What are the Differences Between Honey Bees and Wasps?

Both honey bees and wasps belong to the arthropod (Arthropoda) branch and the order Hymenoptera (membrane winged), and there are some features that define these two very similar creatures. There are big differences between wasps and bees in terms of where they build their nests. Both are found on every continent except Antarctica. What are the Differences Between Honey Bees and Wasps in the environment while at a picnic? Because wasp or wasp is usually more aggressive and they are found in public places in search of people’s food. Normal bees are more benign. At a picnic, they focus on flowers, not a sandwich or other food. There are more than 25,000 species of both insects, but there are a few relatively simple ways to distinguish them. Knowing their way of life, their appearance, and what the differences are between wasps and bees can help prevent unfortunate encounters with them, facilitate the control of bees in the living environment, and determine the most accurate method.

The Structures, Nests and Stinging Features of Wasps

Although there are many species of both wasps and honey bees, the most common bees are honey bees and bumblebees; Common bumblebees are paper wasps and European wasps known as yellowish. It can be seen everywhere in Turkey.

One way to tell the difference between bees and wasps is in their appearance. Wasps are bees with large structures, yellow, yellow and black stripes, which are widely distributed in the world. Some of the wasps can be black or white in color. They can reach 25-30 millimeters in length. Wing lengths are equal to body length. European hornets are a very harmful species, up to 40 millimeters in length. The abdomen is orange with brown stripes. The number of workers in their colonies can reach 700. They can make their nests or hives in bushes, edges of buildings, attics, barns, gaps in walls. While this bee species bites with its mouth parts, it can sting at the same time. When they enter the defensive state, all the bees in the nest can act, which can be very dangerous for humans.

Wasps have a thinner body. If a bee stings any person, attention is probably not paid to the curve of his waist or the shape of his legs, but with attention to some distinctive features that will help identify him. Wasps have a thin body that narrows in the waist area. They look shiny and have a smooth body surface. Wasps have hind legs that hang down during flight, but a honeybee’s hind legs cannot be seen during flight. Wasps do not take part in the pollination of flowers and also do not make honey.

Wasps are beneficial for the ecosystem. Wasps, their offspring in the nest What are the Differences Between Honey Bees and Wasps? They are carnivorous predators that control populations, catching other insects to feed. Wasps are the cause of the decline in flies, crickets, caterpillars and other insects. While adults sometimes feed on nectar or pollen, they feed their young on insects, arthropods, flies, and even caterpillars. For this reason, it can be said that they play an important role in the elimination of harmful living things in agriculture and are beneficial for the ecosystem. Apart from these, wasps, which consume fish, meat, sweet and sugary foods, are disturbing animals because they are near the garbage cans in picnic areas.

Wasps make their nests in crevices and stalks. Wasps build their nests from a pulp-like secretion they make by chewing wood fibers and mixing them with saliva. Yellowish or European hornets form a series of honeycombs on top of each other and surround them with an envelope of soft layers. Queen or queen bees lay their eggs in honeycomb cells, which are few in number. Wasps tend to build their nests between crevices, in remote places. The queen of the wasps makes their nests alone. Their burrows in shrubs, low tree branches, hollows or hollows in the wall, holes left by animals such as rodents, rarely underground, can sometimes be as large as a bucket. The paper wasp species creates a single paper honeycomb with no surrounding envelopes underneath nearly every horizontal surface area. Up to 25,000 wasps can be found in a colony.

A wasp can sting more than once. Wasps bite with strong teeth in their upper jaws (mandible), but when they are in a difficult situation they stick their poisonous sting. Both bees and wasps inject their venom (venom) with a needle attached to their body. Normally, wasps don’t sting people quickly. The venom gives people intense pain after the injection, and it can cause severe allergic reactions in some people. The wasp sting is not prickly like a honey bee sting, so wasps and most bees can remove the sting after pumping the venom into the skin and then fly away. Stings are females and can sting multiple times.

