HONEY BEE VS WASP VS YELLOW JACKET VS HORNET: A SIMPLE GUIDE 🐝
Honey bees are fuzzy to more easily carry pollen
Obviously, they produce honey! While most wasps do not
Usually a peachy yellow-orange color
Pointed faces with their eyes angled more outwards to the sides
Construct their nests out of wax, in whatever shape best suits their location
While both yellow jackets and hornets are in fact just different subtypes of wasps, this guide will primarily focus on paper wasps when discussing the differences between the species
Paper wasps have triangular, upsidedown tear drop shaped heads
They've got skinny abdomens and long legs that dangle under them while they fly
Come in a wide variety of colors from pure black to red
Their nests are flared papery shapes constructed out of hexagons
They differ from other wasps by having smaller, stumpier bodies and thick abdomens
Much shorter legs that tuck under their body while they fly
Almost always a very vibrant yellow and black
Hornets, like yellow jackets, are also another species of wasp
Hornets are generally much larger then our other black and yellow girls, the largest being around 3 inches!
They've got big chunky builds with especially large abdomens
They have rounder more oval faces compared to wasps
They are usually much more dark orange/red in color then the previously mentioned bugs. Some even look like they have red/orange masks on!
Hornet nests are usually smooth and acorn shaped, made from a papery material. They're quite beautiful!
IMPORTANT NOTE! With such a wide variety of species, there will always be exceptions to these descriptors. This is merely a simple visual guide that applies to most cases
