Are yellow jackets the same as wasps? What are the differences and similarities? In this article, we will compare the two.
Possibly Aerial Yellowjacket
A yellow jacket and executioner wasp – notice how similar they look.
What Are Yellow Jackets?
Yellow jackets are predatory insects found largely in North America. They belong to the order Hymenoptera and the family Vespidae.
These insects are almost the same size as bees and have black and yellow markings on their body. Despite resembling honey bees in appearance, yellow jackets are a type of wasp.
These carnivorous insects feed on other insects, such as bees and flies. They also feed on fruit and nectar.
Yellow jackets are often known to be social insects because, just like bees, they have a queen and build and live in colonies annually.
They have strong mandibles and stingers.
Even though they are slow to sting, the venom can be dangerous if a yellow jacket stings a human several times or you have an allergic reaction to it.
Otherwise, their venom is not always harmful, but the sting is excruciating.
What Are Wasps?
Wasps also belong to the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita.
However, compared to other insects of Apocrita, wasps have a narrower body and lesser body hair.
Wasps are either predatory or parasitic, and their food habits differ depending on which species is species.
Wasps are further divided into social and solitary segments.
The former live in colonies. Yellow jackets and hornets fall under this category of social wasps.
A vast number of other wasp species are largely solitary wasps.
Only the females are equipped to deliver a sharp sting among the species of stinging wasps.
They do so using their ovipositor, modified to sting and have venom.
Critical Differences Between Yellow Jackets and Wasps
Even though yellow jackets are a type of wasp, there is a significant difference between yellow jackets and wasps.
Habitat
Yellow jackets are also called picnic pests; hence, you may spot them in orchards and meadows. They are also commonly spotted in urban areas.
Yellow jackets prefer nesting underground or in enclosed spaces.
Hence you will see them in habitats where there are plenty of closed areas to build a nest, i.e., in places with lots of trees and shrubs and plenty of soil, making woodlands and meadows an ideal living habitat.
Wasps, on the other hand, are commonly spotted in forests and rock faces. They are also abundant in woodlands, meadows, and gardens.
Wasps build their nests above ground, usually hanging from surfaces such as roofs and eaves, making them a common garden pest.
Flight
How the insect flies can help you identify if it is a wasp or yellow jacket. Many wasps, especially paper wasps, fly with their legs dangling in the air.
On the other hand, yellow jackets will fold their legs inwards when flying. Yellow jackets also tend to have shorter legs than wasps, making them almost invisible during flight.
Behavior
Yellow jackets are aggressive insects and will sting even when not provoked. If their nest is threatened, they tend to attack in swarms.
Secondly, Yellow jackets are also known as picnic pests because you can often spot them in picnic spaces drawn to protein sources like meat.
They are also attracted to sweet liquids like juices.
Wasps, on the other hand, are far less aggressive. They are considered to be docile. Wasps will attack only if their nest is threatened.
When it comes to food habits, wasps generally feed on fruits and flower nectar.
Nests
You can determine if it belongs to a wasp or yellow jacket based on the kind of wasp nests you see. Their location is the primary way to determine which insect or pest you are dealing with.
Wasps nest above ground and build their nests on visible spots like roofs, beams, eaves, or any other man-made structure.
They also tend to have an open comb nest resembling a honeycomb or a large inverted cone.
Yellow jackets, on the other hand, build their nests in protected areas such as inside a wall cavity, burrows, tree stumps, tree branches, and other closed spaces.
Yellow jacket nests only have one opening, which might have a paper-like covering.
Predators
Despite being aggressive, stinging insects, yellow jackets often fall prey to larger animals and reptiles.
Raccoons are known to be among their top predators. Besides raccoons, skunks and black bears also hunt and feed on yellow jackets.
Surprisingly, most yellow jacket predators are mammals much larger than wasps.
On the other hand, wasps’ main predators include other larger insects like dragonflies, spiders, moths, and centipedes.
Other larger species like birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians also hunt them.
A major reason why wasps have a wider range of predators is that their bright colors often draw attention to them.
This makes them far more vulnerable to being hunted than yellow jackets, which have only one color variation, mainly black bodies with yellow stripes.
Wrap Up
Wasp is any insect that belongs to the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita but is not a type of ant or bee.
By this definition, yellow jackets have become one type among the several species of wasps worldwide.
However, the variation in their appearance, behavior, habitats, predators, and nesting styles make wasps different from yellow jackets in many ways.
Thank you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do yellow jacket wasps bite or sting?