Honey Bee Structures, Nests and Stinging Features

Honey bees are especially protected by bee breeders. Honey bees are very valuable for their role in the ecosystem. Their length is up to 1.2 centimeters. Chest and head parts are hairy, their color is usually yellow. There are queen or queen bees, about 100,000 worker bees and 500-1000 drones in their hives. Both the queen and the worker bees that do all the work of the hive, including making honey, are female, but the workers are sterile. The duty of drones to make honey does not suffer. Female bees develop by fertilization of eggs, while male bees develop from unfertilized eggs. Honey bee swarms can fly and cluster on a branch. Up to 30,000 bees or even more can be found in a honey bee colony.

The tattoos of honey bees are fuller and hairy. The bodies of honey bees are fuller and hairier than a wasp, and their hind legs are flatter. Bees are pollinators that spend most of their lives visiting various plants and flowers to collect and distribute pollen. Bees have a pollen basket on their hind legs that is not found in wasps. They feed their developing brood with nectar and pollen. Their furry body and straight legs are ideal for holding pollen while moving from one area to another.

Honey Bees Are Responsible for Pollination of Flowers: Bees feed on the nectar and pollen in flowers, converting the nectar they take into honey and beeswax. Sometimes they take food from the sweet residue in the garbage. It is estimated that honey bees are responsible for 80% of pollination of fruit trees, vegetable crops, legumes and ornamental flowers.

Honey bees make their own nests. Bees build their nests from wax cells (hexagonal prism-shaped cells) that they stack on top of each other and make a series of vertical combs. The honey produced is filled into these combs. Most honeybees make their nests themselves. They can nest in wall and tree hollows, live in chimneys and roofs, but today most of their nests or hives are prefabricated hives made by humans.

Honey Bees Dies After Sting: The queen bee and worker bees have stings, but drones do not. Honey bees do not sting people or animals such as cats and dogs unless they are in a difficult situation, even if they sting, they are non-poisonous. The honey bee needle is barbed and sticks to the meat. When the honey bee tries to fly, its needle does not dislodge, it stays on the skin and breaks off from its body. For this reason, they cannot sting more than once, as wasps do. Since the needle is attached to the honey bee’s digestive system, the stinging bee eventually dies from trauma.

Bumblebees are similar to honey bees. Bumblebees are often confused with honey bees. These bees also make honey (less than honey bees) but their appearance is hairy and larger than honey bees. Although these bees are sometimes called “wasps” due to their size, they are not actually wasps. They have nearly 250 species, it is not seen much in our country. They mostly live in temperate climates, in various regions of Africa. There are golden lines and dark lines on the tip of their tail. These bee species build hives in abandoned mouse and bird nests, in small cavities in walls, under hangars, in piles of intact compost. Bumblebees also play an important role in pollination of many plant species such as honey bees. The queens and workers of bumblebees have needles, so they can sting, but do not die after the sting. They are sensitive to smells such as perfume, sweat, soap, and people who carry these scents are more at risk of being stung.

The Effects of Cold Weather on BeesWhat Are the Differences Between Honey Bees and Wasps?

During the cool autumn months, bumblebees’ dietary preferences shift from insects and other protein sources to carbohydrates. Anyone who goes to a football game or a smaller competition venue in the fall will notice bumblebees or yellow bees flying around and being placed in soda cans and trash cans because they are looking for something sweet to eat. Colonies of bumblebees and bumblebees do not survive the winter in cold climates, only the new, young queen bees can survive the winter cold by hiding wherever they can stay warm. Worker bees, who are barren, appear in the spring or early summer and continue to build nests. The emergence time of drones is late summer. The queen bee continues to lay her eggs. Male bees and new queens mate at the beginning of autumn. Adult males mate with a female bee. The fertilized female bee sleeps until the end of winter, this female becomes queen the following year. Over 1000 bees can be found in a wasp colony in autumn. In winter, all males and worker bees in the nest perish. Honey bee colonies can live for more than a year.