Paper wasps have a unique perspective of “provoked.”
I was tired so I just decided to land and rest on your head. Why are you provoking me?
I was building a nest in the only door you use to come in and out of your house. When you tried to leave, I flew directly into your path and basically body checked you. Why are you provoking me?
Yeah, those wasps are assholes, just not quite as much of assholes as yellow jackets. Weirdly enough, I’ve been stung by everything on this list that is capable of doing so including bumble bees. Bees hate me and I hate them, but I still refrain from killing them because we need them around.
I always avoid killing bees but I am terrified of wasps. I grew up getting stung by these fuckers constantly. That’s how I found out I’m allergic.
They’re extremely aggressive and live in giant nests together. If you kill one, it releases pheromones or something that signals to the others and they swarm. I would beg my parents to do something about them because they made life absolutely miserable, but they had this weird fatalist attitude about them like “the wasps were here long before we were. They’ll be here long after.”
Realized as an adult that decoy paper wasps nests are very cheap and work surprisingly well as a repellent. You can also just use a brown paper sack. Could have saved myself from some very traumatic encounters if I had known that sooner.
I love bumblebees so much. Just saw a couple flying in 70km/h wind gusts today. So stupid. So graceful
Dirt Daubers do not build nests in the ground. They build single solitary cells one at a time. Sometimes on top to each other but often in separate places. They do not live in the nests - they just lay larvae and a dead bug inside for those who come after.
I have them all over my garage. I have accepted that something will live in the eaves and they are the least aggressive to humans. They are territorial and they will keep the other “wasps” away.
I can literally scrape their nests off and throw them out in front of them.
Absolutely zero parental instincts.
Honey bees don’t actually “need help the most”, they’re widely kept for honey production. Solitary wasps (of which there are many species) are much more endangered. Not yellowjackets, though, fuck those guys.
Yellow jackets are generalist predators. As long as they aren’t making a nest somewhere real close to where you want to be, they are good at killing a whole lot of pests.
It was just a little joke really, I’m not going to war with yellow jackets or anything, but one did sting me for no reason once, so tensions do remain high between our cultures.
I have an arrangement with the spiders (although the Toilet Compacts got violated by a spider what crawled on my drying off towel last week, the bastard) and if you need some spiders to go to war I can send some to your aid
Spiders are quite a mercurial ally, their individuality renders agreements reached through collective bargaining to be seen really more as guidelines than a permenent arrangement. Still, in my experience, if you treat them fairly, they respond in kind. My relationship with them has been quite strong since I rescued a big one that fell in the bath and attended one of their bake sales.
One fell in your bath? That’s a violation of the Toilet Compacts oh your gods what is this world coming to do no spiders honor interspecies accords anymore
I think it was meant as in ‘we need to build them hives and stuff’ who knows. Definitely don’t need much help, those guys
They’re pretty dumb. They drown in my bird bath constantly.
This is also not at all comprehensive. There are many thousands of species of wasps and native bees. Not to mention all the yellow stripy flies that mimic wasps.
European honey bees are an invasive species in a lot of places. They’re actually part of the problem because they are imported for our use and crowd out the native bees.
Yeah, to me all of these scream “Run tf away, go inside and don’t come back out until tomorrow.” (I am deafly afraid of bees)
Some countries have honey bee colonies that turn agressive. But normal honey bees, the ones in the picture, are usually homies that won’t sting unless seriously agitated. And unlike those fucking wasps they don’t repeatedly put themselves in a position to be agitated. As a kid I used to be obsessed with insects. I’ve been stung by bees and wasps multiple times. Every time a bee stung me it was my fault, I tried to catch them so I could see them better, often thinking it was one of those hover flies pretending to be a bee. Wasps however have repeatedly stung me because they’re assholes. And way more often they’ve almost stung me because they’re assholes. Bumblebees are extremely chill, they usually just let me do whatever, although I also tended to leave then alone.
Wasps are chill, if you don’t try to kill them and don’t feed them sugar.
Observed one eating my bread last year in a street coffee. They can eat surprisingly much in a equally surprising short time.
This would be welcome on [email protected] (which sorely needs content)!
