{"id":715102,"date":"2026-08-14T16:35:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T20:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=715102"},"modified":"2026-08-14T20:42:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T00:42:38","slug":"why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/","title":{"rendered":"20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Professor Bob Minckley answers common questions about the surprisingly diverse\u2014and downright weird\u2014world of Anthophila.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Nearly everyone knows the western honeybee (<em>Apis mellifera<\/em>)\u2014that fuzzy, golden brown, black-banded bee. It\u2019s a top-of-mind bee for its honey production and broad importance in agriculture. Not to mention the way it gutted a generation that grew up having seen the 1991 film <em>My Girl<\/em> and, more recently, the way Jerry Seinfeld\u2019s <em>Bee Movie<\/em> (2007) anthropomorphized the insect<em>. <\/em>But those also happen to be among the reasons why entomologist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sas.rochester.edu\/bio\/people\/faculty\/minckley_robert\/index.php\">Bob Minckley<\/a>, a professor of instruction in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sas.rochester.edu\/bio\/index.html\">biology<\/a> at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/\">糖心传媒<\/a>, didn\u2019t include them in his new edited book, <a href=\"https:\/\/press.uchicago.edu\/ucp\/books\/book\/chicago\/B\/bo267860210.html\"><em>The Book of Bees: A Life-Size Guide to Bees Worldwide<\/em><\/a> (University of Chicago Press).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_715232\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-715232\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-715232\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/circle-cutout-2024-10-03_blister_beetles_0162.jpg\" alt=\"Circle cutout portrait of Bob Minckley.\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/circle-cutout-2024-10-03_blister_beetles_0162.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/circle-cutout-2024-10-03_blister_beetles_0162-630x630.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/circle-cutout-2024-10-03_blister_beetles_0162-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-715232\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Biology and entomologist Bob Minckley (URochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Minckley\u2019s book celebrates the differences of more than 400 kinds of bees with bold photography and details about each species\u2019 history, behavior, and interactions with flowers and humans. While the western honeybee didn\u2019t make the cut, two subspecies did: the Cape honeybee (<em>Apis mellifera capensis<\/em>) and the Africanized honeybee (<em>Apis mellifera scutellata<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I decided I wanted to work on bees, I also decided I wasn\u2019t going to work on honeybees,\u201d Minckley says. \u201cSo, I really never paid attention to social bees because there are so many solitary bees. Then I decided to write this book, and I had to read all this literature on social bees that is actually very cool. I thought, \u2018Why didn\u2019t I read this when I was 25 years old?\u2019 It was a lot of fun\u2014and a little embarrassing\u2014learning about all the bees I had been ignoring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Minckley is well known for his long-term field studies on solitary bees and bee biodiversity, documented in his coauthored book <a href=\"https:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/books\/hardcover\/9780691168982\/the-solitary-bees\"><em>The Solitary Bees: Biology, Evolution, and Conservation<\/em><\/a> (Princeton University Press, 2019). He has also amassed a collection of 62,000 bees, one of which is a sweat bee,<em> Lasioglossum minckleyi<\/em>, named in his honor.<\/p>\n<p>Have a question about bees? Minckley\u2019s an excellent resource.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_715172\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-715172\" style=\"width: 2000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-715172\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-22_Minckley_bee_moving_0125.jpg\" alt=\"Rows of preserved bee specimens arranged with identification labels in a scientific collection.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-22_Minckley_bee_moving_0125.jpg 2000w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-22_Minckley_bee_moving_0125-630x378.jpg 630w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-22_Minckley_bee_moving_0125-193x117.jpg 193w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-22_Minckley_bee_moving_0125-768x461.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-22_Minckley_bee_moving_0125-1536x922.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-22_Minckley_bee_moving_0125-1920x1152.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-715172\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>BEE-T THE HEAT:<\/strong> The specimens in Minckley\u2019s collection have established that the greatest concentration of bee species in the world occurs in the desert areas of western North America. (URochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Professor Bob Minckley answers common questions about the surprisingly diverse\u2014and downright weird\u2014world of bees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1152,"featured_media":715162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[43242,18722,16072],"class_list":["post-715102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sci-tech","tag-bob-minckley","tag-department-of-biology","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":{"external":"","hide_featured_image":false,"related":"show_related","style":[559642,534182,618302],"content_modules":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"pt-0","title":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Q&amp;A with Bob Minckley<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\r\n<hr style=\"width: 50%;\" \/>","content":"<h4><strong>What is the difference between bees and wasps?