Spiders aren't insects of course, but jumping spiders have always seemed sentient to me - they appear to notice and even take an interest in humans, whereas other spiders apparently do not. They use their pedipalps to communicate with one another; if you put your face near to a jumping spider and place your hands either side of your face to mimic the look and actions of the spider's pedipalps, it will respond to you.

One hornet (or wasp, or ant) might not be very intelligent, but get a whole lot of them together in a nest or hive working together and acting to all intents and purposes as a single entity and suddenly you have an animal with a lot of neurons.

I've seen hornets catch large flies in mid-air, sting them and then fly away with them, presumably back to the nest to be eaten (I've also seen a hornet neatly snip a square of chicken skin about two inches square with its mandibles from a discarded takeaway). I've never found them to be in the slightest bit aggressive unless provoked, unlike wasps: I see them as being like men in bars - wasps are like the men who feel the need to act aggressively in the hope nobody will start a fight with them, whereas hornets are like krav maga instructors - they have no need to act aggressively, because if anyone starts anything they can end it in an instant.

@Stupidity's reply is interesting, since there's no suggestion that their son acted aggressively towards the hornets. I wonder if perhaps he smells like a predator to them and so sets off their defensive instinct?

i had a couple wasps living in the wall, There was a crack between some boards in the window frame by my bed.Many mornings I would wake up with my face about a foot away from their tiny alien looking faces peeking out between that crack and staring at me. I just stared back and was never stung

Even plants are aware of our intentions.

All life deserves respect even if you eat it. a wolf is no more important than an oak tree or a jellyfish or in fact an ant. everything eats something that is or used to be alive but you don't have to abuse any life at all. humans seem to have missed all this by completely raping the planet and doing what they like with nature.

That is interesting. My son always gets stung by hornets, I was stung once when he was a baby because I noticed him getting stung and had to defend him. I ended up poisoning the nests because they just couldn't leave him alone. I felt terrible having to do it, but they would constantly attack him, and I wanted him to be able to be outside in our yard. I wonder if this year they will leave him alone now that he is older, maybe a young child is more of a threat to them. They never bothered me, and I've been gardening for 20 years professionally, but for some reason they target him.

great observation!

i have a small band of paperwasps dwelling on a star yasmine on my deck. originally i decided to move them on, i.e. to cut their five little "dormitories" off the vine, but as they never warned me, even when i was hanging washing just inches from their nests, i just left them be. i can stand with my nose almost in their abodes & watch them ... they just watch back

My reward for making peace with the hornets..a FLY-FREE summer!