Bees and Wasps

If you’re like me, you don’t look close at insects that can sting,
But some are worse than others, so it’s not a minor thing
To know what kind you face. Compared with bees, the wasps are meaner,
Since wasps survive to sting again. Their bods, I’ll note, are leaner,
As well as smooth and shiny, while the bees are rather hairy.
Bees’ hind legs, being flat, support a “basket” that can carry
Their pollen stores. In flight, those legs become quite hard to see.
The wasp’s hind legs hang down in flight. The stinger of the bee
Is barbed. Both types of insects go for sweet stuff such as nectar,
But bees alone are apt to serve as pollinating vectors.
At least the wasps, insectivores, control the populations
Of caterpillars, crickets, flies, and other botherations.
The wasps make different kinds of nests; the bees, of course, make hives.
(Antarctica’s the continent where neither insect thrives.)
And finally, it’s only bees who ever make us honey.
If someone sells the wasp-made kind, I hope they’re being funny.