There are thousands of wasp species and the overwhelming majority don't even have the ability to sting humans. You probably don't ever even notice them, despite being the most important group of pollinators in the world, because you might mistake them for bees or flies. Also, bees are wasps (and so are ants). For more wasp facts, please like and subscribe.
Whenever you see posts like this assume that the op is referencing yellow jacket waps, after I started gardening ive learned more about wasps and their part to play in my garden, yellow jacks can suck a dick though. They can go from 0 to 100 real quick and little provocation, I will choose to protect my kids over them.
California's Oxnard High School team/mascot is the Yellow Jackets. Admittedly they are badass motherfuckers, but it's a little weird in cheering because most traditional cheers assume two syllables and you wind up yelling "Go Jackets!" like some kind of radical haberdashery
Yup! Was about to type out a similar reply.
To further clarify:
Hymenoptera - order of Insecta - ants, bees, wasps, hornets
Aculeata - infraorder of Hymenoptera - bees, wasps, hornets
Apidae - family of Aculeata - bees (also bumblebees)
Vespidae - family of Aculeata - wasps, hornets
Formicidae - family of Hymenoptera - ants
Except many non-Vespidae, both living and extinct, would readily be considered wasps. Look at this thing and tell me it’s not a wasp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eusapvertic.jpg
If that’s a wasp and a yellow-jacket is a wasp, then so are ants and bees, in the same way that we are apes and birds are dinosaurs. You wouldn’t call a zoo to deal with a loose human and you wouldn’t call dr. Grant to deal with a pigeon, but biologically it makes a lot more sense to deal with ancestry then with how a species interacts with humans.
You can't argue "this looks like a wasp so it is a wasp" and then extend from that to "and because of evolutionary history, all these other things that don't look like wasps are also wasps"
Defining groups of species with a common word is always going to be ambiguous, but you need to stay consistent in what you use to define it. By the same logic you can argue that humans are fish, because whales clearly are fish if you just look at them, and whales and humans are both mammals.
Sure, but I was responding to someone who was defining wasp (the common word) based on clade (using scientific words).
I’m fine with common parlance words for things. What I had issue with was arbitrarily restricting the definition of wasp to a specific clade, which would exclude ants and bees, and also a whole host of at the very least wasp-adjacent animals which would now be stuck with no real way to describe them.
(Also, yes, fish is a rubbish scientific word. We’re far closer cousins of salmon than sharks are. By any reasonable definition of fish, at least biologically, we are fish. You could redefine “fish” in the same way we define “tree”, i.e. based on structure and not on ancestry, but by that definition whales should still be fish. The word “fish” shouldn’t be allowed within 50 metres of cladistics.)
If that’s a wasp and a yellow-jacket is a wasp, then so are ants and bees,
That logic doesn't check out, given Sapygidae is a family of sapygid wasps belonging to the Aculeata infraorder.
Aculeata is named after its defining feature, which is the modification of the ovipositor into a stinger. This trait doesn't strictly constitute a wasp, which is why they have their own families (Vespidae, Sapygidae, Pompilidae, Myrmosidae, basically all of the Chrysidoidea superfamily, etc.).
All wasps are aculeate, but not all aculeates are wasps.
Just to confirm, you don’t think of jewel wasps, spider wasps, sand wasps, and flower wasps as wasps, since they’re not part of the Vespidae, correct?
I’ve mostly seen wasps defined as basically “Apocrita but not the ones we don’t think count as wasps because there’s too many of them, specifically bees and ants.” Which leads to the same weird reasoning that would somehow make legless lizards lizards, but not snakes. I’ve seen velvet ants referred to as wasps, but not ants, even though true ants are far closer cousins to Vespidae. That just isn’t a viable scientific definition. I’m glad we’ve mostly moved on to grouping avian dinosaurs among the dinosaurs, but it feels like a lot of similar groupings are still lagging.
I’m willing to accept Vespidae as a synonym of wasps, but that excludes a ton of wasps. It also erases the very wasp-like nature of ant ancestors, which is what makes cladistics so fascinating. So why not just open it up to include all Apocrita and be done with it?
I’m also fine with a morphological definition of wasps, like how “tree” isn’t based on ancestry but on structure, but you were the one pulling in the scientific names.
