Is the venom that bees and wasps carry produce inside the sting, or is the sting only a delivery system of the venom? Also, is it true that bees and wasps have different ph's of their venom, as in ones acidic and ones alkaline? (simply curious as i heard a person say you could technically neutralize one with the other, which i know is probably feasible but would be highly impractical)

I wonder if anybody can help me with answers to a few insect questions. About six weeks ago my wife and I noticed flying insects repeatedly entering and leaving a hole in our slabbed footpath (see Photo one). This was next to were the old root system of a monkey puzzle tree used to be until I removed it 20 years ago. Both my wife and I were convinced that they were bees (see photo 2 & 3) but having rung the pest control were told that they could not be because they don’t nest in the ground. About 2 week ago we then noticed a new insect entering and leaving the hole at the same time as the first (see photo 4). This seems to resemble a hover fly but with orange antennae which now also swarms in some numbers around hole and, while obviously wary of the first insect, seems to enter the hole with relative impunity. My Questions are therefore – 1) Can anybody confirm the identity of the first insect? 2) Can anybody confirm the identity of the Second insect and what is it doing in the hole with insect 1? 3) If insect is a bee, do I need to be concerned for my children seeing as recently a beekeeper was stung to death not far from where we live in Leicester, UK?

I wonder if anybody can help me with answers to a few insect questions. About six weeks ago my wife and I noticed flying insects repeatedly entering and leaving a hole in our slabbed footpath (see Photo one). This was next to were the old root system of a monkey puzzle tree used to be until I removed it 20 years ago. Both my wife and I were convinced that they were bees (see photo 2 & 3) but having rung the pest control were told that they could not be because they don’t nest in the ground. About 2 week ago we then noticed a new insect entering and leaving the hole at the same time as the first (see photo 4). This seems to resemble a hover fly but with orange antennae which now also swarms in some numbers around hole and, while obviously wary of the first insect, seems to enter the hole with relative impunity. My Questions are therefore – 1) Can anybody confirm the identity of the first insect? 2) Can anybody confirm the identity of the Second insect and what is it doing in the hole with insect 1? 3) If insect is a bee, do I need to be concerned for my children seeing as recently a beekeeper was stung to death not far from where we live in Leicester, UK?

On a trip to Belize, Central America in 2004 I found the three pictured wasps sitting completely immobile for several minutes. They were each about five centimetres long.

I later showed the picture to some people in a local village and they told me they were Strangler Wasps, that I was very lucky not to get stung because their venom constricts your throat, sometimes killing young children. I saw first hand how upset the people of the village got when one came around, they grabbed sticks, chased the creature down and killed it.

A quick web search for the term 'strangler wasp' brings up nothing.

I've always wanted to know, because we had one in our shed!

Having found a wasps next at the end of my garden, I did a little research and discovered that a nest starts with just one queen, and is abandoned once it has produced the next generation of queens, never to be used again. Which got me thinking about how much energy was expended during this cycle.

As a wasp sting is an alkali and a nettle sting is an acid could you treat a wasp sting by wiping a nettle on the exact spot?

We've just got back from a holiday in Corfu where we were plagued by wasps when we were eating. The waiters used to burn ground coffee in a receptacle because some of them believed the smoke kept the wasps away. We weren't sure but on Bank Holday Monday we had a BBQ with friends and being plagued by wasps we lit some ground coffee and the wasps disappeared!  Is it simply that the wasps don't like the smoke and burning anyhting will do (the coffee takes a long time to burn so worked really well) or is it something specific in the coffee smoke that affects the wasps?  Is there a better solution for keeping wasps away?