In the Garden

Backyard Bees Help Put Food on the Table

By Pat Naughton

What do you call a 6-week-old worker honey bee? ...A senior buzz. Bees are extremely active foraging for food, storing nectar, feeding larvae, and producing honey, and only live for 6 weeks. There is no time for retirement. There are 560 species of bees in North Carolina. Bees are essential. Animal pollinators are responsible for pollinating 87 percent of flower and 75 percent of crop plants. Bees are commonly associated with having a hive but 60 percent of bees are solitary. They are their own queen and worker. Bees that live in a hive are called social: A queen, drones, and worker bees work together to help the colony survive. They make up 16 percent. Parasite bees make up 24 percent. They don’t collect pollen but sneak into other bees’ nest to lay their eggs.

Yikes! Bees

Finding a bee nest in the backyard can be unsettling. Bees that make a nest in the ground are called miner bees. They are generally solitary and only the female will sting if threatened. The nest will be evident by small holes in the ground on bare soil. If possible, leave nests undisturbed.

Bee nests can be a nuisance. To discourage ground nesting bees, place a landscape fabric over the area or cover it with mulch. Or just let them continue their solitary lives. Carpenter bees bore holes in wood to make a nest. Wood decks and overhangs are prime targets for nests. Unless there are a large number of bees, there is no challenge to the structural integrity of the wood. They do eliminate their waste before entering the tunnel. This results in a yellowish-brown stain visible beneath the hole. Wood-peckers may cause further damage in search of bee larvae in the tunnel.

Carpenter bees are not threatening. Only the female stings and will only do so when highly agitated. The males are highly territorial and will harass other bees and people that venture near the nest. To reduce nesting activity, treat the entrance holes with an insecticidal spray or dust. Products containing carbaryl (Sevin), malathion or resmethrin are suitable. Since abandoned tunnels may serve as overwintering sites, or be reused next spring, it is important that they be plugged with wooden dowels or wood putty.

Top, from le : Carpenter bee and bumblebee. Bo om: Yellow jacket (a wasp) and honeybee.

Air Bee and Bee

Bee also nest in stems and holes in wood. These types of bees are known as renters. You can promote this type of bee by putting up a bee hotel. Hotels are usually the size of a bird house and have small tubes for bees to build nests. The tubes should be cleaned out every few years. Yellow jackets nest in the ground, but they are not bees. They can be aggressive when the nest is disturbed. Yellow jackets are beneficial because they prey on many insects that we consider to be pests. Nest should be left undisturbed if possible. You may want to mark the area to avoid going near the nest. To control the nest, spray the opening with wasp or hornet spray around dusk when most of the insects are in the nest. Do not pour gasoline down the hole of a nest. This is extremely dangerous, as it is a flammable hazard and does immense damage to the environment. A bee sting may hurt but a world without them would be more painful. Bees are responsible for pollinating one in three bites of food we eat. Imagine that diner plate with one third less food. Ouch, that hurts.

To learn more about backyard bees visit Dr. Elsa Youngsteadt’s YouTube presentation “Get to Know the Wild Bees in Your Yard” (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=-yGbpqX_ZQM). Dr. Youngstead is an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Ecology at N.C. State University.