r/mildyinteresting • u/EMMIECX5 • Apr 19 '26
critter corner đ° Giant Bee in Champagne
Yesterday was a beautiful day, and a guest on the patio at the restaurant I work at was having a glass of champagne. This giant bee of some sort decided to go for a swim. It was about 2 inches long, had yellow and black stripes with a massive stinger. It wasnât a normal size bee at all. I took the picture and let it go into a flower pot where it cleaned off and flew away.
EDIT: Okay guys Iâm sorry I categorized it as a bee! Itâs some kind of hornet.
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u/Briham86 Apr 19 '26
The hornet:
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u/ender7887 Apr 19 '26
European hornet. Despite their size and scary look Iâve actually found that theyâre pretty docile as long as you donât try to handle them and you arenât near the nest. Iâve had them land on me before and chill out in the shade.
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u/EMMIECX5 Apr 19 '26
I was actually surprised it didnât attack me when I let it go. I watched it for a few minutes and it just sat there and cleaned itself off.
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u/ender7887 Apr 19 '26
Yeah European hornets are known as gentle giants. They rarely will sting people outside of protecting their nests. The reason why most hornets/ wasps have a bad rap is because of yellow jackets. A yellow jacket 100% wouldâve sting you for no reason in the exact same situation.
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u/Infamous_Ad_6793 Apr 19 '26
I know this is a common stance, but in my experience (4+ years) with yellow jackets constantly getting in my house and the main bees around my house, Iâve never been stung.
I just donât look them in the eyes, and always say âyes, maâamâ and they kinda just go about their business.
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u/doritobimbo Apr 19 '26
Only time I was stung by a yellow jacket was when it landed on the back of my leg and I brushed at it without looking. In the summer Iâll pick em up by a wing and toss em when they land on my food. They donât swarm me as a result.
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u/ender7887 Apr 19 '26
I scooped a yellow jacket out of a sauce I was eating with a fork and put her down on a napkin and let her clean herself off. She thanked me by flying onto my arm and stinging me.
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u/TrueEnthusiasm6 Apr 20 '26
Iâve only been stung by a yellow jacket in the pool once. I guess it landed on my hand and didnât find it a sufficient flotation device. I got spooked when I felt the sting and just smacked my hand into the water at lightning speed, which drowned it
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u/CATNIP_IS_CRACK Apr 20 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
I grew up in a war zone, yellowjackets versus humans & bees. Orchards cover 90% of the land over the horizon. Yellowjackets outnumber humans thousands to one, and significantly outnumber bees. They regularly destroy natural beehives, the only safe place being clusters of hive bodies that are too well defended for yellowjackets to attack. And for every yellow jacket that falls thereâs a dozen more born to take its place.
If you look down a row of trees in an orchard youâll see overflowing wasp traps on every tree as far as the eye can see that need to be emptied every couple days. Any average person living near an orchard will have half a dozen traps in their yard that will kill hundreds or thousands a week. Anyone with a few fruit trees in their yard or a personal orchard has at least a trap or two per tree if they ever want to see fruit, and the rest of property surrounded to keep them out.
Still somehow never been bit or stung by any type of wasp including yellowjackets, but I know a lot more of who have than havenât, and know significantly more people who have been attacked by yellowjackets than bees.
Yellowjackets might not be needlessly out for blood, but they also arenât a âleave it alone and itâll leave you aloneâ or âitâll only attack if itâs frightenedâ animal and are more aggressive than defensive. Particularly when thereâs something they want and are willing to fight for nearby like food, when theyâre outside in warm sunlight, and when theyâre in a group. Once theyâre inside in a cool area out of the sun, where thereâs minimal stimuli and not much theyâre interested in, away from a swarm, theyâre a lot calmer and less active, but are still more likely to attack than run if they feel provoked
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u/ineenemmerr Apr 20 '26
I like to think that stinging is yellow jackets love language and they are just very loving of everything that lives.
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u/AHansen83 Apr 20 '26
Yellow jackets are mean for the sake of being mean, i grew up in Georgia and they were everywhere. Yellow jackets and fire ants.
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u/jstpassinthru123 Apr 20 '26
There is a massive issue in my area with a yellow jacket breed called a bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata). Absolute menaces,and the name makes them easy to mix up with true hornets.
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u/Condorz1 Apr 19 '26
European Hornets are known for being less hostile than other social wasp species. Plus, if it's spring where you are too then it'll be a new queen, and they're less hostile than when they've established a nest
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u/LydiaIsntVeryCool Apr 19 '26
I wish I would have known this a year ago when one flew into my old apartment. I ran to the bathroom and called my boyfriend sobbing because flew directly at me. I almost slept in the bathtub that night. Thing sounded like a helicopter.
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u/Fail_Agreeable Apr 20 '26
Yes, but have you ever encountered one that was hammered on champagne?⌠I bet he went home and kicked his dog and fell asleep on the bathroom floor like a drunk raccoonđđ
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u/Conyan51 Apr 22 '26
I very much donât recommend trying this but theyâre also pretty smart and can recognize help vs attack. Iâve a caught and released a lot of them at my work and use the paper and cup trick to transport them outside. They have never turned aggressive after letting them free.
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u/Kutulibac Apr 19 '26
...Hornet...
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u/EMMIECX5 Apr 19 '26
Okay guys I shouldnât have categorized it as a bee. My bad đ¤Ł
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u/Diablo3BestGame Apr 19 '26
Good never forget this misidentification put some respect on bees
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u/ayu_xi Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26
Because that's not a bee. I cannot identify it exactly but it's definitely a Vespa genus (true Hornets) within wasp family.