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>The difference between bees and wasps comes down mostly to their diets. Wasps are carnivorous and feed their young other insects. Bees subsist on pollen and nectar. Bees also tend to be hairy, due to the need to carry pollen.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Minckley:<\/strong> Good question. It really boils down to what they feed their young. Wasps are basically carnivores that feed their babies insects. But that doesn\u2019t mean you won\u2019t see wasps around flowers; they\u2019ll be there, collecting nectar. Bees are vegetarian wasps that feed their young pollen.\r\n\r\nThose dietary differences come with physical differences. Needing to gather pollen means needing to be hairy. And there are all kinds of behaviors associated with harvesting pollen that wasps don\u2019t exhibit because they don\u2019t tend to be very hairy. Take tomato flowers, for example. The pollen is inside a tube that bees will grab onto and then buzz its flight muscles to eject the pollen. It then combs the pollen off the bottom of its body, puts it onto its legs, and flies home. You don\u2019t see all of that scraping and cleaning behavior in wasps.\r\n<blockquote>\u201cBees are vegetarian wasps that feed their young pollen.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\nAnother commonly known difference is exclusive to a honeybee. Worker honeybees have barbed stingers. The barbs get lodged in your skin when they sting you, consequently eviscerating the bee when it attempts to fly away. And the stingers are attached to muscles and a venom gland that will continue to function even when they are no longer attached to the bee. It\u2019s a very evil mechanism.\r\n\r\nAll other bees\u2014and wasps\u2014have smooth-sided stingers, allowing them to sting a person or animal repeatedly without dying.\r\n<h4><strong>Do all bees make honey?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>No. This is solely the function of social bees that are feeding a lot of young. Solitary bees don\u2019t produce enough babies or exhibit the kind of behavior to require making and storing honey.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Minckley:<\/strong> Most bees don\u2019t. The only bees that make honey are social. There are 20,000 species of bees, which is about how many species of fish there are, and there are about 5,000 species of mammals. So, bees are a pretty big group for an insect group! Of the 20,000 bee species, only a very small minority, maybe 1,200, are social. Social bees are part of a colony that has a female that does the egg-laying, a queen, and sterile or partially sterile workers. All other bees are solitary.\r\n\r\nThe bees that make and store honey\u2014concentrated nectar\u2014do so because they have thousands of mouths to feed. A healthy honeybee colony can have 60,000 individuals. Honeybees are kind of weirdos in that they stay in their colony and feed on that honey over the winter. Most bees don\u2019t feed over the winter.\r\n\r\nSolitary bees don\u2019t have a reason to make or store honey. The typical female solitary bee will live for about a month and die. She comes out in the spring or fall, flies among the flowers, mates, and then digs a nest in the ground completely by herself. She goes out and collects pollen and nectar, makes a little pollen ball, and lays an egg on it. She\u2019ll make somewhere between five and twelve young that will never see her. The food she leaves behind is all the young bees have until they come out the next spring or fall, starting the cycle over again. Most bees in this region are solitary bees.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_715182\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-715182\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2026-08-05_honeybees_2593.jpg\" alt=\"Honeybee clinging to a cluster of pale purple flowers while foraging.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1200\" \/> <strong>LIFE TASTES GOOD:<\/strong> \u201cNectar \u2026 is really just Coca-Cola for bees,\u201d says Minckley. (URochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n<h4><strong>Are honeybees native to North America?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>No. Honeybees were introduced to the Americas by Europeans and are unusual among bees for their large, highly social colonies and complex behaviors.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Minckley:<\/strong> No. They are also not native to South America. Honeybees were brought to North America by Spanish explorers around the 15th century. And it wasn\u2019t to pollinate the crops because they weren\u2019t coming here to start farming. They put a colony of bees on their ships to keep their honey fresh so they would have sugar for their journey.\r\nMost social bees, like honeybees, live in the tropics. The honeybee is an incredibly unusual bee. They\u2019re in the top echelon of strange for the bee world.\r\n\r\nFor example, all the workers are sterile. They can\u2019t mate. They have this big egg-producing queen that can\u2019t fly for most of her life. She sits in the nest and creates hundreds of eggs a day, and contrary to what people might think, she doesn\u2019t control much. She\u2019s at the mercy of the workers. It\u2019s a pretty sad existence. But the workers are also in trouble if there\u2019s no queen.