If small mounds of excavated soil with a neat entrance hole have ever appeared in your lawn during the first warm weeks of spring, accompanied by low-flying bees that vanish again within a few weeks, you’ve likely hosted mining bees…
While the “murder hornet” panic of 2020 grabbed headlines and was ultimately resolved with a genuine eradication success, a different invasive hornet has quietly become the actual, ongoing threat US beekeepers should be tracking today. The yellow-legged hornet was first…
With the Asian giant hornet fully eradicated from the US as of December 2024, the European hornet holds a distinction most people don’t realize: it’s the only true hornet, genus Vespa, actually established anywhere in North America. It’s been established…
At up to two full inches long, the cicada killer wasp is one of the single largest wasps most people anywhere in the US will ever actually see up close, and its sheer size, combined with its habit of digging…
Paper wasps, genus Polistes, build some of the most recognizable and frequently spotted wasp nests around homes and gardens: small, open, umbrella-shaped combs tucked neatly under eaves, deck railings, and porch ceilings. Despite their conspicuous nests and slender, somewhat intimidating…
The bald-faced hornet is one of the most visually striking and commonly noticed stinging insects in North America, thanks to its large, exposed, football-shaped paper nests and its bold black-and-white coloring. It’s also, despite the name almost everyone uses for…
Propolis, the resinous substance bees make to seal and sterilize their hive, has become a popular health supplement sold as tinctures, capsules, throat sprays, and raw chunks. It’s also one of the more genuinely evidence-backed bee products discussed anywhere on…
“Was that a bee or a wasp?” is one of the most common questions people have about the flying, stinging insects they encounter, and getting the answer right matters considerably more than simple idle curiosity might suggest. Bees and wasps…
Most people who say they were “stung by a bee” at a picnic, near a trash can, or while mowing the lawn were actually stung by a yellowjacket, a wasp frequently, and quite understandably, confused with a honeybee given their…