Wasps get me all the time! Ugh. Sorry to hear you got stung.

Thanks Becky, worst thing is it chased me all around the daylily bed after stinging me (twice), back to the house and followed me through the porch door! One had chased me a few days before but I thought it was because I was weeding too near the nest in the ground by the house foundation, so I kept what I thought was a discreet distance back yesterday. Apparently not far enough. Definitely bees and not wasps, a bit smaller than a bumble bee but larger than a sweat bee and surprisingly aggressive.

Oooh ... African Killer bees, maybe? YIKES! They are extremely aggressive!

I have honey bees and bumble bees and some other bees here. I've never once been stung or even chased by any of them. But I come too close to a wasp and they go right for me! I strongly dislike wasps. And they eat my butterfly caterpillars. Which is why I raise some caterpillars every year in cages to be released once they become butterflies.

I only saw what I believe to be African Killer bees once. I was actually getting into my car and was putting the key in the ignition and looking out the front window when I noticed a swarm of bees. I slammed my car door. I mean they swarmed my car for about 10 minutes before finally leaving. And I could actually hear that buzzing sound they make through my rolled up car windows. It actually scared me!

I have heard they are often found in swarms, but not always. And they can breed with non-aggressive bees and that is really unfortunate. We certainly don't need more aggressive bees.

Be careful, Sue!

It does seem unusual for a bee to become so aggressive as to chase someone out of the garden and to actually sting. Still, I don't think african "killer bees" have made it as far north as Canada or would attack one at a time.
It would be interesting to know what kind of bee it actually was.

No "killer bees" haven't made it this far. I don't know what kind of bee it was (definitely not a honey bee) but I've been chased and stung before when inadvertently weeding too near a bees' nest in the ground. They aren't at all aggressive when foraging though, it's a nest thing although this particular one was unusually combative since all I did was stand there looking at a daylily nearby, and then start walking away.

Sue, I am so sorry to hear about the bee sting! I thank my lucky stars that I have never been stung by a bee before (and yet I'm seriously considering having a bee hive some day) but I don't imagine it feels too good.

I hear about the killer bees some years ago and notion of regular bees breeding with the killer bees makes me cringe something fierce. We can always hope that it diminishes the aggression of the killer bees, instead of the reverse...

If the bees are nesting in the ground, it may be yellow jackets:

https://www.gardeners.com/how-...

They can also be very aggressive if you are too close to their nest.

Dnd I'm not sure if I've been stung by a honey bee, unless that was what got me once when I was a teenager. I assume it would be worse since their stinger is barbed and they can only sting once then die leaving the stinger in you. Bumble bees can sting more than once because their stinger is not barbed, and this one did. This one seemed a little smaller than a "regular" bumble bee but the same body shape. I can't try and ID it because it got vacuumed. I think they must have put the nest there because it is close to 'Bee's Bettie Sue' I wanted to go look at the flowers on that one today but decided against it.

Definitely not a yellow jacket, Becky, but I absolutely share your aversion to them.