User avatar
Gary350
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Do Sweat Bees live in Hives?

After dinner setting on patio gray over cast sky makes it feel 20 degrees cooler. I notice a gray cloud over the catnip. I went to look there are about 1000 sweat bees swarming the catnip. Catnip has 1000s of tiny micro small flowers. About 75% of the sweat bees are yellow 5/16" long. The other 25% are 1/4" black sweat bees. There are also about a dozen yellow/black bumble bees on the catnip. There are also blue wasps, several butterflied and 1 humming bird. I got my camera batteries are dead. Got different batteries storm is getting closer wind is blowing most bees are gone. Where do sweat bees go? Do they have a bee hive? Do they make honey like honey bees?
Attachments
100_3983.JPG

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13961
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I don't know about every species of sweat bee but they are mainly solitary bees and most live underground or in solitary nests like hollow logs, and tubes. They need bare soil to build their nest. Squash bees are a common type of sweat bees are the most common bee species that pollinates cucurbit crops.

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/polli ... bees.shtml
https://beeinformed.org/2012/10/01/sweat-bees/



Return to “Beekeeping”