MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Other than crawling inside my T shirt and stinging me in the armpit.
Yes a little, during the queen's breeding season, they Hunt insects and keep them down very well, it's just after the queen releases them from work, that problems arise, they don't eat the insects, they can only drink sugary substsnces, so basically they go on the piss till they die.
They remind us it’s not just people that are ****s
Little f*****s have set up home in my loft ...nice nest in the eves, getting the wasp man out this week to sort them !
They do a fair bit of pollinating as well, I think. Light red flowers are co-evolved to be pollinated by wasps to a fair degree, if memory serves.
I don’t like wasps, but they do have some benefits. Horseflies on the other hand.......
I could happily pin one of those bastards to a surface and dismember it limb by limb. Horrible, vicious parasites.
They help to keep dowm Aphids . The same Aphids that attack hop plants . So , unfortunatly more wasps = more hops = better beer
They anoy the shite out of Worcester
Some figs wouldn't exist without wasps. I could live with that...
One stung my two-year old on his face. 🙁
More wasps = more hops = more beer = more wasps
I read an article on FB about them & they seem a lot more important than you'd think. It's just that as PePPeR said they go mental at this time of year, just when we're outside more, having barbies & drinking beer.
Plus when you start waving your arms about like a demented wind turbine (with 2 blades,not 3) they let off pheromones which attract other wasps who come to help.
I still hate the bastards though, like ticks & horseflies.
I've seen one casually fly over the top of a greenbottle fly minding it's own business on a tree bough and it just dropped in grabbed and jabbed it and carried it off.
So in short yes pest control is a speciality it seems.
Everything has its place, they are just a pain for us humans.
Can you imagine what what they say about us?
Humans. Do they actually perform a useful function?
Fixed it for you
Kill them all.
Says here : In social wasps, workers (sterile females) have an average lifespan of 12-22 days, drones (fertile males) have a slightly longer lifespan than workers, and queens (fertile females) have an average lifespan of 12 months.
I killed one once with a bike pump, it was one of the old style long alloy things, i swung it at the wasp and it extended as i swung and valve connector on the end of the flexi hose made a really satisfying crack as it struck the bugger mid flight. Been one or two about recently but they seem to be on the decline like a lot of insects here 🙁
Yes.
but I prefer the carder bees in the garden, the red tailed bees in the soffit and next doors buff tailed bees to do the pollinating bit.
Our typical yellow-jacket wasps give them a bit of a bad name. Just back from Italy, where the air was thick with a huge variety of their giant, continental cousins, buzzing around like brightly coloured miniature gunships.They weren't one bit bothered with us, being far too busy massacring othere insects.
Humans. Do they actually perform a useful function?
Fixed it for you
What exactly have you fixed? Please explain?
Haven't been bothered by wasps for a few years now at home, can't even remember the last one that came in through the window. Used to get them all the time coming in from the garden, don't even see them now. All the wildlife seem to have disappeared. All except the ****ing Magpies.
Hahahahahahahahaha......no.
We have "spider wasps" out here, who hunt-down large spiders, stun them, then carry them off to lay their eggs in their paralyzed carcass.
We've seen this happen a few times in our back garden, usually with a huntsman spider, which are about 10cm across. Sometimes the spider is so large that the wasp has trouble moving it (or it might still be resisting).
Below is one of the less gruesome pictures that I could find on the internet.
They help to keep dowm Aphids . The same Aphids that attack hop plants . So , unfortunatly more wasps = more hops = better beer
Yakima valley has it covered, kill them all with fire.
Don't see what the problem is. Like most bugs they don't see us as prey.
If one lands on you it's still unlikely to sting you unless you give it reason to, ie don't panic and start flapping around or try to kill it.
They are the ultimate don't **** with me insect though.
They serve the purpose of not being horseflys or ticks as mentioned above.
Batfink. Image reported for gratuitous violence and vulgarity. No more pictures of murdered arachnids please.
The only useful function waps perform that I have heard of is their ability to convert people infected with religion into Atheists. It worked on Charles Darwin who was the usual God fearing Victorian type until he studied a particular Wasp and was so horrified at it's lifecycle and pure evilness he declared no God would have created such a thing and ceased to believe from that day forth.
being horseflys or ticks as mentioned above.
Or midges.
Last night, whilst eating dinner outside, I watched a wasp pick up a piece of duck that was easily as big as itself, then slowly fly away.
it was really interesting as the wasp seemed to gain speed and altitude by using a spiral take-off pattern - a bit like an overloaded helicopter.
I was less impressed when it returned with a swarm of mates like a meat raiding party.
We then put a bowl of sticky over ripe mushy strawberries away from us to try and attract them away from our dinner but they weren’t interested. These wasps only ate meat.
Yes a little, during the queen’s breeding season
Yeah but that was years ago.
The only real function of wasps is more wasps.
Wasps love meat. Use meat or catfood for wasp trap. Sweet stuff attracts bees too, and they need to be saved.
There are some quite entertaining YouTube videos involving wasp / hornet nests and flamethrowers... 🙂
Sweet stuff attracts bees too, and they need to be saved.
F***'em they're only bees.
Batfink. Image reported for gratuitous violence and vulgarity. No more pictures of murdered arachnids please.
I don't mess-about with Australian spiders - they're all presumed to be deadly, and therefore dispatched with a flip-flop to meet their maker.
I thought the one function they performed was to keep my reflexes / running away skills in top form.
Badminton practice.
They used to terrorise my Sister-in-Law which was very entertaining.
So they do actually have a use, for me anyway.
I don’t mess-about with Australian spiders – they’re all presumed to be deadly
Best to treat anything Australian that way, especially their drivers.
Wasps make Marmite.
Marmite is wasp poo. Fact!
All those bee vitamins
'orrible things
They used to terrorise my Sister-in-Law which was very entertaining.
This. Watching pathetic humans flapping around terrified of a tiny insect a thosand times smaller than them is highly amusing. It's only the yellow stripes and buzzing that alarms people. Horseflies are much worse but people don't worry about them cos they look more like normal flies.
Watching pathetic humans flapping around terrified of a tiny insect
My stepdaughter's thinks every yellow & black flying insect is a wasp. I'm like, 'no Gemma, that's a hoverfly & that's a wasp'.
Watching pathetic humans flapping around terrified of a tiny insect a thosand times smaller than them
Why is it pathetic? It makes no difference how big they are, they still sting and it still hurts like a bastard.
Why is it pathetic? It makes no difference how big they are, they still sting and it still hurts like a bastard.
& they'll sting you just cos they can as well! They don't need any encouragement. One went down my Mrs' blouse last week at Bempton, she didn't know it was there till it stung her.
(I nearly had to suck the poison out!)
& they’ll sting you just cos they can as well! They don’t need any encouragement.
And they'll do it repeatedly, just 'cos they can. I had one down the back of a cycling jersey which gave me a good half dozen stings before I could get over to the side of the road and shake the bugger out.
I don't know why it was so cross with me, I didn't make it fly in there.
I've got a wasp nest in the garden this year. I quite like watching them flying in and out going about their business. They don't bother me. They go pesting the neighbours when they attempt to eat alfresco. "Where are all these wasps coming from dear" 🙂
F***’em they’re only bees.
“Luke, the stupid is strong in this one”
#rollseyes
It’s the punchline to the two beekeepers joke.