Best Bee Brothers Bee Blog — Wasps

Aggressive wasps can be unwelcome and dangerous backyard invaders with their painful stings. Learn how to prevent these pests and learn how to manage them with products from Best Bee Brothers.

Are They Carpenter Bees or Mud Daubers? Not sure what’s buzzing around your property? We get this question a lot, so let’s take a look at how to identify each. To control wood-boring bees, our carpenter bee traps are highly effective, but ONLY for catching carpenter bees! While both male and female carpenter bees have black heads, the mail has a light marking on his face. What Does a Carpenter Bee Look Like? First of all, they are BIG! Carpenter bees are typically one inch long. They are often confused with bumblebees. Male and female carpenter bees look similar, but...

How Do Wasps Reproduce? When Is It Too Cold for Them? Ahh, the birds and the bees talk…this time about WASPS! What’s a Wasp’s Life Cycle? Since there are many different types of wasps, 30,000 identified species, in fact, let’s focus on one, the Eastern yellow jacket – Vespula maculifrons. This easy-to-identify black-and-yellow-striped social wasp has pestered many picnics and backyard BBQs, since it loves sweet, sugary foods. The yellow jacket life cycle begins with a fertile queen, who builds a nest and uses stored sperm to create worker wasps. These workers continue building the colony, and die off at...

If you’ve ever been the victim of a surprise bee sting (or worse yet, a wasp sting), you know just how unpleasant the experience can be. However, while bees and wasps may at first glance appear similar (read about how to identify different types of wasps and carpenter bees vs. bumble bees), the two species’ ability to sting, their venom and even the pain index of their stings can differ significantly. What to Do for a Wasp Sting Before we can talk about how to approach wasp sting treatment, it’s important to know the  behaviors of two commonly misidentified stinging...

Despite their imposing size and capacity for swift, repeated stings, hornets and other wasps are not the top predators in their ecosystem. While these winged defenders of the nest are not to be taken lightly, there are myriad insects and animals that will gladly make a meal out of them given the chance. Let’s take a closer look at the hidden helpers keeping your backyard free of hornets and other wasps.  What Eats Hornets and Other Wasps? You might be surprised to find that despite the creatures’ fierce reputation, the list of natural predators for wasps is actually quite long....