Wasp or Yellow Jacket?

A Yellow Jacket is a wasp but not all wasps are Yellow Jackets.

There was an insect buzzing my ear today and I waved my hand to scare it away. I hit and caught it so it stung my ring finger at the knuckle fold nearest my hand.

I called it a little fucker as i flicked it to the ground. I had a bit of it heiney stuck in my hand so I thought it might be a bee.

Nope.

Yellow Jackets have a barbed stinger that may be pulled out of the little asshole's body.

It burned a lot and swelled a bit. The knuckle still hurts nine hours later.

Nasty little monster.

Was just having this conversation with buddies yesterday about how it seems like whether an insect is referred to as a wasp or a yellow jacket depends on where the person doing the naming is from. I'm curious where hornets come in as well.

Here we go: https://www.howtogettingridofbees.co...kets-vs-wasps/

Sounds like it was a yellow jacket that got you.

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Yellow jackets versus hornets is a fascinating comparison. Yellow jackets cause more nuisance than hornets because they find sweets simply irresistible. Meaning that you need to watch out for your glass of fruit juice. This is very important as they have probably visited the garbage dump looking for food before coming to you. Hornets feed on other live insects, meaning they can be actually beneficial.Bites are hard to deal with everywhere. Yellowjackets sting more frequently than hornets, but those are much less painful, and they usually die after stinging as their stingers get caught in the skin. Hornets can repeatedly sting humans as their stings are not barbed, unlike yellow jackets. This leads to human deaths now and then.

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It does bother me when people refer to wasps as bees. I've never studied either species in my life, but have known the difference since I was in elementary school. I don't understand how it's that difficult to tell a wasp from a bee. Then again, it seems like 90% of any spiders I see, someone is telling me that it's a brown recluse.

Good thing you weren't out taking a piss.

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Originally Posted by BushMasterBoy

Good thing you weren't out taking a piss.

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That would make for a real shitty day!!!

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Originally Posted by Irving

It does bother me when people refer to wasps as bees.

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They do that here all the time. Drives me up the wall.

Yellow jackets are a huge problem here. I get stung at work 3 or 4 times a week on average. They love to build nests under propane tank lids. They're also capable of stinging multiple times. Little bastards will bite you to hang on then zap you with their stingers...sometimes more than once.

A couple of years ago my son was helping me move rocks on my lot wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Well, one of the large rocks was on top of a yellow jacket nest. He was hit over a dozen times when he picked up the rock to move it. Thankfully, he didn't have a severe reaction to it; just some swelling and nausea.

You forgot about hornets.

Seems like the yellow jackets are really active right now, but so are the bees. They know winter is coming.

The puppy has been going after them in the grass. I saw him eat at least one. I guess he'll figure it out.

Yellow Jackets are related to their European cousins, the Hornet.