Striped insects belong to the same family as bees - the Hymenoptera. Many people are interested in the question of whether wasps collect honey or not, do wasps collect nectar or can only certain types of insects do this? It is known that in Central America and African countries people breed them in order to obtain aspen honey. The fact is that adults, like bees, feed on nectar and pollinate flowers. That is why they are also able to create honey. The aspen product differs from the bee product in its beneficial properties, taste characteristics, quality and quantity.
The consistency of aspen honey is very thick, viscous, and its composition is based on pollen. The smell is quite pleasant. In comparison with bee products, which are produced in huge quantities, this product is very small. It contains virtually no useful enzymes, although it contains plenty of sugar and protein. It also contains calcium and minerals. In total, wasp honey has no special significance for the human body.
Wasp
Is the wasp honey-bearing?
When asked whether wasps make honey, many will answer unequivocally “no,” but it’s not that simple. The species of wasp that can produce sweetness is called Polybia Occidentalis. They not only create a sweet product, but also accumulate it and make supplies for the winter. Only adults make honey. Their diet includes juices of ripe vegetables and fruits, and flower nectar. The larvae feed mainly on protein foods. Their parents hunt for them small insects, spiders, flies and even bees.
Note! It is noteworthy that wasps largely prefer to consume treats rather than create them. Entire families of them attack bee hives, destroying their reserves in one such “raid.” They drag the bees they come across to their hive and feed them to the larvae. At the same time, they do not take honey, so it practically does not exist in the wasp’s home.
At the same time, a small layer of honey mass forms over time on the walls of the hive and in the cells of the honeycomb. Thus, wasps do not bother themselves with specially creating a sweet product. Sugar coating forms on its own, usually after an insect eats pollen on a flower. It turns out that the answer to the question whether wasps make honey or not is now obvious: no, they don’t. But at the same time, another question, whether there is aspen honey, has the right to an affirmative answer: yes, it does.
Alcoholic cocktail dessert
Experienced baristas know how to make “wasp honey” with their own hands. To do this, you need to beat four egg yolks and add them to a can of condensed milk. Continue using the mixer until the mixture is airy. After this, mix a spoonful of instant coffee with a very small amount of boiling water (so that the granules disappear). Stir in the milk-yolk mixture. Pour in a thin stream one hundred milliliters of alcohol (this dessert is eaten with a spoon) or a glass of vodka (the cocktail is served with a straw). Place the finished product in the refrigerator for an hour.
What does wasp honey taste like?
Why doesn't honey smell?
This product is a nectar consisting of one pollen. It accumulates in wasp honeycombs. The product is very aromatic, fragrant, but crystallizes much faster than the bee product.
In search of flowers, insects fly around the area and carefully examine it. The fact is that wasps, like bees, try to collect nectar from those plants that are as close as possible to their nest. For this reason, the taste of the product depends mainly on what plants are located next to the wasp hive.
Traps
Considering the above points, it is not surprising that some beekeepers or ordinary summer residents have a desire to destroy wasps. The most common method of catching them is traps. Of course, you can buy them in a store, but their effectiveness will be much higher if you make them yourself.
Important! Many standard insect traps do not work on wasps. The principle of operation of the trap is very simple. Insects attracted by the smell fly to the trap, crawl inside it, and feast on the bait.
Then they try to get out by crawling up the wall of the bottle. After many attempts, the insect rests on the junction of the bottle parts
Insects attracted by the smell fly to the trap, crawl inside it, and feast on the bait. Then they try to get out by crawling up the wall of the bottle. After many attempts, the insect rests on the junction of the bottle parts
The top third of the bottle is cut off. A substance is placed at the bottom of the bottle that will attract wasps. The lid is twisted off the cut part. Then, the upper cut part of the bottle is turned upside down and inserted into the bottle tightly and secured (small holes can be made just above the level of the neck so that the smell from the bait spreads more efficiently).
The principle of operation of the trap is very simple. Insects attracted by the smell fly to the trap, crawl inside it, and feast on the bait. Then they try to get out by crawling up the wall of the bottle. After many attempts, the insect rests on the junction of the bottle parts.
You can use something sweet as bait. You can pour water with sugar and add jam to the bottle. To improve the effectiveness of the trap, you can make the bait poisoned. To do this, acid or insecticide preparations are added to the finished liquid. They are inexpensive and last a long time. You can find them in specialized stores.
Is it possible to eat wasp honey?
Having found out whether wasps have honey, another logical question arises: can it be eaten?
Honey
Crystallization of honey
The thick, aromatic mixture of pollen and nectar, which has a pleasant floral scent, contains many nutrients of plant origin. However, despite this, the wasp product is significantly inferior to the bee product in many respects. Sweet honey, which, relatively speaking, is made by wasps, has a pleasant taste and rich aroma, and yet it cannot be compared with the classic version. In addition, the nutritional value, even with a high sugar and protein content, is very low. It does not contain enzymes, with the help of which bees process flower nectar and create a product that is familiar in its taste and consistency.
