Bees are usually rather mild insects unless you rile them (had a neighbor who was a beekeeper when I was a boy). If you leave them alone they will leave you alone. Additionally, they only get one shot at you because to sting something means their death -- it rips the stinger from their abdomen.

Yellow yackets, on the other hand, are little kamikaze assassins. If they don't like you they will hunt you down, then sting you over and over again -- just for the fun of it, it seems. Most people see the yellow striped abdomen and think BEE! when in reality it's a yellow jacket (a little mongrel wasp on steroids).

If any of you get the nature channel, have you ever seen the show about the HUGE bees in Japan? Those things are like four inches long and two or three stings carry enough poison to kill a child or small woman. Four or five stings is enough to kill anyone. A sting is supposed to feel like a gunshot. That would not be a fun thing to run into while riding on the back-roads in Japan![:@]

 

I think you might be talking about the asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia japonica). Those things are nasty, but the longest they get is about 45 mm (1.8 inches). The stinger is about 1/4" long, and has been described as feeling like a nail driven through its victim. The queen can reach 55 mm (2.2 inches). I would hate to meet up with any bee that is 4 inches long! [sm=escape.gif]