Thinking Bees are Excessive in Minnesota- You are Not Wrong

This past weekend I was out at a campground with some friends and just noticing that the bees were really bad, meaning there seemed to be many more than normal.  AND they seem to be much more aggressive than usual.  Like they are out to get you. I usually go with the idea of "leave them alone and they will leave you alone".  I have never been stung in my entire life.

This weekend that changed.  I was stung.  But on the upside, I found out that I am not allergic to a bee sting.

Doing some research, I found that these are not really just bees like I thought.  They are actually wasps.  And the weather has much to do with the population.

KARE 11 in Minneapolis did a story on this, speaking with a pest management educator from the U of M.  Her name is Marissa Schuh.

Apparently the mild winter has much to do with this situation. The wasp population is always prevelant during this time of year, but with the mild winter we has last winter the population "could be" heavier. But she says that it could also be our interpretation.

So last year in Minnesota we had a pretty mild winter. That might help those queen wasps, which are kind of hunkered down for the winter in the bark of trees, in piles of leaves, in the siding of some of our homes. The warmer it is, the more likely they are to ride out the cold weather." 

She goes on to say, while speaking with KARE 11, that it could be perception.

"So much of it might actually be our perception. You know, in the last two years, as we're all spending more and more time outside, How many restaurants have huge expanded patios? We're outside more, maybe we're going camping for the first time, so I think we're just in more places where we're going to interact with the wasps that have always been there."

I'm going to go with it being a lot worse than normal.  My perception (and reality) being that I haven't ever been stung prior to this weekend.  And when I see 3-4 of those pesky things flying around a person for no apparent reason, they are around a lot more than the normal year.

Best thing to do is to create a bee trap.  Those things seem to work great!  And they are pretty simple to make.