There have been studies that prove wasps (paper wasps, Polistes fuscatus specifically) and honeybees can recognize human faces. Other wasps and bees likely can as well, it was just Polistes fuscatus that was studied more closely.
If you’re a dick to them, they’ll remember that.
If you’re nice to them, they’ll remember that as well.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/12/111202-wasps-people-faces-recognition-insects-science-animals/
Yellowjackets seem to have some ability to do it as well; my parents purposely started leaving out dishes of jam and cut up fruit for a massive underground nest they had no possible hope of eradicating (cabin in the middle of nowhere, no exterminators in the area, and as best they could guess they’d have to dig up the entire garden to get it all). Their aim was mostly to keep the hornets away from the areas people often ate or drank because any time food or sweet drinks were out, the hornets came over to basically hijack everything. Even then, any time people came out to eat, they went over to the table they set up near the garden to put out a mini-picnic for the hornets as well, which did pretty well at keeping them from harassing the people who were about 20 feet away.
The secondary aim was to hopefully get the big ol’ colony to realize they weren’t trying to start trouble after my dad got swarmed into the lake a few times for getting too close to a nest entrance he didn’t even know was there.
After a few weeks of that, the hornets were pretty chill about people and my parents were able to figure out where the nest entrances were and just how much of the garden had tons and tons and tons of yellowjackets underneath it so they could move the plants somewhere else in the yard.
The colony is still there years later and probably larger now, the garden was mostly moved, and they still put food out for the hornets; about the only things that fight with the hornets now are oriels, who also want to eat the jelly and fruit and even they’ve sort of learned to share.
They’re wary of but not aggressive toward new people giving them food but seem to sort of generally recognize people in general is, “They give us food, it’s probably cool.”
The nest entrances have been marked with staked red flags too so nobody accidentally gets too close.
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