Alex C wrote:It's much better to domesticate them like Bloke is going to do. I couldn't.
You could, really, but first you would have to learn to recognize them in a little more detail than "bees/wasps/hornets." That's like going into the woods without understanding the difference between a bear and a deer. You're much more likely to encounter these insects, than a bear, and they're easy to recognize, so let's get to it.
The good:
Bloke's wife is going to take on the honey bee. Imported to North America from Europe, they are interested in flowers only. The strains that most of us are likely to see are very mild mannered, with the exception of the "Africanized" bees in some areas. If the Africanized bees have arrived in your town, you already know about it (I suppose that's what Mary Ann was talking about above.)
There are also a number of other kinds of bees - bumble bees, carpenter bees, mason bees. They're good guys - if you think fruit trees should produce more than lots of pretty flowers, you want bees around - and they are not out to hurt anyone.
The bad:
The bad boys that made the nest we're talking about here are hornets. They eat everything - bugs, garbage, your lunch - and they're aggressive and numerous. The smaller ones are the worst, with the characteristic weaving flight pattern and little fear of people.
The ugly? (Not really!)
Hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets. This gets a little tricky, but if you pay a little attention, you'll fairly quickly see the difference between this paper wasp and the yellow jacket above.
I picked an image that may exaggerate the distinction, but really it's easier to spot them in motion. The paper wasp tends to be bigger, slower and has kind of long legs, and it flies with a fairly deliberate, graceful manner. They won't very often enter your house, and when they do, they often can see window panes and won't fly into them. They're hunting with their eyes, not their nose, and they're hunting for bugs. The paper wasps in my neighborhood found their way to my gooseberry bush this summer, and utterly eradicated a little green worm that in previous years has stripped the bush of leaves despite my feeble efforts at control.
If you don't like spiders, you might like the longer, blacker mud dauber wasp, which preys on spiders. Since the spiders are presumably eating pest insects, you might wonder if the mud daubers ought to be discouraged, but it's arguably better to keep them in some kind of balance. For the spider population in the long run, a wasp problem is a lot better than an exhausted food supply because of spider overpopulation.
But I digress. The main point here is that there are several common types of flying, stinging insects, that are really distinctly different and worth knowing about.