\r\n\r\nThat said, it is a really neat animal.\r\n\r\nSomething that has always impressed me is that when a bunch of bees go for pollen and come back, there are bees that have to put the pollen somewhere in the nest and store it. When there\u2019s too much pollen coming in, and the receivers can\u2019t find a place to store it, the foragers slow down. So, the bottleneck condition is something they\u2019re all sensitive to.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_715222\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"545\"]<img class=\"wp-image-715222 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Happy-Dreamworks-Animation-GIF.gif\" alt=\"GIF of the main character from Bee Movie.\" width=\"545\" height=\"507\" \/> <strong>\u201cI\u2019M A POLLEN JOCK!\u201d<\/strong> Jerry Seinfeld\u2019s 2007 film <em>Bee Movie<\/em> anthropomorphizes the honeybee with protagonist Barry B. Benson. (via <a href=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/dreamworks-bee-movie-the-HgSGMrcsHEKYuCKB2n\">Giphy<\/a>)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIt also turns out that when honeybees leave the nest, they actually know how far they went and in what direction because they count the objects they fly past. Honeybee workers called \u201cscouts\u201d will go out each morning to survey the surroundings for flowers. And when they return to the colony, they do a little figure-eight dance. The intensity and direction of their waggles tell the other bees where they can find a lot of flowers. They even account for the sun moving. It\u2019s beautiful! An ethologist named Karl von Frisch discovered the dance language by doing all these incredibly simple but elegant experiments. He was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/prizes\/medicine\/1973\/summary\/\">one of three people<\/a> <em>ever<\/em> to share a Nobel Prize in animal behavior. It was just stunning work.\r\n<h4><strong>Why are bees so important?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>Bees are critical pollinators, transferring pollen between flowers as they collect food for their young, helping plants reproduce.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Minckley:<\/strong> Because when they\u2019re collecting pollen for their young, they pollinate. That\u2019s critically important to our existence.\r\n\r\nPlants have a really big problem: They can\u2019t move. They\u2019re stuck in one spot. So, if they\u2019re going to fertilize another plant, they either have to throw their pollen up into the air and hope it lands on another flower of the same species or get an animal to stop by and then \u201cdeliver\u201d that pollen for them. To attract animals and insects, plants make this really beautiful, appealing structure we know as a flower, and those flowers hold nectar in, which is really just Coca-Cola for bees. They also offer pollen. Bees want both, and in the process, they pollinate the plants.\r\n\r\nPlants play all kinds of games to get bees to show up. It\u2019s amazing how smart plants are. They really are. They\u2019re doing everything they can to get bees to stop in and go to another plant of the same species. Sometimes it\u2019s really wild scents. Sometimes they produce oils, which some bees use for their nests. There\u2019s a long list of strategies plants use to attract attention.\r\n<h4><strong>Are bees disappearing?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>Largely, no. Bees are doing fine. However, there are places where the loss of diverse habitats, brought on by large-scale agriculture and insecticide use, is making it difficult for wild bee populations to survive.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Minckley:<\/strong> They are in places in the US, such as the Midwest, where you have these massive valleys of monoculture that use a lot of insecticide. If you only have one plant, even if it needs bees, that means when it blooms, that\u2019s the only game in town. In that situation, you\u2019ve got to bring honeybees in to pollinate them because wild bees need different flowers at different times. They\u2019re not all perfectly synchronized with a crop, so we lose the capability to take advantage of our native pollinator fauna because it just can\u2019t persist in that kind of ecological condition. That large-scale, high-efficiency agriculture will allow you to grow a lot of food quickly and make a lot of money, but it\u2019s hard on bees.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_715262\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-715262\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-2019-04-18_Minckley_plasterer_bee_146.jpg\" alt=\"Close up of a plasterer bee inside its burrow.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1200\" \/> <strong>LAWN SOLO? <\/strong>A plasterer bee inside its burrow in nearby Mt. Hope Cemetery. Solitary bees like the plasterer bee \"are supporting most of the terrestrial ecosystems of the world by pollinating, and nobody notices them,\u201d laments Minckley. (URochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nOne year, a whole bunch of colonies disappeared over the winter, and it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/02\/27\/business\/27bees.html\">covered by the <em>New York Times<\/em><\/a>. This was in 2007. Suddenly, everyone went, \u201cGod, if we don\u2019t have any honeybees, what are we going to do about our crops?\u201d And so, this pollinator crisis began, and the interesting thing about that is that honeybees are the only agricultural commodity not tracked by the US Department of Agriculture. So, there was almost no data behind the panic.