What kind of bee is this?

[alternate]

http://www.iag.org.uk/image_new/bees.jpg

Is it harmful to get stung by it?

I killed one today.

Found it. It's a wasp.

http://www.derbyshire-bka.org.uk/wiki/images/Wasp.jpg

Getting stung 300 times is enough to die... according to source, so don't fall asleep with one in your room?

[Sylvander]

I once allowed a bee to drink fluid from the tear-duct corner of my eye. :)

When it had enough it flew away.
I had to keep my nerve to stand there waiting for it to finish as I knew it would.

I'd guess the flow of tear fluid increased a little as I stood waiting.

When I was a small boy I quite routinely would catch a bee using two cupped hands over a flower head of clover.
Only got stung once.

[FrankSG]

When I was a kid we had a dog--a Cocker Spaniel. It was always trying to catch what we used to call a bumble bee--one of those big fussy things. I don't know why but there was always a lot of those around where we used to live. I got stung by one once and it was painful. Anyway, whenever one would fly by our dog, she would try to catch it with her mouth. One day I said to my dad, "Hey pop can't we train Queenie (that was her name) not to try to catch those bumble bees. MY dad said, "Don't worry. She's going to teach herself one day." I asked how she was going to train herself. My dad said, "One day she'll catch one.":cool: Wouldn't you know it. One day she succeeded and caught one in her mouth. I had never seen such yelping and carrying on as did that dog when she caught the bee. My pop was right. She learned her lesson and never tried again. Wouldn't it be nice if we humans could learn that quick? I should learn a lesson from Queeenie. Sometimes I have to make mistake after mistake before I finally learn.

[pentachris]

That's a yellowjacket. Last year there was a rash of huge (small car sized) nests with hundreds of thousands of yellowjackets popping up around the southern half of my state (Alabama).

They usually nest in the ground, but they occasionally nest above ground. One day when I was a kid my friends and I were in the woods and someone swung a stick in the air and disturbed a jellowjacket nest in a tree. They came out by the scores to chase us away. They chased us through a briar patch, and we all came out with stings from the yellowjackets and scrapes and cuts from the briars. I was stung three times, one of the guys was stung many more (8 or 10, I think).

...a bumble bee--one of those big fussy things. I don't know why but there was always a lot of those around where we used to live. I got stung by one once and it was painful.

A few years after the yellowjacket incident, I was helping my father carry something in the field behind our house and a bumblebee flew up very close to me. I told my dad and he told me just to be still. So I stayed still as a stone, and the bumblebee popped me.

"He got me," I told my dad. "Just stay still," he said.

The bumblebee popped me again.

"He got me again - can I drop this and run now?!?"

We put down what we were carrying so I could get away while my dad chuckled and told me to go ahead and get away. I didn't think it was all that funny... :rolleyes:

[Variable]

I don't think the top picture and bottom picture are the same critter. The first one looks like it has bee legs while the bottom one looks like a wasp.

I have been stung by almost every creature that can do it. Worst ones so far are ground nesting bees, they are prickly. I ran over a nest with my mower and got hit 15-20 times. One went up my shorts and got me, the little bastard. I actually ran away a bit that time - sans shorts.

No killer bees here yet, they seem to be a nastier breed. Supposedly, if you get near a killer bee nest, the bees will actually fly and bump into you. That is their first sign that you are in their territory. Take heed!

I saw a Discovery channel show that said getting stung is good for your immune system. Perhaps the host was a Nietzche fan. I have no fear of bee's or wasps normally, I don't mind the stings (in most places.) I think most critters sense fear. If you have no fear of them, they seem to not bother you much; unless you attack them in some way. At least that is my experience.

[FrankSG]

. One went up my shorts and got me,

I won't ask you where it "got you.":eek:

[alternate]

http://i11.tinypic.com/4m7kqhc.jpg

http://i7.tinypic.com/6gx1p9j.jpg

http://i9.tinypic.com/4vfl4kg.jpg

I shrieked, no doubt. I haven't seen one in at least 13 or so years, if I've ever seen one.

It was moving around in its final moments of life injured. Afterwards, I sprayed it with hair spray and then covered it in the corner with shaving cream. It's still there (cream expanded, of course).

[deddard]

Can't give you a definitive answer, but the two pics are definitely two different beasties.
the top one is a bee, the bottom is a wasp.
Wasps are carniverous gits who sting for the fun of it!
Bees tend to be more placid (although there are some nasty ones)

Right now in the UK we're having problems with Honey Bees being attacked by some foreign critters.
Hopefully it doesn't get like the 'Killer' Bee thing in the US (where a cross-breed was created, hoping to create a placid, heavily cropping Bee........oops, genetics got the wrong way round!)

[pentachris]

I don't think the top picture and bottom picture are the same critter. The first one looks like it has bee legs while the bottom one looks like a wasp.

