Yesterday I showed you a photo shoot with a sexy wasp I found on my balcony and today I was reading some fun facts about wasps. Do you want to see what I learnt?
Image by @ruth-girl
Almost 100,000 species in the world
Diversity in their world is vast!
It is a woman's world
In the world of wasps the female is in charge, whether we are talking about a social or a solitary species. In social species, the queen will signal the building of a new colony from the non-fertile workers in spring and then she will start laying her eggs.
Only the girls sting
Females are the only ones with stings that are meant to protect the nest and the queen.
Not all of them sting
I must say I carry the misconception that wasps are bad, painfully stinging flying little devils. It seems though that they are really misunderstood creatures. Not all species sting.
Unlike bees, wasps can sting again and again
Most bees leave their sting inside their "victim" after an attack. Wasps are not at all like that, they can sting repeatedly.
A house of paper
Wasps build their nests with chewed and spewed wood. With their strong mandibles, they chop off pieces of wood, chew and turn it into a pulp which is used as a building material for their nest. Of course they can complement their constructions with mud or other plant secretions like resin.
The biggest wasps can reach up to 5 cm
The largest wasps in the world are:
1. Asian giant hornet with a venom that can, in rare cases, kill causing cardiac arrest or anaphylactic shock.
Image from: wikipedia.org - Author: NUMBER7isBEST - License: CC BY-SA 4.0
and 2. Megascolia procer from Indonesia that has a wingspan of 11,6 cm.
Image from: wikipedia.org - Author: Notafly - License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Most wasps are solitary species
Whereas yellowjackets and hornets (the most commonly known species) are eusocial, most wasps are solitary and depend on a lonely queen who builds her nest and lays her eggs alone. After having been fertilized, the lonely wasp will build her nest and provide her offsprings with food. It is not uncommon to nest close by to other nests, but still minding their own home or even build a big communal nest, where each wasp has her own "appartment" to care for.
Solitary wasps are little flying Aliens on earth
Most solitary wasp species are parasitoids. This means that mothers lay their eggs on or even inside the body of host insects. And just like the Alien in Scott's movie, those little larvae kill their "surrogate mother" in the end. It is also possible that a wasp might invade another insect's nest to lay her eggs and use the poor landlord as dinner for her babies.
Adult vegans vs young meat-eaters
While an adult wasp can rely on nectar to cover for their nutritional needs, young wasps are carnivorous and eat small insects their parents bring them. Mothers might forage for food repeatedly or simply stock food in their nest to last for a longer period of time.
Mommy can decide the sex
Females have the ability to determine whether they are giving birth to a male or female based on a haplodiploid system. This means that diploid females come from a fertilized egg whereas haploid males come from an unfertilized egg. The mother that carries stored sperm inside her gets to decide whether she is releasing it upon laying an egg or not. (If you are interested in learning more about sex differences you can check out @alexander.alexis' series)
We need them
A vital circle in the food chain, wasps play a major role in pollination and pest population control.
Image by @ruth-girl
Do you have any other cool wasp facts to share?
Go on, the reply button is down there 😉
References
wikipedia.org
nationalgeographic.com
justfunfacts.com
coolkidfacts.com
Thank you so much for your time!
Until my next post,
Steem on and keep smiling, people!
Fun wasp fact: All wasp facts increase my innate fear of wasps :0
I'm sorry to put all this extra stress on you. Perhaps you could discuss this with @abigail-dantes (just don't mention anything about spiders to her).
:p
θυμάμαι όταν πήγαινα Δημοτικό(πριν 50 χρόνια),είχε κάτσει μια σφήκα στο σάντουιτς και δεν την είχα δει. Στην πρώτη δαγκωνιά μου ήρθε μια ξινίλα... από τότε την τρώω μόνο καραμελωμένη :P
ahahahahha
Ahahahaha!
Δεν παιζεσαι!
Αχαχαχα.
Θεος!
Nice fact collection! :)
Thanks ;)
I hate them ... where I find them destroy them.
I learned various interests from your post, thank you.
I respect them for being parts of the food chain, but I try to avoid them too. My grandpa used to set fire on their nests they built around our house...
I follow the same tactic in early morning, as your grandpa.
Wow! Never knew that wasps can sting repeatedly. I've always thought they are like the bees that just sting once and dies.
Thanks for sharing.
P.S: The statement "it's a woman's world" sounded like wasps are feminists :)
I thought so too up until recently...
I think that insects like bees, ants and wasps where the queen rules are examples of matriarchy in nature. I like to believe that both males and females are of equal worth, but it seems like someone has to be in charge. Sometimes it's a he and others it's a she...
Thanks for reading @samminator! :)
Sure; you're quite correct ma'am :)
Wasps like alcohol. Couple of years ago I had a fight with wasps in my country house. I made traps for wasps. I used fruits and sugar in one trap as a bait. In another trap I used beer. Trap for wasps with beer was more successful.
