@tweezak Yes. I agree. They can swarm if you accidentally disturb their ground nest and you can end up with a ton of stings. Been there, done that, have the t-shirt.
@zhicks1987
I once had a some kinda bee (that’s just what I assumed it was. I didn’t have time to look.) fly into my hair while I was driving down the road. I grabbed it off the crown (where my vampires point would be if I had one) of my head, as it stung me(fucking hurt) and tried to throw it out the window. It ended up by my feet and the brake. So as I’m driving, I have my door open, foot on the gas and other foot trying to kick this fucking bee/hornet out my door. The people behind me probably thought I was having a seizure or something bc I was all over the fucking road. I’ll tell you.though, that sting was the worst sting I’ve ever had.
Wasp are very good at destroying grubs in your yard. They also eat spiders, ants, and other insects that are harmful.
They’re extremely intelligent. They even have the ability for face recognition, and if they know you won’t harm them, they won’t bother you at all.
Most common wasps, like paper wasps, are protective of their territory, and if they recognize you as a ‘co-habitant’, they’ll protect YOUR territory.
There are two of the species that are more aggressive and much less social…the black hornet and the yellow jacket ( and others, I’m sure), but if I see either of these, I leave the area.
I love my paper wasps, though. They nest every year on my front porch and we get along just fine!
@Tadlem43 Pretty much my tboughts! In general, I leave both wasps and spiders alone. If in my house and a nuisance, I try to catch/relocate them outside, unharmed. They’ve got their job to do and usually are good at it. OTOH, yellow jackets usually declare war on me first and then THEY lose. I currently have a wasp’s nest a few feet above my chair on my front porch and we’ve ignored each other for months.
@phendrick@Tadlem43 ditto! I have to work hard to keep my pest control company from knocking down or spraying nest by front door. Hey, they leave me and usually visitors alone and they’re pollinators. They’re welcome in this ecosystem I inhabit.
@Tadlem43 I will state up front that there are at least two varieties of wasp around here that will reliably attack any human that encroaches on what they perceive as their nest space. In the case of the small yellow-and-brown bastards that typically build flat nests in shrubs, they absolutely will attack anyone who disturbs their bush. Even worse are the large reddish wasps that like to nest in openings in structures; they will attack people walking by as much as twenty feet from their nest entry. Both of those are classed as “destroy colony by any means necessary, on sight” enemies. The use of flamethrowers is allowable.
By contrast, the black wasps around here will happily browse for bugs in your garden while you’re weeding or watering, and won’t attack unless you directly disturb their nest. Those wasps have a free pass with me.
From my personal experience, wasps will seek me out, while spiders (which are scarier) will normally chill in the corner of the room and await their prey. I also do not live in an area where brown recluse spiders live, if I did then I might have to change my mind.
Catch and release in my home, except for mosquitos. I was in the woods walking with my dogs about an hour away from my car when one dog ran down a hill and slid over a ground nest of yellow jackets. They tagged her! Ripping off my sweatshirt to protect my hands, I squeezed over 100 (yes I counted) as they buried into her fur, tail, ears, and mouth. Took us three hours to get out of those woods. Miraculously, she did not die, I was only stung twice (felt like I was punched by a professional boxer), and my other dog only stung once. Yellow jackets, very bad. On another venture, I was stung seven times by one Great Black Wasp. Luckily they are solitary creatures.
Once I was cutting up a deadfall log on my property with a chainsaw. I had barely started when BAM! BAM! BAM! I was stung on the back of my head and neck by yellow jackets, who apparently had a nest in the log. I dropped the saw and took off running. The nasty creatures followed me for over 100 yards. I wound up with 8 or 10 stings on my head and neck - it made it very difficult to lie down to sleep for a couple of days.
I stepped in yellow jacket nest one fall. We had many yellow jacket nests on the property. They aren’t bad if you know where they are, but I didn’t know about that one. 13 stings on my ankles. We also have the invasive European paper wasps that mostly look and behave like yellow jackets, except for the markings on faces, and they build their nests above ground.
The next spring some barn swallows built a nest over our front door. Barn swallows eat yellow jackets and wasps. In the first year they dramatically reduced the stinging insect population. The next year they were all gone except for 3 small wasp nests a few feet from their own nest.
