Does anyone know how fast a wasp can fly?

[Vorpal]

Maybe it had the wind in it's wings?

I met one this morning (or maybe it was a bee. I didn't take names) when it hit me, just above the opening of my jersey, and, in it's confusion flew in.

It hit me hard enough that it hurt (I thought initially I'd been stung, but quickly realised it didn't hurt that much).

I'd a job to get it out of my jersey without either of us getting hurt, and whilst still controlling the bike

[Mick F]

Insect speeds are an interesting subject.

In my early youth, I used to own an inherited old (1930s/40s I think) book which, in all seriousness, included a list of various animal world maximum speeds, with at the top: Deer Botfly - 818 mph.

Even at a very young age I thought the claim was preposterous and must have been a misprint. But this wasn't a misprint at all, and there is an odd story behind how the error ended up being believed (or rather disseminated) by some publishers.

Wish I'd kept that book.....

Thanks for that link.
Excellent bit of info.

[Greystoke]

For info, at the time referred to in the original post there was a slight ahead crosswind. Phone said 5kmh, so barely noticeable.

[pete75]

Speed over the ground and air speed are two different things. A wasp with a flying speed of 6 mph will have a speed over ground of around 21 mph with a 15 mph wind behind it because it's flying in air already moving at 15 mph. It's like swimming in a river at say 2 mph. With a 1 mph current you'd be travelling at 3 mph relative to the bank but only 1 mph relative against the current. In both instances your speed through the water would be 2 mph.

[Clipper_2018]

A wasp's maximum speed is Mach-W 1.0

[Brucey]

one thing I meant to mention earlier is that most flying insects use the elastic nature of their thorax structure to set up a resonance with their wingbeats, which makes the difference between efficient flight or not. The penalty is that the wingbeats are only really efficient at a certain speed, hence you can often associate a certain pitch of the buzzing sound with a certain type of insect, in normal flight.

Sometimes insects are said to 'buzz angrily'; this is not an illusion. Under duress, many insects will beat their wings a bit faster (and be able to fly a bit faster too) for a short period of time, figuring that survival trumps a temporary drop in efficiency.

cheers

[MikeF]

From experience I can say that they can fly at 60 mph as there was one on the coach I came back from London on and it was flying around trying to get out.

The Einstein effect! Position of observer is important.

[hemo]

Average flying speed for wasps and bees in still air is approx. 15mph, it is said this is a laden weight and unladen can be up to 20 mph.

99.9 % encountered will be female workers with a sting, males don't forage for the good of the colony only for themselves. In wasps males are only produced just before new queens are produced in late summer - early Autumn. Male species are stingless in bees and wasps, there production/existence is purely for the role of mating and colony perpetuation.

Wasp and most bees have a barbless sting so can sting often, only the honey bee has a barb and it's sting along with venom sac/muscles remain attached and keep pumping so need scraping immediately from the skin by a finger nail.