Most wasp species do not produce honey, a substance commonly associated with bees. While wasps often seek sugary foods, their biology typically does not involve honey creation or storage. However, some fascinating exceptions exist.
Why Most Wasps Don’t Produce Honey
Most wasp species do not produce honey due to fundamental differences in their diet, life cycles, and social organization compared to honey bees. Adult wasps consume sugary liquids like nectar for energy, but their primary food source, especially for their developing young, is protein. Wasps are largely predatory, hunting other insects and spiders, or parasitic, feeding their larvae with captured prey. Unlike honey bees, most wasp colonies are annual, meaning they do not survive through the winter. Only the fertilized queen overwinters, emerging in spring to start a new colony. This life cycle eliminates the need for large-scale, long-term food storage to sustain the colony through colder months. Wasps also lack specialized internal structures, like a honey stomach, and the specific enzymes bees use to convert nectar into concentrated, stable honey.
Wasps That Store and Consume Nectar
While honey production is not common for wasps, a few species collect and store nectar, resulting in a honey-like substance. The Mexican honey wasp (Brachygastra mellifica) is a notable example, found from northern Panama to parts of the southern United States. These social wasps gather nectar from various flowering plants, such as sunflowers and mesquite, storing it within their nests. Their paper-like nests can be quite large, housing thousands of individuals and weighing several pounds when full of stored nectar. This stored carbohydrate serves as sustenance for the colony, particularly when foraging opportunities are limited. Their larvae are also fed on this stored honey and pollen, a dietary habit unusual among most wasp species that feed their young insect protein. Other genera like Polybia also store nectar, though in smaller quantities.
How Wasp Nectar Differs from Bee Honey
The honey-like substance produced by certain wasps differs from bee honey in composition, purpose, and scale of production. Bee honey undergoes extensive processing, involving enzyme addition and water evaporation, resulting in a complex, thick, and stable food source. Wasp nectar, while sweet, is less processed and runnier with a different sugar profile. Wasp “honey” is primarily for the colony’s immediate consumption or to sustain it through lean times, not for long-term communal storage across seasons like bee honey. The quantity produced by wasp colonies is considerably less than that of a typical honey bee colony. This limited production, coupled with variations in composition depending on the nectar source, means wasp nectar is not commercially viable or widely consumed by humans, unlike bee honey.