Someone wrote their PhD dissertation on a related species. He found that reproductive success of the birds was strongly correlated with the presence of stinging insect nests near the bird nests. He did not determine why. I have noticed that the fledglings eat the larva from the wasp nests. But the nests may also reduce predation on the eggs or young birds. In any case, for many years our property has been mostly free of the nasty stinging insects.
Alas global warming has lengthened the wasp season, but the barn swallows migrate south on the old climate schedule.
I don’t mind cleaning bird poop off of our porch if it means I don’t get stung by swarms of wasps. It is a reasonable trade.
Voted wrong in haste. That should have been checked off for wasps. We have several varieties around here that are unnecessarily aggressive, and one that is hyper aggressive. You won’t even necessarily know that they are around until they attack, and merely being within 15 ft of their nest will set them off.
@chienfou I found this in our vegetable garden once. Oddly, I’ve never seen another one like it around here since. More interesting than scary (but I didn’t want to cuddle with it )…
Yellow jackets.
@tweezak hmmmm … the worst of both worlds?
/showme spider wearing yellow jacket.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “spider wearing yellow jacket.”
@mediocrebot Actually, he’s kinda cute.
@cfg83 @mediocrebot He IS!
@tweezak Yes. I agree. They can swarm if you accidentally disturb their ground nest and you can end up with a ton of stings. Been there, done that, have the t-shirt.
Cthulhu! especially when he is Pissed!
@mycya4me hmmmm …,
/showme Cthulhu eating plate of spiders, wasps, and yellow jackets.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Cthulhu eating plate of spiders, wasps, and yellow jackets.”
@cfg83 I though that was just a Light snack of him/her!
There are too many spiders to be scared of. If spiders had wings, however …
/showme fuzzy scary spider with wings.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “fuzzy scary spider with wings.”
@heartny hahahaha!
I once had a wasp fly in between my glasses and my eye. It stung me on the eyelid.
@zhicks1987
I once had a some kinda bee (that’s just what I assumed it was. I didn’t have time to look.) fly into my hair while I was driving down the road. I grabbed it off the crown (where my vampires point would be if I had one) of my head, as it stung me(fucking hurt) and tried to throw it out the window. It ended up by my feet and the brake. So as I’m driving, I have my door open, foot on the gas and other foot trying to kick this fucking bee/hornet out my door. The people behind me probably thought I was having a seizure or something bc I was all over the fucking road. I’ll tell you.though, that sting was the worst sting I’ve ever had.
Wasp are very good at destroying grubs in your yard. They also eat spiders, ants, and other insects that are harmful.
They’re extremely intelligent. They even have the ability for face recognition, and if they know you won’t harm them, they won’t bother you at all.
Most common wasps, like paper wasps, are protective of their territory, and if they recognize you as a ‘co-habitant’, they’ll protect YOUR territory.
There are two of the species that are more aggressive and much less social…the black hornet and the yellow jacket ( and others, I’m sure), but if I see either of these, I leave the area.
I love my paper wasps, though. They nest every year on my front porch and we get along just fine!
@Tadlem43 Pretty much my tboughts! In general, I leave both wasps and spiders alone. If in my house and a nuisance, I try to catch/relocate them outside, unharmed. They’ve got their job to do and usually are good at it. OTOH, yellow jackets usually declare war on me first and then THEY lose. I currently have a wasp’s nest a few feet above my chair on my front porch and we’ve ignored each other for months.
@Tadlem43 hmmmm.
/showme human sized anthropomorphized wasp named “Tadlem43” sharing tea and crumpets with normal sized wasps.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “human sized anthropomorphized wasp named “Tadlem43” sharing tea and crumpets with normal sized wa…”
@cfg83
Those are some pretty large “normal sized wasps.”
@kittykat9180 Yeah, I think Japanese Killer hornets crashed the party.
@phendrick @Tadlem43 ditto! I have to work hard to keep my pest control company from knocking down or spraying nest by front door. Hey, they leave me and usually visitors alone and they’re pollinators. They’re welcome in this ecosystem I inhabit.
@cfg83 @mediocrebot ha ha ha!
I thought I destroyed all of those pictures!!
