Learn More About Biting & Stinging Insects

Need to identify the species of your unwelcome visitor? Learn more about the specific types of venomous insects in our harmful insect pest library.

Biting and Stinging Insect Pest Library Menu:

> Ticks & Fleas

> Bumble & Carpenter Bees

> Metallic & Carpenter Bees

> Africanized Honey Bees

> Honey Bees

> Yellow Jackets

> Scorpions

Ticks and Fleas

Brown Dog Tick: Most common tick found in Arizona. Characteristics: usually flat, reddish-brown with tiny spots, and grow 1/8 inch long. Domestic dog is most common host; rarely cats or humans. Can produce 5000 eggs at a time. Commonly found year-round in warmer climate areas.

American Dog Tick: Most common tick found in the United States. Dogs are preferred as hosts but will readily feed on other animals. Carries Rocky Mountain spotted fever and is commonly involved with tick paralysis.

Cat Flea and Dog Flea: Fleas are wingless insects averaging 1/12-1/6 inches long. Long legs allow them to jump an average of 7-8 inches vertically and 14-16 inches horizontally. Fleas are common pests of humans and animals around the world, although most prefer non-human hosts. Most common flea encountered in the United States is the Cat Flea. Dog fleas are found on wild animals, rarely on domestic animals. Both species are hosts of dog tape worm, which is common in both cats and dogs.

Bumble and Carpenter Bees

Bumble Bee

‘Bumble bee’ refers to a species of social bees that are larger than honeybees but are slightly smaller than carpenter bees. Bumble bees have an abdomen covered with yellow and black hairs. There are approximately 50 known species of honeybees in North America, today. The Gold Northern Bumble Bees are typically found in central or southern Arizona regions.

Bumble bees only survive in warmer climates.
The queen bumble bee typically raises her brood in a small underground colony and feed them with clumps of nectar and pollen.
The queen bee only stays in a colony until springtime and then finds a new colony
Bumble Bees will not typically pollinate the same flower as another bee. It will sometimes also steel pollen from a flower without pollinating it.
There are fewer bumble bees in a colony than a honeybee
Bumble bees do not dance to communicate like honeybees
Bumble bees do not hoard honey as honeybees do; instead, they store it in cells located in their colony.

Carpenter Bee-Hymenoptera

The carpenter bee, along with many other bees in the world, belongs to the Hymenoptera family, which includes hornets, wasps, and some ants. Most of the carpenter bee species live in the southwest region of the United States. The most common species of carpenter bee that occurs in Arizona is the ‘valley carpenter bee’.

There are about 730 known species of carpenter bees in the world.
Carpenter bees are a larger species of bees, less fuzzy than the bumblebee.
The females of most carpenter bee species are black or blue with a metallic sheen and may be up to 1 inch long.
The males of most carpenter bee species have a light brown body with light green or yellowish-green hairs, somewhat smaller than females.
Carpenter bees can maintain their body temperature when the air is cool
Piles of sawdust beside the nest entrance and the presence of many bees in flight in the area provide clues that a nest is nearby.
Carpenter bee females have stingers; males do not.
In the desert, carpenter bees take shelter in dead plants, trees, wood, and yucca stalks.

Metallic, Mining, and Leafcutter Bees

Sweat Bees (Green Metallic Bee)

Sweat bees are a large group of bees attracted to salt on human skin. There are approximately 1,000 species in the United States, with the metallic green sweat bee being the most common in Arizona. These bees are small—typically 3–10 mm—and are easily identified by their shiny metallic green, blue, or black coloring.

Female sweat bees nest in bare soil, digging branching burrows where they lay eggs and store pollen and nectar for their young. They are commonly found around farms and alfalfa fields due to their attraction to flowering plants. Sweat bees are important pollinators and typically sting only if handled.

Leafcutter Bees

Leafcutter bees are solitary bees known for cutting circular pieces from leaves and flower petals to build their nests. There are approximately 140 species in the United States. These bees are black with white or silvery hairs, and females have dense hairs on their underside used to carry pollen.

Leafcutter bees nest in small openings such as cracks, hollow wood, old insect holes, or plant cavities. While they may cause minor, cosmetic damage to ornamental plants like roses or bougainvillea, they are not aggressive and are valuable pollinators.

Sand Bees (Digger Bees / Mining Bees)

Sand bees are solitary ground-nesting bees that dig shallow tunnels in soil, leaving small mounds of dirt at the entrance. After creating the nest, the female lines it with a waterproof, decay-resistant coating to protect developing larvae underground.

