Non-honey bee inhabitants of hives or critters killing forager honey bees outside the hive. Animals may cause damage to hives or to bees.
There are a number of relatively non-serious honey bee pests and commensals that might be found within the hive, in the debris at bottom of hive, outside the hive, or at or around flower foraging sites. Animals might tip over the hive to gain access or by accident.
Arthropods such as spiders, wasps, roaches, earwigs, flies, beetles, predaceous flies, scorpions, mites including ticks, among others, may be commonly encountered on frames, in bee hives, or in debris at the bottom board or around a hive.
Other animals, including small mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians, might also occur in or around bee hives. They may include bees in their diet or scavenge dead bees and brood discarded by a colony.
See Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping (by Caron and Connor; Resources below) or other common textbooks on bees/beekeeping for descriptions of such pests. Most are not serious pests and as scavengers they play a useful role.
ants, bee louse, skunks, hornets and wasps, yellowjackets, small hive beetle, and wax moth
CAPA. 2019. Honey Bee Diseases & Pests, Third Edition. Canadian Association of Professional Apiculturists. Accessed 2023. https://capabees.com/capa-honey-bee-diseases-and-pests-3rd-edition/
Caron DM and Connor LJ. 2022. Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping, Third Edition, Chapter 23. Wicwas Press, Kalamazoo, MI, US. 480 pages.
