Yay came here for this. I was all excited to start a couple of beehives in my back yard. Then I discovered their lineage and what they're doing to the native bees. Instead I realized I am hosting tons of huge ass bumblebees in my yard, and I'll just let them be(e). Maybe get some of those bee houses for solitary bees instead.

I remember watching a video from a physicist who failed her pilot's license exam because she explained that and the modern theories of how airplane flight works instead of the old wingspan, weight, speed, and air density over the wings model.

Needless to say, she took the test again, gave the answer they wanted, and the video was about her building a plane out of wood about a month after she finished the launch of her Mach 2.1 capable model rocket.

Bastards

When I was a teenager, I grew up in the country so we had wasps everywhere. I hated them. One morning in the summer I was dead asleep--until I was awakened by a wasp that stung me in the fucking neck. So this asshole had to fly into my room decide to land on me, probably crawl around a bit and then decide "Fuck this guy right here NNNNNNG". I was so goddamn angry and confused. I had to get up and tend to the sting because I swell like a moteherfucker. However, being a lazy teenager, I went back to bed. I woke up about 10 minutes later because I then felt it CRAWLING ON ME AGAIN. I was so fucking furious, I just monkey pounded it into a million little pieces with my fists in the mattress.

Fuck wasps, I spent many years capturing them, holding them with tweezers and slowly cooking them over a candle. Not sorry.

Astonishing how often I see someone start swatting at a paper wasp when it gets curious.

The fuck? It's like a dog smelling you, but that dog has a stinger. You don't swat at the fucking thing. You chill out and act real casual. Maybe pretend you didn't even notice it. What wasp? I didn't see any wasps. Now check my back so we can get our asses inside.

Wasps are pollinators too 🥺

European honey bees are an invasive species in a lot of places. They're actually part of the problem because they are imported for our use and crowd out the native bees.

Yellow jackets are generalist predators. As long as they aren't making a nest somewhere real close to where you want to be, they are good at killing a whole lot of pests.

This is also not at all comprehensive. There are many thousands of species of wasps and native bees. Not to mention all the yellow stripy flies that mimic wasps.

Careful making friends in the garden princess.

You can (very, very carefully!) pet the top of their thorax when they're not flying, such as when preoccupied with feeding at a flower, although as TheTechnician27 outlined, it's probably not good for them. Better is if you can find one that's struggling to fly (semi-common this time of year, when things are still warming up) and then you can warm the little guy in your hands if they're cold or chauffeur them from flower to flower if they're hungry. Often this will help them regain the strength to keep flying, but sometimes they never do; I assume in these cases they're dying, but at least I gave them some hospice care. It's very strange to deposit a struggling bee on a flower, watch it feed, and then see it wiggle its little feet in the air like it's calling the magic carpet back for another lift.

Bumblebees are pretty gentle, and whereas I used to be extremely scared of bees (and especially bumblebees because of their size), I find them adorable to observe up-close now that I've gotten over my fear.

However, the question I would ask regarding petting is: why? When I pet a household dog or a cat, it's ideally because I think it comforts them, and at worst (if they're mildly annoyed and I don't realize), it's never going to harm them.

For the bee, though, it's probably strictly uncomfortable for them to have a being 50,000 times their size come up and start putting pressure on them. (Bees can distinguish noxious stimuli, but they do still respond somewhat to regular tactile stimulation; see p.3.)

Their wings and legs are fragile, and it's not like they can't be accidentally provoked into stinging you. If they're just minding their own business, it's really best to leave them alone, because at best you're not comforting them, and at worst you're physically harming them.

TL;DR: Bumblebees are really cool, but just treat them like you'd treat other wild animals that don't want to be touched; that you can get so close to them and watch is already a blessing.

Definitely, I boop them all the time in the spring when they are swarming the flowers.

Five minutes is a long time when something hurts like a mf.

when i was about 10, i was climbing on the picnic pavilion at the park. I had got to the roof and went to get down by holding the edge of the roof and rolling/flipping off of it. I got a firm grasp of paper wasp nest with one hand and halfway through my flip down, i felt the stings. Let go and fell flat on my back in the mulch then booked it home faster than ive ever run.

Went down a metal slide once and a swarm of them came out of one of the top poles. Swarmed my throat and stung me several times there. Survived, but it was horrible.