\r\nThat single event brought bees to the public\u2019s attention like nothing else had. It used to be nobody cared what I did. Now I can\u2019t go to a party without getting cornered.\r\n\r\nBut if you go to the East Coast, where there are small farms or areas of New Jersey, where the fields are really small, and there\u2019s a lot of shrubby edges, bees are fine. When everyone got concerned about honeybees disappearing\u2014even though it\u2019s not a native species\u2014people started saying, \u201cWell, we\u2019ve got 5,000 wild bee species in North America. What are they doing for agricultural pollination?\u201d Depending on the area, wild bees can do most of the work.\r\n<h4><strong>How can you make your yard more bee-friendly?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>Let it get a little wild. Growing a variety of flowering plants\u2014especially native species\u2014can provide food and habitat for wild bees.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Minckley:<\/strong> You can keep it a little weedy and have plants that are flowering. I recommend looking up plants that attract bees anywhere that you live\u2014there\u2019s a ton of those websites. And there are a lot of native plants that attract bees. Two cool things about native plants: They\u2019re a little more tolerant of poor care, such as forgetting to water them, and some of them attract specialized bees that you wouldn\u2019t get otherwise.\r\n\r\nOne of the main things I study is why some bee species specialize on only one plant or several closely related plants. In New York, about 15 percent of the bees are specialists, some going to native cranberries and blueberries. There\u2019s an interesting set of bees called \u201cminer bees\u201d that only go to willows. A willow is one of the plants that has a lot of nectar and pollen early in the year, and it flowers pretty consistently, so that might be why miner bees specialize on it. It\u2019s a little mysterious why bees do this. There are a lot of theories, but most are poorly tested.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_715302\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-715302\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-2025-07-09_suboptimal_pollinator_3061.jpg\" alt=\"Wide shot of URochester's pollinator garden and art installation on the River Campus. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1200\" \/> <strong>REST STOP:<\/strong> URochester art students partnered with Minckley to create an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/sustainability\/creating-pollinator-habitat-through-art\/\">art installation on the River Campus<\/a> that provides solitary bees and other pollinating insects a place to nest. (URochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n<h4><strong>What does it mean to be a Bee Campus USA?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>Bee Campus USA designation means that the organization supports pollinators by reducing pesticide use, creating bee-friendly habitat, and raising awareness about native and wild bees.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Minckley:<\/strong> That you\u2019re <a href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/urbeecampususa?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAab4kkg8Qa9-aP5WDorwkdsI_28bIv1oxOVJResNcTBFyHcJ4w0Uh01t1hg_aem_GwspCIfiHILpylAJfH0IWQ\">part of a group<\/a> that's trying to raise awareness of pollinators and the importance of reducing pesticide use and enhancing plantings that support bees. Our certification comes from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xerces.org\">Xerces Society<\/a>, which is a conservation group for invertebrates. It started fairly small but has exploded in size. People are really interested in conservation of small, non-mammal, non-bird animals. So, being a Bee Campus is just trying to spread the word that you can do very easy things and support wild bees.\r\n\r\nBut it\u2019s all student-driven work. There needs to be a faculty sponsor, but students decide what we do every year. And we\u2019ve got this great collaboration with <a href=\"https:\/\/adminfinance.rochester.edu\/departments\/facilities-operations\/\">grounds and facilities<\/a> through John McIntyre, who\u2019s really interested. Student ideas really empower him to reduce pesticide use and determine if an area of grass can be turned into a pollinator garden. The way <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/rochester-certification-bee-campus-usa-559642\/\">Bee Campus started at URochester<\/a> was this one student who was just a force of nature. She got John on board, and I said I\u2019d be the faculty sponsor. We got a few more people to join, and we had a planting on a really cold day right by Library Lot on Intercampus Drive, and 150 people showed up.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_715212\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]<img class=\"wp-image-715212 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-2023-04-19_bee_planting_1965.jpg\" alt=\"Two students in work clothes and sun hats sit beside a newly planted pollinator garden on the University of Rochester campus.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1200\" \/> <strong>STRIVE FOR THE HIVE:<\/strong> When it comes to URochester's Bee Campus USA designation, \u201cit\u2019s all student-driven work,\u201d Minckley says. (URochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s been great. There are some really motivated students who are interested in this issue. Every year we try to get two or three first- or second-year students on board. It\u2019s not up to me, but if it\u2019s not happening, I\u2019ll say something. I taught a general biology class, and it was one of the biggest classes on campus, and some of the students thought I was talking about bees too much just because I mentioned them in four different lectures.