| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Size | 1/2″ |
| Color | Golden brown and black thorax with orange or yellow bands on the abdomen |
| Body | Fuzzy thorax with a shiny, striped abdomen |
| Legs | 6 |
| Antennae | Yes |
| Stinger | Female workers have a barbed stinger |
Habitat:
- Hollow spaces that allow them to build the internal hive
- Each colony has one queen, hundreds of male drones, and thousands of female worker bees
Habits:
- Only sting when provoked, but are otherwise not aggressive
- Each worker is able to pollinate 50-100 flowers on each trip
- They communicate through scent and dancing
- The colony lays dormant during the winter
Honeybees are found all over the world and are one of the best pollinators of over 100 types of crops. Surviving on pollen and nectar from different crops, Honeybees live in colonies that consist of a single queen, hundreds of male drones, and thousands of female worker bees. These colonies can survive for years, moving in swarms to find new places to build hives. The worker bees do most of the work in the hive while the males’ drones are around for mating with the queen.
Honeybee Habitat & Nests
Preferring to live in gardens, orchards, meadows, or other natural areas, Honeybees can thrive in man-made environments. Honeybees do not build an outside structure to their hives but find hollowed-out areas like tree cavities, rock crevices, or even soffits and chimneys to build their internal structure. The hive is made from wax secreted from the abdominal glands of the worker bees.
Honeybee Behaviors & Dangers
Honeybees are not aggressive unless provoked and they can only sting once. The stinger on the female worker bee is barbed and becomes lodged into the victim with the venom sac when the Honeybee stings. When the Honeybee stings, all of this detaches from the body of the bee and the bee dies.
Structurally, Honeybees can be damaging if they build their nests in wall cavities, soffits, chimneys or other parts of the home. As the colony grows, so does the nest causing damage to surfaces.
Contact Us For Milwaukee-Area Honey Bee Removal
We do not kill Honey Bees or do Honey Bee removal services and cannot do nest extractions, so we recommend contacting your local Milwaukee-area Honeybee expert to help you with the issue. They will safely re-home the Honeybees and extract the nest from your home. Click here for more information about other insects we can treat!