People have long harbored ambivalent feelings toward the honey bee, Apis mellifera. While its ability to provide economically valuable products and services for people has long inspired admiration, or apiphilia, its ability to inflict pain with venomous stings has equally elicited some degree of fear, or apiphobia. In contrast, although bees are in many ways similar to wasps, no similar ambivalence appears to exist toward wasps; the word spheksophilia, or "love of wasps," for example, is effectively absent from common parlance. Why people seem to love bees and hate wasps (particularly yellowjackets and hornets) is a source of concern for entomologists, given the (broadly unrecognized) importance of these wasps in providing valuable ecosystem services, including pollination. Improving public perceptions of wasps, however, remains a daunting challenge, even among entomologists.