Although sand bees are one of the most abundant bee groups, they are dull in color, non-aggressive, and rarely noticed by people. They typically pose little risk and play an important role in pollination.

metallic bee, mining bee, leafcutter bee

Africanized Honey Bees

Africanized honey bees are descendants of southern African bees imported to Brazil in the 1950s as part of an effort to create a more productive honeybee for tropical climates. After several queens escaped quarantine, these bees bred with European honeybees and rapidly spread throughout South and Central America, eventually reaching North America.

Africanized honey bees were first identified in Arizona in 1993. Today, most honey bees in Maricopa County are considered Africanized. They look nearly identical to European honeybees, but differ in behavior—Africanized bees are far more defensive and respond aggressively to perceived threats near their hive.

These bees are less selective about nesting locations and may establish colonies in small or unusual spaces such as water meter boxes, wall voids, eaves, junk piles, and other enclosed areas. Despite nesting in compact spaces, they aggressively defend a wide territory. It is recommended to keep a distance of at least 100 feet from any hive and to slowly back away if a colony is encountered.

Honey Bees

The honeybee was introduced from Europe and is the most well known due to its value to our economy. Not only do they produce honey, but they also provide an estimated $20 billion annually from the pollination of cultivated crops in the United States. There is no such thing as a small hive when it comes to talking about honeybees; their hives usually contain as much as 10,000-50,000 bees and 20-80 pounds of honey.

In Arizona, honeybees live year-round, their size ranging from ½” to ¾”.
Honeybees can be seen in a giant swarm migrating; or as few buzzing around structural buildings.
A new honeybee swarm may consist of up to 4,000 to 6,000 bees.
The honeybee contains a distinctive structure on its hind legs called a “pollen basket,” which is somewhat of a ‘built-in container’ with attached hairs on the end used to carry pollen to back to their nests.
Honeybees visit about 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey.
Honeybees do have barbed stingers; if a person or animal gets stung, the bee will lose its stinger and die.

Yellow Jackets

Western yellow jackets have jagged bands of yellow and black and are found in the Southern parts of the state and above the Mogollon Rim. The stings are painful and occur mostly outdoors when nests are bothered.

The severity of an insect sting reaction varies from person to person. A normal reaction will result in pain, swelling and redness around the bite site. A large local reaction includes swelling and redness beyond the sting site. Although frightening in appearance, these large local reactions will go away over several days.

The most serious reaction to an insect sting is an allergic one. Any one of these reactions requires immediate medical attention. Symptoms of a severe allergic reaction or “anaphylaxis” may include one of the following:

Hives, itching or selling in areas other than the sting site.
Tightness in the chest and difficulty breathing.
Hoarse voice or swelling of the tongue.
Dizziness or a sharp drop in blood pressure.
Unconsciousness or cardiac arrest.

This type of reaction can occur within minutes after the sting and may be life-threatening. People who have experienced an allergic reaction to an insect sting have a good chance of a similar or worse reaction if stung again by the same kind of insect; always carry appropriate medicine prescribed by your physician with you when outdoors.
Treatment

Call the Arizona Poison & Drug Information Center at 1.800.222.1222 to determine whether the bite victim can be managed at home or will require medical attention.

Scorpions

Arizona Bark Scorpions

There are many species of scorpions that are found in the state of Arizona. There is, however, one species of scorpion in the United States that is classified as potentially deadly; and it is very common throughout the state. There are two main distinguishing factors to identifying a bark scorpion:

It is the only scorpion in Maricopa County that climbs. It can climb pretty much any surface, except for clean glass and clean plastic.
Bark scorpions curls its tail and lays it flat against its body. This allows them to squeeze into tiny narrow cracks. This scorpion can enter homes and buildings through a crack that is equivalent to the width of a credit card.

Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion

The giant desert hairy scorpion is the largest scorpion found in Northern America, growing up to 6 inches long. This scorpion is a brownish scorpion with yellow legs and pinchers. They do have a long tail with a bulb-like poison gland. The venom is considered mild and has little effect on most humans, but their sting is painful; although common pet species, they are often aggressive and sting frequently. It gets its name by the brown hairs that cover the body. The hairs help the scorpion detect air and ground vibrations. All scorpions have bad eyesight, good sense of hearing, and touch. The giant desert hairy scorpion can be found in the desert regions of Arizona and California. They are most active at night and wait to attack their prey. Rocks are used to keep cool in the hot desert sun.