I made traps according to this pattern:
I made my contribution to the story of the wasps: Wasp or spider? Who will win?
Thanks, I just read your post ;)
Wow! That's interesting, why would alcohol attract them more than sugar? We just destroyed their nests using a stick with some cotton dipped in rubbing alcohol on one end, we set the cotton on fire and burn them down, but these wasps made their nests outside, in the garden shed or around the house, so it was easier to get rid of them...
Wasps are alcoholics. What is happening to this world? 😉
θυμάστε που μας λέγανε να φωνάζουμε ξου ξου ξου ξινό;
δε πιάνει
Ναι! Ποτε δεν επιανε...
Εμείς λέγαμε: Ξύδι! Ξύδι! Ξύδι!
Here is a fun fact.
Wasps are motherfuckers.
While there's nothing needless in nature, the harm wasps can do, outweighs the benefits. I kill them on sight.
I can't open the file now, I'm on a new computer and still haven't set office, sorry. But yes, some of them are bad! I bring their nests down too and kill them if I have too...
Good! :D
We actually have hundreds of them living literally next door so every time we get out of home, they always salute us!
Never been stung, hopefully they are from the species that do not sting.
(Would you happen to know if the ones we have in Greece sting or not?)
I admit I have come to somehow respect them ... 100.000 species? Wow!
Haplodiploidy!? Double Wow! [This I have so share with some friends!!!!]
Yes, I have another fact to share .. they can have sex anywhere, even on the hood of a car
Just be careful. I am not sure if we we have the stinging type in Greece, but better safe than sorry ;)
Girl, that NSFW video was awesome, it seems like they should be called hornyts instead of hornets :P
I just couln't help it.
Hehe, it is a girl power world :P
I never knew most of this about wasps. They are a lot like bees. We have a lot around our house. They are the stinging kind and I am sad to say we spray for them. With the kids we have to. They chase the kids it is really bad.
In this case you need to care for your safety. My parents and grandparents always destroyed the nests we found around the house too.
I have old windows I am making into picture frames, this summer, and they are building nests in there. I sprayed once, but I need to do it again :(
Oh! Now that spring is here they are a pain in the butt...
Yes they are :(
Congratulations for your work!
Thank you! It seems that you're lucky to have these harmless neighbors. You don't have to chase them away ;)
Yesterdays visit was a perfect chance for scientific article!
And a well written one!
Yes! That girl was the perfect opportunity to combine hobbies with knowledge. Thank you! :)
Truth is I was admiring the bookeh on your photos that I got carried away :)
Are you using a macro lens or just the boring stock lens? Wonderful pictures.
Hehe! It's the 18-55 that came with the camera.
This is really the world were the female gender rules. The unfertilized egg equals to a male. "Unfertilized".. I can't stop laughing. Nature is quite amazing.. It is a wonderful piece @ruth-girl
Yeah! So basically, if you think about it, wasps are all males until their mum decides to turn them to females! :P
Thank you @whileponderin!
Wow! That Asian hornet is ridiculously big and scary. How many times can that one sting?
It is! Monstrous I'd say the least...
Well, it didn't say anything about that, I guess the stings are unlimited just like with other wasps.
Another interesting post @ruth-girl, thank you very much!
I was pretty amazed by the fact that they can chop off pieces of wood and turn it into building material. Makes me think how wasps, and all sorts of living creatures in general, might be way more intelligent than we can possibly imagine.
Alright, the Megascolia procer is freaking terrifying!
Runs away
Take care :)
Animals are pretty resourceful, admirably resourceful to be more precise.
Run, Forest! Run! :P
I am the only one who have had a nightmare with a giant wasp chasing me?
I really don't like these insects and I was terrified of them when little.
There is a guy on youtube who always upload videos getting attacked by the worst insect and sometimes animals (like a turtle haha), here he is getting attacked by the worst wasp there is:
The attack is around the 14:30s mark.
I have always been afraid of them, but growing older I just learnt not to panic every time I saw one. Are you still afraid of them?
I know this guy, actually I think @trumpman had this video in one of his posts. He is crazy! I don't think I'd do such thing...
Not anymore, but I would still freak out if I sense one of those chasing me.
Yep, the guy from youtube is extreme he even once got bitten by an alligator turtle (but with protection)
Cool! Now I know more about wasps
I'm more interested in sea creatures recently though. Still, good to know. 👍
Thanks for taking a read @artgirl! :)
Oh you're welcome.
The venom in wasps contains a pheromone that causes other wasps to become more aggressive. Try not to swat one near its nest or other wasps.
The sting of a wasp should wear off within 24 hours but for a small minority of people the venom in their sting causes anaphylactic shock which can be fatal...
I've heard of this in my country. I thought it was a sort of old wives tale.
These are interesting, thank you!
Hola amigo muy bueno tu post un poco de aprendisaje me dejo saludos desde venezuela
Hola. No hablar espanol, perdoname...