollen bees begin foraging just after sunrise, since cucurbit flowers close in the afternoon sun. Squash bees are specialized foragers, relying only on cucurbit plants for pollen and nectar. Solitary squash bees nest underground, and require well-drained areas in which to burrow. Adults live just a few months, from mid to late summer when the squash plants are in flower.

(9.) Sweat Bees:
Sweat bees (family Halictidae) also make their living off pollen and nectar. These small native bees are easy to miss, but if you take the time to look for them, you’ll find they’re quite common. Sweat bees are generalist feeders, foraging on a range of host plants. Most sweat bees are dark brown or black, but the blue-green sweat bees bear pretty, metallic colors. These usually solitary bees burrow in the soil. Sweat bees like to lick salt from sweaty skin, and will sometimes land on you. They’re not aggressive, so don’t worry about getting stung.

this information comes from: http://insects.about.com/od/antsbeeswasps/tp/10-native-pollen-bees.htm

http://www.ehow.com/info_8195262_types-bees-northern-indiana.html

TYPES OF WASPS IN INDIANA:

(1.) Baldfaced Hornet:
The baldfaced hornet is a large, gray and white wasp that lives in a gray, pear-shaped colony. Colonies can be very large, with sometimes more than 1,000 workers. Because of the sheer number of wasps in a baldfaced hornet colony, any tree-mounted colonies that present a potential for human interaction should be eradicated for safety’s sake.

(2.) Giant Hornet:
The giant hornet, sometimes called the European hornet, is larger and thicker than the yellow jacket. Giant hornets are usually yellow and black, although sometimes they may be white and black. They hide their colonies inside the walls of buildings, often deep inside structures, so that extermination is difficult and requires a professional. Do not leave giant hornet nests to grow. Colonies can become colossally large, and an attack by giant hornets could be fatal.

(3.) Ground-Nesting Yellow Jacket:
Yellow jackets build subterranean nests, so you may stumble onto them accidentally. They are also protective of their nests so, their painful sting may seem undeserved. Their nests are so well hidden, it’s possible you don’t realize you’ve crossed one until it’s too late. The colonies are large, so be careful when traversing creek banks and forest floors. Yellow jackets often scavenge for food, especially in late summer and early fall, so cover food when outdoors to avoid unpleasant contact.

(4.) Paper Wasps:
Paper wasps are particularly slender. They have the same narrow waist as all wasps, but the proportion is less pronounced. Their legs are long, and paper wasps live in smaller colonies than other types of wasps. Paper wasp nests are identifiable by the single comb through which the wasps leave and arrive. Paper wasps are generally nonaggressive and live off caterpillars, so finding a colony in a garden may not be such a bad thing if you give it respectful distance.

This information comes from: http://www.ehow.com/info_8201780_types-wasps-northern-indiana.html

To Continue To Birds:

Birds

4 Comments