So you don’t like wasps!
Hello friend! Yes, yes don’t worry, we’ve heard it all before. We know we wasps have an image problem! It’s a sunny afternoon. You’re enjoying a picnic or a cold drink in the garden when you hear it—the unmistakable, unnerving buzz. One of us arrives, hovering a little too close for comfort. Your first instinct? Panic. Swatting. The immediate label: pest!
But we wasps are just misunderstood insects. We are a very vital part of ecosystems and without us those ecosystems would be in great peril. We just want to set the record straight - we are friends not foes and we mean no harm! Well - mostly.
Read more below!
Wasps are ecosystem controllers.
We wasps are the balancers and controllers of our ecosystems. We manage population numbers to ensure diversity. For just about every arthropod species, there is at least one species of wasps that ensures populations remain in balance. Without us wasps, one of those arthropod species would just take over and dominate at the expense of everybody else. We make sure that order prevails! Check out this beautiful Hairy Blue Flower Wasp , for example, she keeps some of the beetles in check. The Ichneumon wasps make sure that caterpillars don’t take over your food crops and the Pompilid wasp make sure that spiders put off their bid for world conquest.
Scolidae wasp
Wasp are essential pollinators
Our furry cousins, the bees, take the all limelight as pollinators. They have a much bigger PR team than we do! We wasps have been around for 100s of millions of years longer than bees and we are also essential pollinators.
Did you know that for every species of fig, there is a particular wasp species that pollinates the flowers?
We are the gardeners’ friends
We don’t mean to brag, but every paper wasp nest will reduce the caterpillars in your veggie patch by dozens every season. That’s a lot of lettuce we saved for you to eat! As for those those aphids and the other little suckers - they are gourmet snacks for some of our larvae! And all without a drop of pesticide!
The original recyclers
So back to that picnic that we weren’t actually invited to - just think of us as the cleanup crew. That bit of discarded fruit, the unwanted piece of sausage? No problem - we will clean it up. And believe us, it’s better we do it than some of the less desirable recyclers. Without mentioning names, there are some guys you don’t want around your food waste!
You’re welcome.
Nature’s architects
Look, we don’t mean to brag but some of our architects could give human engineers a run for their money. Check out the precision when our girls construct the tessellating hexagons of a paper wasps nest. And our mud daubers have structural engineering down pat - stresses and load bearing calculus are just an intrinsic part of what they do every day. They weave strands of grass into the mud structure, so it stands strong even when they are building a 50-apartment complex!
“Wasps - the gardeners’ best friend”
“Wasps - nature’s recyclers since forever!”
“Wasps - precision engineers millions of years before the MIT was a thing”