Wait I can PET BUMBLEBEES?!
Bumblebees are pretty gentle, and whereas I used to be extremely scared of bees (and especially bumblebees because of their size), I find them adorable to observe up-close now that I’ve gotten over my fear.
However, the question I would ask regarding petting is: why? When I pet a household dog or a cat, it’s ideally because I think it comforts them, and at worst (if they’re mildly annoyed and I don’t realize), it’s never going to harm them.
For the bee, though, it’s probably strictly uncomfortable for them to have a being 50,000 times their size come up and start putting pressure on them. (Bumblebees can distinguish noxious stimuli, but they do still respond somewhat to regular tactile stimulation; see p.3.)
Their wings and legs are fragile, and it’s not like they can’t be accidentally provoked into stinging you. If they’re just minding their own business, it’s really best to leave them alone, because at best you’re not comforting them, and at worst you’re physically harming them.
TL;DR: Bumblebees are really cool, but just treat them like you’d treat other wild animals that don’t want to be touched; that you can get so close to them and watch is already a blessing.
That’s a really well argued paragraph. But have you considered: why pet shaped if not for petting?
(Jokes aside though. Point taken. But there’s nothing you can say to keep me from talking to them in baby talk from now on when I’m out gardening amongst them. Who’s a big stripey boy? Yes you are, aren’t you? :))
I let one crawl on my finger and it just chilled there for minutes :3
When I was in school they used to land on my glasses and then crawl between my glasses and my eyes. I changed deodorants and it stopped but like, have you ever wondered if you were cool enough to not get stung in the eye hole? I do not wonder that.
It was that old spice that tastes like lemonade what attracted the bees, if you wondered.
Dude stop drinking deodorant
bumbles
You can (very, very carefully!) pet the top of their thorax when they’re not flying, such as when preoccupied with feeding at a flower, although as TheTechnician27 outlined, it’s probably not good for them. Better is if you can find one that’s struggling to fly (semi-common this time of year, when things are still warming up) and then you can warm the little guy in your hands if they’re cold or chauffeur them from flower to flower if they’re hungry. Often this will help them regain the strength to keep flying, but sometimes they never do; I assume in these cases they’re dying, but at least I gave them some hospice care. It’s very strange to deposit a struggling bee on a flower, watch it feed, and then see it wiggle its little feet in the air like it’s calling the magic carpet back for another lift.
They’re floofy!
Definitely, I boop them all the time in the spring when they are swarming the flowers.
Y’all sleeping on black soldier flies.
They’re copycats that look like mud daubbers, but have no ability to sting or bite. They don’t readily transmit human diseases, and they compete with noxious species like house flies and roaches. Present in most places across the globe.
Their larvae are the most-efficient known converts of input biomass to output protein, they can compost most household foods quite easily, and they’re an excellent animal feed.
Unintentionally pressed my elbow into a hive if red paper wasps.
STRAIGHT FUCKING FIRE 🔥🔥🔥. Don’t recommend it. 3\10.
You must’ve liked it at least a little bit to rate it 3/10. Admit it.
Lol. Gotta leave a little room down there for the “it can always get worse” section.
Okay can I actually pet bumblebees or is this just a meme?
Yes (but maybe you shouldn’t). See: https://lemmy.world/post/45251643/23076623
Yes, but you still have to bee careful.
I love watching the carpenter bees at my house. The ones that are on patrol follow the most exact flight patterns, it’s crazy. They always fly the same narrow lane, same height, stop and hover at the same spot for the same length of time. It’s amazing to watch.
In my experience, the paper wasp description applies to the yellow jackets. They are fairly common around outdoor eating areas around here, especially near the garbage cans. I find they mostly just check out the food, though they will check you out, too, and will sometimes get right into your face, but I’ve found a good way of reclaiming your space is to slowly push them away. You probably won’t even make contact with them while you do so because they react fast.
Though I’ve also noticed that they (and bugs in general) are more interested in some people over others and I’m lucky to be on the low interest to bugs side of the spectrum.
They forgot the tarantula hawk
Tarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting without provocation, but the sting—particularly that of P. grossa—is among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes.
Five minutes is a long time when something hurts like a mf.
