For real though, aggressive wasp species give the chill species a bad name. It’s like being mad at bumblebees because Asian giant hornets exist.
Yellow jackets for example are definitely unpleasant: they buzz you when you try to eat outdoors, don’t get the message to move on when swatted at, and constantly carry an attitude of “come at me bro.” However my local species of paper wasp (I live in the Pacific Northwest of the US) is crazy chill and very conflict avoidant: they don’t buzz or chase humans, don’t show interest in human food or garbage, and will get out of your way if disturbed (assuming you’re not attacking their home)
In fact, we actively attract paper wasps to our garden by planting western yarrow, and even have plans to erect a wasp box for them to safely make a home in (no I’m not joking). Why? Because in addition to being peaceful members of our garden ecosystem–alongside butterflies, ladybugs, frogs, salamanders, birds, and other critters–they are dedicated hunters of garden pests such as cabbage white caterpillars. As someone who grows a lot of kale for its year-round hardiness, I cannot express how much I appreciate wasps’ dutiful patrol of our brassicas and other crops. And if you can get a population to establish themselves near your garden they will indeed be dutiful in scouting out pests.
It took me a while to shake off my all-wasps-are-bastards attitude toward them, but I really cannot express how much paper wasps have become garden bros, and it makes me sad to see my bros vilified.
I vote for more people effectively making “pet insect box” of species that hunt down pests
There’s assorted companies that sell parasitic wasps as pest control.
Spalding sells theirs as “fly predators”; they basically look like tiny gnats but lay their eggs in fly pupa. They work great.
The only “irrational fear” I have that I know of is of wasps, but your example is exactly how I came to appreciating wasps, cabbage moth caterpillars and all lol
We don’t see too many paper wasps where I am, so I had to accept that the yellow jackets in my garden cared more about the caterpillars than me and I thankfully hadn’t gotten stung or chased the whole time I had that garden. I had to move and now the real pest I have to fight are deer, scumbag deer… Destroy your garden and your car, some even in the same day lol
I like your style
Yup same for the wasps from where I live. The only time I swat them away, is if they get near my food, or my ear.
Paper wasps in the southwest are chill too. A wasp box is a neat idea, ty!
Look into fig wasps. I dare you.
Wasps are also pollinators and are just as vital to the ecosystems they live in as bees and other native insects.
I’ve killed 5 nests in last 30 days. The can be so aggressive.
Humans: “Give wasps a chance!”
Wasps: “Fuck humans. Fuck them all. Over and over. With your ass spikes. Bonus points if you take out an eye.”
Wasps: "Fuck humans. Fuck them all.
I mean, they have a point.
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Only some wasp is nasty. There’s a huge amount of species of them that’s very important to the ecology, not aggressive, and also am pollinator. Fig wasp, for example, is crucial for pollinate fig and isn’t nasty at all.
Until they’ve had a drink. A few glasses of that fermented fig juice and they think they’re all Bald Faced Hornets.
In know your comment isn’t serious but do you know how wasps pollinate figs?
It’s pretty cool, the fig is actually a load of flowers pointing in towards the middle of what we think of as the “fruit”. Each variety of fig has a specific species of female wasp that burrows in and then lays its eggs inside. The male larvae hatch first, fertilise the female larvae, burrow out and die. The females then hatch, use the burrows to exit and fly off to find a new fig. The female wasps fertilise the figs in this process. Some wasps end up trapped inside the fig and get partially dissolved by an enzyme…
Some commercial varieties have been bred to fertilise themselves but in the wild the figs don’t ripen without the wasps.
https://www.foodunfolded.com/article/figs-wasps-how-plant-and-pollinator-work-together
Yea, and yes :). We had a large old fig tree in SW France. It was fascinating and I swear they did get drunk (but not, in all, honesty that fighty).
To be fair those may have been normal wasps eating the figs and not the type that normally fertilise it? We have a few apple trees in our garden and wasps definitely get pretty dopey when they are eating overripe apples…
Wasps don’t give a fuck about you; don’t walk up to their nests and slap them and you’ll be fine. They’re defensive creatures rather than aggressive.
They also serve as excellent pest control. I tend to just leave them be unless they build a nest near a door that would be problematic.
Hornets, on the other hand, are indeed aggressive and can indeed go fuck themselves.
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Wasps don’t give a fuck about you; don’t walk up to their nests and slap them and you’ll be fine. They’re defensive creatures rather than aggressive.
You clearly have never encountered a yellowjacket, let alone lived your whole life in a country where yellowjackets are (at least seemingly) 99.999% of all the wasps.
I can count on one hand, two at most, how many of the times being stung by a yellowjacket was my own fault for bothering it and the total number of times I’ve been stung is hundreds if not thousands.
Hornets are my bros, they’re super chill here and all they do is hunt wasps.
No but seriously, no hornet has ever given a fuck about me or my food. And whenever one rocks up, all the wasps are suddenly gone and hiding, it’s hilarious.
On behalf of spheksophobes everywhere, thank you for your heroic efforts! 🫡
Plus, I believe the vast majority of wasps are solitary and non-swarming (someone can probably fact check me on this), and thus not as aggressive as the species people typically think about which are just trying to protect their nest. I have plenty of wasps around my yard and I’ve never been stung by a single one.
