Wasp Removal in Denver, CO

Honey bees have brown and black bodies with bands of orange and transparent wings. Their stingers are barbed and if removed from the body will result in killing the honey bee. Honey bees live in beehives that are usually found in hollow trees but can be found in eaves of buildings or any cavity that can fit a colony. The cavity is usually 5 to 10 cubic feet in size. Honey bees have developed a complex social network with the main focus serving the queen bee. A queen bee lays up to 1500 eggs per day and remains fertile for its whole life span of up to 5 years. There is only one queen bee per hive while there are up to 20,000 worker bees.

Worker bees are females that are responsible for the upkeep of the hive and the collection of pollen and nectar. A worker bee can only sting once but are typically peaceful unless the queen or the beehive is threatened. The workers live from 6 weeks to 6 months. Drone bees are male bees who are solely used for mating with the queen. They are not a threat as they do not have a stinger to sting with and will die after mating with the queen. In a normal beehive there are only 200 or so drones during the summer. The drones are kicked out of the beehive for the winter.

Bumble bees yellow and black and appear fuzzy because their entire body is covered with hair. They do not have barbed stingers so they are able to sting more than once in their lifetime. Their colonies are smaller than honey bees and can be found underground. It is quite common to uncover a colony while mowing a lawn. Like honey bees, bumble bees are made up of worker and drone bees who serve one queen. They are also not aggressive but will defend their nest or sting if they are injured.

There are several types of wasps that come in many different sizes and colors. They build paper nests. Common types of wasps include yellow jackets wasps and paper wasps. Wasps are typically non-aggressive and do not pose a serious health risk to people. The nests are open faced and exposed.

Yellow Jackets are black and yellow. They are often confused with honeybees because they are similar in size. Honeybees are not yellow. Due to their aggressive nature yellow jacket hornets pose a serious health risk to anyone allergic to stings. They do have the ability to sting several times. Their nests are in the shape of a ball and are made out of gray paper.

Bald-faced hornets are large black and white wasps with straight stingers. Because their stinger is not barbed they are able to sting many times without dying. They are very aggressive insects that will attack if threatened. The hornets chew the bark from trees and therefore are camouflaged in the tree. They can be potentially deadly to anyone allergic and have a painful sting. Hornet colonies typically contain several hundred hornets during the peak in late summer.