Important! Aspen honey crystallizes very quickly, losing its viscousness. The taste is not very sweet and its properties are not as healthy as bee honey. In fact, it is practically no different from the original raw material - the very nectar that is contained in a flower bud.
The characteristics listed above do not mean that wasp honey is forbidden to eat. It is quite edible and useful to a certain extent. It should also be remembered that the product obtained by collecting flower juice and pollen from poisonous crops can cause serious poisoning in humans.
How honey is made
Each bee has its own purpose. Honey is made from nectar. The process is gradual.
Stage 1: collecting nectar
The forager bee places the collected nectar in the honey sac and brings it to the hive.
Stage 2: Chewing
In the hive, the worker bee takes nectar from the forager and processes it with the help of her saliva.
Stage 3: Move
After the splitting process, the honey is transferred to the honeycomb.
Step 4: Cooking
The right amount of moisture is necessary for honey to cook. The bees flap their wings to create the desired consistency.
Stage 5: preparation
When the consistency is almost perfect, the honeycomb is sealed with wax and left to mature.
Should you look for honey in a wasp's nest in Russia?
Which honey is better, flower or buckwheat?
Among the Slavic and other peoples living in Russia, there has never been such a thing as “wasp honey.” This expression was used in a figurative sense, and was also used as the name of alcoholic drinks made from a beekeeping product.
For your information! The harsh Russian climate, as well as the climate of other countries located close to Russia, is not suitable for honey-bearing wasp species. And even more so, no one here is breeding these insects for the purpose of extracting a sweet product.
In the hives of ordinary wasps, you can notice a thin layer of nectar accumulated on the walls of the home. This is nothing more than the result of insects collecting flower and fruit juice. However, the total mass of nectar reserves is very small, and only in exceptional cases can it reach 20-30 g. Such a layer, as mentioned earlier, is formed by chance, due to the fact that insects, collecting pollen and nectar for their own consumption, bring their particles on their paws straight into the hive. Over time, the nectar accumulated on the walls of the nest ripens and becomes similar to the classic product.
What role do they play?
Despite their honey uselessness, wasps are a very important part of the natural fauna. They use pest larvae to feed their offspring. Thus, stinging insects, which are so disliked by many, do a good deed for the garden and cultivated plants. For example, the burrowing or ground wasp is the worst enemy of mole crickets and their larvae. In order to attract these orderlies to the garden, farmers even plant flowering plants around the perimeter of the garden.
Wasps of the Amorphilla species are also useful - they actively destroy caterpillars of various species. In addition, wall, nose, paper and large-headed ones are excellent at clearing the garden of borers, leaf beetles, flies, cicadas and beetles. As you can see, a dangerous insect benefits nature, the harvest, and therefore provides a lot of benefits to humans.
These creatures perform the pollination function, of course, worse than bees, since their natural task is different. But stings, which everyone fears more than bees, are actually not so dangerous. In terms of threat to humans, a wasp sting is not far behind a bee sting. Wasp venom still exhibits a tonic effect, so don’t be too alarmed if a wasp stings. The dangerous number of bites for a person is up to 20.
Bumblebee honey
Do wasps and bumblebees produce honey like bees? As for the first ones, everything is clear with them. Bumblebees collect flower nectar and process it to make honey. Since insects do not store volumes, the amount of sweetness is small. The main purpose of bumblebee nectar is to feed the larvae and support the vital processes of the entire hive.
Bumblebee
This product is very useful for humans, since its quantity is very limited, but the benefits for the body are undeniable. Bumblebee honey is a very expensive and rare product.
Few people mine it, and therefore it can be very difficult to find a seller. And yet it is quite possible to purchase this product; this can be done via the Internet.
The product is characterized by the following properties:
- its liquid consistency makes it look like syrup;
- the specific gravity of honey is very low;
- contains a variety of pollen (including plants such as purple damselfish and red clover);
- honeycombs have an unusual shape; in appearance they resemble jugs (however, their capacity is much less than the number of honeycombs).
The small amount of honey reserves is also explained by the short life span of these insects. They do not need to produce and stock the product in large volumes.
Note! Unlike wasps, bumblebees deliberately collect flower pollen in case it is not possible to obtain the required amount of juice directly from the flower.
Benefit
Insects do not produce honey, but they can provide many benefits to humans through their vital activity.
The wasp family plays an important role, destroying a huge number of harmful insects, with which humans wage a merciless fight. If it is located in the corner of the garden, you should not touch it. Wasps kill flies, spiders, larvae, small insects, and large insects. They cope freely with mole crickets, beetles and their larvae, and bronze beetles.
Many solitary wasps lay eggs on the body of the larva of a large beetle, a spider. Within a few hours, a larva emerges from the egg, burrows into the victim’s body, and begins to eat it from the inside. Finally, it pupates, and after a while the imago emerges in the form familiar to humans.
