HONEYBEES  CCD

YELLOW JACKETS

OTHER BEES 

TREES
Usually found in trees either on the branch or in a hole. Honeybees can move into vacant bird and owl boxes.

HOMES
Honeybees will move into any structure that they feel can facilitate their honey harvesting. In wood frame homes, bees like to get between the studs and if let go a long time can store enough honey to fill the space from the ceiling to the floor.

The honey can be removed from either side of the wall preferably the softer side. STUCCO exteriors are more difficult to cut than wood.
BLOCK homes are also susceptible to bee invasions when there is a hole on the outside that they can get in. Blocks stacked on top of one another creates vertical columns that they can store their honey for the winter.
SOFFITS also have voids where honey bees like to get inside and build their honeycombs. HONEYBEES CAN GET INSIDE YOUR HOUSE AND YOU CAN TELL WHEN YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WHEN YOU SEE HONEYBEES ON YOUR WINDOW SILL.
SHEDS often have a raised floor where the bees can move in and attach their nest to the underside of the shed floor.
Water meters all have that hole in the lid for easy opening. Bees like to live in water meters as well.
MOBILE HOMES have plywood flooring with fiberglass and then a plastic type liner. Honeybees like to move in to certain sections under the floor where there is little or no fiber glass. In some cases their hive cannot be accessed from under the trailer so the floor has to be pulled up to get to the bee hive.
CONSTRUCTION SITES are common place to get migrating swarms, their original homes get bull-dozed and so some often rest on nearby equipment or some other structure.
POWER POLES that are hollow inside like cement ones provide a lot of room for honeybees and are often seen flying near the top.
Honeybees can bee found anywhere there is enough space for them to build their honeycombs and store their honey such as SIGNS, FENCES, FURNITURE, FLOWER POTS, GARBAGE CANS, RVS AND CAMPERS,  WIRE SPOOLS, BOATS, AROUND ELECTRIC LIGHT FIXTURES, DOG HOUSES, UNDER PORCHES, AROUND WATER SPIGOTS.
HONEYBEES have been known to sting people and pets when aggravated.
HIVE BEETLES can be found in some bees hives and become more active when the bees are dead or gone, they like to eat the honey and the combs.
LEAKING HONEY can be noticed if the bees are exterminated and left in the wall.

TREES
Also can be found in trees either on the branch or in a hole. Yellow jackets can also move into vacant bird and owl boxes.

BIOLOGY

Colonies are found in the spring by a single queen that mated the previous fall and overwintered as an adult, usually under the bark of a log. Nests may be aerial or terrestrial, depending in part upon the species of the wasp. Some species may construct both types of nest. Regardless of location, each nest is a series of horizontal combs completely surrounded by a paper envelope. Initially, the solitary queen must not only construct the paper brood cells, but also forage for food, lay eggs, feed her progeny, and defend the next from intruders. When the first offspring emerge as adults they assume all tasks except egg laying. The queen devotes the remainder of her life to this task and does not leave the nest again. For most of the season the colony consists of sterile worker females which are noticeably smaller than the queen. Each worker tends to persist at a given task, such as nest building or feeding larvae, for a given day, but may change tasks if the need arises.
Working habits apparently are not associated with age as they are in the honeybee. Workers progressively feed larvae a diet of masticated flesh of adult and immature insects, other arthropods, and fresh carrion. Lepidopterous larvae appear to be a favorite food. In autumn, larger cells are constructed for the crop of new queens. Larvae in these cells receive more food than do those in normal cells. At the same time, the queen begins to lay unfertilized or male eggs in either large or small cells. After emergence, the new queens mate and seek shelter for the winter. These will be the founders of next spring's colonies. The old founder queen dies, and the workers begin to behave erratically until social order breaks down. With winter's arrival, the remaining colony dies.

YELLOWJACKETS are commonly found in the GROUND, PAMPAS GRASS, UNDER MOBILE HOMES and OFFICES, PALM TREES, NEAR FENCE LINE, roots of FERNS. They can get INTO HOUSES and HOMES, SHEDS. IN ROLLS OF CARPETS, ON PICNIC TABLES.

Bumble bee, Bombus spp. .
It nests underground in colonies of several hundred individuals. The nests are usually in abandoned rodent burrows, in mulch, or under logs or debris. The abdomen of the bumble bee is covered with hairs.

Cicada_killer-Specius_speciosus .
It is 40 mm long and black with pale-yellow markings on the last three abdominal segments. It is a solitary wasp, but colonies of wasps nest in the same location. Each female digs its own hole up to 10 inches deep. It stings and paralyzes cicadas, placing one in the hole with an egg. Closely related species attack and kill flies.

Paper wasp, Polistes spp.
It is usually yellow with brown markings or black with red or yellow markings. These wasps are aggressive and they readily sting. People are usually stung while trimming shrubbery or cleaning nests from eaves of houses.

Baldfaced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata (Linnaeus):

The baldfaced hornet constructs aerial nests often a foot or more in diameter. The wasp is easily recognized by its black and white color and by a black anterior half or more (terga I-III) of the abdomen which is black. Relatively little is known about this species despite its abundance and wide distribution.
Aerial nest of the baldfaced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata (Linnaeus).