Just to confirm, you don’t think of jewel wasps, spider wasps, sand wasps, and flower wasps as wasps, since they’re not part of the Vespidae, correct?
Negative, those are all considered wasps alongside Vespidae. I said "that logic doesn't check out" because what you had essentially said in that previous reply was "if wasp==wasp and wasp==wasp, then so are ants and bees", which is.. well.. false.
It also erases the very wasp-like nature of ant ancestors
That ancestry is pretty much expressed in Formicidae belonging to the Aculeata infraorder, though I do agree that putting them under some sort of vespid superfamily would be even more fitting, since ants pretty much did evolve from wasps.
Most of the time: it's more about the fact that bees are typically harmless, and calling a bee a wasp, to me, is like calling Starry, Pepsi, because they're both made by PepsiCo.
And yes, honeybees are a protected species here, meaning we'd need an apiarist to either remove the hive and capture the swarm, or officially tell us that the hive is too large to safely remove, without destroying the home.
In my experience, even the stingy ones aren't that aggressive. They get pissed if you attack them or their hive and can panick if they get stuck in hair or clothes. I usually just (slowly and gently) "push" them away with my hand if they get too close, like at 10cm/s. They usually give up and move on if they were trying to check me out, or continue on if they were passing by too close. If they are trying to get at my food or drink, they might be a bit more persistant about it, but I haven't had one get aggressive because of it.
That said, I had an ex that bugs just seemed to hate/love. Apparently house flies can bite (though I still have a feeling that she was bit by a different fly that looks like a house fly, but can't say for sure because I did see her getting harassed by bugs that just ignored me). So ymmv.
Yeah it is a majorly warped perspective, look at the size of the thumb.
Still they are big girls, here's a photo and wiki says...
The hornet has a body length of 45 mm (1+3⁄4 in), a wingspan around 75 mm (3 in), and a stinger 6 mm (1⁄4 in) long, which injects a large amount of potent venom.
I had to google it because having those guys here would be super scary. But it seems like like Asian Hornets are invasive in Europe, which are already big. The picture shows an Asian Giant Hornet, which are even bigger.
I once bought a house with two mature, fruiting pear trees. I learned to quickly pick up any pears that fell to the ground, because if I didn't, the pear juice would ferment under the skin, and become slightly alcoholic.
Then wasps would pierce the skin, drink the juice, get drunk, and then chase around anyone who entered the yard. Apparently wasps are mean drunks.
Didn't know that previously, but not surprised. Wasps are dickheads on a good day.
The less popular bee movie part 2; it's actually about wasps, who are asshole alcoholics, and instead of asking girls if they like the jazz, they start negging and groping them
Yeah I learned that besides yellow jackets, wasps can actually help a garden by keeping away pests and won't hurt anybody if you don't bother them. Really surprising seeing a wasp just totally ignore me.
We get yellow jackets in our yard every summer and I used to destroy them all on sight but I always felt so bad about taking out entire families with chemical warfare so I've switched to a live and let live strategy the last few years. They are chill and we've only had one sting in those years and I think that was just an unfortunate accident with my youngest stepping on one and pissing it off. I still have several cans of spray so if they break the treaty then I'm ready to go to war, but for now we're able to cohabitate.
Some made a nest in our gravel driveway a few years ago and were eating from the fig tree in our front yard. I borrowed a shop vac, put soapy water in it and then laid the nozzle next to the hole for an entire day. After I stopped seeing any I got boiling soapy water and poured it down the hole several times and what was left of the nest (and queen) came out. So many dead Yellowjackets!
We had yellow jackets find a whole in the wall, and dig in and burrow out the drywall. Just a thin layer of paper between them and our bedroom. Luckily noticed and got the nest cleared out before they made it inside the house
This. I have no problem with anything but the yellow jackets. Over the years, dog has been stung, I have been stung and my wife has been stung. All of us minding our own business and just got too “close.” I will burn those f@&)ers to the ground every chance I get.
Yep, surprisingly some of the biggest like the “Cicada Killer” and Bald Faced Hornets (as long as you’re not messing with their nest) are very chill around humans as long as you don’t mess with them. Yellowjackets OTOH can get fucked. Fearless and they’ll chase you in numbers if you even just step by the nest or go by it with a mower.
Iirc even the tarantula hawk is very chill and reluctant to sting people. I remember a video by coyote Peterson got stung on purpose and really had to annoy the wasp to get stung.
