# Bee ID
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 5, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256 "2005-09-05T22:38:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/1 "2005-09-05T22:38:09Z")
I was at a park today and there were lots of bees. I have always called the kind of bee I was seeing sweet bees. But after looking up sweet bees on the web, they weren’t sweet bees at all. I’m sure many of you know what kind of bees I am talking about. They hover around you and are very quick, but they don’t seem to be interested in stinging you (if they can sting at all). What kind of bees these be? 🙂
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### Author:  [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/2 "2005-09-05T22:41:38Z")
Bumblebees? I wouldn’t say they are “quick” but they are a type of bee that isn’t
interested in stinging people. (I don’t even think they are capable of stinging.)
What are the bees that you call sweet beas?
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### Author:  [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/3 "2005-09-05T22:41:43Z")
Sweat bees that is. Sweat, sweet, loose, lose, I hate English.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/4 "2005-09-05T22:42:10Z")
Sweat bees.
What the hell did you find when you looked up sweet bees?
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### Author:  [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/5 "2005-09-05T22:43:42Z")
I mean “bees,” of course. I seriously was thinking of Aunt Bea when I typed that, and knew “sweet beas” looked not quite right but couldn’t figure out why.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/6 "2005-09-05T22:43:48Z")
Since you’ve just described the behavior of sweat bees, without a better description there’s not much hope of an ID.
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### Author:  [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/7 "2005-09-05T22:46:43Z")
I took the “a” in sweat to make “bea.”
Anyway, I don’t know what either sweat bees or sweet bees are.
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/8 "2005-09-05T22:46:45Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#):
>
> They hover around you and are very quick, but they don’t seem to be interested in stinging you (if they can sting at all).
Bees don’t usually hover and dart about with noticeable speed ( though a few might ). If what you saw was hovering in a pretty much stationary position, then suddenly darted up, down, or sideways it could be it was some type of hover fly instead, many/most of which are bee/wasp mimics. Some hover fly pictures:
> **[Family Syrphidae - North American Insects & Spiders](https://www.cirrusimage.com/Flies_hover.htm)**
>
> Flies\_hover
Some drawings:
[http://crawford.tardigrade.net/bugs/BugofMonth14.html](http://crawford.tardigrade.net/bugs/BugofMonth14.html)
- Tamerlane
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### Author:  [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/9 "2005-09-05T22:56:00Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Sweat bees.
>
> What the hell did you find when you looked up sweet bees?
LOL. Well I looked up “sweat” bees, but typed sweet bees here.
They are chubby light brown furry bees. Not a brown and black striped honey bee, or a big furry yellow and black bee. It seems to me they are more interested in your soda pop than any flower. Maybe they are a furry fly and not a bee at all?
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### Author:  [@lorinada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorinada)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/10 "2005-09-05T23:03:08Z")
> [@missbunny](#):
>
> (I don’t even think they are capable of stinging.)
Oh, yes they are.
> **[Bumblebee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee)**
>
> A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus Bombus, part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera (e.g., Calyptapis) are known from fossils. They are found primarily in higher altitudes or latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, although they are also found in South America, where a few lowland tropical species have been identified. European bumblebees have...
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### Author:  [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/11 "2005-09-05T23:07:05Z")
> [@lorinada](#):
>
> Oh, yes they are.
>
> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumblebee)
Why so they are. I never was too careful around them because I thought they couldn’t get me. I will have to mind my nose when sniffing the rhododendrons.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2005, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/12 "2005-09-06T00:04:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> They are chubby light brown furry bees.
I’m going to support **Tamerlane** on this one. (Did you check his links?)
There was a small critter that we called sweat bees in Southeast Michigan that answers to your description quite closely. WhenI finally got old enough to buy my own guide to insects, I discovered that they were called hover flies.
They used to hang around junipers and arborvitae bushes in my neighborhood.
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### Author:  [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/13 "2005-09-06T00:19:18Z")
They may be Syrphid Flies.
> **[Syrphid Fly - Mallota sp. - North American Insects & Spiders](https://www.cirrusimage.com/flies_Syrphidae_mallota.htm)**
>
> flies\_Syrphidae\_mallota
I’m going to do more research on them.
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### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/14 "2005-09-06T00:27:15Z")
One of the critters **Tamerlane** has identified as Hover Flies are what my Dad always called sweat bees. (Sphaerophoria sp.) I note them by an abdomen more slender than a yellow jacket, and their movements are more like a hummingbird than an ordinary bee.
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### Author:  [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bee-id/320256/15 "2005-09-06T00:59:14Z")
[http://insects.tamu.edu/images/animalia/arthropoda/insecta/diptera/bombyliidae/bombyliidae\_unknown\_adult\_lateral\_m\_01.jpg](http://insects.tamu.edu/images/animalia/arthropoda/insecta/diptera/bombyliidae/bombyliidae_unknown_adult_lateral_m_01.jpg)
[http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/youth/bug/bug135.html](http://insects.tamu.edu/extension/youth/bug/bug135.html)
This is pretty close. Diptera: Bombyliidae