Bees are like carpenters, they carry a knife but you’re not worried they might stab you for no reason.
Wasps are like meth heads.
you leave them alone and they’ll leave you alone.
If only that were true.
Libs say that about everything and it’s never true.
Huh?
Nah thats bees. Wasps are angry bastards who will attack with no provocation.
Shitty wasps like Yellow Jackets give almost all the other wasps a bad reputation. Yellow Jackets are mean and spiteful, even when they aren’t protecting their nest.
Most other eusocial wasps are pretty docile, unless you mess with their nest or really go out of your way to harass them.
In many parts of the world, like my own, there are far more species of solitary wasps than eusocial wasps. Solitary wasps are nearly all non-aggressive, they don’t have communal nests to defend, and they basically don’t have time to fuck around with stinging shit because they are too busy building a chamber for their eggs, collecting food for their upcoming progeny, and trying to stay fed and hydrated while doing it.
So what I’m getting at is that most wasps I encounter on a regular basis are pretty chill. Really, this goes for bees as well. Most of the ones I see on a regular basis are solitary types and non-aggressive. The most aggressive bees I tend to encounter are male carpenter bees. They are highly territorial and they’ll even buzz a human to scare them off. However, there’s no threat. Male bees and wasps cannot sting, they do not even have stingers.
The most aggressive bees I tend to encounter are male carpenter bees. They are highly territorial and they’ll even buzz a human to scare them off. However, there’s no threat.
No threat of stinging, anyway. They will absolutely wreak havoc on a wood framed house.
bzzzzbzzzBZZZZZ
Yes, sir, I see you. I see your little pile of sawdust on the fence, too. No, I’m not going to screw with it. I’m just installing this gate latch."
bzzzbzbbzbbzbzbzbzbzzzzz
This would go a lot faster if I didn’t have to keep ducking.
BZZZZZZ
Okay, I’m done, jeez.
BZZZZZzzzbzzzzbzzzz
…aaaaand under the fascia board it goes. Shit.
As far as I’m aware, it’s the females that dig the holes in wood as a nesting chamber, not the males. So I don’t think the males are even a thread to a wood framed house.
The females wouldn’t be a threat either if the males could just learn to keep it in their pantsTechnically correct is the best kind of correct.
We have paper wasps around here. They bump you before they sting you. Like “hey bump we got a nest here bump stay away bump” I’ve only been stung when I was shaking something out next to a nest and they saw it as aggressive + too close.
Yep, lots of bees and wasps do this because they don’t actually want to sting defensively if it can be avoided, so they are merely trying to intimidate a potential threat. Unfortunately, it’s very common for people to panic and behave erratically in response, and that tends to make the critters feel like they are in danger, so they do end up stinging. It basically becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Ok, fine, educate me, what do wasps contribute to the environment?
People who post shit like this are being intentionally obtuse and provocative. “Wasp” is a big tent classification, and what everyone else thinks of are a few specific creatures.
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant;
Vast majority of things that are “wasps” don’t bite/sting and many are important pollinators.
The bitey stingy ones? Fuck em.
As someone who has a live and let live attitude towards most insects…when I got swarmed by ground wasps while weeding out my garden I had no mercy for them after. Aggressive doesn’t even describe how pissed they get.
It was the first time I didn’t feel bad about using insecticide. So yeah, the hyper aggressive, stinging ones can fuck right off.
I’ve found the best thing to use against wasps is diatomaceous earth. It’s non-toxic, and just very tiny silicate animals that get into their joints. It kills the entire nest and not much else around it.
That’s what they used when the wasps were in my siding and stinging me in my bed at night.
Oh that’s a great idea! I didn’t know diatomaceous earth worked on wasps.
I’ve used it to keep ticks and fleas out of the lawn area my dogs play in, and to get rid of ants.
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to dump it on the wasps, I guess I just thought they were too big? Doesn’t it work by puncturing their exoskeleton and basically sucking all their fluids out?(I could be misinformed on that)
Either way I’ll go that route if I run into that issue again! Then I don’t have to worry about contaminated areas of my lawn.
Thank you for the tip!!!
They eat the things that eat the things you eat.
