Which Bee Is in Your New Zealand Garden?

Most of the buzzing things in a New Zealand backyard are harmless and helpful, but they are not all the same insect, and the one people most want to identify is often not a bee at all. Here is how to tell apart the main groups you are most likely to meet on your flowers.

Honey bees

The classic golden-brown striped bee, around a centimetre long, working flowers steadily and flying back in the same direction toward a hive. These are managed bees from someone's hive, wild or kept. They are not aggressive away from the hive and only sting if handled or threatened. A swarm hanging in a tree is honey bees, and that is a job for a beekeeper, not a can of spray.

Bumblebees

Big, round, furry and loud, bumblebees are the gentle giants of the garden. New Zealand has four introduced species and they are superb pollinators, especially of tomatoes, beans and other crops they buzz-pollinate. They nest in small numbers in the ground or in cavities and very rarely sting. Leave them be and enjoy the free pollination.

Native bees

Small, dark, fast and easy to miss, New Zealand has around 28 species of native bee across three groups. Leioproctus is the largest and most common, hairy and 5 to 12 mm long, nesting in burrows in dry ground. Lasioglossum are our smallest bees, 4 to 8 mm, nearly hairless and sometimes faintly greenish, and also nest in the soil. Hylaeus are shiny and almost hairless with pale yellow or white markings on the face, and unlike the other two they nest in hollow stems and twigs rather than the ground. All of them are solitary, make no honey, do not swarm and almost never sting. There is a full guide to supporting native bees if you want to encourage them.

Leafcutter bees

You may also meet the introduced leafcutter bee, brought into New Zealand to pollinate lucerne and seed crops. The tell-tale sign is neat semicircular pieces cut from the edges of leaves, often on roses, which the female uses to line the nest cells she builds in hollow stems. They are solitary, gentle and good pollinators, and the leaf cutting is cosmetic rather than any real harm to the plant.

Wasps, the ones to watch

German and common wasps are the insects most often mistaken for bees, and they are a serious pest in New Zealand. They are sleeker, shinier, brighter yellow and almost hairless compared with a furry bee, and they can sting repeatedly. A papery nest in a bank, wall cavity or roof is wasps, not bees, and is dealt with differently. If something is aggressive around food and rubbish, it is almost certainly a wasp.

• Honey bee: golden-brown stripes, steady flier, lives in a hive, gentle away from it
• Bumblebee: large, round and furry, loud, very gentle, great pollinator
• Native bees (Leioproctus, Lasioglossum, Hylaeus): small, dark, solitary, make no honey
• Leafcutter bee: introduced, leaves neat semicircular cuts in leaves, solitary and gentle
• Wasp: shiny, bright yellow, hairless, can sting repeatedly, the one to be wary of