East Tennessee’s warm summers and mild winters create ideal conditions for stinging insects to thrive year-round. Whether you’re gardening in Knoxville, hiking the Smoky Mountains, or simply enjoying your backyard in Chattanooga, you’ll likely encounter these buzzing visitors.
Over 500,000 people visit emergency rooms each year due to stinging insect encounters, with late summer and early fall presenting the highest risk when colonies reach peak populations. Understanding how to identify stinging insects in East Tennessee empowers you to protect your family and respond appropriately when you spot nests on your property.
1. Honey Bee
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are fuzzy, golden-brown insects with dark bands across their abdomens, measuring roughly half an inch in length. Their bodies are covered in fine hairs that collect pollen as they move from flower to flower, giving them a distinctly fuzzy appearance compared to the smooth bodies of wasps. You’ll recognize them by their stocky build and relatively slow, deliberate flight pattern.
These social insects establish permanent colonies that can house 30,000 to 60,000 individuals organized into three distinct groups: a single queen who lays all the eggs, thousands of female workers who gather food and maintain the hive, and male drones whose sole purpose is mating. Unlike most stinging insects that die off in winter, honey bee colonies survive cold weather by clustering together and consuming stored honey for warmth and energy…