Insect and Spider Identification: bee wasp hornet?, 1 by welcomehome

welcomehome wrote:
There's a lot of these in a tree across the street from my house. I don't know what they are, they look like they're about 2 inches? They just keep flying in and out of the tree.

Are they dangerous enough that they'll attack someone walking past or standing close by? The tree is behind a fence on a sidewalk. They don't look that big in the photo, but I thought they were carpenter bees at a distance.

I live in north east Jersey, outside NYC.

This message was edited Sep 23, 2012 12:40 PM