They have a smooth stinger which they use to inject venom into their prey or any perceived threat.
Unlike bees, yellow jackets are capable of stinging multiple times and can be very aggressive.
Their sting can be very painful and can cause an allergic reaction in some people.
It is important to avoid disturbing yellow jacket nests and to take necessary precautions when dealing with them.
What is the difference between a yellow jacket and a hornet?
Yellow jackets are smaller and more slender than hornets, with brighter yellow and black stripes on their bodies.
They are also more aggressive and tend to be more social, living in large colonies with a queen and workers.
Hornets, on the other hand, are larger and more robust, with thicker bodies and reddish-brown stripes.
They are less aggressive than yellow jackets but can still pack a painful sting if provoked.
Hornets tend to be more solitary, building their nests in trees or on buildings rather than in underground colonies like yellow jackets.
How serious is a yellow jacket sting?
The symptoms of a yellow jacket sting can include pain, swelling, redness, and itching at the site of the sting.
In some cases, people may also experience hives, difficulty breathing, and even anaphylaxis, which is a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.
It is important to seek medical attention if you experience any of these symptoms after being stung by a yellow jacket.
Additionally, if you know that you are allergic to stinging insects, it is important to carry an epinephrine auto-injector with you at all times in case of an emergency.
Are yellow jackets called wasps?
They are a common type of social wasp that can be identified by their bright yellow and black striped bodies.
Yellow jackets are often seen buzzing around picnics and outdoor events during the warmer months, and they can be aggressive if they feel threatened.
While they may be a nuisance to humans, yellow jackets play an important role in the ecosystem by helping to control insect populations.
29 Comments. Leave new
I would like to discourage WTB from making negative remarks to its fans, especially school children. We do not submit our questions to be criticized for poor grammar. I would think WTB would ENCOURAGE people to be curious enough about insects to feel free to come here without fear of public humiliation.
With all due respect, we do not feel that there was anything negative in our identification response and it is difficult to publicly humiliate someone who decided to self-identify as “Dont make no diffrence”. We feel strongly that care should be taken whenever something is committed to the written word, especially when the communication is being submitted for publication. We generally do not edit our reader’s letters, nor correct the grammar. We try to uphold a standard of communication and open dialog. We feel that we have critiqued rather than criticized the shortcomings in the querent’s use of the English language. Perhaps you are privy to information that we overlooked in the original communication, but we cannot be certain that a child sent the email. We are firm believers in lifelong learning, and many students are adults. Anyone who is studying should be open to having mistakes identified so that they may be corrected in the future. If “Dont make no diffrence” is a child, the child needs to learn to appreciate the beauty of language and how to use it correctly.
Obviously your querent is not a regular reader or he/she would know not to sign his/her question that way since you would be all over it like …. a mantis on a moth. Moreover, I’m not sure what “dont make no difference” to him/her, the signature or the bug identity.
“We surely hope you were not sending this email immediately after your English class because there is no evidence of grammatical retention.”
Wow! What bug crawled up your pants and bit you?
I’m with bugman. We don’t know if this was submitted by a child, and even if it wasn’t it should have had the proper written word.
Isn’t that what the child is in school for, to know the proper grammar and know the difference between don’t and doesn’t?
If no one spotted it, it’s not proper to have two negatives in a sentence.
IMO this wasn’t criticism, just a slight critique of their sentence structure.
I think anyone that cannot make the effort to at least be polite when asking for help from a website deserves a grammatical kick in the backside at the very least. If it is a child then the parents deserve one as well. Given the arrogant tone of the nom de plume I’d think more likely a teenager that has never learned respect for anyone. A sharp reprimand I think was well deserved.
Reminds me of the premise of Stephen Fry’s Kinetic Typography: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY
I believe that the chastisement of grammar was justified.
Reading something like that, written that poorly, is painful.
We “found” such an aggregation yesterday evening just outside Andover, Kansas. The description of them says that they are all “males” and that males do not have working stingers.
Well, both my son and I were stung without warning – practically before we even saw them. I thought I had disturbed an unknown hive while pulling grass. For such little critters, they pack a Good Punch ! A few days ago, we had seen a small bee/wasp attacking a tomato worm – I can only imagine what that worm was feeling during and after being “stung” time and time again !
Thank you for letting us know about your experience. We know of no instances of male wasps stinging, as they lack stingers, so we can only conclude that you encountered female wasps, and since there is no image attached, we cannot conclude that they were Tiphiid Wasps. This banding pattern is not unusual in wasps, so perhaps you encountered a nest of some social species, possibly Paper Wasps.