I agree! The mud daubers and digger wasps can look quite scary with their nipped waists, but they are quite docile. I have a bird bath, and when it’s empty they sit on the edge patiently while I fill it, then gently crawl into the periphery. They have never bothered me in the slightest
There’s a few that hang around my yard. They gobble up annoying pests and there’s one that seems to visit me deliberately. We hang out for a bit and then she goes off to her duties.
Wasps go through two dietary phases, one where they eat sugar (usually first part of the year) and second where they eat protein (usually second half) and then there's - well 99% of wasps die every year, nature starves them to death, nature is brutal.
Mr.Gardener or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wasp.
I'm irrationally fearful of wasps, like I absolutely freak out when one is near me, but I learned they eat some of the annoying fuckers that ruin my vegetables/lettuce so I learned to tolerate them lol
And then the first time you see a cicada wasp...
The sight of one of those will make you want to find a brick to drop on it, until you find out that they're completely harmless. (unless you're a cicada)
This little godfucker of a wasp is the Eastern Cicada Killer. It'll make you want to both run and hide, but yeah, completely chill towards people. The first time I saw one was in Kentucky- it was horrifying but we did a lil catch and release and it was all good from there.
I actually have had one of those in my mouth before unfortunately. I didnt know thats what it was.
I was barbecuing at a cabin in Shenandoah and it flew into my Mikes Hard Lemonade without me noticing. When I took a swig I had what felt like a large piece of wet carpet in my mouth, and then that fuckin thing was the result. Thankfully, he was extremely intoxicated from his swim and could hardly move let alone sting my mouth out of self defense or anything. I ended up mercy killing it on the assumption that being submerged in alcohol for a while had messed him up pretty badly
What I want to know is if the bumble bee is called that because of the word bumble, or if the word bumble got that meaning because of the bee......ok, so a visit to wiktionary tells me the word bumble came first, then was applied to the bee.
EDIT: Wait, it may be the other way around. bumblebee came from humbul-be and merged with Middle English bombeln humble meaning to buzz. Man, I still don't really even know.
came from humbul-be and merged with Middle English bombeln
As you've said, in both senses it's related to the sound they make. "Bumble" on its own, in the sense of clumsy, meandering movement, is probably unrelated but I guess it's plausible that it also had an influence on the mutation of "humbul" to "bumble" even if the latter was primarily about the noise.
95 Comments
protist@mander.xyz · 166 pts · 165d
There are thousands of wasp species and the overwhelming majority don't even have the ability to sting humans. You probably don't ever even notice them, despite being the most important group of pollinators in the world, because you might mistake them for bees or flies. Also, bees are wasps (and so are ants). For more wasp facts, please like and subscribe.
konalt@lemmy.world · 302 pts · 165d
FreshLight@sh.itjust.works · 54 pts · 165d
This is the only correct reply. In case you do not already have the tick version, here you go:
Hoimo@ani.social · 21 pts · 165d
This fucker coined the phrase "touch grass"
ContriteErudite@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 165d
Love it! Do you have one that comes in Spider? Or perhaps House Centipede?
purrtastic@lemmy.nz · 9 pts · 165d
Oh that’s brilliant
avg@lemmy.zip · 46 pts · 165d
Whenever you see posts like this assume that the op is referencing yellow jacket waps, after I started gardening ive learned more about wasps and their part to play in my garden, yellow jacks can suck a dick though. They can go from 0 to 100 real quick and little provocation, I will choose to protect my kids over them.
Maiq@piefed.social · 23 pts · 165d
Paper wasps are complete dicks too but I hold a specific grudge for bald faced hornets!
avg@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 165d
I honestly feel like I'd have a hard time telling them apart, I already have a hard time telling european bees from yellow jackets.
Maiq@piefed.social · 3 pts · 165d
Paper wasps are the ones with the long dangly legs. Bald faced hornets are larger and black and white.
brotundspiele@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 165d
I already liked wasps before, you don't have to sell to me. Different topic though: How do you make them do that?
caseyweederman@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 164d
You have to have a really small dick.
brotundspiele@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 164d
As I said, I was already sold.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 165d
California's Oxnard High School team/mascot is the Yellow Jackets. Admittedly they are badass motherfuckers, but it's a little weird in cheering because most traditional cheers assume two syllables and you wind up yelling "Go Jackets!" like some kind of radical haberdashery
Fmstrat@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 164d
Except comment op is wrong. Probably ChatGPT nonsense. Bees, wasps and ants are of the same family, but bees are not wasps.
almost1337@lemmy.zip · 40 pts · 165d
When you squash a wasp it releases a chemical from the wasp that attracts people who tell you facts about wasps.
