How To Tell A Hornet From A Wasp

How To Tell A Hornet From A Wasp

Hornets and Wasps are two popular stinging insects that people tend to confuse with each other. There are certain ways to tell the two insects apart so that you won’t get confused while looking at them. If you are trying to decide if it’s a Hornet or a Wasp, there are things to consider before getting rid of it.

You might think it’s easy to tell a hornet from a wasp, but if you’ve ever tried to do so, you know that isn’t necessarily the case. Sure, they are both insects and they have wings. But there are some key differences between them that can make the difference between insects that sting and insects that don’t.

How To Tell A Hornet From A Wasp

A hornet is a type of wasp, and can be distinguished from other wasps by its shiny black body, which is covered with grey or yellow stripes. Hornets build nests that are found in the ground, trees, or shrubs. Hornets are extremely territorial and will chase off any intruders that come into their territory. A hornet sting is extremely painful and can cause swelling, redness and itching at the site of the sting.

Wasp stings vary in size depending on the species of wasp that stung you. The most common type of wasp stings are those caused by honeybees. Honeybee stings are usually larger than those caused by other types of wasps because they have a higher concentration of venom in them. The size of a honeybee’s sting will vary depending on how much pressure you apply when getting stung by one!

Hornets and wasps are two of the most common types of bees in the world. They both belong to the family Vespidae, which also includes yellow jackets and bumblebees.

To tell them apart, you need to know what to look for. Hornets have a black body with yellow stripes on the abdomen, whereas wasps have yellow or orange stripes on their abdomen.

Hornets are considered more aggressive than wasps because they have a stinger that can inject venom into you if they feel threatened. Wasps’ stingers are barbed so they don’t get stuck in your skin when they use them on prey or other enemies of theirs.

Hornets and wasps have many similarities, but there are also some key differences between them. Here’s how to tell them apart:

– Hornet queens are much larger than a wasp queen, with up to 2 inches in length.

– Hornets have larger heads than wasps, with a narrow waist between thorax and abdomen.

– Wasp wings are more triangular than hornet wings, which are more rounded on top like an upside-down teardrop shape.

How To Tell A Hornet From A Wasp

Is this yellowjacket a hornet or a wasp? Read our article to find out! NENAD DRUZIC/GETTY IMAGES

Many of us use the words hornet and wasp interchangeably, but that’s a vast overgeneralization that does a disservice to these winged creatures. Understanding the differences between hornets and wasps might help you to make better pest control decisions, prevent you from killing beneficial species, and of course, maybe keep you from getting a painful sting.

Here’s the biggest thing to know: All hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets.

Hornet or Wasp?

“Hornets are just a kind of wasp,” says Jason Gibbs, assistant professor of entomology at the University of Manitoba in an email interview. “Wasp is a very broad term that covers many different species with different lifestyles.”

There are more than 100,000 wasp species on Earth, each a testament to the startling diversity in these winged bugs. They’re found in every part of the world except polar areas. It’s usually easy to identify them, as they most often have black and yellow stripes, a well-defined and narrow waist, and a tapered abdomen.

On the left is a closeup of a hornet on a leaf. On the right is a queen paper wasp building a nest.

GARY CHALKER/WILLIAM ATTARD MCCARTHY/GETTY IMAGES

Hornets are generally a little chubbier and larger than their svelte wasp brethren, and some species forego common yellow and-black striping for white and black markings. Their increased size means they also carry a substantial load of venom, so in some cases these insects are more dangerous than other kinds of wasps. Fortunately, if you leave hornets and wasps alone, they generally want nothing to do with you, either.

Wasps and hornets chew up wood fragments and use the resulting pulp to build their signature papery nests. You’ll find these nests, which have a honeycomb-style segmentation, on many horizontal surfaces, including roof eaves, garage ceilings and other places, dangling from a single thin thread. Some hornets, like the giant European hornet, may also burrow into the ground to build nests. Their nests may be as large as a foot in diameter.

“Hornets are predators [and] scavengers, as are most wasps,” says Gibbs. “From an evolutionary perspective, bees are also wasps.” Wasps, like bees, are incredibly important pollinators, helping plant to keep plant life and agricultural crops healthy. They tend to chow down on caterpillars and harmful flies, too, making them beneficial to humans. That’s one reason some places, like Germany, ban people from disturbing these creatures.

Wasps also exhibit a voracious affinity for sugary foods and drinks, and as such they often make themselves unwelcome guests at outdoor gatherings like picnics or sporting events.

Furthermore, they also love the sweet deliciousness of rotting, fermented fruit that falls to the ground in autumn. They’ll gorge themselves to the point that they’ll become drunkenly aggressive, sometimes chasing pets or people if they feel annoyed or threatened.

As their natural food sources continue to dwindle in the fall, these insects may become even bolder, one reason you should limit easy access to human foods. That keeps you – and the wasps – safe from harm.

Closeup of a giant hornet on a branch.

JULIEN DUBOIS/GETTY IMAGES

While hornets may eat fruit or picnic food, they’re much more likely to feed on insects, like crickets and grasshoppers.

Social and Solitary Wasps

Wasps are broadly divided into two categories: social and solitary species. Social species feature species such as paper wasps, yellowjackets, and yes, hornets.

Most wasp species are regarded as solitary. Females live alone and reproduce using some notable techniques, including laying eggs on other insects (like spiders) which they paralyze and hold hostage in their own nests, eventually killing the hosts which serve as food for wasp larvae.

Social species, on the other hand, live in large colonies — in populations often exceeding 100 members — with an egg-laying queen, as well as workers that do not reproduce.

“Wasps and bees have evolved social behavior more often than any other group of animal, and interestingly have lost it many times too,” says Gibbs. “Eusocial behavior (basically overlapping generations with reproductive division labor, i.e. queens and workers) has evolved multiple times in the animal kingdom.”

This behavior has also been recognized in sweat bees, Gibbs’ area of expertise. “Sweat bees are particularly interesting for studies of social evolution because they are so many back-and-forths in the evolutionary tree. In fact, you can have eusocial and solitary nests within the same species,” he says. “It’s incredibly complex and interesting and, wonderfully, all of this is going on under our noses.”

Yellowjackets are yet another type of social wasp. They’re smaller and build ground nests that may feature hundreds of individuals. Some people mistake these pint-sized wasps (which have bodies around half an inch long) for bees. As their ground nests expand, the soil becomes looser and creates a sinkhole. If you’re unlucky enough to step into one of these sinkholes, you may find yourself at the mercy of hundreds of angry yellowjackets.

List Of How To Tell A Hornet From A Wasp