Most wasps do not produce honey. While many associate all buzzing insects with this sweet substance, the vast majority of wasp species have different life strategies and dietary needs than honey bees. This difference explains why they generally do not engage in honey production.
The Purpose of Honey in Nature
Honey serves as a concentrated, long-term food source for insects that produce it, primarily honey bees. They create honey from nectar, a sugary liquid collected from flowers, which is then transformed into a stable, energy-dense food. This allows honey bee colonies to survive periods when floral resources are scarce, such as during winter. It provides the carbohydrates necessary to fuel adult bees and supports the growth and development of their larvae.
What Wasps Really Do
Most wasp species are predatory, hunting other insects and spiders to feed their young. Adult wasps typically consume sugary liquids like nectar, fruit juices, or honeydew for their own energy. While they visit flowers for these sugars, they are less efficient pollinators than bees, as they lack specialized hairy bodies for pollen collection.
Many social wasps construct nests from a paper-like material made by chewing wood fibers and mixing them with saliva. These nests, often annual, mean only the queen survives winter to start a new colony in spring. This annual life cycle eliminates the need for large-scale food storage like honey, as the colony does not persist through prolonged scarcity. Wasp larvae often secrete a sugary liquid that adult wasps consume, creating a reciprocal feeding relationship.
Rare Exceptions: The Honey Wasps
While most wasps do not make honey, rare exceptions exist within the Brachygastra genus, sometimes called “honey wasps.” These social wasps, found mainly in Central and South America and occasionally in the southern United States, produce a small amount of a honey-like substance. This substance is primarily for their own consumption within the nest as a food reserve.
The honey produced by these wasps, such as the Mexican honey wasp (Brachygastra mellifica), is stored in uncapped cells within their paper nests. While edible by humans and harvested by indigenous peoples, its production scale is not comparable to that of honey bees. The composition of this wasp honey can vary based on floral sources and may even contain toxins if collected from certain plants.