Expert Pest Control Services in Fresno, CA

While bees are building a hive, they are not likely to sting. That is because they are busy building the home and do not have anything in it that they feel they must defend. Typically, honey bees only sting when they feel that something is threatening their baby bees and honey. So, until the hive is built and full, the honey bees will seem very docile or calm. That is true of both regular European honey bees and Africanized honey bees. The only way to find out if honey bees are European or Africanized is to have a sample analyzed. But you should go ahead and have a trained pest control person remove the hive that is under construction before the bees set up house and become defensive.

Bees should never be allowed to build or remain in the walls of a structure. For one thing, they will become very defensive of their hive once they have made honey and begun to develop baby bees. That means people and pets that happen by the hive could be stung by the defensive bees. But bees in walls also cause a problem with the building structure because of the massive amounts of honeycomb and honey that can be stored. Killing the bees from such a hive is extremely difficult to do without completely tearing into the wall. Also, all the honeycomb and honey has to be removed or it can become rank and attract other pests. The best thing to do is to never allow bees to build in the walls. Make a check of your home and other structures on your property to see that they are no holes that bees can enter. If you find that bees already are building in a wall, call a pest control operator immediately to get them removed.

First of all, make sure to remove the stinger. Scrape it out sidewise so that you don't pinch the venom sack and make it squirt more venom into your child. Treatment for honey bee stings is the same regardless of whether the bees are Africanized. Refer to the information above on how to have bee samples analyzed.

No, the venom from both honey bees is chemically the same. And, because the Africanized honey bee is slightly smaller than the regular honey bee, it actually has slightly less venom.

The Africanized honey bee is a hybrid of a strain of honey bees from Africa, Apis mellifera scutellata, and basically any other honey bee that it can mate with and produce viable offspring. In the United States this could be Apis mellifera ligustica (Italian honey bee), Apis mellifera carnica (Carniolian honey bee), Apis mellifera caucasica (Caucasian honey bee), and Apis mellifera mellifera (Dark honey bee).