Hornet vs Wasp vs Bee: What’s the Difference?

How can you distinguish between a hornet vs wasp and a bee? 

The words hornet and wasp are all too often used interchangeably, but there will be no need to do that after you’ve learnt all about their key differences in this article. 

The biggest and most key fact to know is that all hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets.

Bees and wasps took separate evolutionary paths over 100 million years ago. 

Bees are vegetarians, collecting pollen to feed their young, while wasps and hornets are carnivores, feeding on other insects. The main thing they have in common is that only females can sting.

If you’re looking for ways to repel wasps and hornets, you can jump straight to the end of this article where we’ll share some natural ways to discourage them. 

What’s the Difference Between A Hornet vs Wasp and a Bee?

Let’s take a look at some of the overall differences, and then we’ll take a deeper dive into each different insect. 

Identification

Bee: Typically fluffier and hairier than wasps. The hair allows them to collect pollen. Their bodies are wider than wasps, and their legs are stout.

Wasp: Narrow waists with bright black and yellow bands on their bodies. Smoother and less hairy than bees, and their legs cannot be seen which they’re flying. 

Hornet: Also has a smooth and hairless body. Twice the size of a wasp, a larger vertex (the head part behind their eyes) than wasps. Markings can vary dependent on the species. See some of the common species below. 

Behavior

Bee: Not aggressive. We often think of bees as social insects, but only around 9% of them are. Most of them are solitary creatures living alone.

Wasp: More aggressive than bees, but not as aggressive as hornets. Social wasps live in colonies, solitary wasps are normally pretty harmless and are only on the look out for insects to eat.

Hornet: Much more aggressive than other wasps and bees, these insects live in large social colonies and their lives revolve around their nests.

Nest Differences

Bee: Nests vary depending on the species. Some are made from wax that they secrete, others nest underground. Some solitary bees look for holes to nest in and you can help out by building a bee box in your garden. You can’t really mistake their nests, they look significantly different. 

Wasp: Make their nests from chewed wood fibers and salvia to construct ‘paper nests’. They are sphere shape, and start off small, growing to a football size. Solitary wasps don’t typically nest. 

Hornet: Also make paper nests, but teardrop shaped and about the size of a basketball. It has hexagonal combs and one entrance. 

Both hornets and wasps build their grey colored nests off any horizontal surface including ceilings and eaves. Hornets prefer to build their nests in shrubs and tree branches. 

Feeding Habits

Bee: Pollen and nectar are the main sources of food for bees. Pollen is the fine powdery stuff found in the heads of flowers and nectar is produced by plants.

Wasp: Both wasps and hornets are predators. Adults consume a liquid diet and are attracted to sugary substances (which is why they always appear at your picnics!) They feed on nectar, fruit juices and nutritional liquid produced by their young. Adults collect insects and other small invertebrate prey to feed their young. Food is typically chewing into small pieces. 

Hornet: These predators are more likely to feed on insects than they are your sugary food, but if they do get particularly hungry, the will make a bee-line for your sugary snacks.

Stings

Bee: Bees don’t want to use their stingers and the lose them and die when they do. They’ll only sting as a last resort if they or the nest is in immediate danger. Bees use their sting for protection where as wasps don’t. 

Wasp: Social wasps don’t seek people out to sting them, but they will sting a lot more readily than bees. They can sting multiples times because unlike bees, their stingers are not barbed. 

Hornet: Like wasps, hornets can sting over and over, too, and their stings are the most painful of all three insects. They are more territorial that other wasps, especially if their nest is under threat. 

Hornets

Let’s repeat it again - all hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets. 

In the U.S., we have no native hornets. Our main hornet is the European hornet, which was introduced to New York in 1840. It looks like a large yellowjacket—about ¾ to 1½ inches long—and nests in the ground or in hollow trees.

Another “hornet” we commonly encounter is the bald-faced hornet, a type of paper wasp closely related to the yellowjacket. They are black with white markings on their face and abdomen. You have probably seen their huge, gray, basketball-sized nests swinging high in a tree.

A new hornet that was recently introduced to the West Coast got a lot of press a few years ago. The Asian giant hornet is also called the “murder hornet” for the way they attack honey bee colonies, killing the bees by ripping off their heads, eating the honey, and stealing the larvae to feed to their own young. 

They are the giants of the wasp world, measuring 2 inches long. In Japan, they are called sparrow wasps since they resemble small birds in flight. Their sting is very painful to humans, and about 50 unlucky people a year are killed by the deadly neurotoxin contained in their venom.

Wasps

There are roughly 103,000 different species of wasps. Only around 1000 of these species are considered social, meaning that they live in colonies with a queen, female worker bees, and drones—like honeybees. The rest are solitary wasps, such as digger wasps and mud daubers.

Solitary wasps nest in the ground or in natural cavities, while social wasps attach papery nests made from chewed fibers to tree limbs or the eaves of your house.

The yellowjacket is a social wasp that will nest aboveground or belowground. In the fall, all the social wasps die off—except for the fertilized queens. 

They overwinter in protected spots such as hollow logs, under loose tree bark, or in a soil cavity and emerge in the spring to start a new colony. Solitary wasps depend on their larvae to mature in spring and start a new generation.