Can't give you a definitive answer, but the two pics are definitely two different beasties.
the top one is a bee, the bottom is a wasp.

For some reason, I can't get some pages with the .uk top level domain here at work. I can only see the bottom image - and that's definitely what we call a yellowjacket.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Imo, a bumblebee sting is nowhere near as painful as a wasp or hornet at least one on one. Been there, done that. Ground bees also are weak in a pain scale to paper wasps and yellow jackets. A swarm of bees is another matter.

Most bees have barbed stingers and can only sting once where the stinger is yanked from their body as they fly away or are or are swatted off. The sac of venom remains attached to the extricated stinger and should be removed ASAP before it empties into the host. Wasps and hornets on the other hand, have no barbs and can live to sting repeatedly at will.

That is, if you fail to 'smoosh' them :mad:

Here's (http://www.metacafe.com/watch/206326/10_giant_japanese_hornets_vs_10_000_honey_bees/) a cool video of some Japanese hornets raiding a honey bee hive. :cool:

[iduser105]

but 10000 honey bees finally failed the war, right ?

[pentachris]

Imo, a bumblebee sting is nowhere near as painful as a wasp or hornet at least one on one. Been there, done that. Ground bees also are weak in a pain scale to paper wasps and yellow jackets. A swarm of bees is another matter.

I'll agree with all that, but the most painful stings I've ever felt came from saddleback caterpillars. I remember one I got on my knee - I couldn't rest my full weight on that leg for a little while. OUCH!

[Whyzman]

Whoa...looks nasty! Drat...the image gets buggered when uploading to photobucket...I'll have to see if I can do it another way... :(

[Whyzman]

http://members.aol.com:/whyzman/images/saddleback.jpgThar she be!!! :D

[pentachris]

Yep, one of those things. Excruciating pain.

[Whyzman]

Looks so cute!...and prickly... :eek:

[malcore]

That looks nasty indeed. I remember climbing in Taiwan a few years back and came across a fellow being tended to after being stung by a nettle caterpillar. Not only was he in pain, but he was short of breath and they had to rush him off to the hospital. Very nasty.

the image gets buggered when uploading to photobucket

Hehe, you just can't resist can you Whyzman? :D

[Whyzman]

I too, in my youth, cupped many a "bumble bee" and held it up to my ear to listen to the buzzing...and show-off to my friends! :rolleyes:

One fine day,with a chance to demonstrate my apiarian prowess to the neighborhood goddess, I proceeded to cup a "honey bee" with the cavalier nonchalance portrayed by the likes of Ian Fleming. However, there was no buzzing to be heard...perhaps I had missed as I sideways glanced to see if her highness was indeed watching!? Slowly opening my cupped hands revealed the little critter, perhaps a bit shaken...but definitely not stirred...with his little barbed aparatus neatly stuck into my palm! I didn't much care for the role of court jester...:D

[Whyzman]

Hehe, you just can't resist can you Whyzman? :DIt's my nature...

[Variable]

The single worst sting I have had I did not know what did it. I was in the woods, and I assumed it was a centipede or the like. I was sitting next to a tree. I know it had bright colors, and when I flung my hand up it flew off and I couldn't find it. Now I am pretty sure this was the critter. It was sharp blaring pain for about an 45 minutes.

[stefanus]

Little bit of info' re AHB (African Honey Bee) Apis Mellifera Scutellata. Commonly called The Killer Bee in the US. I kept bees in Afrca. The African type. Had a friend who could harvest the honey from their hives with out wearing protective clothing. I kept ten Langstroth hives. The bees could be docile except on very hot dry days and then one must approach with care. Most of the harvesting was undertaken at night time, useing smokers, burning dry cattle dung. Be very carefull the sting is quite potent.:cool:


Africanized Honey (Killer) Bee
Africanized Honey Bee, variety of honey bee derived by hybridization from African honey bees naturalized in the western hemisphere. Because they are highly defensive and will attack perceived intruders more readily than the common European honey bee, they are also known by the popular name killer bees.
African honey bee queens were imported by Brazilian scientists in the 1950s in order to breed a honey bee for use in tropical climates. Some swarms escaped into the wild. Because they were highly adapted for tropical survival and had no natural competitors, they thrived and spread rapidly through South America, extending their range by as much as 500 km (300 mi) per year. By the 1980s, Africanized honey bees had reached Central America and soon colonized Mexico. In 1990 the first swarm was found in the United States. The bees spread from Texas to New Mexico and Arizona and then into California by 1994.

The bees reached an apparent climatic limit to their southern range in the middle of Argentina, and their range is expected to be similarly limited to the southern and coastal states in the United States. They have hybridized to some extent with resident wild and hive populations of European honey bees. However, many of the basic African honey bee traits remain, including rapid population growth, frequent swarming, minimal hoarding of honey, the ability to survive on sparse supplies of pollen and nectar, and a highly defensive nature.

