Subject: honey bees?? or wasps?
Location: detroit, michigan, u.s.a.
April 5, 2017 7:44 pm
every spring (now later march early april) i get many of the attached ?bees? all over my kid’s bright yellow slide. they also hover all over the buds of my maple trees. i used to spray to kill them and then figured if these are honey bees i don’t want to kill them all off. they have odd white noses like some wasps (bald faced wasp) but the wings look like a bee, yet the hind legs do not.
Signature: john n
Dear John,
These are neither Honey Bees nor Wasps, but they are Solitary Bees. We are pretty confident these are male Longhorned Bees in the tribe Eucerini based on images posted to BugGuide. Male Bees are incapable of stinging, and female Longhorned Bees are very reluctant to sting. Since they pose no threat to your children, and since they are native pollinators, we hope you dispense with the insecticide.
Thanks so much!
I am glad I chose not to continue trying to eliminate of them this year … I originally had many problems with ants and had thought these were young queens, but this year I paused and looked closely and suspected it being a bee.
John