Here’s an article on how wasps and probably also some social bees can do that and also use it to recognize nestmates!



And while I’d imagine your face is probably not the only thing they’re going by, yes, wasps can absolutely be “tamed!” There’s a niche hobby around keeping social paper wasps as pets, and if you feed the foundress by hand she’ll quickly be conditioned to associate humans, especially that particular human, with food rather than as a threat. Subsequently all her offspring will be more docile because they’re following her lead.



Some actually collect a new nest and bring it indoors in a whole screened or glass enclosure while others just “tame” the ones on their property. It’s just kinda sad that with most social wasps the foundress only lives one year max and the rest only weeks at a time so people have to start over every spring.



An upside is that they leave you with a beautiful paper nest to keep.

