I hate wasps a lot. My first encounter with a wasp was when we moved to our new home with my parents and there was one big carton-looking mud-type nest. I was pissed about it and decided to take judgment into my hands. I immediately got something to break the nest and the next thing I noticed was these flying insects stinging me very badly. I regretted ever going close to that nest that day and since then, I have had this dislike for wasps. But why do we have wasps in our world, What good are they in the ecosystem?
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Belonging to the order Hymenoptera which is made up of over 30,000 species where the social wasp is the most common amongst them as they are the species that interact with humans more. Divided into the head, thorax, and abdomen. The thorax and abdomen are joined by a tiny waist which allows it to be flexible. The head is made up of the eyes for sight, antennae which help with navigation and detection of sense, and mandibles to help feed. In the abdomen, females possess stingers that they use to protect and attack. Wasps have a color that gives warning (aposematism) to other animals.
Creating nests for wasps is a task that is done by collecting wood fibers, mixing them with saliva, and forming a sticky pulp. They then lay the paste to create cells and form a nest that can serve as a home for their larva. Although adult wasps attack insects, they carry them to their nest to feed their larva. Adult larva feed on carbohydrates from plants including nectar, and fruits. They can also feed on the sugary liquid from their larva.
Wasps can live for months but they live to reproduce, forage, and care for their larva before and after the next generation. They use their stingers to defend and attack, transferring venom (depending on the species) to their prey. Most attacks on humans are on a defensive basis just like they did to me. Wasps can remove their stingers without affecting themselves, thereby allowing them to sting more than once.
Although I do not like wasps, they are very important to the ecosystem, reducing insect populations that are pests to farm crops. Although they are not great pollinators like bees, they also help with pollination. While they can be hated and feared, they are very important in our ecosystem.
Read More
- https://lsa.umich.edu/eeb/news-events/all-news/search-news/from-salon--wasps-are-some-of-nature-s-smartest--meanest-and-mos.html
- https://sam.extension.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/05/bees-wasps.pdf
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982224003786
- https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(24)01148-5
- https://agsci.colostate.edu/agbio/ipm-pests/wasps/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/hymenoptera