tiniest bees

[desertlady]

This morning I was watering the garden and noticed really tiny bees ! are there bees thats smaller the size of rice or are they baby honey bees? :bee

 

[retiredwith4acres]

Not honeybees!

 

[lesa]

I see them sometimes too. They are super tiny- some kind of "wild" bee I imagine. When honeybees emerge from the comb- they look just the adults...

 

[sparkles2307]

I noticed tiny bees on my raspberries the other day. They werent the size of rice, but I'd say they were a good 1/3 smaller than the honeybees... but they looked like honeybees. There were tons of them. Very weird.

 

[Dave2000]

I have lots of those. They and wasps are my primary pollinators.

 

[OldGuy43]

When I was a boy in Illinois we used to have those. We called them "sweat bees".

http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/insects/bees/sweat_bee/

 

[hoodat]

When I was a boy in Illinois we used to have those. We called them "sweat bees".

http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/insects/bees/sweat_bee/

Sweat bees is probably what they are. They're excellent polinators, especialy on small flowers. There are a great many different types of bees besides the honey bees. Some nest in holes in wood made by other insects, some nest in dry hollow weed stalks, some burrow in the ground and a few, like the carpenter bee, are able to drill their own holes in wood to nest in.