What are THESE??????? - Page 1

These bees have been going after my dogs and also after the dog poop ,which gets cleaned twice daily. I have never seen these before. Anyone know what they are or how I find out what they are?? They seem vicious.

Thank you.

carpenter bees.  They will follow, chase and sting you.  They do not die when they sting, like honey bees do.  They are normally pretty passive, they will normally mind their own business, unless you piss them off - then they will chase you - usually just one though, not a group of them.  Looks like in this picture they were drinking from the damp stone - why they are in a group - usually they are hovering around alone.  If one is chasing you, run into a door to a dark room, or into the barn, or building - they will stay outside the door and hover there, wait for you to come out!  They are pretty slow-moving, easy to shoot down with a spray of water and then stomp on them.  I normally don't "stomp on" things, usually leave them alone and they leave me alone - but carpenter bees are named that because they chew wood.  They will damage wood - making holes/nests inside wood beams - you will find sawdust on the ground under their holes and your wood will quickly become hollow bee- nests.  So if you have a lot of them, get an exterminator out to get rid of them before they eat your wood to the point of serious damage.

molly

gsdlvr2, I often have questions about insects here and will Google AZ insect identification and get a lot of hits. Maybe try that for your state.

They look like a Bumble Bee! They aren't usually aggressive though . How big are they? One of the bees in the picture has what looks like a bit of pollen stuck to its leg. So my guess is they aren't wasps or hornets which tend to be more aggressive. Maybe they have a nest close by and thats why they are attacking the dogs, not sure what they are doing on the dog poop, thats really weird.

Wow!  Thanks for this post.  I've had problems with these same bees.  My husband calls them "boring bees" They have been hanging around the eaves of our cedar sided house and boring holes, but about a month ago, they started hanging around Apache's kennel and going after her for some reason.  I came home one day and no lie, 14 of these things were lying in her 3 gallon water bucket!  Savage, my girl in the next kennel had not a one in hers.  Apache HATES these things.  I guess she caught them and decided to drown 'em too!  And yes, they will chase you down!  I was having to take a flyswatter with me when we went down to the kennel.  It doesn't seem to have been an issue the last couple of weeks though (maybe she killed them all!).  I just don't understand the interest in being by her kennel.  They didn't seem to bother Savage.

This link has a few pics of various bees. I think molly might be right, your pic looks more like it than a bumblebee. http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/insects/bees/bumble_bee/

they are small, about the size , in length of half a wooden matchstick., maybe a little bigger. I have looked around for sawdust usually left by carpenter bees and have found nothing. I have seen carpenter bees, although this could be a different variety, the ones I have seen were about 4 times this size, brown, shiny and slow, easy to swat if you wanted to. These are different from that. They are aggressive. My one puppy has been stung repeatedly and he wasn't chasing them. I saw it happen one time ,he was standing, looking at me and got stung. These bees are also gathering pollen.  I can't find a nest.

Sometimes I find a half dozen of them on a pile of poop as I am going around cleaning it up.

I wasn't going to post this but it is so weird.

Difference between carpenter bees and bumblebees:  http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef611.asp

Carpenter bee, they are harmless unless provoked. Sting once then die. Bumbles are alot bigger. JMO.

well maybe not ... did they have hairy butts? if they have hairy butts they are Bumbles. LOL