Posts Tagged ‘bees’

What Should I Know About The Africanized Honey Bee?

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

We have probably all heard references about Africanized Honey Bees, better known as “Killer Bees”. They have a name that may sound terrifying. However, the sting of the Africanized Honey Bee is normally no more dangerous than that of a garden variety honey bee. Their venom is no more powerful than a honey bee but because they typically sting their victims in greater numbers, more deaths can be attributed to them. However, an estimate of the total number of deaths is difficult to compute because severe allergic reactions to bee venom from any type of bee can cause death.

There are several differences between the Africanized Honey Bee and its native cousins. Some of those include the following:
• They have a higher proportion of “guard” bees within their hives. Because of this, they guard their hives aggressively.
• They have a larger alarm radius around their hives.
• They have greater defensiveness when in a resting swarm.
• They deploy in greater numbers when defending their hives.
• They pursue perceived threats over much longer distances from the hive.
• They are more likely to leave their hive and relocate in response to stress.

Africanized Honey Bees have a very close physical resemblance to other less aggressive honey bees. Because it is difficult to tell the difference you should not attempt to treat hives without proper training. If you live in the greater Los Angeles area and think you might be dealing with Africanized Honey Bees, you should contact a pest management professional as soon as possible. The staff at Accuracy Plus has the proper knowledge, experience and equipment to deal with this situation. We invite you to contact us at (888) 675-0258 for a free inspection.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Ping.fm
  • StumbleUpon
  • Suggest to Techmeme via Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • RSS

Don’t Get Rid of Africanized Bees Yourself!

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

No one enjoys bees invading their property. With the constant threat of an attack from a bee, you need to remove the bees from your house before they become a bigger problem. Even though Africanized bees look like the American bee, you will immediately notice the difference because they are territorial of their hive.

An untrained individual should not try do getting rid of African bees. They are extremely aggressive bees and do not hesitate to attack anyone who seems like a threat to their hive. Africanized bees are also called Africanized Honey Bees and Killer Bees. They will attack anyone even if you do not mean to disturb them. Getting rid of bees can be hard if there is a whole swarm of Africanized bees. With eliminating Africanized bees, you will want to get a professional involved to prevent harm to you or anyone helping you.

The sting does not make them dangerous, but they are easily provoked, swam quickly, and attack in great numbers. They are dangerous because they tend to attack anyone who seems like threat to themselves or their hive. Africanized bees have been known to pursue intruders for longer distances than honeybees. Their hives do not have to be threatened. Vibrations from vehicles, power equipment, and foot traffic can irritate these bees.

Accuracy Plus is available for all of your pest control needs. For more information about our bee treatment services, visit our site or call us at 888-675-0258.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Ping.fm
  • StumbleUpon
  • Suggest to Techmeme via Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • RSS

The Bee Dance

Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

We’ve all seen bees in our yards in the spring and summer, going from flower to flower before flitting off along their way. But how, out of all the places in the world, do bees know exactly where the flowers are, and where exactly to go? It’s all in the bee dance – the unique form of communication that bees use to tell each other when they’ve found an especially abundant bunch of flowers.

When a bee has found a flower or food source that they want to tell the other bees in the hive about, they will return to the hive and start a bee dance to tell the other bees where the food source is. In order to do the dance, the bees will use the sun as a compass and use very deliberate movements to tell the other bees not only where the food source is, but also many other things about it.

If the food source is far away, the returning bee will do a Waggle bee dance. If the food source is close by, the bee will perform a Round bee dance. The number of turns and the length of the waggles are used to describe to the other bees just what direction exactly the food is in. Also, if the returning bee performs the bee dance very quickly, it means that there is a great amount of food at the source. However if the bee dances slower, it means that there is not a lot of food at the source.

Although these are the general guidelines that bees use when communicating through the bee dance, different species will each perform the dance in their own individual way. Some bees also perform the dance while remaining outside of the hive, while others will go into meet the others before performing the dance.

Accuracy Plus can handle all of your pest control needs, both inside and outside. Visit our site for more valuable information or give us a call at 888-675-0258.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Ping.fm
  • StumbleUpon
  • Suggest to Techmeme via Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • RSS

How Do Honeybees Make Their Beehives?

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Whether you’re a beekeeper, or just an interested person, looking at a beehive is a very neat experience. This massive and complex structure, made of wax seems impossible to have been made by the small worker honeybee. But in fact they are and as like everything else associated with bees, the process is pretty fascinating.

A honeybees’ beehive is the place where the bees store honey and feed themselves when there are few natural food sources to be found. Ideally the structure is made of six-sided tubes because this allows for the most amount of honey to be stored, and because they require less wax to make. Worker bees live for only about six weeks but they spend that time working hard for the survival of the colony. Much of the work being done during that time is building the beehive.

When a worker bee turns about ten days old, they start developing a wax-producing gland in their abdomen. The worker bee then goes out and gathers pollen from different flowers. They carry this pollen in their pollen pouch, which holds a special enzyme that turns the pollen into nectar. When the bee gets back to the hive, she’ll place this nectar on her tongue so that she can transfer it to the tongue of another bee. When this happens, some of the nectar evaporates and the remaining liquid is honey.

