well, they are helpful to the environment by transferring pollen.

they like to go out in summer time for all the fresh flowers and pollen.

Yes - there are many types of wasps in California including: German yellowjacket, western yellowjacket, California yellowjacket, paper wasp, mud dauber, fig wasp, Western sand wasp, square headed wasp, bee wolf, Pacific burrowing wasp, gall wasp, soldier wasp, club horned wasp, burrowing wasp, blue mud wasp, cutworm wasp, thread-waisted wasp, mason wasp, potter wasp, and pollen wasp. Obviously this is not a complete list - just scratching the surface really - but it does demonstrate that California has plenty of wasps.

Figs and fig wasps have a special relationship that is essential to their mutual survival. The fig provides a home for the wasp and the wasp provides the pollen that the fruit needs to ripen. The insect's life cycle begins when a tiny female wasp enters a fig and begins laying eggs inside it.

Honey bees are strictly nectar and pollen eaters, they are not carnivorous. It is more likely these were a variety of wasp.