How is a yellow-jacket different from a honey bee?

Answer 1

Almost everyone misidentifies Yellow Jackets as "bees", and yet the two belong to different families. It is an unfortunate misnomer that has been place on the bee, as most of the encounters resulting in a sting are not the responsibility of a bee, but are due to the Yellow Jacket.

Yellow Jackets are in actual fact members of the wasp family and are more commonly referred to as "wasps" in most English speaking countries. There are many differences between Yellow Jackets and bees. Here are just a few of them:

• Colouring - Honey bees tend to be a tan or brownish yellow colour and their bodies are covered in a dense coat of hairs. Yellow Jackets are different. They are brighter in colour and are generally bright yellow and shiny black, or all black with white faces. They are not coated in hairs and have a relatively smooth appearance to their bodies.

• Diet - Honey bees collect and feed on plant pollen, and as such are not as aggressive and dangerous as a predator or scavenger would be. However, Yellow Jackets are both predators and scavengers, eating both animal and plant matter, such as, meat, plant sap, or fruit juices.

• Nesting - The colony of a bee can last more than a year, some times several years, so mature nests can be encountered at any time of year. Yellow Jackets tend to die of each year, with only a hibernating queen surviving into the next year. This means they have to start a new colony every spring. For this reason nest are usually only encountered in the late summer to early autumn, at a time when nests are at their maximum size.

• Sting - Although both honey bees and yellow jackets sting, their physiology and behaviour differs. The bees stinger is barbed and remains embedded in the wound, when the bee flies away the anchored sting pulls out some the insects internal organs including the poison gland. This means that when a honey bee stings, it will die shortly after. They will only sting as a last resort and will rather flee than fight. The Yellow Jacket is a different story altogether. Their stinger is smooth and barbless and is with drawn from the wound after the venom is delivered. This means that the singer is not left behind and the Yellow Jacket will not die, leaving it free to sting multiple times.

• Aggression - Honey bees are generally gentle, almost never display a high level of aggression and do not swarm in defense of the colony. Yellow Jackets are generally move dangerous, as they tend to swam to defend their colony. Even the slightest knock can trigger this behaviour and they are often annoyed at the vibrations of lawn mowers, foot steps and other movements near there nests.

• Nesting sites - Honey bees always nest above ground, choosing to place their colonies at the top of high branches, or other such lactation, away from ground predators. Yellow Jackets are not so picky about where they set up home and nest both above and under ground level. This makes it harder to avoid nesting sites, as they can be found nearly everywhere.

Answer 2

Yellow jackets are wasps. They are a part of the family Vespidae which also includes hornets and paper wasps. They are very aggressive and can be a real nuisance. Yellow jackets are distinguishable by their black and yellow stripes.

Answer 3

in the mid-west hornets are quite large and have an orange tint to their head, in addition to a black backside with yellow rings around it. as for the yellow jacket they to can be decent size but they are totally black and yellow and a little more slender. the hornet is not as articulated in the middle as a yellow jacket.

Answer 4

Honey bees collect honey. Bumble bees protect themselves

Answer 5

well its yellow and black it has a stinger in the back it nests in the ground and it feeds on meat, garbage , candy ect.

Answer 6

Yes, a Bumblebee is different than the Honey bee. The difference is that it is bigger, fatter, and stands out more than the Honeybee does.

Answer 7

Yes, there is much more venom in the yellow jacket than ordinary bee. The yellow jacket also has more venom then the wasp.

Answer 8

A yellow jacket is a member of the wasp family, so they are definitley not the same. A yellow jacket is much larger, and has a much more painful sting.

Answer 9

They are both black and yellow.