Do Wasps Make Honey? All About Wasp Honey Explained!

We all love honey, but do you know how honey is produced?

Honey is produced by honey bees who feed on nectar from flowers. Through the process of regurgitation, they then produce honey and store it in honeycombs. There are some bee-like insects known as wasps; can they produce honey?

Wasps are omnivorous insects who feed both on nectar and other insects. They do drink nectar but don't typically produce honey as bees do.

They are designed like this. However, there are few wasps species that also produce honey. Bees and wasps are similar-looking insects but have lots of differences, which can be seen if you look at them closely.

In this article, we shall discuss everything you need to know about wasps and bees when it comes to differentiating between them. We shall also discuss whether wasps make honey!

If you like reading such cool facts about insects, then you will also like reading honeybee facts and learning whether wasps die after they sting you.

What kinds of wasps make honey?

There are very few species of wasps that can make honey. Actually, wasp species are not generally honey-makers. Wasps also consume nectar but don't really produce honey. Honey is mainly produced by honeybees and bumblebees. Still, there are some species of wasps that produce honey. One of them is the Mexican honey wasp. Most other wasps steal honey.

Mexican honey wasps produce honey, but it is not the same as the honey that honey bees produce. The consistency of each honey is not the same.

Honey produced by wasps is more like a sugary liquid. Honey is actually the food that a honey bee produces to consume later. Honey bees and honey wasps extract nectar from flowers and then regurgitate it to produce honey.

Both these insects seem very similar, so people often get confused between the two. Bees are smaller in size than wasps. They have hairs on their body for pollination and have a sting which they can only use once.

All bee species create honey, but there are very few wasp species that can produce honey. The Mexican honey wasp is one of them.

Do wasps pollinate and make honey?

Bees and wasps both drink nectar from flowers. They also feed on pollen. In a garden, it is common to see bees and wasps hovering over flowers. Bees fly from flower to flower in search of nectar, and because of this, they easily contribute to pollination.

Pollination helps plants in bearing fruit. Pollinators, like bees, spread pollen grains and seeds, which also help plants to spread. Wasps are actually not that good at pollination.

There are very few species of wasps that can make honey. Despite this, there are some species of wasps that produce honey. One of them is the Mexican honey wasp. Most other wasps steal honey quite a lot of the time.

Pollination is the process through which pollen grains are transferred from an anther to a stigma. In simpler words, pollination helps plants in producing fruits of good quality and also seeds.

For pollination, a pollinator is required that can pollinate flowers. Bees are some of the best natural pollinators. Bees, in search of nectar, fly from flower to flower.

When they land on a flower, the pollen grains of that flower get attached to their body hair and, when they fly to another flower, the pollen from the last flower gets released. In this way, they easily help in pollination.

Bumbles bees, like honeybees, are also great pollinators. There are lots of other insects that also hover over flowers like beetles, hornets and wasps. They also contribute to pollination, but their efficiency is much lower.

Wasps and beetles are nearly hairless, so there is very little space for pollen grains to get attached to them. This means that their contribution to pollination is not counted.

Because wasps look somewhat like bees, people think that they also make honey. There are very few wasp species that can make honey. Most wasps only drink nectar and sometimes steal honey from bees. Wasps live in paper-like nests in colonies.

Do wasps kill bees?

Bees and wasps might be similar looking, but there are some huge differences between them. Bees and wasps are from the same order (Hymenoptera) but are from different families.

Bees are smaller and are herbivores who feed on nectar and pollen. After drinking nectar, they produce honey in their beehives. Wasps, on the other hand, are typical omnivores and some species also kill bees.

Wasps and bees are totally different insects who have one common trait; they both live in huge groups or colonies that are ruled by an egg-laying queen. Wasps and bees are of different sizes, have different natures and have different food habits. Bees are somewhat harmless and only fly from flower to flower in search of their food.

While doing that, they carry pollen from flower to flower. Wasps are a bit different.

Some species fly from flower to flower and drink nectar like bees and at the same time kill other insects in order to eat them. Some wasps are totally carnivorous, like yellowjackets. Yellowjackets don't produce honey but kill other insects and pests for their food.

Hornets, like bald-faced hornets, consume both nectar and insects. Bees are one of their prime targets. Bees and wasps have other differences too.

Both bees and wasps are equipped with a stinger at the bottom of their lower body, but they are also different. The stingers that bees have are for one-time use only. When bees sting someone, their stinger breaks and stays there, and soon that bee dies.

With wasps, the story is different. Wasps can freely sting multiple times because their stinger doesn't break while stinging someone.

Wasps are predators that kill insects with the help of their sting. Wasps are honey thieves. Wasps are known to attack beehives, and if the hive is weak or has fewer bees in it, wasps kill the guardian bees and break into the hive to steal honey.

What happens if you kill a wasp?

Wasps are disliked by many beekeepers. Adult wasps, in order to steal honey, kill bees and destroy their nests and the eggs that are in them. This hampers the process of harvesting. So a lot of people kill wasps on a regular basis in order to keep beehives safe.

Do you know, wasps are beneficial too. You should not kill wasps near their nest! Let's discuss why.

Wasps can be very notorious at times. They kill bees, attack hives, steal honey, and destroy the larvae that are inside the nest. For this reason, people who harvest honey kill wasps to keep their production smooth.

But wasps are beneficial as well. Wasps act as pest killers that destroy crops.

Wasps kill insects, such as caterpillars, that feed on leaves and also kill aphids and flies that feed on plant sap. These small insects are a hazard to crops, and wasps help in controlling them. So we can say that they are good for humans as well.

Keep in mind to never kill wasps near their nests. Wasps have a defensive adaptation where a dying wasp releases some sort of chemical into the air, which warns other wasps nearby.

On receiving this signal, wasps become extremely agitated and start stinging all foreign substances that they find nearby. So only kill wasps when they are alone and far from their nest.

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