A couple of days ago my friends and I were walking around the local forest preserve when suddenly the hugest scariest bee I’ve ever seen landed near us. It’s body was similar to that of a hornet with a huge stinger, but it had Bee stripes on it. It was roughly the size of my thumb, probably a little bigger (I have a big thumb). What did I just see? Was this some South American bee or something that got up here somehow? I live in the midwest btw.
Eric the Half-a-Bee!
From the size, it sounds like a European Hornet; these are very much like a scaled-up yellowjacket, but more sort of brown/yellow instead of black/yellow.
But the long stinger you mention makes it sounds more like some kind of woodwasp (in which case it wouldn’t actually be a stinger, bbut an ovipositor).