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 165d
AWAB
Whostosay@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 165d
For real. Who the fuck
RavingGrob@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 23 pts · 165d
While Ants, Bees, Wasps and Hornets are all in the family Hymenoptera, it is incredibly wrong to suggest that Bees and Ants are Wasps.
They are distinct species that are related to each other.
Sincerely — a pest control technician who is incredibly tired of helping solve "bee" problems, when 99% of the time, they have a Wasp problem.
brachypelmide@lemmy.zip · 10 pts · 165d
Yup! Was about to type out a similar reply. To further clarify:
Hymenoptera - order of Insecta - ants, bees, wasps, hornets
Aculeata - infraorder of Hymenoptera - bees, wasps, hornets
Apidae - family of Aculeata - bees (also bumblebees)
Vespidae - family of Aculeata - wasps, hornets Formicidae - family of Hymenoptera - ants
edit20260227: forgot ants belong to aculeata
HeavenlySpoon@ttrpg.network · -2 pts · 165d
Except many non-Vespidae, both living and extinct, would readily be considered wasps. Look at this thing and tell me it’s not a wasp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eusapvertic.jpg If that’s a wasp and a yellow-jacket is a wasp, then so are ants and bees, in the same way that we are apes and birds are dinosaurs. You wouldn’t call a zoo to deal with a loose human and you wouldn’t call dr. Grant to deal with a pigeon, but biologically it makes a lot more sense to deal with ancestry then with how a species interacts with humans.
LwL@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 164d
You can't argue "this looks like a wasp so it is a wasp" and then extend from that to "and because of evolutionary history, all these other things that don't look like wasps are also wasps"
Defining groups of species with a common word is always going to be ambiguous, but you need to stay consistent in what you use to define it. By the same logic you can argue that humans are fish, because whales clearly are fish if you just look at them, and whales and humans are both mammals.
HeavenlySpoon@ttrpg.network · 0 pts · 164d
Sure, but I was responding to someone who was defining wasp (the common word) based on clade (using scientific words).
I’m fine with common parlance words for things. What I had issue with was arbitrarily restricting the definition of wasp to a specific clade, which would exclude ants and bees, and also a whole host of at the very least wasp-adjacent animals which would now be stuck with no real way to describe them.
(Also, yes, fish is a rubbish scientific word. We’re far closer cousins of salmon than sharks are. By any reasonable definition of fish, at least biologically, we are fish. You could redefine “fish” in the same way we define “tree”, i.e. based on structure and not on ancestry, but by that definition whales should still be fish. The word “fish” shouldn’t be allowed within 50 metres of cladistics.)
brachypelmide@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 164d
That logic doesn't check out, given Sapygidae is a family of sapygid wasps belonging to the Aculeata infraorder.
Aculeata is named after its defining feature, which is the modification of the ovipositor into a stinger. This trait doesn't strictly constitute a wasp, which is why they have their own families (Vespidae, Sapygidae, Pompilidae, Myrmosidae, basically all of the Chrysidoidea superfamily, etc.).
All wasps are aculeate, but not all aculeates are wasps.
HeavenlySpoon@ttrpg.network · 0 pts · 164d
Just to confirm, you don’t think of jewel wasps, spider wasps, sand wasps, and flower wasps as wasps, since they’re not part of the Vespidae, correct?
I’ve mostly seen wasps defined as basically “Apocrita but not the ones we don’t think count as wasps because there’s too many of them, specifically bees and ants.” Which leads to the same weird reasoning that would somehow make legless lizards lizards, but not snakes. I’ve seen velvet ants referred to as wasps, but not ants, even though true ants are far closer cousins to Vespidae. That just isn’t a viable scientific definition. I’m glad we’ve mostly moved on to grouping avian dinosaurs among the dinosaurs, but it feels like a lot of similar groupings are still lagging.
