To be fair, the only thing they’re useful for is to make medical products to help with wasp stings, so it’s still a net negative.
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Enjoy your meme, but as a biologist with a background in pollination ecology I have to call BS.
Also, @Mister44, many a wasp species aren’t. But some are, particularly. And they are really cool. Even the name of the family is cool: Pompilidae.
ETA: Oi, @Lexicat!
Adoring BBS Constituents: Oh, thank you! There wasn’t enough pedantry in this thread!
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“What’s in a name? That which we call Arachnida by any other name would taste as sweet.”
~ Winston Churchill, on the occasion of the two hundred twenty-third Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake
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It’s parasites all the way down. Much like politics.
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The turducken of the parasite world.
Box of wasps, welp, that’s my gift shopping sorted out.
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I can help you out…
No no, come the summer, I’ll probably be good for a wasp supply.
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Tired: Can of worms
Wired: Can of wasps
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Would it pass if we narrow it down from “wasps” to “yellowjackets?” Because there are some really cool wasps, but yellowjackets are all assholes.
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I’m not sure what you understand by this term. I’ve seen this used in US-centric discussions for some invasive wasp species, exclusively. Also seen it used only for the genus Vespula, native to the Americas or not.
Wikipedia has another take.
(Biologists, remember? Scientific names come with their own problems, but vernacular names are driving biologists nuts sometimes.)
Either way, they are ecologically important. If they would be missing from one day to the other, you would miss them within weeks.
Exponentially growing populations of plant parasites, midges and mosquitos would see to that.
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Yes, Vespula and a handful of other morphologically-similar species. Generally, robust-bodied, yellow-and-black, aggressive wasps with fairly potent venom.
They are aggressive and territorial. I’ve encountered a lot of venomous and otherwise dangerous animals in my wanderings, and none are as pissy and aggressive as yellowjackets.
I’m skeptical of their ecological importance for 2 reasons: 1. my understanding is that few of these species are polinators; and 2. they are just as aggressive with local honeybees, and will carry out fatal attacks in their territory. We are decidedly short on honeybees.
I’ve witnessed #2 in person, with below-ground nesting yellowjackets attacking and killing honeybees in flight, in front of my eyes. Did I mention they’re aggressive?
In conclusion, I cordially invite all yellowjackets to perform their ecological niche elsewhere.
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Oh Christ, recursive parasites.
It’s probably parasites all the way down.
This is not going to end well.
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Just very shortly, since I got no time:
- is a usual misconception, as is the idea that honeybees are “good” pollinators;
- you’ve seen them prey on honeybees, which are large and dangerous to wasps - imagine what they do to smaller, less dangerous prey. Or rather, how many incidents of wasps feeding on other insects you don’t see.
I really think you would miss them soon enough.
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That depends. Have you eaten any cabbage recently?
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And if we’re talking paper wasps (more elongated than these yellow jackets), they straight up eat the eggs of cabbage moths and tomato hornworms as well as the baby hornworms themselves. One time in my garden I was reaching out to remove a hornworm, and a paper wasp buzzed my ear. Before I could involuntarily recoil, the wasp had flown down the length of my arm and grabbed the worm. That put me in awe of the intelligence of paper wasps.
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I’ve long given up on raising tomatoes but remember finding hornworms when I did try. If only the paper wasps went after the deer and whistle pigs in the same manner then my garden would be all set!
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He could have waited a month and a few would still be alive, living off the corpses of all the others.
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In the absence of paper wasps, BT is organic and will absolutely work on all kinds of lopers and hornworms. It can be overpriced based on brand but you can find identical ingredients from companies with lower ad/design budgets on the same store shelves. I got a deal on powdered BT as part of OSH’s going out of business sale, but liquid is easier to get over the whole plant than the powder. Spray especially under the leaves which is where the eggs are laid. (If you ever see a moth perched on a leaf, it is likely tucking its abdomen underneath to deposit them.)
To clarify though, BT will not work on deer or whistle pigs.
EDIT: BT is sold as BT if you ask for it. But it stands for Bacillus thuringiensis - also sold as “caterpillar killer.”
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BT? De-acronymize please? Thanks.
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