Wasps and bees both belong to the order "Hymenoptera" and have many features in common. The most obvious differences are:

For wasps on private land, you will need to contact a pest control company. If you chose to use Pestkil, a council contractor on (02) 6051 3555, the quoted price is $55. If bees or wasps are on council property we will organise to have them removed. Please call customer service staff on (02) 6022 9300 to advise where they are.

If you encounter hornets, wasps or bees, do not swat at them. Retreat at least about 20m. If not possible, hide in vehicle or any enclosure or lie face down & cover head with arms. If you spot their nests, DO NOT disturb or approach the nests; call us at 67941401 (8:30 am ? 6:00 pm) or 64880252 (outside office hours), or inform the rangers at our parks. Wear long-sleeved light coloured clothing if possible when outdoors.

There are numerous types of insects that can sting you if provoked. Paper wasps, mud daubers, hornets or honey bees. All of these insects might sting you if you disturb their nest, or if they feel that you are a threat. Some are more aggressive than others, and will take less provocation.

There are no mosquitoes at the Bay but there are some sandflies. You will need suncream and insect repellant for the beach, though there is no problem with sandflies in the house or on the terrace. in many parts of the New Zealand bush there are some wasps around but we have not found them to be a major problem. If you know you are allergic please bring appropriate medication with you since the nearest professional help is some distance away.

Although honeybees are from the same family of insects, they are less aggressive and normally do not attack humans unless provoked.

It is a policy of the City of Toronto, Urban Forestry to leave wasp nests in trees where possible given the benefits of many wasp species as a natural control agent for other insect pests. If staff safety is not jeopardized, City of Toronto Urban Forestry will spray the nests of bees, wasps and hornets in trees which are situated on, or overhang City property (road allowance and parkland) if the nest is deemed to be a safety concern to the public.

House Bees" are young bees, not yet old enough to forage. They collect nectar from foragers near the hive entrance, and place it in comb. Other, even younger House Bees do things like draw foundation out into comb. While these bees can fly, they tend to stay in the hive. These bees are crucial to success in producing large honey crops, since there is quite a bit of labor required to move nectar around, combine evaporated nectar, cap cells of "ripened" honey, and so on.

There are thousands of species of Vespoid (true) wasps, the actual number is not known. We do know that there is about 800 species of social wasps.

average common or German wasp nest produces between 11 000 and 13 000 workers and from 1000 to 2000 queens a season. Paper wasp nests, which are much smaller than common or German wasp nests, contain up to 200 wasps.

Wasps eat a wide range of invertebrates including spiders, caterpillars, ants, bees, and flies. It has also been suggested that wasps may prey on nestling birds. Wasps also collect honeydew. Honeydew is produced by a native scale insect. The insect inserts its mouth-parts into the trunk of the beech tree to siphon the sap. The excess sap, modified by the scale insect, forms a sugary droplet at the end of a waxy anal filament.

Chitin. Wings are platelike extensions of the integument (outer skeleton), strengthened by a framework of hollow chitinous tubes known as veins.

Virtually any contact between two wasps can be considered a form of communication. Visual and audible signs are used to attract the opposite sex for mating, and size and posture displays are used in courtship or aggression. Exchanges of food and chemical stimuli (pheromones) among the members of a colony are also very important in maintaining the social hierarchy and tasking of the colony members.

If you have a pair of observation hives, simply expose the bees in one observation hive at regular intervals to enough Bee-Quick to induce a noticeable reaction, while marking newly-emerged bees to be able to record the average lifespan of a statistically significant number of bees. As a control, have a second observation hive that is never exposed to Bee-Quick, but otherwise treated identically.

Nothing will get all the bees out of every super. There will always be a few bees that are too stubborn to leave, for reasons unknown. (There, we just admitted what no one else except a beekeeper will tell you! At least we are honest...) The few bees that remain in the supers are fairly easy to shake or brush off the frames. If you remove the "stubborn" bees from one super while waiting for the fume board to work on another super or hive, things go fairly smoothly.

If the bees are not an immediate threat, call any local exterminator/pest control company found in the yellow pages of your phone book.

The Palm Springs Fire Department does not remove bees unless there is imminent danger to a person. If such a situation exists, firefighters must destroy the bees and the hives. To have bees removed, look in the Yellow Pages under "Beekeepers or Exterminators."

Bees live for 6 weeks when gathering nectar during the summer. Their wings gradually wear away from constant activity. Those that are alive in the later fall live till spring and care for the larva hatched from eggs laid in late winter. These worker bees die before the honey flow starts again in the spring. The queen bee can live for 3-4 years.

Queens wasps are bigger because they have to produce and store large quantities of eggs. Being bigger also means that they can store more fat, which is essential if they are to survive winter hibernation — by the time queens leave the colony, fat reserves account for nearly 40% o their total dried weight. The differences in size result primarily from variations in quantity and quality of food received during the larval stage — queens receive almost twice as much food as workers.

Yes — the venom sac at the end of a wasp sting keeps pulsing for a short period after a wasp dies, so if you come in contact with the sting you may still be injected with venom.