Basic information about wasps
Wasps belong to the order Hymenoptera. The order besides wasp also contain bees, ants, and sawflies as its members. There are almost 100,000 different species of wasps found all over the world, and the majority of them are parasitic in nature. They are typically confused with the bees because of their appearance, but they depict few prominent differences, and the most prominent one is bee’s hairy body that doesn’t exist in wasps. The other major difference lies in the way they sting their victim. Bee’s sting remains embedded inside the victim’s skin while wasps have an ability to sting its prey repeatedly.
1. Appearance and size
Wasps’ bodies like other insects also consist of three body parts, head, thorax, and abdomen. The adult wasp possesses a lean connection between its abdomen and thorax region. They contain licking and chewing mouthparts, six legs, and straight antenna. Their bodies have two pairs of wings, one is forewing, and the other is hind wings. The forewings are larger and stronger as compared to the hind wings. These insects come in a variety of colors from yellow, vibrant blue and red to light brown and black, while their legs are usually yellow in color. The color is a major indication of the wasps being parasitic or predators. Parasitic wasps do not contain vibrant color stripes on their bodies, while predator wasps contain vibrant black or yellow stripes on their bodies. The sign can make other insects aware of their cruel string as well.
These insects are usually parasitic at larvae stage and this is the reason behind the presence of stinger or ovipositor in female wasps. As already mentioned, unlike bees, their bodies are slightly narrow and smooth. The size of the wasps’ different species varies largely. Few parasitic species are as small that they can reside inside the egg of other insects unless they become an adult. On the other hand, some species are as long as 3cm in length. Both genders vary in their appearance and size. The female partner is larger in size with a different body shape.
2. Diet and feeding habits
The diet and feeding habits of wasps vary among different type of wasps. Parasitic wasps at larvae stage hosts on other insects to fulfill their food requirements. The major part of their diet is obtained during larval stage when they consume required protein from the preyed insect. On getting old, adult parasitic wasps usually fulfill their diet requirements only by drinking nectar.
On the other hand, non-parasitic wasps that are predators and scavengers by nature get their diet from dead animals or insects. They use their sting to paralyze their prey and then take their food from the victim. They besides getting their feed from preyed insects also bring some food back to the nest for their larvae. Usually, wasps prefer to consume sweet food items or food items enriched with protein like meat. There is also a type of wasps, whose larvae fulfill their food requirements from plants.
3. Habitats and distribution
Wasps can be found easily in moderate temperature areas. They are usually found on all continents and regions except Antarctica and cold regions. They can be seen in moderate temperature desserts, forests, mountains and around water bodies like marsh, bog, and swamps. Wasps are second highest diverse insect group after beetles. Wasps are usually social, and they build nests to live with other colony’s members. Unlike bees, their nests are made from the mixture of wood, saliva, and other plant debris. Their nests can be found in tree barks, attics, soil, and shelter places or inside the tree cavities. Their nests and whole colony are formed by a new queen who survives winters through hibernating.
4. Life cycle and behavior
The lifecycle of wasps undergoes complete metamorphosis stages. They started larva that hatches from the egg and looks like a small flat white worm along with distinct body parts and three pairs of jointed legs. The larva then undergoes many changes and molts to become a pupil. Pupa contains few body parts similar to their adults, but they cannot move or feed on their own. Inside the pupa, adult like organs keeps growing and finally adult wasp emerged after shedding pupa outer skin.
The behavior and life cycle of wasps varies greatly among its sub-categories social, solitary and parasitic wasps. Among wasps’ subgroups, social wasps usually start making their colonies during the spring season. The fertilized queen who stays hibernated during winters starts building its nest and reproducing a first clutch that comprises worker wasps. The worker wasps then expand the nest into multiple cells in which Queen continues to give eggs. This process continues until, by the end of summer, the colony exceeds the size of 5000 individuals that includes workers, young queens, and male wasps. Wasps feed their larva by arranging enough food supply for them till they turned into a complete adult. At winters, workers and fundamental queen expire, and only young fertilized queens survive to lay an egg by the next year.