@Tadlem43 I will state up front that there are at least two varieties of wasp around here that will reliably attack any human that encroaches on what they perceive as their nest space. In the case of the small yellow-and-brown bastards that typically build flat nests in shrubs, they absolutely will attack anyone who disturbs their bush. Even worse are the large reddish wasps that like to nest in openings in structures; they will attack people walking by as much as twenty feet from their nest entry. Both of those are classed as “destroy colony by any means necessary, on sight” enemies. The use of flamethrowers is allowable.
By contrast, the black wasps around here will happily browse for bugs in your garden while you’re weeding or watering, and won’t attack unless you directly disturb their nest. Those wasps have a free pass with me.
@Tadlem43 @werehatrack Hmmm …
/showme Human named “Tadlem43” gives little free pass tickets to a cute family of black wasps.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Human named Tadlem43 gives little free pass tickets to a cute family of black wasps.”
@cfg83 @mediocrebot ha ha ha! My posse!!
Hmmm… The answers suggest I should write a script about killer wasp.
@hchavers Killer
waspsyellow jackets, in yellow vests mimicking school crossing guards.@hchavers @phendrick Ok …
/showme Killer yellow jackets, in yellow vests mimicking school crossing guards.
@cfg83 Here’s the image you requested for “Killer yellow jackets, in yellow vests mimicking school crossing guards.”
Spiders don’t randomly fly at you for no reason and they eat the ladybeetles that hang out near my ceilings.
I don’t find either scary. However, if in my house I will leave a spider alone or catch it and take it outside. I would kill a wasps if in the house.
From my personal experience, wasps will seek me out, while spiders (which are scarier) will normally chill in the corner of the room and await their prey. I also do not live in an area where brown recluse spiders live, if I did then I might have to change my mind.
Catch and release in my home, except for mosquitos. I was in the woods walking with my dogs about an hour away from my car when one dog ran down a hill and slid over a ground nest of yellow jackets. They tagged her! Ripping off my sweatshirt to protect my hands, I squeezed over 100 (yes I counted) as they buried into her fur, tail, ears, and mouth. Took us three hours to get out of those woods. Miraculously, she did not die, I was only stung twice (felt like I was punched by a professional boxer), and my other dog only stung once. Yellow jackets, very bad. On another venture, I was stung seven times by one Great Black Wasp. Luckily they are solitary creatures.
@moonbeam369
I take it you voted for wasps then.
Once I was cutting up a deadfall log on my property with a chainsaw. I had barely started when BAM! BAM! BAM! I was stung on the back of my head and neck by yellow jackets, who apparently had a nest in the log. I dropped the saw and took off running. The nasty creatures followed me for over 100 yards. I wound up with 8 or 10 stings on my head and neck - it made it very difficult to lie down to sleep for a couple of days.
I stepped in yellow jacket nest one fall. We had many yellow jacket nests on the property. They aren’t bad if you know where they are, but I didn’t know about that one. 13 stings on my ankles. We also have the invasive European paper wasps that mostly look and behave like yellow jackets, except for the markings on faces, and they build their nests above ground.
The next spring some barn swallows built a nest over our front door. Barn swallows eat yellow jackets and wasps. In the first year they dramatically reduced the stinging insect population. The next year they were all gone except for 3 small wasp nests a few feet from their own nest.
Someone wrote their PhD dissertation on a related species. He found that reproductive success of the birds was strongly correlated with the presence of stinging insect nests near the bird nests. He did not determine why. I have noticed that the fledglings eat the larva from the wasp nests. But the nests may also reduce predation on the eggs or young birds. In any case, for many years our property has been mostly free of the nasty stinging insects.
Alas global warming has lengthened the wasp season, but the barn swallows migrate south on the old climate schedule.
I don’t mind cleaning bird poop off of our porch if it means I don’t get stung by swarms of wasps. It is a reasonable trade.
Voted wrong in haste. That should have been checked off for wasps. We have several varieties around here that are unnecessarily aggressive, and one that is hyper aggressive. You won’t even necessarily know that they are around until they attack, and merely being within 15 ft of their nest will set them off.
Scarier = spider
Most annoying = wasps (esp yellow jackets)
@chienfou I found this in our vegetable garden once. Oddly, I’ve never seen another one like it around here since. More interesting than scary (but I didn’t want to cuddle with it
)…
@macromeh
Argiope. We get a ton of them here.