In Illinois, there are several different types of bees and wasps. However, two of the most dangerous striped buzzers that you may commonly come across include:

Paper Wasps

These wasps are well known for being aggressive, predatory, and very territorial. In fact, if their nest happens to be destroyed, they often return to rebuild it in the exact same spot. Due to their territorial nature, they are extremely unfond of people getting close to their nests and have a tendency to attack if they feel you’ve gotten within a certain range or if they think you may be a threat.

Not only can paper wasps sting, but they have powerful and painful bites. They can sink their powerful mandibles into victims and simultaneously sting them, multiple times. Unlike honeybees who lose their barbed stingers and die after the encounter, wasps have smooth stingers that remain intact and can be used over and over. Furthermore, these striped stingers have acutely painful venom that they inject with each stab into their victim.

Yellow Jackets

Yellow jackets are particularly aggressive. They are one of the most common culprits when it comes to being stung in your own backyard as they are native to North America. When they attack, yellow jackets tend to sting repeatedly with their venomous stingers, and will even bite their victims. Their aggression tends to spike in the months of Autumn and reports of stings increase at this time. Executive member of the Montgomery Country Beekeepers’ Association of Pennsylvania, Scott Famous, states that, “when the weather turns colder, food sources disappear and [the yellow jackets] begin to starve. Starvation makes them angry and aggressive as they work hard to seek food.” When this aggression spikes, not only humans bear the brunt of their sour dispositions. It is actually common for yellow jackets to attack and even massacre beehives in order to steal their food.