the closest i can come to these are as stated. but, one is much bigger than my field guide states at 7/8". lets see how my pics turned out...oh, i had at least three. the others may have been that small. very active on my oregano and cilantro and with what looked like cricket hunters, as well.

these brown ones would always go to another brown one adn they would fly all around each other before settling down.

this one shows the large one next to the normal sized one.

surprisingly they aren't too fuzzy although they are small.

when they start flying more actively like those pictured above, and i was unsure, i just backed off a few steps. normally, i am right in there with the bumblebees. hoverflies are no threat but they look similar to bees and could be mistaken. there are others that look similar to honey bees, i am not sure if all those that i thought were honeys were. again, a little extra active and i back off. usually it is b/c i have my face right in a squash blossom looking at them.

are they less active in the evening for you? early morning?

Unless you have experience that you attract angry wasps, like I do, do not worry about it. I often go out to my mint, where I can have 5-10 different wasps and bees buzzing around. I stand within 2 feet, take pictures of them, and they happily go about their business.

The blue black wasps are either steel blue cricket hunters, and there is one other wasp that looks blue black.