The bees can then use this honey to make wax. The honey is passed through the gland that the worker bee developed early in life. This gland converts the honey into wax and the wax comes through the bees’ pores in the form of small flakes. The bee then chews this wax off of their bodies and places it onto the beehive to add to the structure. The wax is very pliable and easy to mold so that the bees can reshape it and reform it so that it can best fit onto the beehive.

The hexagonal shape of the honeycomb that we’re all so familiar with is used to store larvae and brood as well as additional nectar, pollen, and honey. This supplies the bees’ food supply over the winter. And when you think that building the hive is just one of the worker bees’ jobs, it’s no wonder that people often refer to truly energetic people being ‘as busy as a bee!’

Accuracy  Plus can handle all of your pest control needs, both inside and outside. Visit our site for more valuable information or give us a call at 888-675-0258.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Ping.fm
  • StumbleUpon
  • Suggest to Techmeme via Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • RSS

What Are The Different Types Of Bees?

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

All of us are familiar with bees, and can even identify some different types of bees such as the honeybee or bumblebee. In actuality, bees are part of the superfamily of insects known as Apodiea. In this superfamily, there are many different families, sub-families, tribes, and over 20,000 different species and types of bees. In North America though, there are only a few different types of bees, although there may be many different species within one specific type.

The honeybee is the type of bee that is one of the most common, and is probably the type that most of us envision when we think of bees. Honeybees are black in color with yellow stripes, are quite small in size, and have an incredibly social nature. They live in a hierarchy with the queen laying the eggs, the drones being fertile males that inseminate the queen, and the worker bees, which are the females that go out and collect pollen from flowers in order to make and store honey.

Bumblebees are often the other type of bee that many of us think of when we think of bees. Bumblebees are much larger than honeybees and they are usually equally black and yellow in color. This type of bee also often looks very hairy. Contrary to popular belief, bumblebees can sting, although there are some types in tropical climates that don’t have stingers. Bumblebees also thrive in warm weather and usually die off when the cooler weather hits. During winter months, it’s usually only the fertile females that survive.

Carpenter bees are a type of bee that look very different from both honeybees and bumblebees. Carpenter bees are metallic and black in color and they don’t have any yellow markings. They are about 2 inches in length and also unlike the two aforementioned bees, they are not social creatures and they are not capable of producing wax. They are called carpenter bees because they can burrow through wood. Wooded areas that have small holes with sawdust around them are signs that carpenter bees are nearby.

Ground bees are a type of bee that is also sometimes called the mining bee. These bees make tunnels in the ground, so that the female can then make her way through them to a chamber at the end. In this chamber, she will lay her eggs and the babies will remain there until they are large and strong enough to go out on their own. A nest of ground bees can usually be found near any tunnel that’s been burrowed into the ground.

Parasitic bees are one of the most interesting types of bees, and perhaps one of the most irritating to any other type of bee. These bees do not build their own nests, collect their own food, or have pollen brushes or pollen baskets to collect pollen. Instead, parasitic bees travel from nest to nest of other bees and live off of what they’ve collected.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Ping.fm
  • StumbleUpon
  • Suggest to Techmeme via Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • RSS

Is it a Bee? Or a Wasp?

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

When you see something yellow and black flying around in the air, you may automatically think it’s a bee. Or, you may always wonder if it’s a bee, or a wasp? The difference can be hard to tell, because bees and wasps do have so much in common, such as how they both seem to have a waist with a bauble of a body on either end. They both also have stingers and antennae, and they both fly around in the air. But what is the difference? The first major difference is that people tend to be more scared of wasps, even if they don’t know what they’re looking at. But this is for very good reason.

Although both bees and wasps have stingers, a bee’s stinger is ripped off of their body when they sting someone. This causes the bee to die after stinging and is the reason why bees can only sting once. Wasps, on the other hand, have incredibly strong stingers and they remain with the wasp even after the wasp has stung someone. Because of this, not only will a wasp not die if it stings you, but it will be able to sting you over and over again.

If you want to be able to tell if you’re near a bee or wasp, and you want to be able to tell before it stings you, you might be able to determine what the insect is just by looking at it. Bees are often much fuzzier than wasps and tend to have many hairs along their entire body, especially their legs. Wasps on the other hand, have a much more slender and smooth appearance.

Lastly, look at what the insect is near or eating if you want to be able to tell whether it’s a bee or wasp. Bees are workers and their job in life is to go out during the day and collect pollen for honey. Because of this, bees will usually be seen around flowers or live plants. Wasps, on the other hand, are scavengers and so, they will collect around anything that they can eat. This includes things like food, waste, and decaying plants.

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Ping.fm
  • StumbleUpon
  • Suggest to Techmeme via Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • RSS

Getting Bees to Buzz Off

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

When you have a bee problem, it can be quite a problem. Even though bees are amazing creatures, and they do a world of good in nature and for the environment, they can become quite the pest when you have them in or around your home. The problem is that swatting them or killing them upon sight won’t be enough to do the trick. You’ll need to find the nest that the bees live in, kill the bees inside, and then remove the hive. And before you do any of that, you first need to make sure that you know that you’re actually dealing with bees.