We “found” such an aggregation yesterday evening just outside Andover, Kansas. The description of them says that they are all “males” and that males do not have working stingers.
Well, both my son and I were stung without warning – practically before we even saw them. I thought I had disturbed an unknown hive while pulling grass. For such little critters, they pack a Good Punch ! A few days ago, we had seen a small bee/wasp attacking a tomato worm – I can only imagine what that worm was feeling during and after being “stung” time and time again !
This looks like what I pluck (alive) out of my pool in Florida almost daily. Sometimes as many as five to ten at a time. What do they like about the water?
Bugs fall into pools. We don’t believe they like the water.
Thanks. Maybe they like their reflection. 😉
I have these wasps building a nest on the back of my house near a kitchen window. I would love to leave it alone but is this a good idea since I have children. How long before the bees leave the nest? If ever. Thanks,
Frank Kearns
Lake Arenal, Costa Rico
I have these wasps building a nest on the back of my house near a kitchen window. I would love to leave it alone but is this a good idea since I have children. How long before the bees leave the nest? If ever. Thanks,
Frank Kearns
Lake Arenal, Costa Rico
I have a photo of a wasp? Who can I send it to for verification / identification?
You may use the Ask What’s That Bug? link on our site to submit images.
I found an aggregation on my wisteria. Thankfully I found your info through pictures in Google. We recently had a May beetle frenzy about 2 weeks ago ( I call them June bugs) but any who, this large group of males has been hanging out in the evening on the wisteria. The fact that they attack the June Bug larvae makes sense! Huge congregations of June bugs in my rose bush, and one other flowering tree in my yard. I didn’t notice any in the wisteria as it is farther back in the yard. They have no interest in me thankfully, but they do get hyper if you get close to the wisteria. Thanks for the info. It is greatly appreciated!
I forgot to mention that I’m in Jacksonvile Fl.
I THINK I WAS STUNG BY FIVE BANDIT AT THE BASE OF MY HEAD I PUT BENDRILL CREAM ND TOOL BENDRILL PILL NOW I HAVE A RATHER LARGE BUMP AND IT ITCHES DO IHAVE TO DO ANYTHING ELSE
We are not qualified to dispense medical advice.
This bugman is a douche bag period. IDGAF what you think about someones English. Just answer their f^(*!#& question or f^(* off,
Thankfully you are NOT our daddy. We absolutely do not abide cussing on our site, so though we maintain we do not edit the letters or comments we receive (bad grammar and all) we absolutely do edit for foul language since many of our readers are young and otherwise sensitive to profanities. We believe in free speech and the First Amendment, but we also tightly control the content on our site. If you do not like our policies, nor our commitment to providing accurate information while celebrating the beauty of the English language free of charge, you are free to troll the internet and bully elsewhere. We actually prefer that you be gone and never return. For the record, we did answer the question.
Hmm…I know this post is REALLY old, so I’m sort of gravedigging here, hope that’s not too annoying. I don’t want to lecture anyone, either, as in the past 9 years, everyone has grown a lot and that includes the bugman and, hopefully, whoever wrote the question. I’m not even sure why I’m typing this up, but here goes.
In my work, I generally have a lot of very poor grammar thrown at me. It makes me cringe, but, since my work is unrelated to English spelling/grammar, I don’t mention it, unless it is to ask someone to clarify what they mean. Many of my clients are not native English speakers and it’s impressive they’re confident enough to reach out to me knowing they’re not fluent at all.
I get your frustration here, and maybe the kid needed to be told, but I’m betting his English teachers/grades told him the same thing in a less public manner. Not sure what they told him stuck.
All that aside, signing an inquiry with “Dont make no diffrence” was pretty heinous, and could be construed as a form of disrespect. They want your attention and help, but don’t have the desire to interact in…a socially acceptable manner [not really sure how to word that]. You’re under no obligation to coddle anyone, especially if you don’t mind getting a few criticisms yourself here and there.
While it seems like few know this, apidae wasps have barbed stingers… these include warrior wasps and the like. They do die when they sting and the stinger itself is detached.
Had a huge nest of these on the underside of a porch table. They didn’t bother anything until we turned table on end and it was exposed to the sun. They were quickly confused but no one got stung. Skinny body threw me off.
Sorry forgot to post my location. St. Louis area
I have long skinny yellow brown body black stringer at end.it is by my bed I got up.im put outside do they like or mulch we have mulch