I’m willing to accept Vespidae as a synonym of wasps, but that excludes a ton of wasps. It also erases the very wasp-like nature of ant ancestors, which is what makes cladistics so fascinating. So why not just open it up to include all Apocrita and be done with it?
I’m also fine with a morphological definition of wasps, like how “tree” isn’t based on ancestry but on structure, but you were the one pulling in the scientific names.
brachypelmide@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 164d
Negative, those are all considered wasps alongside Vespidae. I said "that logic doesn't check out" because what you had essentially said in that previous reply was "if wasp==wasp and wasp==wasp, then so are ants and bees", which is.. well.. false.
That ancestry is pretty much expressed in Formicidae belonging to the Aculeata infraorder, though I do agree that putting them under some sort of vespid superfamily would be even more fitting, since ants pretty much did evolve from wasps.
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 165d
Why does it matter if you're called for a bee problem, but it's wasps? And wouldn't actual bee problems require a Bee Keeper?
RavingGrob@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 165d
Most of the time: it's more about the fact that bees are typically harmless, and calling a bee a wasp, to me, is like calling Starry, Pepsi, because they're both made by PepsiCo.
And yes, honeybees are a protected species here, meaning we'd need an apiarist to either remove the hive and capture the swarm, or officially tell us that the hive is too large to safely remove, without destroying the home.
ulterno@programming.dev · 0 pts · 164d
Yeah, because otherwise by the above logic, one could also say, "bees are humans (and so are eels)", because they all belong to the Animalia kingdom.
Oh even better, "bees are Uranus (and so are sedimentary rocks)", because all are nouns.
titanicx@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 165d
No, I will not like, or subscribe.
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 165d
Keyword detected:
You are now subscribed to Wasp Facts!
titanicx@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 165d
No!
Un subscribe!
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 165d
You’ve added a second subscription.
We hope you enjoy our newsletter of fun facts about Kim Jong Un!
ArchEngel@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 165d
Keyword detected x2:
subscribeYou are now subscribed to Yellow Jacket Facts!
titanicx@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 165d
No subscribe!
WalleyeWarrior@midwest.social · 6 pts · 165d
There are thousands of parasitic wasp species. Just because they aren't dicks to us doesn't mean they aren't dicks to us.
deacon@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 165d
Unidan?
dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 165d
You dare name one of the ancients? Specifically the Jackdaw?
Buddahriffic@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 165d
In my experience, even the stingy ones aren't that aggressive. They get pissed if you attack them or their hive and can panick if they get stuck in hair or clothes. I usually just (slowly and gently) "push" them away with my hand if they get too close, like at 10cm/s. They usually give up and move on if they were trying to check me out, or continue on if they were passing by too close. If they are trying to get at my food or drink, they might be a bit more persistant about it, but I haven't had one get aggressive because of it.
That said, I had an ex that bugs just seemed to hate/love. Apparently house flies can bite (though I still have a feeling that she was bit by a different fly that looks like a house fly, but can't say for sure because I did see her getting harassed by bugs that just ignored me). So ymmv.
MeatPilot@sh.itjust.works · 70 pts · 165d
Asian Giant Hornet: I am death destroyer of worlds.
Me: Weeping uncontrollably
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 39 pts · 165d
Jesus that's almost going from swatting to a fist fight
egrets@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 165d
They're big for sure, but there's some forced perspective in that photo. They're typically substantially smaller than your little finger.
MeatPilot@sh.itjust.works · 21 pts · 165d
Yeah it is a majorly warped perspective, look at the size of the thumb.
Still they are big girls, here's a photo and wiki says...
The hornet has a body length of 45 mm (1+3⁄4 in), a wingspan around 75 mm (3 in), and a stinger 6 mm (1⁄4 in) long, which injects a large amount of potent venom.
Asian giant hornet
Kn1ghtDigital@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 165d
TWO INCHES IS BIG ENOUGH FOR THE HIGH YIELD EXPLOSIVES
ToffeeIsForClosers@piefed.ca · 24 pts · 165d
That person would totally win in a thumb war. Don’t even try
rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works · 18 pts · 165d
Ugh, i saw one of those fuckers buzzing about in south of England. Sounded like a mini military helicopter buzzing about looking for bees to fuck up.
Reported it
egrets@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 165d
The Neighbourhood Watch will get it sorted!
