Yellow jackets are wasps, not bees, even though their yellow-and-black stripes lead many people to call them bees.1University of Maryland Extension. Social Wasps: Yellowjackets, Hornets, and Paper Wasps The mix-up is understandable, since a yellow jacket is about the same half-inch size as a honey bee.2Texas Apiary Inspection Service (TAIS). Yellow Jackets – Texas Apiary Inspection Service (TAIS) The difference goes well beyond the name: it shapes what they eat, how they sting, and why they turn up at your picnic in late summer.
How to Tell a Yellow Jacket From a Honey Bee
Hair is the quickest clue. Honey bees are covered in dense hair on the chest section and legs.3Himalayan Treasures. Honey Bee vs Yellow Jacket: Spot the Differences Fast Yellow jackets look smooth and shiny, almost reflective.4Himalayan Treasures. Honey Bee vs Yellow Jacket: Spot the Differences Fast They aren’t completely hairless, just far less hairy than a honey bee.5University of Maryland Extension. Social Wasps: Yellowjackets, Hornets, and Paper Wasps Their legs are thin and yellowish, with no visible pollen-collecting hairs.6PermaTreat Pest & Termite Control. Bees or Yellow Jackets? | PermaTreat Pest and Termite Control
Shape and cargo help too. Honey bees have a thick, barrel-shaped body with no obvious waist.7Himalayan Treasures. Honey Bee vs Yellow Jacket: Spot the Differences Fast Yellow jackets have a narrow “wasp waist” between the chest and the abdomen.8Himalayan Treasures. Honey Bee vs Yellow Jacket: Spot the Differences Fast Honey bees often carry clumps of pollen in baskets on their hind legs, while yellow jackets are never seen carrying pollen.9Himalayan Treasures. Honey Bee vs Yellow Jacket: Spot the Differences Fast10Texas Apiary Inspection Service (TAIS). Yellow Jackets – Texas Apiary Inspection Service (TAIS) So a bright pellet of pollen on the back legs points to a bee.
You don’t need to lean in to check. Watch from a few feet away as the insect lands on a flower or on food. A bee tends to linger on blossoms, while a yellow jacket darts and zips around food, drinks, and trash.
Color and stripes alone can mislead you. Honey bees also have yellow-and-brown or black bands, and their color ranges from amber to dark brown, with a dusty or worn bee looking dull. Pairing two or three clues, such as fuzz, narrow waist, and legs, gives a much firmer answer than color alone.
Where Yellow Jackets Fit Among Other Wasps
Yellow jackets are small for social wasps, about 3/8 to 5/8 of an inch long.11University of Maryland Extension. Social Wasps: Yellowjackets, Hornets, and Paper Wasps In flight they tuck their legs tight against the body, which gives them a compact look.12Plunkett’s. Difference Between Wasp, Yellowjacket, & Hornet Paper wasps are slimmer, up to about an inch long, with long legs dangling as they fly.13Plunkett’s. Difference Between Wasp, Yellowjacket, & Hornet They also usually show less yellow and more reddish-brown or near-black.14University of Maryland Extension. Social Wasps: Yellowjackets, Hornets, and Paper Wasps Paper wasps move more slowly around their nests, while yellow jackets zigzag in quick, darting flights, especially near food.
Hornets are bigger. Bald-faced hornets are about 3/4 inch long, black with pale gray bands.15Plunkett’s. Difference Between Wasp, Yellowjacket, & Hornet European hornets are much larger, up to about 1 3/8 inches, brown with golden-yellow and teardrop-shaped marks on the abdomen.16University of Maryland Extension. Social Wasps: Yellowjackets, Hornets, and Paper Wasps
Nests give them away as well. Paper wasps build a single open comb, a few inches across, with no covering.17University of Maryland Extension. Social Wasps: Yellowjackets, Hornets, and Paper Wasps Yellow jacket nests are wrapped in a papery outer shell, and they usually sit underground or inside walls, with wasps zipping in and out of a single hole.18University of Maryland Extension. Social Wasps: Yellowjackets, Hornets, and Paper Wasps19Nettie. Honeybee vs Wasp vs Yellowjacket: How to Tell Them Apart
So an umbrella-shaped nest under your eaves is usually not yellow jackets. Because yellow jacket nests are hidden, people often find them only by stepping or mowing near them.
