If you see bees on your property and are considering bee removal services, just remember that not all "bees" are the helpful kind. Preserving actual bees, the bees that pollinate and help keep things green and growing, are vital to the ecosystem. Other bee-like creatures are not. These other yellow-and-black flying pests are wasps or flies, both of which attempt to mimic their more helpful and less dangerous cousins. Before you call for bee removal services, try to use the following information to decipher the creatures you are really dealing with, and then request that the wasps or flies be removed (and leave the real bees to pollinate flowers!).  

Yellow Jackets

Yellow jackets are a type of wasp that is far more striped and much less fuzzy than real bees. They are drawn by sweet odors and sugary things left in your garbage can or on your picnic table. Usually, a hive of yellow jackets will hang out in corners and crevices of buildings. If you see any yellow jackets swarming around, look in your garage, eaves or attic where they like to hang out. Be careful, though; any member of the wasp family can sting repeatedly and will not die because the stingers stay with the wasps.

Hornets

People often confuse wasps and hornets with honeybees. That's only natural, considering the fact that all of these creatures are yellow and black and sting. However, hornets (which are members of the wasp family) and wasps are pests with really bad tempers. Hornets are more likely to sting without being antagonized, and if you disturb their large, papery hives, you will probably get severely stung for doing so. Their nests are often the ones found in trees or hanging from the rafters of your garage. Most people, when they think of bees, think of the papery hives of hornets, but bees prefer a more contained space to build combs (like bee hives or the spaces between the stud boards in your walls.

Mud Daubers

The least valuable of just about any member of the bee and wasp family, a mud dauber has a long, pin-like midsection that separates its abdomen from its thorax. In flight, it might be confused with a wasp or bee because of its yellow and black coloring. Mud daubers are quite a nuisance because they gather fresh, wet mud to create a few tunnels in a small nest where the females lay their eggs and the larvae roost until they chew their way out of the clay nest as young adults. They rarely sting, but they are unnerving to spot dive-bombing anyone or anything that gets near their little mud nests. If you see a lot of these around, it means you probably have a problem with other insects, the same insects that the mud daubers like to eat. Ergo, to get rid of the mud daubers, you might want pest control to spray and kill for the bugs that provide nourishment to these wasps. 

For further assistance, contact local professionals, such as ASAP Bee Removal.

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