Africanized honey bees are more difficult to manage than European honey bees and produce less honey. The businesses of many beekeepers in Latin American countries have failed as a result of Africanization of the native hives. Africanized honey bees are not expected to have the same impact in the United States because of advanced beekeeping technology and climatic limitations on the spread of the species. Africanization of bee hives can be prevented by the annual introduction of new European queens to each colony. Africanized honey bees have increased the number of human deaths due to bee stings in Mexico and Argentina and probably in other countries. In the United States, however, although more people have been stung by bees since 1990, no more bee-related deaths than usual have been recorded.

Scientific classification: Africanized honey bees are considered hybrids of African honey bees. They belong to the family Apidae in the order Hymenoptera and are classified as Apis mellifera scutellata.

[ch91woo]

http://www.iag.org.uk/image_new/bees.jpg

Is it harmful to get stung by it?

I killed one today.

Found it. It's a wasp.

http://www.derbyshire-bka.org.uk/wiki/images/Wasp.jpg

Getting stung 300 times is enough to die... according to source, so don't fall asleep with one in your room?

That's not true for some people. In my town I see two couples purposely putting bees on their skin and getting stung. They think it is good for their health. Apparently, they get stung about 400 times a day. Pretty crazy eh?

[gracious]

We have all kinds of wasps flying around and they don't bother us. There was a nest of small black wasps nesting in a bush that I was trimming, they came out like migs and were so fast, I got stung 3x before I knew what hit me. I am not sure what they were, just small and black and nasty.

The thing that I hate the most down here in south Alabama are the Yellow Flies.

http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/livestock/yellow_fly01.jpg

When they bite it hurts like heck and I usually swell up like I have elephantitis. It itches and hurts at the same time. When they attack, it is like they target you and if you get up to leave those buggers will follow you.

They are worse than deer flies! You could be 20 miles out in the Gulf fishing and out of no where you will have yellow flies attacking you.:eek:

[pentachris]

The thing that I hate the most down here in south Alabama are the Yellow Flies.

Down in your neck of the woods, gracious, I hate the biting gnats. I don't encounter them all the time when I'm down near the coast, but I encounter them much more often there than in central to north central Alabama. And if they're around, they're buzz-bombing MY legs and no one else's. I guess I've got some sort of animal attraction or something... :rolleyes: :D

[gracious]

they're buzz-bombing MY legs and no one else's. I guess I've got some sort of animal attraction or something...
as my hubbie would say it's because you are sweet meat! LOL! Yeah I finally figured out why everyone wanted me to come to their picnics...4th of July...it's because I was the mosquito repellent....I would be eaten alive while everyone else was playing frisbee or eating a hot dog, taking a snooze...LMBO!

I like that, Buzz-bombing...tee hee, very good description. Well of course the noseeums are a real treat, the gnats where I live aren't too bad, but once I was in a walmart and they were every where in the friggin store. Drove me nuts! The other bug which is totally harmless, well they don't bite or anything are the love bugs, but these guys are horrible to your automobiles, worse than trying to get tree sap off your car. Their little corpses are glued to the front grill and the acid off their little bods damage the paint!!! :mad:

But ultimately for me it is those dang yellow flies. We have a mosquito magnet that catches them as well and it is so satisfying to look in the catch and see them all in, wanting to attack you but they can't!!:D

[reddragon]

to answer the first question . the ferst pic is a honey bee and most people that get stung only have some pain unless you have an alergy to them.most of the time they will not sting becouse they die when they do. they will sting to protect the hive so you should be ok.

[Paleo Pete]

OK you just had to post this and get me interested...now I'll be up half the night looking at pictures of every yellowjacket and wasp I can find...

You actually have THREE different critters there. The top picture in the first post I think is a bee that I have been unable to identify yet, the second picture is a yellowjacket. I'm really tempted to call it the Aerial Yellowjacket (http://sphs.angeltowns.net/A_R_Wehrle/wasps/darenaria.html) but the markings are not quite right and I haven't gotten a definite ID yet.

Notice the black area in the first yellow band on the abdomen, that is not present in the Aerial yellowjacket linked above, it just has a wide black vee shape in the first band. The bands are different widths also. The other markings are similar but not quite the same, and I haven't found that one yet, but it could also be a drone or male I haven't seen pictured yet. That's a nice shot of the markings on the head, so far I haven't run across another good shot to cross reference.

Later in the second post, the picture with the warning sign, is a completely different critter. The markings are different yet and the antennae are red, not black as in the top post. In particular the first abdomen band has a shape of an arrow in the middle. The second band is more like two yellow spots rather than an actual band. I'm still looking but haven't found anything I'm satisfied with and none with the red antennae. And of course, you'll see in the second link below other flying insects strongly resemble bees and wasps too. These are both yellowjackets though, I'm pretty sure of that.