Benefits of OS
On a note!
Tiny Spilomena troglodytes wasps destroy thrips. Many other species catch caterpillars of leaf rollers, moths, bugs, leaf beetles, cicadas, flies, horse flies, and weevils. The functions of a wasp are quite great even without honey - they pollinate plants and increase productivity.
Honey hornets
Do hornets give honey? No, because these insects are predators, and they do not produce honey, just like wasps, although the latter do have it. The flower product, as a result of the vital activity of these insects, accumulates in the hives and, when ripened, becomes similar to ordinary, classic honey. It can be eaten, it is quite tasty and, to a certain extent, healthy. But there is very little of it, so it’s not worth wasting time getting ready.
Having figured out whether wasps have honey and what it tastes like, you can set a goal and find an unusual treat.
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conclusions
- The bee has a more rounded body. The cover has villi, the color is muted. The wasp, on the contrary, has a smooth, elongated body and bright colors.
- Bees produce useful products: wax, honey, propolis. Wasps do not produce any useful products.
- Bees are not the first to attack, wasps are predators by nature, they are capable of stinging for no apparent reason.
- Once a bee stings, it dies. Wasps are capable of stinging repeatedly, and in addition they bite using the jaw apparatus.
- Bees feed exclusively on pollen, while wasps have a more varied diet.
Types of bumblebees
The bumblebee is an insect with three hundred “faces”. Three hundred animal species differ mainly in color, size, and places of residence.
The main types of bumblebees include:
1. Ordinary. Its commonness is in question, since the insect is listed in the International Red Book. The animal has a black background with two yellow stripes. You can meet the insect in Western Europe and on its Russian borders.
2. Forest. He is smaller than other bumblebees. The insect's body length is usually about 1.5 centimeters. Representatives of the species are also distinguished by their dull, non-contrasting color. The yellow in it is almost white, and the black is close to gray.
3. Garden. This bumblebee is distinguished by the length of its trunk. But the body of the insect is not large - about 2 centimeters long. The color is distinguished by a wide black stripe between the wings and a yellow breast. The color is close to the tone of the hollow flowers.
4. Armenian. It is distinguished by brown, rather than whitish, wings. The insect also has elongated “cheeks” and a whitened rear abdomen. The Armenian bumblebee is large, more than 3 centimeters long. The species is rare, listed in the International Red Book.
5. Mokhovoy. Extended to a maximum of 2.2 centimeters. Representatives of the species are distinguished by the absence of black stripes. All the hairs of the animal are golden. There are rows in which the fibers are almost brown. The back of the insect is bright orange.
6. Earthy. He has a black chest. A black and red band runs along the back of the insect. Females, which in all types of bumblebees are larger than working males, reach a length of 2.3 centimeters.
The ground insect is bred on an industrial scale to pollinate crops.
7. Steppe. The largest size reaches 3.5 centimeters. The bumblebee's cheeks are square and the color is light. Pale yellow and gray stripes alternate. There is a thin black band between the wings of the insect.
8. Underground. Its yellow stripes are the dullest among bumblebees, appearing white. These lines are the color of vanilla flowers interspersed with black. The underground insect is also distinguished by an elongated abdomen and the same elongated proboscis.
9. Urban. Miniature. The length of some working individuals is 1 centimeter. Maximum - 2.2 centimeters. The coloring differs from other bumblebees with a red breast and a white spot on the abdomen. There is also a black bandage.
10. Lugovoy. Even less urban. The maximum length of a female is 1.7 centimeters. Working individuals often grow only up to 9 millimeters. Behind the dark head of the insect there is a collar of rich yellow color. Such bumblebees are the first to emerge from wintering.
11. Stone. This is a medium sized species. The bumblebee is black except for the tip of the abdomen. It is orange-red. Males have a yellow collar on their chest. The description, with the exception of nuances, also includes dark, light, great types and romcrypt.
These 4 bumblebees are terrestrial, meaning they build nests in the soil. There are also types that have houses on the surface of the ground.
12. Spot-backed. Listed in the Red Book of Russia as a vulnerable species. On its pale yellow back there is a square mark made of black hairs.
13. Carder. It is medium in size. There are yellow hairs on the dark forehead of the insect. There is an oval mark on the back of the bumblebee. It is composed of black fibers.
14. Fruity. The general coloration of this bumblebee is brown. The color is darker on the head, chest, abdomen and legs. The wings of representatives of the species are slightly darkened.
15. Horse. It does not exceed 2 centimeters in length. The general color of the insect is light gray, but there is a black band between the wings.
In total, 53 species of bumblebees live in Europe alone. Pseudo-bumblebees are a plus. Just remember the blue one. In fact, it's a bee. She has a black body and blue wings. The official name of the species is carpenter bee.