(e.g. aphids, caterpillars and mfcking thrips and leaf miners)
PS: ok just one more: if bees are the plant matchmakers, wasps are broad spectrum pest exterminators.
Yeah… well the also eat my peaches and plums. So they eat my food, and that just ain’t cool. On top of that they set up shop by my front door and then sting me for just walking into MY house where I was letting them make a little room of their own. Not no more. Them bitchass mfers are back in hell where they belong, and my world is much better since I opened that portal for them.
yea, ok, we got rid of our peaches anyway, it wasn’t that bad :D but yea, keep boundaries, ok.
… they eat me?
Not unless you are already dead 😁 they like carrion too.
Many wasp species, while not considered pollinators, still transport pollen and pollinate plants. Others hunt pest insects. There are also many species that are vital as prey for birds
Figs.
That’s only some types of figs and one type of tiny wasp. Most figs we eat are virgin fruit.
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Sounds like massive human bias at play. Any source?
Ticks can eat shit and die too
sources?
Don’t bats eat mosquitos?
There are fish which are eating the larvae and also adult mosquitos.
They don’t feed exclusively on mosquito larvae/eggs. They can easily switch to another source.
Of course nature doesn’t owe us safety. That’s why it’s up to us to ensure our own safety by killing it with fire.
More wasp propaganda. Nature does not owe me safety. My house siding is NOT NATURE. I WILL REVEL IN THEIR DEATH THROES.
I will not stand for this Pro wasp propaganda!
What about ticks?
Yeah, fuck ticks and wasps
No, wasps are fine and help deal with invasive species, you just have to not bother them. Ticks on the other hand are bad for everyone involved and deserve to be dropped into a tornado of bleach. If that seems weirdly specific, it’s because some scientists did that, then wrote a paper encouraging others to drop ticks into bleach tornadoes.
That was just so they could study the microbiome in the tick’s gut without the bacteria on it’s surface contaminating the sample.
Stupid question.
Could a wasp be bred/altered to not have a sting, or at best not have a sting that can penetrate human skin? It’s akin to domestication, but we selectively breed wasps to not be such cunts.
You’re thinking of bees. Also iirc wasps used to be the only way to pollinate certain figs, and considering the popularity of figs through history, someone probably attempted this.
isnt this like just like, wasp eugenics
I’m all for it.
I’m unashamedly a vespidaephobic eugenicist.
fuck it why not
Kill them with fire!
The commenters, right?
Yeah of course
Well I got downvoted (I assume not by you) for asking, so yeah I guess that confirms how many in the comments section are kind of shitty.
I stopped being scared of wasps after learning how to read their body language. Quiet buzzing and relaxed wings = calm, whereas loud buzzing and raised wings = mad. Plus, as long as you’re not allergic, a sting is just temporary pain, which definitely isn’t worth taking their life. Wasps are literally just animals, and we should be kind to them.
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I haven’t killed a wasp in years. And that was only because it was building a nest inside my storm door just above eye level. Surprised the shit out of me because I barely saw the nest in the dark, struggled to change focus, and jumped back once I realized what I was seeing. Was not a fun encounter. It’s like, buddy, nobody was gonna be happy with that arrangement.
I gotta kill a wasp nest soon (my bros, paper wasps) because they’re on the balcony and I’m trying to sell my house. Anyone know of a way to relocate them instead? No, I don’t have a bee suit. I feel bad too because I’ve seen a bunch of abandoned nests around the outside while cleaning my house, in perfectly acceptable places, but out in the open so they probably got prayed on and now they’re safe behind the fake shutters. 😭
listen, i didn’t ask to be born with a functional aversion to isopods and insects in general, ok.
I didn’t want this shit, but i got it anyway.
They didn’t want you either, but here you are.
im pretty sure the insects don’t care, they keep showing up in my room and i keep killing them.
Pest control guy killed the wasps on my balcony without asking :/ I don’t even use the balcony, they were just chillin. Now theres just a pile of corpses
yeah, nature does not owe you safety, which is why i kill wasps on sight because I’m part of nature. get fucked, wasps, we all know you’re just fascist bees.
