From poisonous pesticides to habitat loss, honey bee colonies worldwide are continuing to decline at an alarming rate. According to the World Bee Council, these bees are the most important single pollinator species for all types of nuts, fruits, and vegetables because they do nearly 80% of all pollination.
Our goal at Lloyd Pest Control is to find ways to help local bee populations thrive because they are so important to the balance of our natural ecosystem. This means that we never hurt these helpful bugs.
As beekeepers in Southern California, our pest control team does everything we can to support local beekeepers and avoid using harmful chemicals when removing bees. That’s why we want all Californians to know that killing bee colonies isn’t good for anyone, even though bees can be scary at times.
It’s best to start by learning about the life cycle of bees to understand why you might see them outside of school, at a picnic, or at the ballpark this summer, and why beekeepers are so helpful for getting rid of bees.
It’s a familiar scene – you’re relaxing in your yard when suddenly you hear that distinctive buzz. A bee is fluttering around your picnic table! Your first instinct may be to swat it away or call an exterminator. However, killing bees on your property is ill-advised for several reasons. In this article, we’ll explore why you should avoid bee extermination whenever possible.
The Vital Role of Bees
Bees play a critical ecological role through pollination. As they flit from flower to flower gathering nectar and pollen, they also distribute pollen grains and facilitate plant reproduction.
Research shows that nearly 80% of flowering plant species require animal pollination, mostly by insects and especially bees. Some key facts
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Bees pollinate over 75% of leading global food crops including fruits nuts, and vegetables.
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Bee pollination is valued at over $15 billion per year in the U.S. alone.
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90 different agriculture crops in North America rely on bee pollination.
Without natural pollinators like bees, many plant species would decline or even go extinct. This would devastate natural ecosystems and human agriculture.
Bee Population Declines
Unfortunately, bee populations worldwide have already experienced alarming declines. A recent study found the U.S. lost 23% of its managed honey bee colonies from 2008-2013. Wild native bee species saw even steeper drops.
Scientists cite factors like habitat loss, disease, pesticides, and climate change. With so many threats already impacting bee communities, we cannot afford additional losses from swatting, poisoning, or exterminating bees sighted on personal property. Preserving our remaining bee populations is crucial.
Bees Usually Avoid Stinging
A common misconception is that all bees are dangerously aggressive. In reality, bees rarely sting unless they perceive a major threat.
Female worker bees can sting, but they die shortly after stinging humans. Bees therefore reserve stinging as an absolute last resort. Generally, they’ll only sting to defend their hive or if trapped against your skin.
Otherwise, bees foraging among flowers are focused on gathering food – not attacking humans. They should be left alone.
Effective, Bee-Friendly Deterrents Exist
If bees around your pool, patio or barbeque make you uncomfortable, don’t jump straight to extermination. There are gentler ways to deter bees from congregating in parts of your yard.
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Install a birdbath or water source away from your outdoor living space. Bees need water and may be drawn to your patio if no other water source is nearby.
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Avoid wearing strong perfumes, scented lotions or floral prints when outside, which attract bees.
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Cover sugary drinks and foods, or eat/drink indoors. Don’t tempt bees with open sweets.
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Plant bee-attractive flowers around your yard’s perimeter to draw bees away from patio and pool areas.
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Deploy natural bee repellents like lemon grass, eucalyptus, or mint instead of pesticides.
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Contact a beekeeper to safely relocate hives away from high-traffic areas on your property.
How You Can Help Bees
Rather than killing any bees you see, make your yard a bee-friendly space! Here are some tips:
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Plant native wildflowers, trees, and shrubs that provide nectar and pollen. Native plants are best. Let vacant areas of your yard grow wild with clover and dandelions that bees feast on.
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Avoid patio umbrellas with bright patterns, which can confuse bees. Opt for solid colored umbrellas instead.
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Provide bee nesting habitats like small brush piles, undisturbed soil areas, or bundles of hollow plant stems.
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Build and install a bee hotel to give wild bees supplementary nesting sites. You can buy or make these simple wooden boxes.
