Bees vs Wasps: How to Tell Them Apart

Bees vs Wasps

Bees and wasps get confused constantly, and the confusion matters because it decides what happens next. A honey bee colony is handled as a relocation question. A yellow jacket colony is treated. Getting it wrong in either direction has a cost.

The quickest tell is texture. Bees are fuzzy. Honey bees, bumble bees and carpenter bees are covered in branched hairs that trap pollen, so they look soft even from a few feet away. Wasps and hornets are smooth and shiny, with a hard looking body and a clearly narrow waist. If it looks like it has fur, it is almost certainly a bee.

Color helps next. Honey bees are golden brown with muted dark bands. Bumble bees are big, round and black with broad yellow or orange bands. Carpenter bees look like bumble bees but with a shiny, bare black abdomen. Yellow jackets are bright lemon yellow with crisp black bands. Paper wasps are brown or reddish brown with long legs that dangle in flight. Bald faced hornets are black and white with no yellow at all. European hornets are big, brown and yellow with a reddish head.

Behavior is the third clue. Bees visit flowers. Wasps hunt, and yellow jackets in particular show up at trash cans, picnics, sugary drinks and pet food. Bees fly in a steady line between flowers and the hive. Wasps zigzag and hover. Mud daubers gather mud at wet spots. Cicada killers dig in bare ground.

The nest tells you the most. Honey bees build wax comb in an enclosed cavity and are the only ones that store honey. Bumble bees nest in the ground in small colonies, often in an old rodent burrow. Carpenter bees drill clean round holes in wood. Paper wasps build open combs where you can see the cells. Yellow jackets build enclosed paper nests in the ground or in a void. Bald faced hornets hang theirs in the open. European hornets build in wall voids, attics and hollow trees.

Stinging differs too. A honey bee stings once and dies, and the stinger stays in the skin. Wasps and hornets can sting repeatedly. Bumble bees and carpenter bees can sting more than once but rarely do. If you are still not sure, a clear photo helps, and identification is part of the free inspection. We would rather identify a honey bee colony correctly than treat something that should have been relocated.