Species identification, look-alikes, and safety guidance for distinguishing honeybees from wasps, hornets, and other stinging insects.
That small, yellow-and-black striped insect hovering motionlessly in mid-air over a garden flower, then darting sideways in an instant, is very likely not a bee or wasp at all, despite…
A large, dark wasp with smoky, blue-tinted wings and two conspicuous yellow spots on its abdomen, cruising low over a lawn in a distinctive figure-eight pattern, is very likely a…
Anyone who’s spotted a tiny, perfectly rounded mud jug, sometimes no bigger than a marble, attached to a twig or garden stem has likely found a potter wasp’s nest, one…
Few insects in North America carry a reputation quite like the tarantula hawk wasp, a strikingly large, iridescent desert wasp whose sting has been described by the scientist who literally…
Anyone who’s ever found a lumpy mud tube plastered against the eaves of a shed, a porch ceiling, or the inside of a garage has encountered a mud dauber wasp’s…
Sit quietly and patiently watch a patch of goldenrod or thistle in late summer, and you’ll eventually notice something most casual observers genuinely never do: not every insect moving among…
With golden hair on its head and thorax, reddish-orange legs, and a body large enough to fly off with a full-grown katydid clutched in its legs, the great golden digger…
Bright red-and-black, densely furry, and scurrying quickly and unpredictably across bare, sun-baked ground in broad daylight, velvet ants have earned a genuinely intimidating nickname, “cow killer,” from a sting reputation…
While the “murder hornet” panic of 2020 grabbed headlines and was ultimately resolved with a genuine eradication success, a different invasive hornet has quietly become the actual, ongoing threat US…
With the Asian giant hornet fully eradicated from the US as of December 2024, the European hornet holds a distinction most people don’t realize: it’s the only true hornet, genus…
At up to two full inches long, the cicada killer wasp is one of the single largest wasps most people anywhere in the US will ever actually see up close,…
Paper wasps, genus Polistes, build some of the most recognizable and frequently spotted wasp nests around homes and gardens: small, open, umbrella-shaped combs tucked neatly under eaves, deck railings, and…
The bald-faced hornet is one of the most visually striking and commonly noticed stinging insects in North America, thanks to its large, exposed, football-shaped paper nests and its bold black-and-white…
“Was that a bee or a wasp?” is one of the most common questions people have about the flying, stinging insects they encounter, and getting the answer right matters considerably…
Most people who say they were “stung by a bee” at a picnic, near a trash can, or while mowing the lawn were actually stung by a yellowjacket, a wasp…
In 2020, the “murder hornet” became a genuine media sensation, with headlines warning of a giant invasive insect capable of wiping out entire honeybee colonies and delivering excruciating, and in…
Every spring, homeowners across the country spot large, fuzzy black-and-yellow bees hovering aggressively around their deck railings, eaves, or fence posts and assume the worst. Carpenter bees are genuinely one…