In my neck of the woods, we have paper wasps, yellow jackets, bell hornets, and what most folks here call a Japanese hornet, but is, in fact, the European hornet. They will knock your socks off......... In all the years I have fed hummingbirds, I've never been stung by either a yellow jacket or bell hornet when they were feeding. At the nest is a different story, but they are not aggressive at all at a food source. The European hornet is aggressive all the time. Around here they seem to especially like tree sap, and when you walk by within 3-4 feet you are in acquisition range. They really hurt.
I've let the yellow jackets and bell hornets crawl on my hands when fooling with a hummingbird feeder, but learned my lesson quickly with a European hornet. You have to kill them to change their mind........
I've let the yellow jackets and bell hornets crawl on my hands when fooling with a hummingbird feeder, but learned my lesson quickly with a European hornet. You have to kill them to change their mind........