Wasps usually communicate with each other through producing specific scent. They use these scent to identify their mating partner. However, parasitic wasps sometimes also left few scent marks on their victims to tell other wasps that they have already injected their eggs inside these hosts. Besides producing scent, few wasps also create noise or produce vibrations to communicate with other. On getting killed or injured, they make another wasps alert or ask for help through their scent. In the start of winters, these wasps become more aggressive and exhaust and can harm anyone try to interfere with them.
Three subgroups of wasps
Wasps are divided into three sub-categories social wasps, solitary wasps and parasitic wasps.
1. Social wasps
Social wasps are also known as Vespidae. They prefer to live in the form of colonies or groups. Among a vast number of wasps species, only 1,000 species are social wasps. Examples of social wasps are hornets, yellow jackets, and umbrella wasps. They contain different wings from other wasp’s families. Their wings can get folded in longitudinal shape when wasps are to rest. These wasps prepare their nest made up of paper in a group, and they also travel in the form of group. Social wasps are best among all other species, and they possess a proper family or colony system where they live together with one or more queens, few drones (male wasps) and worker wasps.
During spring, queen finds a nesting place and builds its nest to lay the clutch of eggs. The eggs in the clutch transformed to produce workers and help her further in expanding the nest. Queen continues laying an egg the whole summer and produces a colony of almost 5000 wasps. At the end of summer, new queens and drones go out to find a new partner, and at the start of winters, all members of colony die except, the newly fertilized queens who hibernate in winters to start laying eggs in the coming season.
2. Solitary wasps
Solitary wasps are also known as Sphecidae and Pompilidae wasps, and they live alone instead of making whole colonies. Examples of solitary wasps are cicada killer, mud daubers, and pollen wasps. Among all species of wasps, solitary wasps are greatest in number. Their females usually create their separate nests where they lay their eggs. They create their nests in different places like on soil, rotten wood, tree cavities, and inside the rock crevices. These wasps usually attack their prey and paralyze them. After that, they carry them inside the cells of their nests and seal them inside by laying their eggs on them. The victim stays alive inside the cell of nests unless the larva hatches from the egg and starts consuming the preyed insect to get their diet. Sometimes, solitary wasps also build their nests in the small group, but still, in that case, they continue nourishing their off-springs only.
3. Parasitic wasps
Parasitic wasps are also known as Braconidae and Ichneumonidae. They are parasitic in nature as they lay their eggs on or inside the bodies of their prey that may vary from beetles, aphids or caterpillars. They offspring after hatching from egg continue consuming that insect and convert into an adult. The females of parasitic wasps contain ovipositors that they use to inject eggs into the bodies of their victims. Their sting is not as strong as other wasps contain, but their ovipositors are their actual weapon against other insects. The insects that are preyed by wasps are not consumed by themselves; rather they only feed on flowers’ nectar. In parasitic wasps, after mating wasps start searching for a suitable host where they can lay their eggs. They either bring their host back to their nests, or they live them in their place and lay eggs inside their bodies.
Three common and aggressive wasps
Among all species of social wasps, three most aggressive and commonly seen wasps are a yellow jacket, hornet, and paper wasp. Yellowjackets belong to the genera Vespula and hornets belong to the genera, Vespa.
1. Yellow jacket
The most dangerous and common wasp among social wasps is yellow jacket who are the cause behind the major sting cases. They have gotten this name because of the presence of vibrant yellow and black color on their bodies. They are highly defensive in nature and become uncontrollably aggressive during the month of July and September. In this period, male wasps compete to mate with the queen, and they usually die short after mating. They consume insects, but they also forage for sweet and high protein food items. They can easily be seen scavenging for food in picnic points or trash cans. However, the adult wasps usually consume the sweet secretions produced by larvae when they bring food for the little ones.
