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Wild bees are the ancestors of modern domesticated honey bees. Mostly their habitat is areas remote from human settlements - wild forests or meadows. However, from time to time, during swarming periods, wild bees migrate and settle in close proximity to humans.
Wild bees: description with photos
Wild bees are very similar to domestic bees in family structure and lifestyle, but there are some differences between these species. For example, the size of a wild bee is 3-4 times smaller than a domesticated one (3.5 and 12 mm, respectively).
What do wild bees look like?
Unlike striped domestic insects, wild ones mostly have a uniform color. In addition, the color scheme of this type of insect is paler and less noticeable. Their wings are transparent and thin. You can see what wild bees look like in the photo below
The head of representatives of this species is relatively large. Two complex compound eyes are rigidly fixed on it, each of which has a viewing angle of about 180 °. In addition, at the top of the head there are several simple eyes necessary for orientation to the sun.
A special chitinous strip, called the upper lip, covers the insect's mouthparts. The lower lip evolved into a proboscis. The proboscis for collecting nectar in wild varieties is thin and relatively long. The olfactory organs, the antennae, have 11 or 12 segments (in males and females).
The sting, located at the end of the abdomen, is serrated, so it gets stuck in the body of the victim. When you try to pull it out, the insect also dies.
Like all social insects, wild bees have a highly social organization. At the head of the colony is the queen, who is the progenitor of workers, young queens and drones. Among the workers, their roles are rigidly assigned, which change depending on their age: scouts, assemblers, breadwinners, builders, etc.
The average size of a bee colony can range from 2 to 20 thousand individuals. However, very small families, numbering no more than a dozen or hundreds of individuals, and even single insects can also be found.
Varieties
Bees that live in the wild come in several types:
- Singles. They lead a solitary lifestyle: the female lays eggs herself and raises the next generation alone. Typically, these species pollinate only one plant species (and, accordingly, feed only on its nectar). Example: The alfalfa bee, an important pollinator, is grown commercially throughout the world.
- Semi-public. They form small families of ten individuals, the purpose of which is wintering. After wintering, the family breaks up, and each insect lives a solitary lifestyle. A typical representative is halictid bees.
- Public. They have a strict social structure that replicates that of their household. They have a much wider range of pollinated plants and can easily be retrained for another type of nectar. They have very strong immunity. They defend themselves collectively and exhibit aggressive behavior. Forest bees are a typical representative of social bees. Forest bees are shown in the following photo
Where do wild bees live?
Forest bees live mainly in deep hollows of large trees or tall stumps, the core of which has rotted away. Usually, the entrance to a wild hive is the hole through which the hollow goes out.
Also, wild bees can settle in rock crevices and cracks in dry trees, and their homes are quite difficult to detect. Unlike wasps, which build their homes entirely from cellulose, they can only seal relatively narrow cracks with wax, so they prefer to choose ready-made structures for their homes with narrow passages, but with high capacity.
Features of reproduction
There are no reproductive features in these insects in comparison with domestic ones, however, taking into account the longer life of the queen, as well as approximately 1.5 times the number of eggs she lays per year, swarming it will happen to them much more often.
Where do wild bees spend the winter?
Wild bees do not have any special wintering places. A hive of wild bees, which in most cases is an empty tree trunk, begins to be prepared for winter by bees as early as September.
The inhabitants fill all possible voids with honeycombs, which are filled with honey or, in its absence, their edges are covered with wax.In addition, towards the end of summer and in the first month of autumn, the second peak of births of the season occurs in order for the family to meet the winter as large as possible.
Benefits of wild bee honey
The honey of these insects has a tart taste, a strong aroma and greater thickness than home-produced honey. Its color is darker, sometimes reaching brown. The concentration of beebread and wax in it is significantly higher.
Because honey growers live far from sources of environmental pollution and collect their honey from a more diverse set of plants, their honey is much healthier and more environmentally friendly than homemade honey. The range of uses of this honey is very wide: it is used in the treatment of many diseases from acute respiratory infections to joint pain.
Due to its composition, such honey can be preserved for a longer time.
What is the difference between wild bees and domestic bees?
Despite the similarities in social structure, methods of reproduction and adaptability to changing ecosystems, domestic and wild bees have a large number of differences.
In addition to the previously mentioned color features, they also differ in some anatomical features. Thus, wild ones have a more durable chitinous shell, especially in the chest area, and thicker hair (so as not to freeze during wintering). Moreover, some types of forest insects can survive at temperatures up to – 50 °C. The shape of their wings is also very specific: their front wings are significantly longer than their hind wings.
The flight speed of an “empty” insect is approximately 15% higher than that of an “empty” domestic one (70 and 60 km/h, respectively); although, when honey plants fly with a bribe, their speeds are the same (25 km/h).
Despite the similarity in behavioral instincts, wild species are more aggressive creatures and will attack any potential enemy. Their numbers allow them to fear virtually no enemies. The toxicity of their venom approaches that of hornets, and its small volume is more than compensated by the huge number of attackers.
“Wild” queens are significantly larger than their workers. The difference in mass can reach 5-7 times (for households this figure is 2-2.5 times). They live up to 7 years. In total, such a queen lays about 5 million eggs during her life, the same amount for “domestic” queens is about 5-10 times less.
Wild species also have a much more stable immune system, allowing them to withstand the huge number of parasites from which domesticated forms suffer. For example, various Acarapis or Evarro ticks are not at all scary to these insects.
How to tame wild bees
If you find a nest of wild honey bees, you can try to move them to an artificial hive, thus attempting to tame them. This is best done in the spring, when they have a small brood. You can do this at other times of the year, but when relocating, part of the family always dies, and I would like to preserve as many insect specimens as possible.
The first step is to smoke the occupants out of their home and collect them in a carrying container. This can be done by drilling several holes from below the “main entrance” to the home. Next, a tube is inserted into the holes and smoke is supplied through it. Insects begin to escape through the exit holes, where they can simply be collected with a spoon and placed in roevnya.
When most of the workers are in the roevne, it is necessary to transfer their queen.
However, most often, the queen leaves the hive along with the worker bees when approximately 80% of the population has left the hive.
Next, the family is transferred to the apiary and placed in a hive. It is advisable to remove honey from the honeycombs of wild bees and place it in close proximity to the hive so that the bees begin filling new honeycombs with their own honey.
Are wild bees dangerous?
Wild bees in a forest or field can pose a serious danger to humans, since they are much more aggressive towards intruders. In addition, the venom of wild bees is much more concentrated and toxic than that of their domesticated counterparts.
Bee stings can cause very painful sensations with swelling of the bite site and increased body temperature. In addition, even if a person does not have an allergic reaction to the venom of a domestic bee, this is not a guarantee that everything will be fine with a sting received from a wild one. Most manifestations of pseudo-allergy are recorded precisely from wild bee stings.
First aid for bites
If a person is attacked by wild bees, the following must be done:
- Remove the sting.
- Squeeze out bee venom.
- Sanitize the wound (with soap solution or alcohol).
- Take an anti-allergenic drug.
- Apply ice to the bite to reduce pain.
Conclusion
Wild bees, although dangerous neighbors, provide great benefits to nature by pollinating a large number of different forest and field plants.Thanks to the presence of wild bees, entire ecosystems exist, so uncontrolled extermination of these insects is highly undesirable. If for some reason wild bees have chosen a place near a person’s home, they should simply be driven away from there without the need for destruction; fortunately, there are more than enough means for this.
