Honey bees

What do honey bees look like?

Honey bees are light golden brown with brown banding. Their coloring may vary depending on the specific species, but they will always have light and dark color variations. Honey bees are covered in fine hair and have a barbed stinger coming off the back of their thorax. A barbed stinger means that these stinging insects can only sting once. Worker honey bees grow to between 1/2 and 5/8 of an inch in length. Queens can grow up to 3/4 of an inch in length.

Where are honey bees found?

Honey bees are social and create nests to live and work together. Outside, honey bees nest in trees, hollow logs, piles of rock, and other hollow places. It is also common for honey bees to get inside homes and other structures where they decide to stay and create an indoor nest. Inside Quad City structures, nests are found in attics, wall voids, crawlspaces, and chimneys.

Honey bees are environmentally beneficial because they are responsible for pollinating a wide variety of plants, flowers, trees, and crops. Honey bees are not an overly aggressive stinging insect species and will generally only sting when they are being directly attacked. A nest should only be removed from your property by trained experts, and only if it is positioned too close to your home and the bees have become a nuisance and danger for you, your family, and your pets.

What do honey bees eat?

Honey bees feed on the nectar and pollen that they collect from flowers and other plants. It is often gardens and landscaping that produces their food sources, attracting honey bees to properties where they can become a nuisance.

DIY honey bee prevention and control tips

There are a few things that you can do around your property to try and prevent problems with honey bees. Try not to plant a lot of flowering plants and vegetation in very close proximity to your home. It is also a good idea to place woodpiles a distance away from the outside of your home and to remove fallen trees from your property. Honey bees can be attracted to garbage, so make sure that outdoor trash cans have tight-fitting lids on them to keep honey bees out.

Professional honey bee control

If honey bees have built a nest in or near your home or commercial building, or they have become a threat to health and safety, contact Quik-Kill Pest Eliminators to find out how we can help.