SALT LAKE CITY -- A bright yellow flower dots the landscape sparking a desire for a quick sniff of its sweet fragrance. You draw closer and see a moving insect that is buzzing loudly. Should you be frightened or amused?

Utah is home to many types of bees. The most well known is the honey bee (Apis mellifera) and was declared Utah's state insect in 1983. Some people raise their own honey bees. The primary reasons people may raise bees, according to bees-online.com, are:

Honey: Often the number-one reason people begin beekeeping as a hobby is the potential to produce honey.

Related:

Inside a 'killer bee' attack

About a hundred colonies of aggressive "killer bees" have been found and eradicated in Southwestern Utah, but the bees are here to stay. KSL's John Hollenhorst found out firsthand what it's like to be in an Africanized bee attack.

Pollination: A second most popular reason to keep bees as a hobby is pollination. Because these beekeepers are also gardeners, the simple act of keeping bees often enhances fruit and vegetable production.Healthy Lifestyle: Some hobby beekeepers keep bees for their own health. Some collect pollen to supplement their diet, harvest propolis (resinous mixture that honey bees collect) to make home medications and add local honey to their diet to lower the effects of allergies. Some of these processes have not been scientifically proven effective, but many beekeepers swear by them.

In addition to honey bees, according to the Utah Beekeepers Association, many other types of bees live in Utah. Also found are bumble bees, yellow jackets, wasps, hornets and mud daubers. Actually, there are many types of bees in the state and several other types of insects that bear superficial resemblance to honey bees. Generally speaking, bees are hairy (fuzzy-looking) and live in colonies or lead a solitary existence. Creatures such as wasps and hornets are typically smooth and hairless. If it flies and buzzes, it is classified as a bee.

In North America it is believed that 30 percent of food for human consumption originates from plants pollinated by bees. In the United States alone, insect-pollinated crops were worth $20 billion at 2000 prices. Honey bees are thought of as the most common pollinator.

Bumblebees are the chief pollinators of red clover, alfalfa, field beans, peas, runner beans, tomatoes and in some areas cotton, raspberries, apple, plum blossom, oilseed rape, sunflowers, strawberries, currants and brambles, according to Bumblebees.org.

Killer Bees:

How to avoid an attack

Killer bees are a real threat and have been documented in Utah. Here's what you should know.

Types of wasps include sawflies, parasitic wasps and the best known, stinging wasps. About 75,000 species of wasps are known, most of them parasitic. Most stinging wasps are predators or scavengers, meaning they inject venom for killing prey or for defense.

Yellow jackets are important predators of pest insects. Most are black and yellow, while some are black and white and others may have red as the abdomen background color instead of black.

Hornets, a type of wasp, can sting multiple times, because unlike worker bees, they do not die after stinging. A hornet's sting is not barbed. Hornets can also bite and sting at the same time. Like many social wasps, hornets can mobilize the entire nest to sting in defense, which is highly dangerous to humans. It is not advisable to kill a hornet anywhere near a nest, as a hornet's distress signal can trigger the entire nest to attack. Hornets prey on many insects that are considered to be pests. They also may prey on bees. But unlike honey bees, hornet colonies die out every winter.

Mud daupers are sometimes called "dirt daubers," "dirt diggers," "dirt dobbers," "dirt divers" or "mud wasps." Mud daubers are long, slender wasps, and some have thread-like waists. Like most other wasps, mud daubers are predators. The females not only build the nests, but also hunt to provision them. Pipe-organ mud dauber males have reportedly brought spiders to the nest, and they aid in nest guarding. The metallic-blue mud dauber preys primarily on black widow spiders but spiders of all types are generally prey. The muddy nests of mud daubers are sometimes considered a nuisance to homeowners, but the wasps themselves are not aggressive or dangerous. But they will sting if handled.

Now, meet the killer bee.

On Feb. 11, 2009, the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food announced the confirmed presence of Africanized honey bees (AHB) in southern Utah. AHB, also known as “killer bees,” entered the United States in 1990 via Hidalgo, Texas. They have since moved throughout most of the southern states where warm summers and mild winters have allowed them to gain a foothold.

The Africanized bee is descended from 26 Tanzanian queen bees (Apis mellifera. scutellata), which were accidentally released by a replacement beekeeper in 1957, near Rio Claro, São Paulo state in the southeast of Brazil. The hives were operated by biologist Warwick E. Kerr, who had interbred honey bees.

Kerr was attempting to breed a strain of bees that would adapt better to tropical conditions and be more productive than the European bees used in South America and southern North America. The hives from which the bees were released had special excluder grates which were in place to prevent the larger queen bees from getting out but to allow the drones free access to mate with the queen. Following the accidental release, the African queens eventually mated with local drones, and their descendants have since spread throughout the Americas.

How can you tell killer bees from honey bees?

According to Utahcountybeekeepers.org, Africanized honey bees and honey bees look the same, sting in defense of themselves or their nest, can only sting once and have the same venom. Africanized honey bees are slightly smaller, but because the bees look so much alike only a laboratory analysis can tell them apart. They also respond more quickly and more bees sting, can sense a threat from people or animals 50 feet or more from their nest, sense vibrations from power equipment 100 feet or more from their nest, may pursue a victim 1/4 to 1/2 mile, remain agitated for an hour or more after an attack, swarm frequently to establish new nests, nest in smaller cavities and sheltered areas and move their entire colony readily (abscond) if food is scarce. Away from the hive, however, they are no more defensive than other bees or wasps.

Becky Robinette Wright is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Virginia.

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