r/bees • u/WashingTonsOfTrees • 6h ago
Took this picture today, never been here before but I wanted to share my bee friend that landed on my windshield to rest.
He landed on my windshield and refused to leave .
r/bees • u/Commercial-Sail-5915 • May 31 '26
Make sure that your yellow fuzzy friend is actually a bee and not an imposter! We get quite a few non-bees in our bee subreddit: sometimes they're wasps (check out the bee/wasp guide in the pinned), and sometimes they're not a stinging insect at all! Flies in remarkably detailed costumes frequently make their way into r/bees but with some tips and practice you can learn to spot the differences. Read through for features to look out for, or flip through the slides for fly species commonly posted.
Pictures are largely taken from iNaturalist with a full list of sources by slide at the end of this post, I assume that they are fine to use for free educational purposes but if the photographer would like me to remove their picture, please reach out to me so I can act accordingly. All pictures from slides 1-5 can be credited to mod Commercial Sail.
Flies are in a completely different taxonomic order to bees (flies are the order Diptera, bees are a subgroup within order Hymenoptera) so there are quite a few easy ways to differentiate them:
Note that besides the wing count, there are always exceptions! Some flies have pretty long antennae (though you'll often still be able to see the different segmentation) and some bees, particularly males, have very large eyes. This is why it's better to judge based on a combination of characteristics rather than looking at any one feature at a time.
You may also hear that the waist and mouthparts are good identifiers as well - this is true, but I elected to leave them out of this guide as the waistline may be obscured by fuzz, wings, or just a poorly-angled shot, and some bees are just so robust (fat) that it gets difficult to see where exactly that tapered waist is supposed to be. In terms of mouthparts, few amateur photographers focus on the mouth at all and it's definitely not something you'll typically see if you're just watching them go about your garden.
At the end of the day, the best trick is to just get familiar with species in your area using trusted sources like Bugguide. If you're still not sure, post to one of the bug identification subreddits and make sure you give a general location, which always appreciated in ID posts no matter what you're looking at!
Sources
Volucella zonaria: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/322106668
Bombylidae: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/226072821
Laphria: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/88331437
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/282732509
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/65816664
Cuterebra: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/133138438
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90333390
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/296063941
r/bees • u/Commercial-Sail-5915 • May 26 '26
Are you looking to ID a nest? Some are easier to distinguish than others, here's some of our most commonly submitted species:
The nest in the first slide is a young aerial yellowjacket nest.
Pictures are largely taken from Bugguide with a full list of sources by slide at the end of this post, I assume that they are fine to use for free educational purposes but if the photographer would like me to remove their picture, please reach out to me so I can act accordingly.
Sources
Cover: https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/513938
Honeybee: https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/1227238
Bumblebee: https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/6585
Aerial yjs and hornets:https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/781412
https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/110277
https://extension.psu.edu/european-hornet
Ground yjs: https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/266282
https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/38722/bgimage
Polistinae: https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/2511987
https://www.bugguide.net/node/view/709119
Unknown mud caps: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/218674183
Unknown holes: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/90931649
r/bees • u/WashingTonsOfTrees • 6h ago
He landed on my windshield and refused to leave .
It was a chilly evening so I like to think they were warming each other up
r/bees • u/wheelhousestudio • 19h ago
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Title says it all. I watched these bees plunge their little faces into florets for a while, and the world was a happy, simple place.
r/bees • u/JohnMichaels19 • 14h ago
There is a colony of bees that live in/around the wooden steps in the front yard of my in-laws' house. My MIL is a photographer, and she got these pics (i took the third one, which is why it's such bad quality lol)
Im trying to figure out what species they are. Doing some reading, im leaning towards some kind of sweat bee.
We're in Northern Utah, north of Salt Lake City
r/bees • u/Ok-Schedule8070 • 3h ago
Hi all, I live in the west midlands of the UK and have noticed a dirt area of my front garden has suddenly had loads of what I thought were honey bees move in! They are also under a hedge nearby in the garden too
There are tiny holes in the dirt which they seem to hover around however I'm unsure what species they are, as they look a lot like honey bees, but they don't live underground. I then thought maybe it's solitary bees but there has to be at least 50+ of them so surely it can't be those? Can anyone help ID please?
I unfortunately don't have a great picture but they have a colour similar to honey bees I believe thank you :)
r/bees • u/Psychological-Soil27 • 22h ago
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r/bees • u/dozerspike • 11h ago
at Little Buffalo State Park, Pennsylvania
r/bees • u/Empty_Specific6131 • 1d ago
And later on her buddy joined 🥰
r/bees • u/Individual-Loquat227 • 1d ago
Picked up this bee outside a train station on the floor. It doesn't look great. Will give it some sugar water when I get to work but just wondering if I'm prolonging it's suffering as there look to be some eggs around the base of the head?
r/bees • u/Acrobatic-Coat3322 • 12h ago
There’s a nest outside my house and I saw a couple of bees working on It (1-2) and it’s really tiny however I haven’t seen the bees in a while. Did they just ditch it? Why? Didn’t they work hard?
r/bees • u/icame2lurk • 15h ago
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She keeps falling on her back while falling and unable to roll over, refused honey and tries to jump from flowers, had to forcefully close the flower like a padded room for her safety as shown in the video
Can she be saved?
r/bees • u/Marizard1187 • 10h ago
I'm trying to save these little guys, I found one in my fountain and one on my porch. The fountain one was very lively when I saved him so I just set him on my lavender to dry (since it's very obviously their fave flower in my yard). The other I found just barely moving on my porch so I made him some sugar water and tried to put him close to it. Anything else I should do?
r/bees • u/Murky_Share4996 • 19h ago
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These have made a home between the roof and we can’t tell if they’re honey bees or yellow jackets!! They don’t seem to be aggressive or territorial which makes me think they’re honey bees but idk
r/bees • u/nevernever20 • 1d ago
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As a kid, I remember lots of spiders falling in the pool, but now, I seem to be scooping mostly bees and wasps out of the pool. The rescue ladder at the edge of the pool is a little too far away, it seems, for these small insects to find their way to. This particular Chilalictus bee species seems particularly prone to finding itself in need of rescue. Oddly enough, no honeybees in the pool. Only a variety of native Australian bees.
r/bees • u/Possible-Bag4879 • 19h ago
r/bees • u/Romeo2071 • 1d ago
I took this photo back in mid-August, at that time we had a lot of bumblebees, and I decided to take a photo of this one
r/bees • u/headgyheart • 14h ago
I'm not sure if they are bees or wasps. Are they dangerous? They just showed up today and I hope they leave as quickly as they arrived. Thanks!
r/bees • u/Sufficient-Cover-982 • 1d ago
I’m sorry about the graininess, I’m not sure how to fix that.