[paul.fr]

Do Bees have natural predators?

[another_someone]

One problem I think the French are presently encountering is a breed of hornets attacking their bee colonies (more exactly, I think they are going for the grubs, not the mature adults).  I think some wasps might also be predators, and then there are various diseases (including fungi) that might well attack bees (whether you consider a micro-organism as a predator is maybe a matter of interpretation).

[chris]

This is correct. The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) arrived in 2004 amongst packages of Chinese bonsai pottery. Most stowaways, such as spiders lurking in bunches of bananas, cannot tolerate the environment in their new home (for reasons of temperature, food, predators, diseases or lack of mates) and they die out. (And if I arrived in France in a packing case, I'd feel the same, probably).

But these hornets are finding the southern European climate quite agreeable, and a diet of French honeybees even moreso. They are relatives of Europe's only native species of hornet, the Vespa crabo, and their native habitat stretches from northern India, through Bhutan, and into areas of China. Yet unlike our own species, which has a taste for caterpillars and other agricultural bests, these newcomers prey on insects, especially bees.

It's spreading rapidly and scientists expect it to be across half of France and into Spain by next year. Luckily the threat to humans is not significant. Hornets tend to avoid people and, contrary to popular belief, their stings are no more likely to prove serious or fatal than the sting of a bee or wasp.

Chris

[Bored chemist]

Not a very original name, but information on a preadator of bees can be found here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee-eater

[Karen W.]

MY little Boston Terrier was a bee terrorist.. he would jup up 5 ft in the air an snatch a bumble be or any bee for that matter and grind them to a pulp in his mouth.. he did this constantly in the summer months.. He had been stung many many times in his mouth , but he was death to bee's... LOL I know thats not whatchall was looking for, BUT I thought I would add him in anyway!

[BillJx]

Spiders, birds, wasps, various predatory insects and I'm sure many more.  Why wouldn't they have predators?  They are little morsels of meat.
A grizzly bear will stick its head in a wasp nest to eat the grubs, so I doubt that it's too put off by the sting of a honeybee.