If you've been outside lately, chances are you've seen them — small flying insects that resemble sweat bees. In fact, you may have actually called them sweat bees. But in reality, you're most likely encountering hover flies.

"A hover fly is a kind of true fly that has only one pair of wings. They can be bee mimics, which is the reason why everybody confuses them with bees and little wasps and things," explains Kristie Reddick, entomologist and half of the duo who make up The Bug Chicks, a Cincinnati-based insect education team. "A lot of them are stripey, but they have these big, big eyes that look very different from bees, and they have short, tiny, little antennae, where bees have longer antennae."

Another big difference is that they don't have stingers, she says, so they're not going

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