• Squirrel@thelemmy.club
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    2 years ago

    I’m fine with bugs that don’t bother me. Around my house, I’ve got a ton of red paper wasps. They’re assholes. My mere existence makes me a threat worth stinging. Same for the rest of my family. They can go fuck themselves.

    • TrousersMcPants
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      2 years ago

      Yeah I am a proponent of wasps but some of the paper wasps can be really mean. I mostly live around mud daubers and the like who are very chill and just hang out in my front yard

      • Squirrel@thelemmy.club
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        2 years ago

        Oh yeah, I’ve got mud daubers, too. They’re cool; they don’t mess with me, and I don’t mess with them. It’s really just those big, red assholes (and the occasional yellow jacket) that are problematic.

  • kat_angstrom
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    2 years ago

    I have some Goldenrod plants in the backyard where every summer a few hundred 5-banded Wasps congregate. The males mob a few plants to show themselves off, covering every leaf and branch and stem until they’re weighing the whole plant down, while the females buzz about checking out the dudes to decide who to mate with.

    I’m grateful to support that colony; they’ve been on and around the neighborhood longer than I have, and honestly, they’re pretty chill. They’re not going to attack unless you do first, and they’re pollinators.

    And for those people who view a mob of several hundred wasps on a single plant as being “gross”, just chill. They got a right to life like we do <3

    • confusedpuppy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 years ago

      I’ve never understood why people think wasps are so aggressive. At least where I live. They are curious like a bumblebee although slightly more persistent in hanging around.

      If I am eating food, I leave a bit for them just within arms reach so they feast on that rather than what I’m eating.

      They seem pretty chill if you’re willing to share your space and food with them.

      • Optional
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        2 years ago

        Do you live on Big Rock Candy Mountain or possibly heaven itself?

        Where I live the wasps are complete fucking assholes and will murder your whole family on accident because they’re such dicks. Also - do they not kill bees? They kill bees. They kill bees. They have chosen violence.

        (Yeah, wasps made an enemy for life, one who knows how to use a jar half full of gasoline. Sucks to be them, they should have thought about the consequences of their actions, but they chose poorly.)

      • Takios@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 years ago

        They seem pretty chill if you’re willing to share your space and food with them

        That sounds like extortion though.

    • Lycist
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      2 years ago

      Not a fan of wasps at all…

      However, I’ve a friend who had been absolutely MOBBED by cicada’s this year, said it was a nightmare because it was so loud.

      Sent him this image and told him he just needs to cultivate hundreds of wasps and he’ll be good next time around. :D

      • AsleepYogurt2104
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        7 months ago

        Haha that’s one way to solve a cicada problem, replace one nightmare with another! Though I’d argue hundreds of wasps might be slightly worse than the loudest cicada concert imaginable 😄 In all seriousness though, wasps are fascinating as long as they’re not nesting anywhere near you. The moment they set up camp in your garden or roof, it goes from “useful predator” to full-on crisis very fast. A single nest can house thousands of individuals and they don’t mess around when they feel threatened. Found this detailed guide on wasp and hornet nest behaviour that explains just how quickly things can escalate when a colony gets disturbed, your friend might want to reconsider the “cultivate hundreds of wasps” plan before next cicada season 😂 👉 https://jlm-traitements.fr/nids-de-guepes-et-frelons-dans-le-pas-de-calais-62-dangers-signes-dalerte-et-destruction-securisee/

  • Prunebutt@slrpnk.net
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    2 years ago

    On the old site™️, they once shared a video of how someone killed a whole nest of wasps with gasoline. I commented how that was unnecessary animal cruelty (even illegal in Germany) and got downvoted into oblivion.

    • Optional
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      2 years ago

      Hey, the option of being stung multiple times by aggressive dickheads who absolutely have to nest outside your door is always on the table. Enjoy. Be forewarned though: they’ll sting you multiple times and it hurts like a motherfucker.

      If they don’t want to be killed instantly they can nest 500 yards in that direction and no one will be the wiser. But they don’t.

      • Starya67
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        7 months ago

        I had a nest above the door for years and was only stung once, when I picked up a broom with a wasp on the handle.

        They’re easily distracted with a piece of ham or bacon when they’re bothering you when you eat outside, by the way.

  • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
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    2 years ago

    Maybe i am just naïve but cant we just breed a fuckton of bumble and other more friendly bees to release around neighborhoods so to suppress wasp populations around humans.

    Do wasps carry a role that cant be done by a different pollinator?

    I get that we should strive for maximum bio diversity but the wasps where i live will literally land and crawl over your face. I can just about hold my breath and handle that, my kid cannot.

    • Berttheduck@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      Wasps usually kill other bugs. So you might end up with more of the biting bugs without them.

      • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
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        2 years ago

        TIL wasps kill spiders, (i looked it up). They are now my best friends. Wasps everywhere please. Genocide the spiders!!!

        Wait then were gonna get mosquitoes……

        I am starting to feel like maybe we should just let nature alone because it knows best… NAH, now that would be silly /s

    • TrousersMcPants
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      2 years ago

      Considering we’re already just killing off native bee populations anyway, probably not

    • blackris@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 years ago

      That is lovely. Ticks are far worse then wasps. Thanks for the info.

      Can’t they also start to annoy ticks and fly around their faces?

  • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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    2 years ago

    Never had issues with them. I’ve even picked them up from the pool with bare hands and they still wont sting.

  • Klear@sh.itjust.works
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    2 years ago

    Finally a good fucking take on wasps. I never understood the hate they keep getting.