Striped yellow and black, humming and armed with the dreaded sting - at times, distinguishing between wasps, bees and the like can make your head spin. So that you can clearly identify the insects in the future, here is a small comparison.
Wasps are clearly striped yellow and black, bees are often slightly darker
The look
Anyone who wants to distinguish bees from wasps really only needs to look closely. Because the two types of insects do not look so similar at second glance. Both have a yellow and dark striped abdomen. In bees, however, the dark part is significantly browner, while in wasps it is really black. In addition, the bee's body is noticeably hairy and downright fluffy, while wasps appear much smoother due to the lack of hair.
And something else about the body: The proverbial wasp waist is of course also a typical characteristic of wasps: it is significantly narrower than that of bees.
To remember:
- Bees tend to be brown-yellow, wasps striped black-yellow
- Bee body much more hairy
- Wasp waist significantly narrower
movement and behavior
You can also quickly tell from the behavior whether a striped buzzing insect is a bee or a wasp. Wasps move much more agile and purposeful than bees and also show a much more daring, offensive behavior. Completely self-confident, they head for the ice cream or bread with jam in your hand and insist on their right to sweet food. Bees stay much more in the background and rarely appear at breakfast or coffee tables as stubborn, uninvited guests.
Bees also rarely use the dreaded sting on humans than wasps. This is mainly due to the fact that you can only use it once. When you stab them, they lose their entire stabbing apparatus and their lives as well. So it's understandable that they only sting in extreme emergencies. Wasps, on the other hand, can and do use their sting multiple times. They stun prey insects with their sting venom and thus defend themselves against threats - for example in the form of waving human hands.
To remember:
- Wasps are more agile and behave more offensively
- Bees can only sting once, wasps more often
Way of life and benefits for humans
Of course, you can only observe the way of life and habitation of wasps and insects if they have settled in your area with their colony. By the way, both bees and wasps form states. Depending on the species, they choose natural stone walls, roof trusses, earth or tree cavities for their nests.
A major difference lies in the diet of the larvae. While you won't be able to get into the inside and what's going on in a wasp or bee nest, it's useful to know how the insects feed their brood and how they behave outside of their nest. Bees naturally produce honey for their larvae, which we humans have also appreciated for thousands of years. Wasps cannot make the sweet gold - they feed their offspring on insects. But this also makes them useful in the garden - because among their prey there are also caterpillars of annoying garden pests.
To remember:
- Bees produce honey for larvae - delicious beekeeping material
- Wasps feed offspring with insects - help with pest control in the garden