\r\n<h4><strong>What about bees surprises people most?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>Most bees are solitary\u2014and their lifestyles are far more diverse and unusual than the familiar honeybee might lead you to believe.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Minckley:<\/strong> That most of them are solitary. And solitary bees are supporting most of the terrestrial ecosystems of the world by pollinating, and nobody notices them. They\u2019re just out there performing a really critical ecological function, and they deserve a lot more attention than they get.\r\n\r\nThey\u2019re interesting, they\u2019re fun to watch, and they\u2019re beautiful.\r\n<blockquote>\u201cSome bees \u2026 only lick the eye secretions on mammals\u2014most people blink when I say that.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\nPeople might also be surprised to learn that 13 percent of the 20,000 species are parasites of other bees. These bees can\u2019t collect pollen or dig a nest, so the way they live is by sneaking their eggs into another bee\u2019s nest. Birders will understand why these bees are called \u201ccuckoo bees.\u201d\r\nSome bees, meanwhile, only lick the eye secretions on mammals\u2014most people blink when I say that.\r\nThere are millions of great bee stories.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_715282\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-715282\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-Neon-Cuckoo-Bee-Thyreus-nitidulus-GettyImages-2267970415-2.jpg\" alt=\"Closeup side view of a Neon Cuckoo Bee perched on a twig. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1200\" \/> <strong>LOOK WHO\u2019S TALKING CUCKOO:<\/strong> 13 percent of the 20,000 species are parasites of other bees, known as \u201ccuckoo bees.\u201d Per Minckley, \u201cThe way they live is by sneaking their eggs into another bee\u2019s nest.\u201d (Getty Images photo)[\/caption]\r\n<h4><strong>What should people do if they find a bee nest?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>Social bees, such as honeybees and bumblebees, are very defensive. Give their nests plenty of space. Solitary bees won\u2019t defend their nests, so if you see a nest in the ground, pull up a chair and watch.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Minckley:<\/strong> This goes back to social bees and solitary bees.\r\n\r\nWhen a bee has a nest with a bunch of honey and resources, mammals want that. So, social bees are very defensive. Honeybees get attacked by bears; they get attacked by people constantly. But most bees don\u2019t have these behaviors. Solitary bees, like sweat bees, have a sting, but it probably won\u2019t even pierce your skin, and they won\u2019t defend their nest. They\u2019ll just fly off.\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019re lucky enough to find a ground nest, and you need a pretty good eye because they\u2019re pretty cryptic, you can just about stand on top of it and watch it. They might be cautious around you for a while, but they\u2019ll eventually go back to going in and out.\r\n<blockquote>\u201cIf you\u2019re lucky enough to find a ground nest ... you can just about stand on top of it and watch it.\u201d<\/blockquote>\r\nIt\u2019s fun to stand around a patch of flowers on a nice day and watch bees. At a flower, even the more defensive social bees won\u2019t attack you. Once they\u2019re at the flower, there\u2019s no problem because there\u2019s nothing to defend. So, you can watch everybody there. If you sit in any garden or near a flower patch for a while, you\u2019ll be surprised how many bees show up that you haven\u2019t recognized before.\r\n\r\nBut you shouldn\u2019t get near a honeybee nest. You shouldn\u2019t get near a bumblebee nest. You don\u2019t want either near your front door, or anywhere you\u2019re going to disturb them and have them attack you. I\u2019ve seen a wasp nest in the eaves of my neighbor\u2019s house, and it was fine all year. You need to figure out what you\u2019re comfortable with and take care of it. You don\u2019t want to get stung.\r\n<h4><strong>When was the last time you were stung?<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>While teaching a bee course in Arizona, Minckley was stung twice in two minutes by squash bees.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<strong>Minckley:<\/strong> I got stung last year teaching \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebeecourse.org\">The Bee Course<\/a>,\u201d a 10-day workshop in Arizona at the American Museum of Natural History\u2019s Southwestern Research Station.\r\n\r\nThere\u2019s a bee that only goes to squash plants called the \u201csquash bee\u201d that can be found in New York up to southern Ontario. Squash blossoms open really early in the morning, and squash bees will fly into them before they close to sleep inside overnight. I was squeezing the flowers to see if there were bees in them.\r\n\r\nTwo of my students did their PhDs on squash bees. In five years, they were never stung by a squash bee. They watched me get stung right in front of them twice in two minutes. So they got a big kick out of that.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_715322\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-715322\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-2022-07-22_Minckley_bee_moving_0162.jpg\" alt=\"Bob Minckley stands over his collection of bee specimens. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1200\" \/> <strong>PARTING SHOT:<\/strong> \u201cThey\u2019re interesting, they\u2019re fun to watch, and they\u2019re beautiful,\u201d says Minckley. (URochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Professor Bob Minckley answers common questions about the surprisingly diverse\u2014and downright weird\u2014world of bees.