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Provide a shallow water source with stones or sticks for perches. Bees need to drink but can drown in deep water.
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Never spray or spread pesticides in your yard. Many are lethal to bees and persist in soil/plants.
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Support organic farming practices that nurture bee populations. You can also buy meat and produce from local farmers that avoid pesticides and practice sustainable agriculture.
With a few simple changes, your yard can become a bee oasis rather than a dead zone!
Appreciating Bees
Learning to co-exist with bees, rather than eliminating them, has many benefits beyond supporting our food supply. Simple actions like watching bees at work, building them nesting sites, and transforming your yard into a pollinator’s paradise can be deeply rewarding.
Bees also provide an important connection to nature and remind us that even small garden plots are part of a much larger ecosystem. Everything is interconnected. Working to protect and foster native bee communities in your own backyard – while avoiding extermination – fosters biodiversity, ecological resilience, and a healthy planet we all share.
So next time a bee visits your garden, think twice before reacting. Consider gently relocating it away from high-traffic patio areas instead. Your willingness to learn and coexist with bees will be repaid generously through the joy of watching your yard come alive!
Instinctually Delegated Duties of the Hive
Hive duties vary drastically between worker bees and drone bees based upon their unique DNA:
Drone bee males eat honey their whole lives and wait for the chance to mate with a queen from another colony so that the species can have more offspring. The drone bees will fly after the queen as she takes her wedding flight and try to mate with her while she’s in the air. If a drone is successful, he will fall to the ground in a triumphant death. The queen mates with up to 20 drones and stores their spermatozoa for the rest of her life.
Most of the bees in the colony are female worker bees, who do most of the work that needs to be done by hand to build the hive, clean the cells, and feed the brood. Worker bees have four instinctual life cycle phases:
Once a worker bee hatches, she starts her job right away by cleaning the cell she came from and other cells nearby so they are ready for the queen’s next batch of eggs.
After three days, her instinct to be a mother will take over, and she will start feeding the babies royal jelly, which is made by bees and has vitamins, proteins, sugars, and fats.
After a week of nursing, worker bees move from the middle of the nest to the edges of the hive to make new cells and store food for another week. Worker bees will take care of the queen, protect the nest from outsiders, and feed the drones if they are hungry if they have to.
When a worker bee has been storing food and making cells for 41 days, she will know that her journey is almost over and it’s time to go foraging. She will go out into the wild, find nectar and pollen, and bring it back to the colony. This is probably the most dangerous job a bee can have. After a few weeks, she will leave the hive because she is too old to stay there anymore. This way, if she dies in the nest, her siblings won’t have to carry her body out.
The Life Cycle of a Honey Bee
The life cycle of a honey bee happens in four distinct phases: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
Queen bees choose which cells in their hive to lay their eggs in based on how big, clean, and well-prepared they are. The worker bees that build the hive cells decide how many female worker bees and male drone bees to have. They do this by making cells that are smaller for workers and larger for drones.
If the queen picks a smaller cell, she puts a fertilized egg into it. After 21 days, the egg grows into a worker bee. If the queen picks a bigger cell, she will lay an unfertilized egg that after 24 days turns into a drone bee.
Three days after the queen lays an egg, it hatches into a larva. Visually similar to grubs, bee larvae are white and curled within each hive cell. These bee babies lose their skin five times a day and are fed almost 1,300 meals a day by nurse bees. In five days, they grow 1,570 times bigger.
Once the larvae have grown a little, worker bees start to cover each cell with a porous layer of beeswax. Once sealed, each larva begins to spin a cocoon around themselves inside the cell.
Underneath the beeswax cappings, the larvae begin to transform into pupae. During this period, the grub-like bees begin to take shape – growing their eyes, legs, and wings. After about 12 days, the pupa has fine hairs all over its body, which means it is fully grown into an adult bee. Once it is fully grown, the adult bee chews its way through its wax barrier and joins the colony.
How To Kill Bees Living Inside Your Wall.
FAQ
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