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