Here at Stewart Termite & Pest Control we talk to people on a regular basis that have entomophobia and may not even know it. Entomophobia is an excessive or unrealistic fear of one or more classes of insect. One of the most common insects that people are afraid of is bees. A fear of bees is technically known as melissophobia. Do you have melissophobia? If you do one of the things that can help cure your phobia of bees is learning more about them. Today Stewart Termite & Pest Control is going to talk about bees. Hopefully it will help you!
Honey Bee Characteristics & Information
There are thousands of different species of bees. Today we are going to focus on the honey bee since it is the one that you may see on your property. Honey bees are very social insects. They use nectar from flowers as their main food source. As they are getting this nectar they pollinate the flowers that they come into contact with. Honey bees are responsible for pollinating over 100 crops here in the United States. Honey bee colonies can grow very large. Most people know what honey bees look like because they have seen them in person. They have narrow, oval shaped bodies with yellow and brown stripes. Bees are very small in size. Adult bees range in size from ½ inch to 1 inch in length. Bees have stingers that they can use to sting you.
Bee Sting
One of the main reasons that people are afraid of bees is because of their ability to sting. If you have ever been stung by a bee you know that it definitely hurts. The area that you were stung will hurt and swell. The pain and swelling will slowly go down. Most of the time as the pain and swelling goes down the area begins to itch. The only time that you need to be extremely nervous about bee stings is when the person that is stung has a bee allergy. If you have bee allergies and suffer multiple bee stings it could potentially be deadly. The problem is that many people do not know they are allergic to bees until they have been stung the first time. If you are allergic to bees and are stung you may notice nausea, vomiting, fainting, and your throat closing. You will need to seek immediate medical attention if you are stung by a bee and experience these symptoms.
Are Honey Bees Friendly or Aggressive?
Many people that are afraid of bees are nervous about a large hive of bees becoming aggressive. While bees can be aggressive, they are not frequently aggressive unless they feel threatened. Most of the time if you leave them alone, they leave you alone. Sometimes bees can be aggressive if it is hot outside, if they built their hive in a shaded area, or if there are not very many flowering plants nearby for them to feed on. Overall large quantities of bees all aggressively attacking at the same time is not a problem that you should be worried about.
Stinging Insect Control
The good news is that if you have bees on your property Stewart Termite & Pest Control can help you remove them. We have years of experience and tons of knowledge that will help us make your property bee free as soon as possible.