Lesson 69: Look-alikes

Telling honey bees from the insects people mistake for them, and watching for the yellow-legged hornet

People call almost any yellow-and-black flying insect a "bee." As a beekeeper, you'll be asked about them by neighbors ("your bees are nesting in my porch rail!"), and you need to know which ones threaten your hives. Most look-alikes are harmless to you and your bees, some are useful pollinators, and one or two are serious bee predators.

First: a honey bee

• About ½ inch long (workers).
• Fuzzy: covered in branched hairs, especially on the thorax, which catch pollen.
• Golden-brown to dark brown, with bands on the abdomen; not bright lemon-yellow.
• Carries pollen in balls on its hind legs (lesson 10).
• Lives in wax comb in a cavity (a hive, a hollow tree, a wall), never in paper nests or holes in the ground.
• A worker stings only once and usually dies; honey bees are defensive only near their nest.

Wasps vs. bees in general

Wasps are usually slimmer and less hairy than bees, with a narrow "pinched" waist. Most wasps hunt other insects to feed their young; bees feed on pollen and nectar.

Yellowjackets

• Small wasps (about the size of a honey bee or a little bigger), bright yellow and black, shiny, almost hairless, and very fast, agile fliers.
• Nest in paper nests usually in cavities: holes in the ground (lawns, stumps, rotten logs), sometimes walls or attics.
• Colonies grow all summer to hundreds of workers by fall, and die out in winter (only new queens survive, and nests aren't reused).
• Late-season pests at picnics and trash cans. They're the usual culprit when people say "a bee" stung them at a cookout.
• Threat to your bees: they catch bees and raid weak colonies for honey and brood, especially in late summer and fall. Reduce the entrances of weak colonies so they can defend themselves (lesson 50).

Paper wasps

• Long-legged, slender, reddish-brown to black with some yellow; the legs dangle in flight.
• Build open, umbrella-shaped paper combs hanging by a stalk under eaves, railings and overhangs.
• Hunt caterpillars, so they're beneficial in gardens. They sting to defend their nests.

Hornets

• European hornet: the largest true hornet in the U.S., about 1½ inches, brownish-red with a dull yellow abdomen. Nests in hollow trees, barns, sheds and walls. Unusual among stinging insects: it flies at night and is drawn to lighted windows. It will take weak or dead bees at hives.
• Bald-faced hornet: actually a large black-and-white yellowjacket that builds big, football-shaped paper nests hanging in trees and shrubs.

Carpenter bees

• Large (about an inch), black and yellow. They look like bumble bees, but the abdomen is shiny, black and hairless.
• Bore perfectly round ½-inch holes in wood: decks, porch rails, eaves, fascia boards, and sometimes beehive boxes. You'll often see sawdust and yellowish stains below the hole.
• Males (with a white spot on the face) hover and chase anyone who comes near, but can't sting. Females rarely sting.
• They're pollinators, not a threat to your bees.

How it looks: Carpenter bee: large, with a shiny, hairless black abdomen.

A carpenter bee at its perfectly round hole in wood.

Bumble bees

• Large, very fuzzy bees with black and yellow bands; the abdomen is hairy (unlike a carpenter bee's).
• Slow, clumsy fliers around flowers.
• Live in small colonies, often in the ground (old animal burrows), sometimes in bird houses or insulation; colonies of dozens to a couple hundred bees, dying out each fall except new queens.
• Important pollinators. Not a threat to your bees.

Bumble bee: big, fuzzy, with a hairy abdomen.

Cicada killers

• Very large wasps, about 1⅛ to 1⅝ inches, black with yellow markings on the abdomen and reddish wings. Their size scares people.
• Solitary: each female digs her own burrow in well-drained soil (lawns, banks, sandy spots), often many close together, in mid-summer.
• They hunt cicadas to feed their young, not bees. Males guard territories but can't sting; females rarely sting unless handled.
• Often mistaken for giant hornets.

Cicada killer: a huge but mild-mannered wasp that hunts cicadas.

Flower flies (hover flies and drone flies)

• Flies that mimic bees and wasps, to fool predators. They're very common: Georgia alone has about 180–190 species, and most people mistake them for bees or wasps. One of the best honey bee mimics is the drone fly (Eristalis tenax).
• How to tell them from bees and wasps:
• Only two wings (bees and wasps have four);
• short antennae (usually);
• large eyes for the size of the body;
• no pollen baskets on the hind legs;
• they often hover in place over flowers.
• They don't bite or sting.
• They're useful: after bees, flies are the second most important group of pollinating insects, much of it from hover flies. Many are especially common in spring and fall. The larvae of many kinds eat aphids (some eat nearly a thousand before growing up); others are decomposers.

