Yellow-black stripes, buzzing and armed with the dreaded stinger - sometimes your head can spin when trying to distinguish between wasps, bees and the like. So that you can clearly identify the insects in the future, here is a small comparison.
What are the differences between bees and wasps?
The main difference between bees and wasps is their appearance and behavior: bees have brown-yellow, hairy bodies, while wasps are black-yellow and smoother. Wasps are more agile and offensive, while bees are more reserved. Bees and wasps also use different food for their larvae.
The Appearance
If you want to distinguish bees from wasps, you just need to look closely. At second glance, the two types of insects don't look that similar. Both have a yellow-dark striped abdomen. In bees, the dark part is significantly browner, but in wasps it is really black. In addition, the bee's body is noticeably hairy and downright fluffy, while wasps appear much smoother because of the lack of hair.
And something else about the body: The proverbial wasp waist is of course also a typical feature of wasps: it is significantly narrower than that of bees.
To remember:
- Bees tend to be brown-yellow, wasps have black-yellow stripes
- Bee body much more hairy
- Wasp waist significantly narrower
Movement and behavior
You can also quickly tell from its behavior whether a striped buzzing insect is a bee or a wasp. Wasps move much more agilely and purposefully than bees and also show much more daring, offensive behavior. Completely self-confident, they head for the ice cream or jam bread in your hand and insist on their right to sweet food. Bees stay much more in the background and rarely appear at breakfast and coffee tables as stubborn, uninvited guests.
Bees also use the dreaded stinger less often on people than wasps. This is mainly because you can only use it once. When they stab you, they lose their entire stinging apparatus and also their life. So it's understandable that they only sting in extreme emergencies. Wasps, on the other hand, can and do use their stinger multiple times. They stun prey insects with their stinging venom and use it to 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
Lifestyle and benefits for humans
Of course, you can only observe the lifestyle and living habits of wasps and insects if they have settled in your area. By the way, both bees and wasps form states. Depending on the species, they choose natural stone walls, roof trusses, earth or tree hollows for their nests.
A major difference lies in the nutrition of the larvae. Although you will hardly be able to penetrate into the interior of a wasp or bee nest, it is still useful to know how the insects feed their brood and behave accordingly outside their nest. Bees naturally produce honey for their larvae, which we humans have also valued for thousands of years. Wasps cannot produce the sweet gold - they feed their offspring with insects. This means they are also of some use in the garden - because their prey also includes caterpillars of annoying garden pests.
To remember:
- Bees produce honey for larvae - delicious beekeeping material
- Wasps feed insects to their offspring - help with pest control in the garden