1. Getting Friendly with Bees & Wasps

2. Evolutionary Relationships
Gall Wasps
Parasitic
Fig Wasps
Hymenoptera
(wasps)
Yellow Jackets, Hornets, Paper Wasps
Ants
Stingers
Mud Dauber Wasps
Orchard Mason Bees
Honeybees, Bumblebees
Diptera (flies)
Beeflies, Hoverflies

3. Yellow Jackets Picnic pests, aggressive, sting and bite.
Body solid and heavy
Nests are usually in ground
Capable of multiple stings
When aerial, nests are enclosed
Picnic pests, aggressive, sting and bite.
Nature’s garbage disposers.

4. Paper Wasps
Yellow Jacket Paper Wasp
Compact, dense Dainty, slender
Body slender, legs dangle in flight
Be nice to me!
Nests always open, common under eaves
Beneficial, non-aggressive pollinators, feed on garden pests.
They are not interested in your BBQ chicken!

5. Hornets Not aggressive unless you threaten a nest, then look out!
Hornets are larger
than Yellow Jackets
Black and white,
no yellow
Nests are usually in trees or shrubs and can be basketball size!
Not aggressive unless you threaten a nest, then look out!
Primarily predators, not scavengers.

6. Mud Dauber Wasps
Exaggerated petiole (waist)
Larva feed on spiders
Black & Yellow Mud Dauber
Nests are mud blocks or tubes, have been implicated in several airplane crashes!
Blue Mud Dauber
Up to an inch long, they look scary but virtually never sting.
Beneficial pollinators and pest predators.

7. Honeybees Docile, non-aggressive pollinators.
Attracted to flowers by nectar, also eat pollen
Stinger is barbed, its use kills the bee
Entire colony will relocate in swarms
Docile, non-aggressive pollinators.

8. Less-known Honeybee Facts
Not native to North America: Introduced to east coast in Reached west coast in 1853.
Honey = Bee vomit. Produced by enzymatic processing and regurgitation of nectar. Antibiotic, stores forever.
Wax – Produced in small flakes by glands on the underside of the bee’s abdomen.
Hive Temperature – Bees cluster and “shiver”,
keeping hive temperature 81-93° year-round.
Royal Jelly – Fed to all larvae for 3 days, to queen larvae throughout their development. It epigenetically suppresses DNA methylation resulting in different adult morphology.

9. Bumblebees 16 species native to PNW, 15 others introduced
Nest in small colonies, prefer cavities
“Honeypots” instead of honeycomb
Forage plants targeted based on tongue length
16 species native to PNW, 15 others introduced
Queens overwinter underground

10. Bumblebees

11. Bumblebee flight: Impossible?
“Dynamic Stall”
When the angle of a wing increases, a vortex is formed
across the top surface, greatly increasing lift.

12. Orchard Mason Bees North American natives, beneficial pollinators
Look like bluish flies
Each chamber has a larva and a pile of pollen
Male emerging
The two outer chambers are male larvae, which hatch first, and wait….
Nest block
(5/16” holes,
1-3” deep)
North American natives, beneficial pollinators
Very gentle, no sting

13. Orchard Mason Bees North American natives, beneficial pollinators
Look like bluish flies
Each chamber has a larva and a pile of pollen
Male emerging
The two outer chambers are male larvae, which hatch first, and wait….
Nest block
(5/16” holes,
1-3” deep)
North American natives, beneficial pollinators
Very gentle, no sting

14. Oak Gall Wasps Tiny and stingless, rarely more than ¼” long
When mature, young wasp emerges
Females lay eggs on underside of oak leaf
Hormones induce oak to form galls, which feed & protect the developing larva
- Adults do not eat
- Sex is optional
- Trees are unharmed
Tiny and stingless, rarely more than ¼” long

15. Fig Wasps Not every fig has dead wasps within, but many do. “Syconium”
Inverted flowers
Ostiole (entry)
Larva develop in fig, males fertilize females (siblings).
Then they die. In the fig.
Immature fig is not really a fruit. It is inverted flowers within a casing. They need the fig wasp to pollinate them.
Female wasp enters
through ostiole, lays
eggs & pollinates fig.
Then she dies. In the fig.
Females emerge & repeat. Figs absorb dead wasps.
Not every fig has dead wasps within, but many do.

16. Dozens of species, all stingless, all beneficial!
Beeflies & Hoverflies
Beefly
Hoverfly
- Important pollinators
- Larva parasitize wasp larva
- Furry with long (harmless) proboscis
- Larvae feed on aphids
- Distinctive flying motion
- Yellow stripes partial
Dozens of species, all stingless, all beneficial!

17. Questions?