Why a Yellow Jacket Can Sting You Again and Again
A honey bee’s stinger is barbed and usually lodges in the skin.20Sage Pest Control. Yellow Jacket Stings Come in Multiples and Here’s Why When the bee pulls away, its sting apparatus is damaged and it usually can’t sting that person again.21Sage Pest Control. Yellow Jacket Stings Come in Multiples and Here’s Why Yellow jacket stingers have no barbs, so a yellow jacket withdraws its stinger and can sting numerous times.22Napa County Mosquito Abatement District. Yellowjackets A stinger left in your skin therefore points to a honey bee rather than a yellow jacket.
Several stings in a row are common when someone swats at one or steps near a nest, which is why the first sting is a signal to move away. Venom doses add up, so many stings are more worrying than one, particularly for children and small people.
The venom matters too. Bee and wasp venoms share several ingredients, including histamine, which causes itching and swelling.23Compound Interest. The Chemical Compositions of Insect Venoms Wasp venom also contains acetylcholine, which stimulates pain nerves and heightens the sting’s pain.24Compound Interest. The Chemical Compositions of Insect Venoms Proteins in a sting can trigger an allergic reaction and, in some people, a severe whole-body reaction.25Compound Interest. The Chemical Compositions of Insect Venoms Anyone with trouble breathing, swelling of the face or throat, or dizziness after a sting needs emergency care right away.
After a sting, walk away from the area calmly, since more wasps may be coming. For a bee sting, scrape the stinger out promptly; a yellow jacket sting has nothing to remove. Wash the spot and use a cold pack to ease pain and swelling.
Disturbing a Nest Brings a Swarm
Disturbing a yellow jacket nest usually brings a group attack, not one angry wasp.26Nature World News. Yellow Jackets Use Alarm Pheromones To Mark Intruders and Rally Colony To Attack Yellow jackets fiercely guard their helpless young, and alarmed wasps release chemical signals that rally the colony and mark the intruder for attack.27Nature World News. Yellow Jackets Use Alarm Pheromones To Mark Intruders and Rally Colony To Attack Combined with a stinger they can reuse, a nest disturbance can mean many stings fast.
Vibration can trigger a response, so mowers, footsteps, and trimmers near a hidden ground nest can set guards off before anyone sees the hole. The defense is strongest close to the nest, so distance gives a real advantage.
If you run into one, don’t swat, which can provoke more stings. Move away quickly and keep going well past the nest. Once you know where a nest hole is, mark it so nobody mows or steps on it. For a nest near a door or play area, consider a pest professional rather than tackling it at dusk with a can of spray.
What Yellow Jackets Eat, and Why They Want Your Food
Yellow jackets are predators and scavengers.28Georgia Wildlife Resources Division. Are Yellow Jackets Bees or Wasps? Through most of summer they hunt spiders, caterpillars, flies, and other small creatures, and they also scavenge dead insects, worms, and road-killed animals.29Georgia Wildlife Resources Division. Are Yellow Jackets Bees or Wasps? Workers chew the prey into a paste to feed the larvae, which need protein.30Ohioline. Yellowjackets Bees feed their young pollen and nectar, never meat, which is why they ignore your burger. The adults themselves feed mainly on sugars: nectar, fruit juice, and tree sap.31Ohioline. Yellowjackets That split is why a yellow jacket can be after your sandwich and your soda in the same visit.
Workers will take protein from our food too.32Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District. Oh, the woes of yellowjacket season. Why do they want my food and how can I get rid of them? You can watch one saw off a piece of meat with its mouthparts and fly off.33Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District. Oh, the woes of yellowjacket season. Why do they want my food and how can I get rid of them? That’s a protein run for the nest. One hovering at a sweet drink is more likely after sugar for itself, and it may crawl into a can or cup to reach it. Bruised or fermenting fruit draws them as well, because they can feed on the juices. Outdoors, cover meat, sweet drinks, and fruit, and check open cans before sipping.
Why They Get Worse in Late Summer
Adult yellow jackets normally rely on a sugary liquid their larvae give off.34Eco Serve Pest Control. Why Yellow Jackets Get So Aggressive in Late Summer And What to Do About It Late in the season the queen slows or stops laying worker eggs, so fewer larvae mean less of that sugar for the workers.35Eco Serve Pest Control. Why Yellow Jackets Get So Aggressive in Late Summer And What to Do About It At the same time, the colony is at its largest of the year, and flowers and natural sugar sources are thinning out.36Nettie. Why Yellow Jackets Get Aggressive in Late Summer and Fall A big, hungry workforce heads for sodas, fruit, and picnic leftovers.37Eco Serve Pest Control. Why Yellow Jackets Get So Aggressive in Late Summer And What to Do About It
Late summer and early fall are the worst weeks for outdoor meals. Keep trash cans lidded and pick up fallen fruit. Pour drinks into cups with lids or use straws.
