Bees, wasps and hornets belong to the Order Hymenoptera, meaning membrane-wing. Bees, wasps and hornets have chewing mouth parts. The females of the species posses a stinger but only honey bees have a barbed stinger which means they can only use it once. The other bees and wasps can sting repeatedly. 

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WILD Facts about Bees:

• Honey bees are the most social of the group

• Bumble bees can be quite large and have a loud buzzing noise when in flight.  Like Honey bees, they have special hairs on their hind legs that carry pollen to their nest. 

• Bumble bees are more important than honey bees for pollinating crops

• Paper Wasps rarely sting unless their nest is disturbed.  They build their nest out of paper and only have less than a dozen wasps living in the nest

• Bald-Faced Hornet build a large grey-blue soccer ball sized paper nest with one entrance. They become aggressive if their nest is disturbed 

• Yellow jackets prey on other insects and also scavenge. German yellow jackets are the most common and make the largest nest with the possibility of 3000 or more wasps in a colony. Old nests do not get reused.