Edit : its Vespa crabro, European hornet.
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u/spdelope Apr 19 '26
Looks like a European hornet
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u/GeorgeSPattonJr Apr 19 '26
And yet theyâre most common in the US/North America, despite the name
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u/toomuchtv987 Apr 19 '26
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u/needless_booty Apr 19 '26
Let me pop a quick H on this box so we all know it's filled with hornets
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u/crackersncheeseman Apr 19 '26
Either that's a very small glass or that's a huge ass bee/hornet.
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u/EMMIECX5 Apr 19 '26
Itâs a standard size champagne glass and a giant hornet lol. I shouldâve taken more pics but I was overly fascinated and didnât want it to drown
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u/GeorgeSPattonJr Apr 19 '26
Not a bee lol, thatâs a European Hornet, the only true hornet in the US/North America. Hornets are a type of wasp, but not all wasps are hornets. Theyâre much less aggressive to people than most other wasps (mainly yellow jackets), but can be pretty defensive by their nests
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u/TheAlterN8or Apr 19 '26
Yellow Jackets are aholes.
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u/GeorgeSPattonJr Apr 19 '26
Genuinely yellow jackets are just assholes for the sake of being assholes lol. But the insect above is not a yellow jacket
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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl Apr 20 '26
I thought Hornets had red on them
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u/GeorgeSPattonJr Apr 20 '26
The particular insect above is a European Hornet, they do have red heads I believe. Though they are the only true species of hornet in the US, all others are wasps. There is lots of different species of wasps though
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u/DivingElliotRoberts Apr 20 '26
European Hornets that live in the US... What next? American Hornets in Europe?
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u/Trash-god96 Apr 19 '26
That's a hornet, not a bee. A very drunk hornet.
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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl Apr 20 '26
I donât see any red on it so I think itâs more of a wasp than specifically a hornet
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u/atomicshrimp Apr 19 '26
If it doesn't come from the bee region of France it's just sparkling wasp.
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u/Every_Preparation_56 Apr 20 '26
Mistaking a bee for a hornet is like mistaking a koala for a grizzly bear.
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u/TheRunnyDentist Apr 19 '26
Reddit really needs to go outside more often.
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u/BlueHawk75 Apr 19 '26
Cicada Killer - they are generally harmless to humans.
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u/CEBarnes Apr 19 '26
This was my vote. Big, scary and like to swoop at you in a way that turns out to be a flexible definition for a mate.
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u/Icy-Primary-585 Apr 19 '26
Wasps like wine I remember them flying into my MD 20-20 and dying, and having to fish out the dead wasp.
Roaches are also attached to flavored steel reserve, wine and things like that.
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u/rainbowpeonies Apr 19 '26
Bees â wasps or hornets
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u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl Apr 20 '26
Itâs probably a wasp, but not a hornet. In other words mean as hell
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u/Broad_Poetry_9657 Apr 19 '26
If youâre in the US I would consider sending a photo to the department of agriculture. Iâm not positive what kind of hornet this is, but thereâs been a lot of effort into preventing invasive âmurder hornetsâ from taking over in the US and killing all of our local bee populations. That looks large enough I would be concerned it could be one of those.
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u/WetWired Apr 20 '26
Not a champagne bee, if it's not from the Champagne region of southern France it's just a Sparkling Hornet
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u/Chiparish84 Apr 19 '26
You should've killed it with fire
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u/Notabagofdrugs Apr 19 '26
Finally, a fucking proper comment. r/fuckwasps would be livid they let it live.
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u/Sufficient-Aspect77 Apr 19 '26
TIL "That's where the phrase drunk as a bee, oh wait no I mean hornet" comes from.
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u/crying2emoji5 Apr 19 '26
Vespids are cooler than people give them credit for, I had a nest of paper wasps right on my front porch and they were chill af. They warded off pests from my garden. I left a bowl full of water and marbles out for them. A thirsty wasp is an irritable wasp.
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u/PR0T0C0L_ZER0 Apr 19 '26
r/mildlyinfuriating âĄď¸ People who call any yellow/ black flying insect a "bee."
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u/litritium Apr 19 '26
Perhaps a Hornet queen looking for a place to settle. Family lived country side and consistently had a queen visiting early spring. It sounded like a chopper when flying, whop-whop rather than bzzz..
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u/AMonitorDarkly Apr 19 '26
Time to one up those guys who think theyâre hard asses for drinking the worm in the tequila bottle.
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u/MaleficentTomatoes Apr 19 '26
This throws me back to last summer. I was leaving a clientâs house. Innocently walking to my car. I turn to go towards the driver side door, and out of nowhere comes a Giant Asian Hornet. It was a few inches long and had a huge wingspan, but more importantly, it was aggressive. It came at me and would not stop. I had to swing my purse at it to get it away from me, and heard an audible THUNK as it hit my purse. Horrifying.
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u/Conscious-Gap-1777 Apr 20 '26
It's a giant hornet...in your chardonay. It's two thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.
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u/Buddhafied Apr 20 '26
Alanis be like âisnt it ironicâ.
No Alanis, itâs not, thatâs not what ironic means!
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u/fu211 Apr 23 '26
Hornet and one of those nearly killed my wife last summer. Fortunately the ambulance arrived within 10 minutes. She was in IC for 2 days. She's now on a program where she's injected with venom every month - for up to 5 years...
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