# Do hornets, wasps or yellow jackets produce ANY honey? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2004, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010 "2004-07-14T02:45:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/1 "2004-07-14T02:45:23Z")
While I understand the concept of a “honey bee,” I’ve never heard the words honey and hornet together. On the face of it, it sounds preposterous, but here I am, posing this question. Try to avoid using the “Putz!” emoticon. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/2 "2004-07-14T03:02:33Z")
As far as I know, hornets, wasps and yellow jackets (all closely related varmints) do not produce honey. Nor do they make silk, built anthills, or suck blood, although other insect species do so. Hornets wasps and yellow jackets migth have more in common genetically with honeybees than they do with moths, ants, and mosquitos, but even if they do it ain’t as much as you seem to think. ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/3 "2004-07-14T05:27:06Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > As far as I know, hornets, wasps and yellow jackets (all closely related varmints) do not produce honey. Nor do they make silk, built anthills, or suck blood, although other insect species do so. Hornets wasps and yellow jackets migth have more in common genetically with honeybees than they do with moths, ants, and mosquitos, but even if they do it ain’t as much as you seem to think. I think I’ve been putzed! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/4 "2004-07-14T06:46:21Z")
In fact- not all bees make honey. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/5 "2004-07-14T08:02:53Z")
In all the cases of which I’m aware (including the most common wasps, such as yellwjackets), social wasps are scavengers/predators; the larvae are fed on chewed-up caterpillars and similar; such foods aren’t likely to store as well as does honey - if they did store their food, you can be certain you wouldn’t want to spread it on your toast. ---
**Author:** ![Galanthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Galanthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galanthus)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/6 "2004-07-14T10:10:01Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Hornets wasps and yellow jackets migth have more in common genetically with honeybees than they do with moths, ants, and mosquitos, but even if they do it ain’t as much as you seem to think. Actually hornets and wasps have more in common with ants than they do bees, though they are all memebers of the family Hymenoptera. Wasps, ants and bees are usually grouped together as the _Social Hymenoptera_ ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/7 "2004-07-14T10:54:58Z")
> [@Galanthus](#): > > though they are all members of the family Hymenoptera. Yeah? Those entomologists must have some _powerful_ microscopes if they can see that 😃 ---
**Author:** ![brane\_damaj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a587f6/32.png) [@brane\_damaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brane_damaj)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/8 "2004-07-14T13:12:50Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > While I understand the concept of a “honey bee,” I’ve never heard the words honey and hornet together. Freakishly enough, the answer is YES! AND I can attest to that through PERSONAL EXPERIENCE! :eek: Back in the day, I lived on a farm, and every summer I would find about a dozen or so wasp nests. Being the inquisitive lad that I was, I would chase away the wasps and break open the nest to see what was inside. The cells were shaped similarly to a honeycomb (except more round than hexagonal) and wasplets (?) in various stages of growth inside each one. Some of the cells had only an egg and a small droplet of a very viscous fluid in the bottom of the cell. As lacking in common sense as I was rich in curiosity, I tasted the fluid. Sure enough, it tasted exactly like honey. I don’t know if it was exactly the same composition as honeybee honey, but pretty damn close. While the wasp larva do eat other insects that their parents bring to them, apparently the eggs are given a little bit of honey to get them started. Obviously the amount is far to small to be of any commercial value, but it was there. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/9 "2004-07-14T14:22:16Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve never heard the words honey and hornet together. Submitted for your approval: [http://www.edible.com/htmlsite/prod\_list.asp?prodID=192&catID=4](http://www.edible.com/htmlsite/prod_list.asp?prodID=192&catID=4) (An enzyme is extracted from a species of Japenese hornet that grows to 2 inches in length, to make the “hornet honey”, which athletes believe enhances performance. The hornet in question, Vespa mandarinia, is apparently something you DO NOT want to get stung by.) And also, the curative properties of “hornet’s honey” were explored by Courage the Cowardly Dog, IIRC, in the episode entitled “The Magical Tree of Nowhere”. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/10 "2004-07-14T14:57:42Z")
> [@brane damaj](#): > > Being the inquisitive lad that I was, I would chase away the wasps and break open the nest to see what was inside. How in the heck did you manage that? I mean, there must be thousands of wasps inside a good-sized nest. Were you consistently successful at it or did the wasps win more than you did? ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/11 "2004-07-14T17:01:03Z")
I was sorry to see you “putzed,” **Carnac** , by someone who only answered with their own lack of information. _Polybia aequatorialis_, a high-elevation wasp of Central and possibly South America (hard to say, because they closely resembe P. occidentalis), with colony sizes of several thousand adults, stores large amounts of concentrated nectar like honey. Whether this is “real” honey is open to debate, but I suspect any distinction could only be a matter of definition for some given purpose. As others have said, some wasps and hornets do appear to, and if there’s a putz, it’s not you for asking. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/12 "2004-07-14T18:09:22Z")
For what it’s worth, yesterday Mrs Gargoyle and I were watching a yellowjacket or wasp (not sure the difference, as I didn’t get close enough to check for a hymen) crawling about on flowers apparently gathering nectar and pollen just like a honeybee. We were assuming that it was probably ingesting the nectar, and getting pollen-dusted as a side effect. We were wondering if they made any honey or not. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-hornets-wasps-or-yellow-jackets-produce-any-honey/255010/13 "2004-07-14T19:54:54Z")
\<——— auto :wally: ::sigh::