Editor’s Note: At first glance this article might seem irrelevant to Australian readers. Mary mentions bumblebees, which we have in Tasmania but not on mainland Australia (the Big Island). Mary also talks about ‘yellowjackets’ which is a term many Australians would not be familiar with, but yellowjackets are a term widely used overseas for European wasps, which now exist in abundance in Australia and in Tasmania. (Yes, I know, Tasmania is part of Australia.) The subtle difference is that Mary talks about Vespula vulgaris, whereas in Australia (and New Zealand) we have Vespula germanica. Both species are commonly called European wasps.

'Them's wasps,' stated a confident father to his brood of children looking at the Observation Hive during the Horse Show this year. I was so flabbergasted that I almost failed to correct this egregious misidentification, but it had to be done. I could see that the children were quite confused: here was their father telling them these Dark Irish Bees were wasps - and here was this beekeeper they had never met before, telling them that these were bees. Whom should they believe?

Like many colleagues, in the summer I have been called on to identify insec