(I kid -- for the unaware reader, they're invasive, they threaten native bees, and you can report sightings to the government).
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 165d
They look like they threaten native everything.
Maiq@piefed.social · 2 pts · 165d
Is the neighborhood watch where I report thieving kids and crusty jugglers?
_Cid_@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 164d
I had to google it because having those guys here would be super scary. But it seems like like Asian Hornets are invasive in Europe, which are already big. The picture shows an Asian Giant Hornet, which are even bigger.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 165d
JFC, it would take a shotgun to bring that monster down.
fireweed@lemmy.world · 52 pts · 165d
Every non-aggressive wasp species:
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 49 pts · 165d
I once bought a house with two mature, fruiting pear trees. I learned to quickly pick up any pears that fell to the ground, because if I didn't, the pear juice would ferment under the skin, and become slightly alcoholic.
Then wasps would pierce the skin, drink the juice, get drunk, and then chase around anyone who entered the yard. Apparently wasps are mean drunks.
Didn't know that previously, but not surprised. Wasps are dickheads on a good day.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 18 pts · 165d
The less popular bee movie part 2; it's actually about wasps, who are asshole alcoholics, and instead of asking girls if they like the jazz, they start negging and groping them
Broadfern@lemmy.world · 49 pts · 165d
Not wasps, but yellowjackets specifically. Irrational anger with wings, little bastards.
Love me some chill time with a mud dauber though.
starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 165d
Yeah I learned that besides yellow jackets, wasps can actually help a garden by keeping away pests and won't hurt anybody if you don't bother them. Really surprising seeing a wasp just totally ignore me.
sadie_sorceress@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 165d
We get yellow jackets in our yard every summer and I used to destroy them all on sight but I always felt so bad about taking out entire families with chemical warfare so I've switched to a live and let live strategy the last few years. They are chill and we've only had one sting in those years and I think that was just an unfortunate accident with my youngest stepping on one and pissing it off. I still have several cans of spray so if they break the treaty then I'm ready to go to war, but for now we're able to cohabitate.
Klanky@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 165d
Some made a nest in our gravel driveway a few years ago and were eating from the fig tree in our front yard. I borrowed a shop vac, put soapy water in it and then laid the nozzle next to the hole for an entire day. After I stopped seeing any I got boiling soapy water and poured it down the hole several times and what was left of the nest (and queen) came out. So many dead Yellowjackets!
jack_of_sandwich@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 165d
We had yellow jackets find a whole in the wall, and dig in and burrow out the drywall. Just a thin layer of paper between them and our bedroom. Luckily noticed and got the nest cleared out before they made it inside the house
Ajen@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 164d
And it's too easy to confuse them with paper wasps, which normally aren't aggressive.
Illogicalbit@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 165d
This. I have no problem with anything but the yellow jackets. Over the years, dog has been stung, I have been stung and my wife has been stung. All of us minding our own business and just got too “close.” I will burn those f@&)ers to the ground every chance I get.
OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works · 45 pts · 165d
Many wasp species are generally non-aggressive, and great pollinators! If they don't fuck with you, then don't fuck with them!
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 165d
Yep, surprisingly some of the biggest like the “Cicada Killer” and Bald Faced Hornets (as long as you’re not messing with their nest) are very chill around humans as long as you don’t mess with them. Yellowjackets OTOH can get fucked. Fearless and they’ll chase you in numbers if you even just step by the nest or go by it with a mower.
dewritoninja@pawb.social · 6 pts · 165d
Iirc even the tarantula hawk is very chill and reluctant to sting people. I remember a video by coyote Peterson got stung on purpose and really had to annoy the wasp to get stung.
NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 165d
I agree! The mud daubers and digger wasps can look quite scary with their nipped waists, but they are quite docile. I have a bird bath, and when it’s empty they sit on the edge patiently while I fill it, then gently crawl into the periphery. They have never bothered me in the slightest
sleepmode@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 165d
There’s a few that hang around my yard. They gobble up annoying pests and there’s one that seems to visit me deliberately. We hang out for a bit and then she goes off to her duties.
Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 164d
The ones in our yard eat all our pears, the cunts
Ourst@lemmy.sdf.org · 7 pts · 164d
LemonPear stealing whoreSpacehooks@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 164d
I think wasp get angry in autumn due to low sugar in diet which I think we can all relate.
