There are more than 50 types of wasps.
Wasps can be found all over the world and are often confused with honeybees. While wasps do contribute to some pollination--the honeybee's claim to fame--they are most known for killing small insects and being the species most likely to sting humans.
Types
There are more than 50 types of wasps. One group that poses a concern to humans are the Vespid wasps. Vespid wasps found in residential areas include the bald-faced hornet, paper wasps, and yellow jackets, all of which can sting repeatedly when feeling threatened. Parasitic wasps, which tend to plant their eggs in hosts rather than in nests, include carrot wasps, cuckoo wasps and sawflies. Pollen wasps are so named because they feed their young pollen rather than insects or spiders.
Physical Characteristics
Wasps have smooth, cylindrical bodies consisting of an abdomen and a thorax with two sets of wings and round, waxy looking legs. They also have a smooth stinger that easily goes into or out of skin, and in some species can even be injected with venom to kill prey or for used in defense.
Habitat
Wasps live in nests, which can either be hives constructed from wood fibers producing small compartments where wasps put their eggs or they can simply be burrows located in the soil. Mud daubers and potter wasps even build mud nests above the ground constructed of mud cavities attached to twigs, rocks or human structures.
Behavior
Wasps can be found all over the world and often come in two varieties: social or solitary. Social wasps build colonies in which to raise their young. They abandon these colonies in the winter. Fertilized female wasps who have the potential of being queens find protection during the winter, while remaining members of the colony perish. In the spring, a surviving female builds a colony which quickly fills with more wasps. Solitary wasps do not build colonies, rather they build their own nest and stocks it with prey. Wasps are predators, so they survive on small insects, and some are parasitic, in that they lay eggs in host insects, which the wasp larva slowly consumes and ultimately kills.
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