PHOTO PROVIDED Shown is a mud wasp nest filled with insects before it was opened.

One day last week I heard Mary Alice yelling for me to come quickly. Naturally I listened and went to her rescue. I saw a large wasp crawling on her sleeve and when I tried to knock it off, the wasp fell on her arm and she was stung.

What I heard next was, “This is the last time I’m going to call you for help.”

This is the time of the year when the bees and wasps are seen flying everywhere. With everyone spending more time outside, there will certainly be more encounters with wasps and bees. Many people become alarmed if a bee or wasp fly near, because they fear their painful stings.

Only a few of the 35,000 species of bees and wasps can inflict a sting painful to us. Many stinging species — such as honeybees, bumblebees, yellow jackets, paper wasps and many ants — live together in colonies. Their stings and bites are mostly used to obtain prey and defend themselves and their colonies.

However most bees and wasps live a more solitary lifestyle and do not aggressively attack intruders. Solitary wasps, such as mud-daubers, cicada-killers and potter wasps, use venom from their stings to paralyze an insect or spider that will be fed to their young. A person is rarely stung but if stung, it is usually not too painful since the venom is more suited for paralyzing their insect prey than causing pain to humans.

In contrast, the stinging wasps inject venom with powerful pain-causing agents into their victims. A sting can vary from a brief swelling of the immediate area of the sting to a more severe and potentially fatal, allergic response involving the entire body.

The solitary wasps differ from the social wasps in that they have two sexes. Each female builds her own nest and provides food for her young. There is no co-operation among solitary wasps. The social wasps, which are known for their stinging, are born into a community with the young staying in the nest to help with future broods.

The solitary female wasp, known as a blue mud dauber, can be identified by her shiny black body and wings. In the spring, she will be seen gathering mud for her nest. This mud is mixed with her saliva and formed into a ball that she carries to the nest site. Each nest consists of several tubular cells that she makes by placing ring upon ring of mud. The nest top will remain open.

After the nest is completed, she flies away in search of spiders. Now, this is tricky business for the blue dauber because, if becoming entangled in a spider’s web, she will become the spider’s meal. However, if a spider is found, the female stings it with enough venom to paralyze the arachnid.

She then carries the spider back to her mud nest, where it is placed inside, and off she goes in search of another spider. If the female were to inject too much venom into the spider, the spider would die, decompose and become useless as food for the young. Once the mud cell is full the female lays an egg in the cell and seals the nest. After the egg hatches, the larva feeds upon the paralyzed spiders; undergoes pupation and finally chews out of the mud nest as a winged adult. There is a black and yellow mud dauber that also builds these mud nests; however, the female builds several cells parallel to the first nest.

The life of a social wasp is much different.

These social wasps build the large-grey paper nests seen hanging from trees, etc. The white-faced hornet and the yellow jacket are considered to be the first original papermakers. The paper is made by chewing wood and mixing it with their saliva. A colony of hornets begins in the spring by a single female that has hibernated over the winter months.

After coming out of hibernation the first thing she does is to look for a place to build a nest. She then makes a few paper cells and deposits an egg in each cell. After the eggs hatch, the larvae are fed insects that the female has chewed up into a paste. The larvae pupate and emerge as adult workers. It takes ten days to go from an egg to an adult.

From this point on, the female’s only chore is to lay eggs. The workers enlarge the nest and feed the larvae as they hatch from the eggs. The adult wasps live mainly upon fruit and flower nectar, however the larvae are fed morsels of insects. To feed a larva, a worker taps it on the head, causing the larva to give off a drop of sweet liquid, which is quickly lapped up by the worker.

So have a good summer but stay clear of the stinging insects.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.