2. Hornet
Hornet is another social wasp often confused with the bald-faced hornet that is simply the group member of yellow jacket wasps. However, the European wasps are Hornet, and they are almost only twenty true hornet species are present all around the world. They are quite large in their body size and their nests look like a drop of tear or football. They usually prefer to create their nests at trees, and bushes. Hornet often preys other insects, chew them and feed the paste to their offsprings. They are considered less aggressive and common as compared to the yellow jacket wasps. However, the reason behind their low appearance is that they are not found around trash cans and picnic points. They attack with their stings if their colonies are disturbed.
3. Paper wasp
Paper wasp is another social wasp known as umbrella wasps. These wasps got their name as umbrella wasp because of the design of their nests. They collect fibers from dead trees and plants and mix their saliva with it to make rough paper like material that they use to construct their nests. Their nests appear cellular in structure and don’t contain any coverings on the cells. They also prey different insects to feed their offsprings. They are also defensive in nature and usually attack other to protect their colony.
Are wasps dangerous?
The reason behind people get scared from these wasps is the presence of the sting that is their modified reproductive organ. The sting is only present in the female wasps, and they use it during reproduction. However, the scary truth is, unlike bees they can sting a person repeatedly.
1. Ordinary string
In typical cases, wasps’ regular string does not create much trouble for the person. They usually create swelling along with intense pain because of injecting venom inside the body that disappears within a week.
2. Fatal Sting
Few wasps can produce fatal side effects if they bite a person. They can also create severe allergic reactions inside the body of the victim. Sometimes their sting can produce life-threatening consequences. Few cases of anaphylactic shock have also been registered because of wasps’ sting.
Relationship with humans
Wasps show both positive and negative relationship with humans. As a stinging insect, they become an enemy of people as they can contaminate their food items and also sting them badly on getting aggressive. They usually build their nests on attics or near buildings. They not only scare passing people but also irritate them by following them.
However, besides having a dangerous sting, wasps are also very beneficial for humans. They consume a vast variety of insects. Therefore, this thing becomes their plus point. Many people and farmers cultivate wasps so that they can consume and eradicate the population of other large variety of insects. Besides controlling pest population, wasps are also an excellent source of pollination; they pollinate flowers as they suck nectar of different flowers.
Wasps’ control
If you observe wasps constructing their nest around your area, then it is imperative to remove them immediately. Once they have created their nest, it becomes tough to evacuate from your place.
1. Prevention first
It is always advisable to take preventive steps to stop wasps from making nests in your area. Wasp wanders in different yards, and gardens to find a suitable place to build their nest. Therefore, the most important step to control wasps is to make your area least attractive for wasps. Following steps can be performed in this regard:
- Remove all kinds of sweet and sugary and even birds’ food items from your area. Don’t leave any sweet food or trash cans uncovered inside your area.
- Examine your home properly for any broken openings or sidings in the walls or attics. Wasps find such places attractive and safe to build their nests. Therefore, all such places should be repaired immediately.
- Decorative Decoys can also be used to deter wasps away from your area.
2. Grow wasp repelling plants
Growing wasp repelling plants is the easiest and effective wasps’ control method. Wasps are repellent to different plants like eucalyptus, mint, wormwood and citronella. Keeping these plants around or inside your locality will deter wasps away. Besides controlling wasps from entering your locality, these plants would also enhance the beauty of your area.
3. Use peppermint oil
Peppermint oil is one of the most effective things that can keep wasps far away from your area. Dip some cotton balls in the peppermint oil and put them at all locations where wasps can build their nests. The peppermint smell will stop wasps from invading your home.
4. Sugar&water wasp traps
Different traps can be created to catch the wasps. One such trap can easily be made from a transparent plastic bottle. Cutting the upper half of the bottle and inserting it upside down on its lower part would make a trap easy to enter and difficult to escape. Create such trap and keep sugar and water mixture inside the bottle. Wasps will find this sweet smell highly attractive. Once wasps enter the trap, you can throw them away from your area.
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