Start by identifying that it’s actually a bee that you’re trying to get rid of. Creatures like wasps and hornets are a whole different matter when trying to get rid of them. Do some research on the different types of infestations and then continue on with trying to get rid of your own. Once you’ve identified the bee, you’ll need to find out where it lives.

Bees are very active during the day. They’re busy going from flower to flower and collecting all of that wonderful and useful pollen. So, trying to track down the hive during daylight hours will probably prove to be futile. Instead, find the bees at dusk, preferably a group of them, and follow them as they return to their hive for the evening. Once you’ve found the hive, you’ll need to kill all the bees inside if you want to get rid of your problem.

Killing bees inside of beehive is actually pretty simple, even though it can seem quite intimidating. Dress in sweatpants, sweatshirt, gloves, and a hat, and make sure to roll your socks up over your pants so that a bee doesn’t fly up. Then, use a can of bee remover to completely spray the nest. Remember that up to six to eight thousand bees can live in one hive, so make sure it’s completely saturated with the bee killer. Once you’ve applied this once, repeat again the next evening to make sure that all the bees are gone. Once you’re sure, you’ll need to remove the hive so that it doesn’t become a home for future colonies.

If the hive is in a tree, knock it down and completely destroy it. The hive may smell like honey for awhile after the bees are gone, which will only make it a nice home for other bees. Make sure it’s completely destroyed and throw it out. If the hive is in the siding of a house, a professional may be necessary for removal. And if the hive is in a hole in the ground, destroy the hive and then fill the hole up completely with mud or sand to remove the honey smell entirely.

Always make sure that you’re well protected when trying to get rid of bees. Their stings can be quite nasty and when you have that many of them, can be a real health risk if you’re not careful.

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Ping.fm
  • StumbleUpon
  • Suggest to Techmeme via Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • RSS

Bees!

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Bees are one of the most beneficial species of insects for humankind.  Not only do they ensure the annual blooming of important plants and flowers, but they make honey and wax which we use for everything from food to cosmetics. However, bees aren’t always the most welcome addition to your property.   Despite their usefulness bees can also be dangerous, particularly to children and pets that inadvertently disturb them.  They can also be a serious health threat to people who have allergic reactions to bee stings.

Since bees are social creatures, they often live in large colonies which can survive for years.  If you see them around in a specific area, you can assume there is a hive containing several hundred to a thousand of these critters somewhere close by. 

Other insects related to common honey bees include wasps and hornets, both of which are substantially dangerous and can be highly aggressive, especially if provoked.  This makes removing them en masse a risky proposition, and not something that is recommended to the average homeowner. Professional pest control services have both experience and specialized tools which help them to remove these colonies.

Bees, wasps and hornets can build their nests indoors or out.  It is not unheard of for bees to chew through soft wall structures and set up shop within.  Signs that you have bees in your walls include hearing noise, dead bees, shed skins and pieces of wax combs scattered about.   Once they are removed you should seal up the entrance and check the rest of the perimeter of your home to make sure there are not other entry points.

Unless you’ve been trained in handling bees, it is best to call a pest control services like Accuracy Plus California.  These professionals can help you get rid of your bee colony and advise you on the best ways to prevent any future reoccurrence.  For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to www.accuracypluscalifornia.com.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Ping.fm
  • StumbleUpon
  • Suggest to Techmeme via Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • RSS

How To Rid Your Home Of Bees and Hornets

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Bees and Hornets are extremely dangerous and treating them should be done with great care.  Remember that any time you attempt to engage with bees or hornets you run the risk of being attacked, so if you see a hive or nest on your property you should think long and hard about how you want to handle it before you do anything.

Even if you are only going to inspect the hive, try to do so at night when the insects are less likely to be active.  You should also wear protective clothing including light colored overalls, gloves with high sleeves, and a hat with a secure veil.   However, unless you have been specifically trained to handle bees or hornets, it is not wise to poke around much at all.

You have two options for removing them from your property.  First, find out if there is a local beekeeper who would be willing to come out and transfer the hive to their property.  There are many small honey producing beekeepers who may be interested in acquiring a new colony.  These individuals are experienced in handling bees and will have the equipment needed to remove them safely from your property.

The other option is to call a professional pest control service.  Obviously they will have to kill the bees, but if there is no other option for disposing of them, it is certainly a better option that putting your family at risk for serious injury.  A professional pest control service will also be trained in handling these creatures safely. 

Remember, if you have any known allergy to bee or hornet stings, or if you aren’t sure you are allergic do not risk going anywhere near a hive or colony.  Call for help immediately and stay safe!  For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to www.accuracypluscalifornia.com

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • Sphinn
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Ping.fm
  • StumbleUpon
  • Suggest to Techmeme via Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Twitter
  • Yahoo! Bookmarks
  • RSS