What Happens to a Yellow Jacket Nest Over the Year
In spring a fertilized queen emerges from hibernation and builds a nest from chewed plant fiber, a kind of paper.38Orkin. Yellow Jacket Life Cycle: Larvae, Eggs, Reproduction, etc. | Orkin A lone queen starts by herself, building a small starter nest and raising the first workers. Once those workers hatch, they take over the foraging and nest building, and the queen stays inside laying eggs. That’s why early-season nests are small and easy to miss, and why they can seem to appear suddenly later.
In fall the nest raises males and new queens, which leave to mate.39Orkin. Yellow Jacket Life Cycle: Larvae, Eggs, Reproduction, etc. | Orkin The males die, and mated queens look for a place to spend the winter.40Orkin. Yellow Jacket Life Cycle: Larvae, Eggs, Reproduction, etc. | Orkin The workers die in winter, leaving only the hibernating queens.41Orkin. Yellow Jacket Life Cycle: Larvae, Eggs, Reproduction, etc. | Orkin An old nest is generally not reused, though a new queen may pick a similar spot.
If a nest you find in fall is away from busy areas, waiting can be safer than removal. An empty, abandoned nest in winter poses no stinging threat.
Ground Nests and Look-Alikes That Are Harmless
Bees flying low over a lawn or from small holes in soil may be ground-nesting bees.42Bulwark Pest Control. Are Yellow Jackets Bees or Wasps These are gentle, mostly solitary bees that sting only if swatted.43Beech Hollow Farms. Gentle Native Bee? Or aggressive ground nesting wasp? Each female ground-nesting bee digs her own nest, so there is no large colony to defend. Some ground nests, though, belong to yellow jackets, which are much more defensive.44Bulwark Pest Control. Are Yellow Jackets Bees or Wasps Bumblebees, for their part, often live in abandoned rodent burrows.45Bulwark Pest Control. Are Yellow Jackets Bees or Wasps
To tell a busy hole apart, look at who’s coming and going. Many tiny holes with fuzzy bees traveling in and out suggest ground-nesting bees. One hole with a steady stream of shiny, narrow-waisted wasps suggests yellow jackets. Ground bees are usually active only a few weeks, so they can simply be left alone.
Hover flies are often mistaken for wasps or bees because of their stripes.46Wikipedia. Hoverfly They are flies, with one pair of wings, and harmless to people.47Wikipedia. Hoverfly One kind is a close yellow jacket look-alike that is completely harmless.48Missouri Department of Conservation. Yellowjacket Hover Fly Unlike wasps, hover flies often hang still in the air near flowers and have short antennae.
Are Yellow Jackets Good for Anything
Yellow jackets help control pest insects such as caterpillars within a few hundred feet of their nests.49Arbico Organics. Yellow Jackets, Hornets & Wasps A growing colony may remove more than 2 pounds of insects from a 2,000-square-foot garden.50Mother Earth News. About Yellow Jackets and the Benefits of Wasps in the Garden They hunt caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects, including pests that chew plants, but the benefit is local. Fewer pests can come with more wasps around the yard, so the trade-off depends on where the nest is. A nest away from people may be worth leaving alone.
A nest by a door, path, or play area is worth removing, while one at the far edge of the yard may help your garden. Anyone with a sting allergy should treat any nearby nest as a hazard.
Yellow jackets also move some pollen as they sip nectar from flower to flower.51UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. Managing yellowjackets in your garden Their smoother bodies hold less pollen, so they’re far less efficient than bees.52Fox Pest Control. Do Yellowjackets Pollinate?
Where they don’t belong, yellow jackets do harm. The German yellow jacket has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Chile, and other countries.53Tourism, Recreation and Biological Invasions. Negative Impacts on Tourism of Yellow Jackets (Vespula germanica) in Wilderness Areas of Chile In Hawaii, removing invasive yellow jacket colonies let native spiders rise 36% and caterpillars 86%.54University of California, San Diego. New Life Histories Emerge for Invasive Wasps, Magnify Ecological Harm