What’s The Difference Between Bees and Wasps?

When a bee or a wasp stings you, you’re probably not paying attention to the curve of its waist or the shape of its legs. But if you were, you’d notice some key characteristics to help you identify it. While bees have robust, hairy bodies with flat rear legs, wasps’ bodies are slender with a narrow waist connecting the thorax and abdomen. (The thorax and abdomen are the names given to an insect’s mid and rear segments.) In addition, wasps appear smooth and shiny and have slender legs shaped like cylinders.Between wasps and bees answers that age-old question: Do they die after they sting you? Both bees and wasps inject their venom with a stinger attached to their bodies. Wasps and most bees can pump the venom into your skin, remove the stinger and then fly away. The honeybee’s stinger, however, is barbed and it sticks in your flesh. When the honeybee tries to fly away, her stinger won’t budge. Instead, it rips from her body. Since the stinger is attached to the honeybee’s digestive system, she eventually dies from the trauma.

BEE

WASP