I believe the vast majority of wasps are solitary and non-swarming (someone can probably fact check me on this), and thus not as aggressive as the species people typically think about
Varies a LOT depending on geographical location. As far as I’ve gathered, almost all of the wasps in the American Pacific Northwest are the totally chill kind, whereas here in Denmark, 99.999% are the flying terrorists known as yellowjackets.
My two most notable encounters with yellow jackets (here we call them European wasps or Vespula Germanica) went pretty much like this:
oh shit, there’s a wasp buzzing around on my path. Act cool, don’t show your fear, just move on and nothing will happen
Wasp: stings
You bitch, just go extinct already
In my experience, most wasps are okay.
Yellow jackets are straight up sadistic assholes however.
It really seems to make a difference what time of year it is. End of the summer they’re just waiting to die and do not give a single fuck and will sting you for no reason sometimes.
I had one fly in my mouth once
That’s one of the worst nightmares I could come up with, if given the task…
How did it end?
I opened wide, held my breath and let her find her way out
Yeah that sounds like the wasps we have here in Germany. Bastards, all of them, zero redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Me: Swinging at wasp with a fly swatter.
Wasp: “You don’t scare me. In fact, I’m going to pretend you’re not even here. La La La! I can’t see you!”
Me: Standing there minding my own business while a wasp flies into me.
Wasp: “THIS MEANS WAR MOTHERFUCKER!! I’M GONNA RAIN HELL DOWN ON YOU THE LIKES OF WHICH YOU’VE NEVER SEEN!!!”
Me: Standing there minding my own business while a wasp flies into me.
Wasp: Aaaand I took that personally
They do eat mosquitos, so that’s cool.
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I know not of who you speak, but have you considered that it’s mosquitoes making accounts to defend themselves?
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Whut no they don’t. Not that I’m anti wasp I’m actually in the pro wasp group. Of course I don’t want a nest in my house or something but I don’t mind them being just around in general in my flower patches
I just googled it. Is short not as a main food source… occasionally, when there is nothing else to eat… so not around humans. Dammit.
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Adult wasps drink nectar from flowers but don’t turn it into honey. They feed their young by laying eggs inside prey.
This is pretty awesome when it comes to tomato horn worms.
No. Nonono. Kill them. All of them. I won’t have it. And don’t try to convince me with your pollinator shit. I won’t have it. This is personal. Every one if those erratic stinging motherfuckers shall die.
There’s a huge number of different species of wasp, which vary greatly in size. The smallest wasps are the smallest known insects; they’re literally smaller than a millimeter. With many of them, you wouldn’t know they were wasps if you didn’t have a microscope.
In addition to pollinating, many wasps either eat or parasitize other insects. Yellowjackets will hunt horse flies, and there’s assorted wasps that are sold to farmers to control various pests…
Edgy
Username checks out?
More ragey
I love the memes of animals using keyboards.
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Wasps could learn to love wasp killer fluid if they gave it a chance.
I wouldn’t even know if I’m allergic to wasp or bee stings.
Wasps don’t attack me. Occasionally they do fly around me. Sometimes one steals a tiny piece of my cake or so. But after a short time they all leave, doing their wasp business elsewhere.
But never do they sting me. Maybe they are not provoked by me. Or maybe I’m a wasp whisperer. :)
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I now live in a climate with HUGE roaches.
I grew up in a climate where they were rare. I never saw a roach in-person until I was in my 20s.
For the first year in my current apartment, it was rare for me to see a roach. Maybe an odd one every once in a while.
Now, I get multiple every time it rains. Which sucks on its own. But, they’ve all taken to the same habit of crawling up the back of my couch and staring at me 3 inches away from my face to say hello.
When this happens, I transcend beyond fear and anger and enter a blackout rampage mode. Move all my furniture. Couch cushions. Hunting until I’m absolutely certain that every single one of them is dead.
I’ve bought drain covers. I’ve bought roach traps. I’ve cleaned my house top-to-bottom. I’ve checked the seals on my door and windows. They’re nowhere in sight on a dry day, but every time it rains, they’re fucking back.
It’s genuinely starting to fuck with my head, because whenever I see peripheral movement out of the corner of my eye in my apartment, I think it’s a roach. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. Are those a pair of little antennae poking out from behind my couch, or am I imagining it? I don’t know until I’ve done yet another sweep.
It’s harder to fall asleep. I keep having brief bouts of imagination wbere bugs are crawling and swarming all over me. I constantly do visual sweeps of my apartment. I can feel my stress level rising on rainy days. I feel like I’m losing my mind.
I fucking hate roaches.
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I love everything else about island life.
Except the fucking roaches.
I’m getting some cats this weekend and I hope they “help” my problem.
Be prepared to find parts of roaches scattered around your house. I took to putting my pants up a bit so that my cat won’t leave a partially eaten roach body in my jeans as a present.
Roach whisperer, I’m pretty sure it isn’t a useless super power. It mustn’t be.
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I almost feel bad for the roach
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*wasperer
No wasps, no figs.
Fig wasps are friendly non-stinging little boogers. I think we’re talking about the nasty guys, like yellow jackets, bald faced hornets, paper wasps, murder wasps, etc…
I’d still trade wood for figs, I figure
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