A drone fly: it looks like a honey bee, but it has big eyes, short antennae and just two wings.

The yellow-legged hornet: watch for it

The yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina), called the "Asian hornet" in Europe, is an invasive hornet and a serious predator of honey bees. It was first confirmed in the United States near Savannah, Georgia, in August 2023, after a beekeeper reported it. It has spread across much of western Europe since 2004.

It is not the "murder hornet" (the northern giant hornet, found in Washington State in 2020, and not found outside the Pacific Northwest).

How to recognize it: 1. Size: about ¾ inch (2 cm), somewhat smaller than a European hornet. 2. Dark body with a narrow waist. 3. One strong yellow-orange band on the fourth segment of the abdomen. 4. Yellow legs: dark where the leg joins the body, with the last third yellow, which gives it its name.

What it does to bees: hornets hover at hive entrances and snatch bees in mid-air or from the landing board. As more hornets find the apiary, attacks become nearly constant, and a few hornets can wipe out an apiary within days. Even small numbers frighten bees into not foraging, so colonies slowly decline. Our honey bees are essentially defenseless against it. Attacks build from early summer until fall.

Nests: paper nests, egg-shaped, built above the ground. Queens start small "embryo" nests about the size of a tennis ball in spring (often on porches or in shrubs); these grow into softball-to-watermelon-size nests in early summer, and then into big secondary nests, often high in trees, holding up to about 6,000 hornets by late summer and fall. Nests are annual.

Where it's been found: so far only around Savannah (Chatham, Bryan, Effingham and Liberty counties) and the Hilton Head area of South Carolina, per the Georgia Department of Agriculture. Not found in metro Atlanta. GDA, USDA and UGA are trapping and destroying nests to eradicate it.

It isn't a major threat to people (unless provoked or near its nest; people allergic to stings should stay away), but it is aggressive toward honey bees.

If you think you see one: report it. Take a photo if you safely can and report it to your state department of agriculture. In Georgia, use GDA's online yellow-legged hornet reporting form or email yellow.legged.hornet@agr.georgia.gov. Don't remove a nest yourself: GDA asks to be contacted, so they can make sure the queen is killed and set traps for other nests nearby. Early reports are how states find and destroy nests.

Protecting yourself: ordinary bee suits aren't enough against these hornets' stingers; if you ever have to work near a nest, leave it to professionals.

What to remember

• Honey bees: fuzzy, golden-brown, pollen on hind legs, wax comb.
• Yellowjackets: shiny, bright yellow, fast; ground/cavity paper nests; raid weak hives in late season.
• Paper wasps: long dangling legs, open paper combs under eaves.
• Carpenter bees: bumble-bee-like but shiny, hairless abdomen; round holes in wood.
• Bumble bees: big, fuzzy all over, slow.
• Cicada killers: huge, dig burrows in lawns, hunt cicadas, rarely sting.
• Flower flies: two wings, big eyes, short antennae, can't sting.
• Yellow-legged hornet: dark with one yellow band and yellow legs; deadly to apiaries. Report it.

Quick check

1. A neighbor shows you a big black-and-yellow "bee" drilling a round hole in their porch rail. What is it, and is it one of your honey bees?
2. How can you tell a drone fly from a honey bee?
3. Name two features of the yellow-legged hornet.

Show answers

1. A carpenter bee; no, honey bees don't bore into wood, and a carpenter bee has a shiny, hairless abdomen. 2. It has only two wings, very large eyes, short stubby antennae, and hovers in place; it can't sting. 3. Any two of: about ¾ inch long; dark body with a narrow waist; a strong yellow band on the fourth abdominal segment; yellow lower legs.

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Adapted from: NC State Extension, Non-Honey Bee Stinging Insects in North Carolina (Tarpy & Keller); Clem & Snyder, Common Hover Flies of Georgia (UGA Bulletin 1565, 2024); NC State Extension, Syrphid Flies; UGA Bee Program, Yellow-Legged Hornet (Delaplane, Hudson, Johnson & Berry, 2023); Georgia Department of Agriculture, Yellow-Legged Hornet and Yellow-legged Hornet FAQ; Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Cicada Killers: The Asian Giant Hornet Look-alike (Kesheimer, 2020); Mississippi State University Extension, Hornet Species that Threaten Honey Bees; Penn State Extension, Native Pollinators: Identification and Biology.

Photos: Carpenter bee, NY State IPM Program at Cornell University, CC BY 2.0 · Carpenter bee at nest, Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bumble bee, Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 · Cicada killer, Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Drone fly, Reinhold Möller Ermell, CC BY-SA 4.0 (all via Wikimedia Commons).

Adapted from university Extension sources. Experienced Georgia beekeepers are reviewing these lessons. See something that doesn't match your experience? Tell us.