Bees

Bees eat pollen and nectar, feeding it to their young. This makes them important pollinators. 

Bees look furry because they are covered with branched, feather-like hairs that pollen clings onto. Bees are not aggressive and only sting in self-defense. In fact, the male bees have no stinger. 

With the exception of honey bees and bumblebees, most bees are solitary and live in underground nests. Each female takes care of her eggs and gathers pollen to feed the larvae when they hatch. There are about 4,000 species of bees native to the United States and Canada. (For more about them, see our Native Bees article)

Do you want to raise bees? Check out our guide to beekeeping!

• Bees have a wide, hairy body and stout legs and lose their stinger when they sting.
• Wasps and hornets have skinny bodies with narrow waists. They can sting multiple times and their bodies are mostly hairless .

Of course, there are many kinds of bees. Most of us grew up learning about the sophisticated social structures of honey bees and bumblebees, and we’ve come to think that their lifestyle represents all bee behavior. The truth is that the world is home to more than 20,000 species of bees, and a whopping 90% of them do not live together in hives.

Our native solitary bees—such as mason bees and leafcutter bees—are most vital to our flowers and food. Learn more about these amazing heroes of pollination—and see how to bring these docile native bees to your garden. 

The Life Cycle of Bees, Wasps, and Hornets

Whether bee, wasp, or hornet, the basic life cycle is the same—egg, larva, pre-pupa, pupa, adult. Fertilized eggs produce female bees, while unfertilized ones produce males. 

Eggs are placed in individual nest cells and provisioned with a food source for the newly hatched larvae to eat—a loaf made of pollen and nectar for bees or a paralyzed insect for wasps.

Some eggs hatch in a few days, while others wait until the next season to emerge. The larvae eat, grow, and molt their skin up to five times. The pre-pupal stage can last a long time. 

An egg laid in the spring can take all summer to reach the pre-pupal stage, and then it can stay that way all fall and winter. Some bees remain pre-pupal for several years! 

The pupa looks like an adult but is pale in color and has no wings or hair. In a short time, the pupa chews its way out of the nest as an adult.

Are Hornets and Wasps “Bad Bugs”?

No! Wasps are very important, playing a vital ecological role in controlling pests. 

Social wasps are predators, collecting insects such as caterpillars, grubs, grasshoppers, aphids, and flies, which are stung, paralyzed, and put into the egg chambers for newly hatched larvae to eat. 

Wasps also prey upon spiders; the blue mud dauber’s preferred meal is the black widow!

Since wasps prey on some bad bugs, they should be considered beneficial to gardeners. Adults feed on nectar, doing some accidental pollinating simultaneously, so they are minor pollinators.

On the other hand, they are drawn to meat and sweets and scavenge whatever they find, so they can be a nuisance for outdoor dining and will congregate around trash cans. 

If you encounter them, don’t swat at them or act aggressively, or you risk being stung. They will also sting to protect their hive. If you should accidentally mow over a ground nest—run! 

Unlike honey bees, who can only sting once, wasps are capable of stinging multiple times.

Wasps, Bees, and Hornets are Beneficial

Most bees, wasps, and hornets are beneficial. Both wasps and hornets are real workhorses for pest management in the garden and farm, feeding on the “bad” insects that destroy crops. 

In fact, if you were able to see many of their nests, they’re stocked with paralyzed adult grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and sawflies. Learn 10 Ways to Help Pollinators

Also, if you look carefully at the garden, wasps are very helpful pollinators! They are usually solitary and non-aggressive, busily hovering and moving from flower to flower. There are so many Beneficial Insects in the Garden!

None of these beneficial insects should be killed unless their nest is close to humans and is creating a hazard. For example, we had bald-faced hornets make a nest next to our front door, and every time the door opened or closed, they were ready to fight! 

Needless to say, that nest had to go. We waited until after dark when the hornets had all returned to the nest and sprayed an aerosol wasp killer into the entrance hole. After a few days of seeing no activity, we were able to remove the nest.

For ground-nesting wasps and hornets, locate the entrance hole, spray into the opening, and plug the hole with a large rock. Don’t try to burn or drown a nest with water. That just makes them mad! 

When attempting any eradication of nests, be sure to dress appropriately, covering your eyes and all bare skin (just in case). Also, be sure to have an escape route planned!

Otherwise, pause before you kill these insects; remember that they are a beneficial part of our ecosystem and especially critical for pest control in our gardens, public lands, and croplands.

Repeling Hornets and Wasps

If you absolutely must repel hornets and wasps from your garden, here are some natural ways you can do that. 

Plants: use plants that wasps and hornets don’t like, such as basil, marigold, citronella and mint. Any strong smelling plants seem to repel these insects. 

Essential oils: Similarly to strong smelling plants, essential oils do the job and this is normally much quick than waiting for new plants to grow! Leave a cottonwool ball soaked in peppermint or citronella close to the area you want to remove them from.

Remove food sources: this is a simple one - these insects are attracted to any fizzy drinks or sweet stuff, so always remove food as soon as you’ve finished with it.

Do you see wasps, hornets, and bees in your garden?