| Appearance | Habits | Nests | Feeding Behavior | |
| Bees | Hairy, stout bodies with thick waists; workers & reproductives are winged | Noisy flight; sting mainly while defending nest; foraging workers seldom sting | In hives, trees, or buildings | Collect pollen and nectar, feed pollen to young & share food with other adult bees |
| Wasps | Bodies vary; all winged | Colorful, rapid fliers; solitary & social varieties | Aerial or ground nests; can also be in structures | Scavengers and/or predators |
| Solitary wasps | Thin- or thick-waisted | Visit flowers & other vegetation; relatively docile | In mud, or in holes in ground | Predators; provision nests with prey for young to feed on |
| Yellowjackets and Hornets | Stout, colorful | Rapid fliers; aggressive; individuals capable of inflicting multiple stings; social in large colonies which they defend vigorously | Multi-layered, papery nests mostly in ground, although some aerial or in structures; nests have an outer papery covering called an "envelope" | Mostly beneficial predators, but scavenger species become pestiferous |
| Paper (umbrella) wasps | Long bodies with thin waists, long dangling legs | Social; search vegetation for prey; visit flowers for nectar; not particularly aggressive | Single layered, papery nests without an envelope; attached to fences, eaves, boards, branches; shaped like an umbrella | Beneficial predators; feed prey to developing young in nest |