Ourst@lemmy.sdf.org · 6 pts · 164d
Someone get them a snickers.
BanMe@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 164d
Wasps go through two dietary phases, one where they eat sugar (usually first part of the year) and second where they eat protein (usually second half) and then there's - well 99% of wasps die every year, nature starves them to death, nature is brutal.
militaryintelligence@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 165d
Those red ones can eat my wasp spray
Asafum@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 165d
Mr.Gardener or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wasp.
I'm irrationally fearful of wasps, like I absolutely freak out when one is near me, but I learned they eat some of the annoying fuckers that ruin my vegetables/lettuce so I learned to tolerate them lol
sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz · 24 pts · 165d
Nah fuck em
-this comment came from 🤌🤙Spider Gang👌👈
Kn1ghtDigital@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 165d
Fuck yeah, spiders 😎
BottleCaptain@feddit.nl · 19 pts · 165d
Bumble bee? More like stumble bee.
militaryintelligence@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 165d
Lolol amirite guys? Guys
JuliaSuraez@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 165d
The bumble bee part is so accurate. They’re basically the golden retrievers of the insect world—super fuzzy, very friendly, and zero motor skills.
mkhopper@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 165d
And then the first time you see a cicada wasp...
The sight of one of those will make you want to find a brick to drop on it, until you find out that they're completely harmless. (unless you're a cicada)
ToastedRavioli@midwest.social · 1 pts · 165d
Ive never heard it called a cicada wasp. Where Im from we just call them cicadas. Theyre more like a big ass grasshopper than a wasp
Slatlun@lemmy.ml · 18 pts · 165d
Cicada wasps are a cicada predator. In a totally normal wasp behavior they paralyze a cicada and leave it for their larva to eat.
ToastedRavioli@midwest.social · 2 pts · 165d
That makes way more sense
possumparty@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 165d
This little godfucker of a wasp is the Eastern Cicada Killer. It'll make you want to both run and hide, but yeah, completely chill towards people. The first time I saw one was in Kentucky- it was horrifying but we did a lil catch and release and it was all good from there.
ToastedRavioli@midwest.social · 2 pts · 164d
I actually have had one of those in my mouth before unfortunately. I didnt know thats what it was.
I was barbecuing at a cabin in Shenandoah and it flew into my Mikes Hard Lemonade without me noticing. When I took a swig I had what felt like a large piece of wet carpet in my mouth, and then that fuckin thing was the result. Thankfully, he was extremely intoxicated from his swim and could hardly move let alone sting my mouth out of self defense or anything. I ended up mercy killing it on the assumption that being submerged in alcohol for a while had messed him up pretty badly
KenOh@feddit.online · 17 pts · 165d
What I want to know is if the bumble bee is called that because of the word bumble, or if the word bumble got that meaning because of the bee......ok, so a visit to wiktionary tells me the word bumble came first, then was applied to the bee.
EDIT: Wait, it may be the other way around. bumblebee came from humbul-be and merged with Middle English bombeln humble meaning to buzz. Man, I still don't really even know.
Gerblat@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 165d
Honey, wake up, a new question just dropped:
Which came first, the bumble or the bee?
KenOh@feddit.online · 10 pts · 165d
Very good.
Gerblat@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 165d
Imma bee honest, that was totally unintended haha
egrets@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 165d
As you've said, in both senses it's related to the sound they make. "Bumble" on its own, in the sense of clumsy, meandering movement, is probably unrelated but I guess it's plausible that it also had an influence on the mutation of "humbul" to "bumble" even if the latter was primarily about the noise.
doingthestuff@lemy.lol · 14 pts · 165d
Carpenter bees: don't worry about these little holes in your wood framing, I'm justdestroying your home.
Me: back at you!
Dadifer@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 165d
Wasps are the F-16s of the bee world.
Urist@leminal.space · 11 pts · 164d
My local wasps don't bother me and I don't bother them. Long as you aren't close to the nest, most wasps are chill.
chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 164d
Wasps like feeding on our front door bush. My sister is terrified of them. I ignore them, they ignore me.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 158d
Until they don't.
LoremIpsumGenerator@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 164d
*Mason bee gets headache and sees numbers
Mason bee: the numbers, arrrgghhh what do they mean?