Some good info can be found Here (http://entomology.unl.edu/images/yelljacks/yelljacks.htm) and some tips on identification Here (http://wasps.ucr.edu/waspid.html).

The bee has me curious...that's not a typical honey bee, the yellow bands on the abdomen are not even close to wide enough and so far none of the bee links I've checked has had a picture of anything close. Honey Bee (http://greensmiths.com/honey.htm)

The ones that give me the most trouble are red wasps, we have those aplenty here in Louisiana and in Texas where I was for the past 30 years.

When I was about 14 I floated into a huge nest of them on a lake and was stung upwards of 40 times on my arms, legs, neck, face and back. The nest was over a foot in diameter and well stocked with bright red wasps that got really mad really quick when the back of my head bumped into their happy home. I didn't know they were there till about dozen popped me in about 5 seconds, all on my neck, ears and face. Fortunately I'm not allergic to them but was sick for two days and had a fever the first day. It was not fun...my entire head swelled...along with arms and legs, I could still barely move my fingers the next day.

Since then I've been stung plenty times but usually only once and it is painful but not very bothersome.

Oh and I like the pic of the caterpillar, that's a great shot. Don't think I've ever seen one of those.

[alternate]

The bee next to the warning sign (of the window) is the one that I actually encountered; the first two pictures were rushed selections of pictures of bees that looked 'close' enough before i had the idea to take pictures with my camera. Actually i thought the first picture is possibly a photoshop of different bees; at first i didn't think it was real. They seem to be quite commonplace in central PA, where I currently am. I'ven't really noticed them before around here.

[George Hallam]

well its not a bee bt it looks a cool moth saw it on our BBQ area and took a pic though it was a branch at first

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/2187/picture155ua0.jpg

[pentachris]

well its not a bee bt it looks a cool moth saw it on our BBQ area and took a pic though it was a branch at first

It's interesting that you thought it was a branch. It's actually supposed to look like bird poop, to keep birds from eating it. I read or saw on television some time ago that there are hundreds of moth species in North America that use bird poop as their camouflage.

Coincidentally, I snapped a few pix of an interesting moth last night. Click the pic to go to the full sized original.

(George Hallam: sizing that pic down a bit would be very kind of you, thanks.)

http://pentachris.com/images/IMG_3091_640x480.jpg (http://pentachris.com/images/IMG_3091.jpg)

[Fruss Tray Ted]

But George's pic looks more like tree bark than bird excrement. I think moths imitate several types of terrain and 'by-products' depending on the species. (Edit)Obviously your's looks like it is meant to imitate barbeque flavored potato chips! :p (/edit)

BTW, nice macros guys!!!

Considering the thread officially hijacked, I have some macro pics too! Here's one I like that shows detail right down to 'leg hair'... Click on the thumbnail.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v294/M99ER/th_2004_0801Image0015.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/M99ER/2004_0801Image0015.jpg?t=1186867639)

[pentachris]

(Edit)Obviously your's looks like it is meant to imitate barbeque flavored potato chips! :p (/edit)

I lol'd. :D

But seriously, with that moth, I think the coloring itself is what keeps birds from eating it. IIRC, red/orange/other-bright-colors-except-for-green coloring tells the birds "I eat plants that are poisonous to you, so I don't taste very good." Well, maybe not in so many words, but you get the idea.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Well, depending on the guise, some are camouflage, others, "camo-flatulence" (bird poo) ;)

And yes, bright colors usually means poison, but at other times they are only an imitation of the real thing. Even further, this Article (http://www.nhptv.org/NatureWorks/viceroy.htm) explains how Monarch (http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/monarch_butterfly.htm) and Viceroy (http://www.nhptv.org/NatureWorks/viceroy.htm) butterflies have evolved to mimic each other to their advantage in hopes of not being prey. One is quite toxic, the other is only mildly so. Viceroys being less toxic are an example of the 'bird droppings' caterpillars to discourage consumption where Monarch's brightly colored caterpillars and green chrysalises are more for a warning.

But it makes me wonder,, considering their diet of Eucalyptus leaves, if Koala bears taste like cough drops? :confused:

;)

[Paleo Pete]

OK, think I finally found it, sorry I took so long, been into other things along the way.

I originally thought it was a yellowjacket, it looks a lot like one, but just found something different looking around again for this critter.

The European Paper Wasp (http://www.ento.psu.edu/extension/factsheets/dominulus.htm) looks like what you found. The yellowjackets are close, but I saw differences in every one I could find. Wrong shape in the yellow bands, black antennae instead of red, no arrow shape on front of abdomen, etc. The European Paper Wasp is recently introduced to the US and is spreading across the northeast.

More here (http://www.livingwithbugs.com/epw.html)
Several good pics at Bug Guide (http://bugguide.net/node/view/5081).