A bee is an insect from the bee family (Apidae). In our country, the honey bee is the most common, but other bees can also be found in nature. A bee is often mistaken for a wasp and is therefore regarded as a nuisance insect. Meanwhile, bees are very useful - they pollinate plants and give honey. What does a bee look like? How to distinguish it from a wasp? Do bees sting?

The bee(Apis) is an insect from the bee family (Apidae). The most useful is the honey bee that lives with others in swarms. The number of these insects in one swarm ranges from about 20,000 to even 100,000 bees. Each swarm has one queen, hundreds of drones and thousands of workers.

All Apini species (and the genus Apis) produce honey. The most expansive species is the honey bee, which lives in Europe, where it was domesticated, as well as in Africa, America, Australia and New Zealand, where it has been imported.

Other types of bees - giant bees and dwarf bees - currently live in the wild in Asia, Africa and South America.

Bee - what do bees look like?

The body of bees ranges from 7-8 mm to 16-18 mm. The color of the bee can be different: black, dark brown, red-orange and even yellow. Their wings are made of a transparent film.

Bee vs wasp - differences

A bee and a wasp, although apparently very similar to each other, are actually very different from each other. Bees have a hairy and stockier body than wasps.

They also have a less pronounced constriction between the torso and abdomen. Wasps are larger - they can be as long as 25 mm.

In addition, wasps do not have a special basket like honey bees, because they do not collect nectar from flowers and do not produce honey.

Bees are peaceful by nature. Only irritating the bees provokes them to attack. Wasps, on the other hand, are very aggressive and can attack unchallenged.

The wasp does not lose its sting after a sting, and the bee dies after an attack on a human. By leaving the stinger in our body, a bee destroys some internal organs attached to it and therefore dies.

Bees build their nests above the ground, most often on trees, and wasps on the ground or in the ground.

Beesthey only eat plant food, and wasps can also eat animal food, which is why they can often be found around human food (e.g. meat, sweets, etc.).

The queen lives up to about 5 years, the drones up to a year, and the workers 5-6 weeks.

Bee - do bees sting?

Female bees have a sting at the end of their abdomen. They mainly use it to fight other bees, but they don't usually sting.

The only variety of the aggressive bee is the African honey bee, known as the "killer bee". Just being near the nest may provoke her to attack. Bee venom is not dangerous to he althy people - a bee sting only causes swelling. A sting may be life-threatening only in the case of an allergy to bee venom.

In such a situation, even life-threatening anaphylactic shock may occur. Life threatening for a he althy adult is about one hundred stings.

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Hornet - the enemy of bees

Dangerous enemies of bees are hornets, which attack the bees' nests in swarms, destroy them and eat the larvae. However, bees can defend themselves against them.

Before the entire herd of hornets attacks the bees, one scout first appears, the bees surround him in a ball, and he dies in about 10 minutes from overheating.

This is because the maximum temperature that a hornet can endure is 46 degrees Celsius and a bee is 47.

Bees give honey and more

Honey bees feed on the nectar and pollen of the flowers they collect. Bees are equipped with special baskets that are used to store and carry pollen. In this way, they pollinate insect-pollinated plants (e.g. fruit trees). To collect nectar per 1 kg of honey, bees need to visit about 4 million flowers.

Honey bees play a very important role in the pollination process due to the fact that their swarms are numerous. They are also characterized by "flower fidelity", i.e. focusing on pollinating one area, e.g. rapeseed fields, buckwheat, raspberries, fruit orchards.

Honey bees produce honey, wax, pollen, propolis and royal jelly, which have a positive effect on human he alth.

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Massive bee extinction syndrome

Massive bee extinctions CCD (ColonyCollapse Disorder concerns honey bees. It manifests itself in their mass extinction outside the hive (flying bees), which results in the death of entire families. The causes of CCD are

  • large amount of pesticides during flowering of plants
  • increase in urbanization
  • decrease in bee immunity
  • global warming
  • Israeli paralysis of bees virus
  • parasites
  • increased resignation of beekeepers from running beehives

Experts calculate that if current trends continue, bees may disappear completely by 2035.

Recently, increased extinction of bees has been observed in the USA and Western Europe. However, this phenomenon was already registered in the 1990s. Initially, however, the cause of CCD was not fully known, and the disease was dubbed a "mystery disease" or "vanishing disease".

Until 2007, commercial beekeepers reported huge bee losses: losses were 30-90% of the bee population. In addition to America, this phenomenon was also recorded in Europe, where in 2010 there was a decrease of 50% of the population. The mass disappearance of bees has serious consequences. First of all, it causes losses in the production of oilseeds, vegetables and fruits.

Another consequence of the dying out of bees is a sharp decline in the number of honey-producing insects. The mass extinction of bees also prevents the reproduction of wild plant species.

Fortunately, we see the importance of these insects for our lives more and more often. Recently, there has even been a new trend of building hives in cities - the so-called urban beekeeping.

Beehives appear all over the world, e.g. on the roofs of various buildings - theaters, hotels or government institutions.

In Poland, we can also boast of an increasing number of such urban apiaries - they are located in home gardens, on squares, and even on the roofs of tenement houses and hotels.

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