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Professor Bob Minckley answers common questions about the surprisingly diverse\u2014and downright weird\u2014world of bees.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-14T20:35:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-15T00:42:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-27_Minckley_bee_moving_0100-1200x630.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt Cook\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matt Cook\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matt Cook\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c514baadcb4ea093ed945d9e45e3befa\"},\"headline\":\"20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-14T20:35:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-15T00:42:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":398,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-27_Minckley_bee_moving_0100.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Bob Minckley\",\"Department of Biology\",\"School of Arts and Sciences\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Science &amp; Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/\",\"name\":\"20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-27_Minckley_bee_moving_0100.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-14T20:35:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-15T00:42:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c514baadcb4ea093ed945d9e45e3befa\"},\"description\":\"Professor Bob Minckley answers common questions about the surprisingly diverse\u2014and downright weird\u2014world of bees.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-27_Minckley_bee_moving_0100.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-27_Minckley_bee_moving_0100.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"GOTTA CATCH \u2019EM ALL: Bob Minckley\u2019s collection of bees contains approximately 62,000 specimens\u2014one of which is even named after him: a sweat bee, Lasioglossum minckleyi. (URochester photo \\\/ J. Adam Fenster)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/\",\"name\":\"News Center\",\"description\":\"糖心传媒\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c514baadcb4ea093ed945d9e45e3befa\",\"name\":\"Matt Cook\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.rochester.edu\\\/newscenter\\\/author\\\/mcook15\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees","description":"Professor Bob Minckley answers common questions about the surprisingly diverse\u2014and downright weird\u2014world of bees.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees","og_description":"Professor Bob Minckley answers common questions about the surprisingly diverse\u2014and downright weird\u2014world of bees.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/","og_site_name":"News Center","article_published_time":"2026-08-14T20:35:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-15T00:42:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-27_Minckley_bee_moving_0100-1200x630.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matt Cook","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matt Cook","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/"},"author":{"name":"Matt Cook","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/c514baadcb4ea093ed945d9e45e3befa"},"headline":"20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees","datePublished":"2026-08-14T20:35:05+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-15T00:42:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/"},"wordCount":398,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-27_Minckley_bee_moving_0100.jpg","keywords":["Bob Minckley","Department of Biology","School of Arts and Sciences"],"articleSection":["Science &amp; Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/","name":"20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-27_Minckley_bee_moving_0100.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-14T20:35:05+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-15T00:42:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/c514baadcb4ea093ed945d9e45e3befa"},"description":"Professor Bob Minckley answers common questions about the surprisingly diverse\u2014and downright weird\u2014world of bees.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-27_Minckley_bee_moving_0100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/fea-why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-2022-07-27_Minckley_bee_moving_0100.jpg","width":2000,"height":1200,"caption":"GOTTA CATCH \u2019EM ALL: Bob Minckley\u2019s collection of bees contains approximately 62,000 specimens\u2014one of which is even named after him: a sweat bee, Lasioglossum minckleyi. (URochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/why-are-bees-important-honeybees-solitary-bees-wasps-715102\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"20,000 ways to bee: Everything you want to know about bees"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/","name":"News Center","description":"糖心传媒","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/#\/schema\/person\/c514baadcb4ea093ed945d9e45e3befa","name":"Matt Cook","url":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/author\/mcook15\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715102"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":715412,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715102\/revisions\/715412"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618302"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534182"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}