Talk:Characteristics of common wasps and bees

Asian Wasp

Question(first, if im not posting this in the correct way please educate me as to how and where to place my question/concern, thank you) im interested in why the Asian wasp was not included in this article? as to aggression placed in a useful chart, this is a somewhat subjective issue (i would think). i believe time of year and habitat has a lot to do with how one species reacts verses the same insect placed in another area/habitat. food scarcity and competition would be another variable. so im confused as to how it can be rounded off as to gentle or aggressive. good luck on that issue!. i'm really not trying to be a pain,i am interested in the subject matter and was impressed with both the work that has been done on this page and the information that has been placed here in such a way that a laymen such as myself can understand the subject matter as offered.Wildancrazy159 (talk) 07:00, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Behavior

I'm really not sure if Paper Wasps should be classified as "gentle". If I'm correct, these are the very common wasps we have all over the place here in Wisconsin. I have been stung many, many times by these (even when not near a nest) and never by a Yellowjacket (which we have a few nests of over here). Unless they are graded by some other means, I would say these are very aggressive wasps. -64.33.204.231 (talk) 21:06, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

What about....

Killer Bees? -Angel David (talk) 01:36, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Common/German Wasps Flying

I agree with most of what has been stated here. However I must disagree with the claim that German and common wasps fly with long dangling legs, because I've never seen this. The long dangling legs is officially exclusively found among paper wasps, such as the Chinese and Australian paper wasps. ― C.Syde (talk | contribs) 09:35, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Africanized Bees

I added africanized bees to the table. I am knew to the wiki, so please help organize it better. I still need an image. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AutogolazzoJr (talk • contribs) 03:22, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

Zombie flies

I have attempted to add information about how bees parasitized by zombie flies Apocephalus borealis fly to lights. (see History [[1]]) I can find additional sources, (many) that state that the best way to find "zombees" is under a light at night. If the deleters have another justification for excluding this information, please state it -- there may be one. I'll guess that because A. borealis is only established in some parts of the country, some may want to exclude it as confusing or extraneous. But it is wrong to delete this simply because the editor(s) do not like (and do not read) my sources. I can find more (how many do you need?), but my goal was to be informative, not to to get embroiled in an edit war.

This is the first time that I have heard that Scientific American is an unreliable source. How so?

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/zombie-fly-parasite-killing-honeybees/

My second source (http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/MISC/BEES/Apocephalus_borealis.htm) states, in the section on Hosts:

Parasitized honey bees show zombie-like behavior leaving their hives at night and are often attracted to nearby lights where they show disoriented behavior and die in a few hours. A light trap placed near a honey bee hive is an effective way to detect infected bees.

I'm posting this in talk and if no response in 24 hr will revert the article to my version of Characteristics of common wasps and bees - 29 Jan 2017.

Thanks in advance. GeeBee60 (talk) 18:50, 31 January 2017 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hornetzilla78 (talk • contribs)

Hmm, interesting, it seems your edits may have possibly fallen victim to petty vandalism (Wikipedia is prone to this kind of mischief). Your sources are indeed reliable, although it maybe possible that whoever reverted your edits could of interpreted the first source as you mentioned as unreliable since it was a .com website (several colleges and research institutes consider .com sites to be either unreliable or not as reliable as .edu or .gov sites).

I do believe you made a Good Faith edit, or at least a constructive one. However I do see one major pothole to your action. As you mention above, it does seem to me that the Zombie Fly is largely unknown to the public as I myself have never heard of such a creature until now. If you have noticed, the eight bees and wasps listed on the article are widespread across a large portion of world (e.g. the Western Honeybee across nearly all of the Western Hemisphere, or the Asian (Japanese) Giant Hornet being spread across East Asia, especially Japan). Adding information about a largely unknown insect could to confusion amongst readers, and possibly even hysteria judging by the insect's name. Hornetzilla78 (talk) 20:01, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

I also just discovered this, while dead bees have been found near lights, there is no true documented sighting of such an insect being processed by parasite traveling towards the light as stated by the article on the Zombie fly on this site. Putting the information you stated would make the article sound misleading as no true documented sighting of a so-called "Zombee" has been recorded (at least not alive). Hornetzilla78 (talk) 20:07, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

Zombie flies are found in my quadrant of the USA. For the time being I'll leave my effort at this edit alone. However, I will ask beekeeper friends for documentation in a week or so when next I attend a big beekeeper meeting -- several have photos and even have let them emerge from dead bees (in a sealed jar). I'd be surprised if no one has been witness to their flying to light, and I question the accuracy of the "never documented" statement in the zombie fly article, but witness or not, how else do they get there? Birds? Aliens? Zephyr winds? Montgomery Scott? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck ... .

ThanksGeeBee60 (talk) 12:44, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

Aggressive vs Defensive

Just this week listened to a local wasp and hornet expert challenge the term "aggressive", stating that "defensive" is more accurate. On reflection, I agree. Although the results are the same - the defenders will clobber you - it is all about defending the nest. Look for this change soon. GeeBee60 (talk) 14:12, 18 January 2019 (UTC)

Lights

The column text for honey bees and bumble bees currently states that bees are not attracted to lights at night unless nest is disturbed, or light is placed near hive, or bee is sick. I should point out that bees generally don't fly at night because the cold temperature paralyses them. Flies and wasps on the other hand aren't troubled by night temperatures the way bees are. So they are more likely to be attracted to lights at night time. Unless it has been proven that bees aren't as attracted to lights as wasps are, even if they aren't paralysed by cold temperatures. ― C.Syde (talk | contribs) 05:24, 25 January 2023 (UTC)