I'm surprised no one asked, was the stinger left behind, you'll know immediately, barbed, curved honeybee stingers stay behind with the pumping mechanism attached as well as the innards of the bee, which dies from it, the wasp's can sting unlimited numbers of times.
I had a friend who kept bees, was doing some work around his house and he had been fooling with the nest, he damaged a queen and the hive was upset, he had ordered another queen with a few workers in a little wooden screened box, and introduced them to the hive, took awhile for them to accept. Until then these honeybees flew around like mosquitoes, gnats, and or blackflies do, they bumble around you briefly, then sting, I got nailed so many times, over the course of a day, I finally said enough, wait til this runs its course before I come back.
Sometimes I have been stung by various species of wasps, out of nowhere, but stung 1x only, once there were brown wasps in this hole on the side of the dozer blade, if you walked by 20 feet away, you were likely to get nailed, they were odd, because those are not aggressive like most until you disturb them, or they deem you a threat for some reason, again which usually means you have disturbed them first.
I find that all the wasps around here, usually do not care, until you mess with them, I often times work in close proximity to small-medium size brown or yellow paper, (those that make those nests with all the little cells for the larvae) until its either convenient or necessary to kill them usually because the nest poses a risk to others whom may not know they are there. YOu can tell what they do and how close you can get, just watch them, they are watching you, they're just not that aggressive when undisturbed.
I have like most kids and into adult life disturbed them on purpose to see what they do. White faced hornets, brown wasps, and all of the yellow jacket, yellow wasps, when disturbed, but cannot ID or find what jarred the nest, fly around in an erratic fashion, soon after things go back to normal. Don't try it at home folks !!!! I have no fear of disturbing any of these nests from a certain distance, they just cannot figure it out if you jar the nest, not damage it, cause damage and they are likely to be highly agitated, go near it during that time and you are highly likely to get nailed.
White faced hornets are no joke, they leave a sentry out at night, they will swarm and attack at night, and if they tag you as the threat when agitated you are in for a world of hurt, but it takes all of that to create a situation like that, you quietly go near the nest, they fly in a straight line and if you stand in their way, they just go around you, you can stand next to the nest they do not care. I was clearing brush with an open station tractor, my 850 ford, came upon a huge nest of these at about face level in a bush I was going around a little too big to take down, I was right up near it, never saw them, they never bothered me, if I had hit the trunk of that bush and shook or vibrated it, I'd have been done, just the same, don't ever take them for granted, and I do believe once in awhile some are more aggressive than others, maybe agitated for some unknown reason and you happen to be close in proximity.
Brown wasps, are not as aggressive, but you get them at the right time of year, bump a nest and if one of them ID's you, (however they do it is amazing) it will follow you like an F16 to a certain point and return to the nest I have pushed these little (well they're not really little) buggers to the test, repeatedly, they fly with that tail curved under towards the target, if he lands on you, instant sting, I still have very fast reflexes, thought those fade as you age, but I have brushed them off just in time, getting a slight sting, other times out run them, its basically what they do. Yesterday I was working with a nest hidden in my tractor, near my face, had been working on it the past few afternoons, they could care less, the bad thing was not knowing they were there, and accidentally disturbing them.
Last year about this time, rider was grazing a horse outside the barn, horse got stung, was believed to be a ground nest. Whitefaced hornets, and ground ( yellow jackets ? they are yellow ones in the ground here) wasps are just not plentiful, you do not see these nests often. Hmmmm, I suspect something else, crack open the cover on the manure spreader, and there is a huge yellow jacket nest, was cool out the next morning. Well ya fools, I can seen no one has been in that gearbox cover, oiling that chain and lubing the ratchet gear, I used to service this N.I. spreader myself regularly, every chain, fitting and bearing, people just don't get it, and that nest is telling you something, take care of the spreader !!
The ground wasps are usually small, if you place a cover over the hole, they will find a away around it, I have walked upon these and got nailed, but never swarmed or overwhelmed, just get away from them and its fine. I did hit a ground nest a long time ago while clearing a large area with a dozer, they were a larger wasp. I did not panic, stayed in the seat, watched them for a bit, engine running, they could not figure it out, open station with ROPS, then moved away, came back to that spot later to finish, some were still around but just they just never tagged me, maybe the dozer, but not me with that pheromone which is what sets them off and others to follow.
Bumble bees, are around, but I have not seen a full size or mature nest of those in a very long time, they seem to live in the ground or under debris, did find a new nest starting, was this ball of stuff, made sure to get rid of that, those hurt like heck, had one between my shirtless back and the seat while running a tractor trailer, had just dropped off a machine, getting stung while trying to downshift, slow down, stop and bail out of the cab, talk about distracted driving, still kept 'er straight and on the road, just a quick stop to jump out LOL !!!
We have tons of yellow paper wasps at the other place, everywhere, in and around the barns and anything and I mean anything that sits, you check first before touching anything. These nests get large and it seems that with these kinds of wasps, the larger the nest the more aggressive, here at home its rare they get this big, 30 miles north, forget it. Get them early, they still rebuild, most times here once a small nest is started you got them, kill 1x at the right time. If you let the nests get big, can be a different story and if you spray them while large, hot weather when they are active, there will be some still out, those surviving will come back and stay awhile aggressively stinging anything that comes near, or at least harass you, we have to plan when to kill nests because we have riders and students around, so if you see a large nest, and its close enough to be a concern, you are better off leaving it be until its safe to kill or just warn people about it, because its worse when they are agitated vs left alone.
At home I try to leave them alone where possible, they do eat insects and theres a whole bunch of other smaller or obscure species that do more good than harm like the wasp that uses tomato hornworms as a host for larvae and kills them.
I had a tree stand with honey bees several feet above me, never an issue with them.
Some of my experiences with the local wasps and bees, always use care, and show respect because of what they can do, but sometime there are anomalies for aggression, for the most part in this area, none are highly aggressive from what I have seen unless you disturb them.
