Astonishing how often I see someone start swatting at a paper wasp when it gets curious.
The fuck? It’s like a dog smelling you, but that dog has a stinger. You don’t swat at the fucking thing. You chill out and act real casual. Maybe pretend you didn’t even notice it. What wasp? I didn’t see any wasps. Now check my back so we can get our asses inside.
Yellowjackets aren’t anywhere near prolific enough at pollination (or the insect corpse cleanup they specialize in) to make those flying terrorists worthwhile.
Solitary wasps like tree wasps are cool, though, they can stay.
There are fig wasps, of course. And other species, yes, that aren’t quite as good as bees at pollinating, but neither are butterflies, but no one has a problem with labeling them as pollinators. Plus there are the wasps that eradicate pests. The year I had a paper wasp family move in near my garden was a bumper year for my brassicas, because they absolutely annihilated the cabbage white caterpillar population. Basically, wasps aren’t just useless enemies.
When I was a teenager, I grew up in the country so we had wasps everywhere. I hated them. One morning in the summer I was dead asleep–until I was awakened by a wasp that stung me in the fucking neck. So this asshole had to fly into my room decide to land on me, probably crawl around a bit and then decide “Fuck this guy right here NNNNNNG”. I was so goddamn angry and confused. I had to get up and tend to the sting because I swell like a moteherfucker. However, being a lazy teenager, I went back to bed. I woke up about 10 minutes later because I then felt it CRAWLING ON ME AGAIN. I was so fucking furious, I just monkey pounded it into a million little pieces with my fists in the mattress.
Fuck wasps, I spent many years capturing them, holding them with tweezers and slowly cooking them over a candle. Not sorry.
This is me except with a Yellowjacket that flew into my ear and stung me in my ear canal then casually flew out.
It was actually so profound that it caused problems with my wax production and skin in that ear, and have had constant allergy issues with it ever since.
I swore to myself I’d wage war on every yellowjacket from that day forward. Same thing with carpenter bees, I actively swat and stomp those buggers - they’ve destroyed so much of my structural wood on my property they are beyond a nuisance.
I am not trying to be a one-upper, but I do have a similar story.
Before rennovating a house I lived in, we had TERRIBLE windows. The kind that let drafts of air and all sorts of creepy crawlies in. Well, an engineering paper wasp decided to build a nest in the eaves above my bathroom window. I was battling those red wasps with the jet black wings for a whole summer.
I was in the shower one day. I got done. I grabbed my towel from the towel hook and started drying off. It turns out there was a wasp on the towel, and it stung the shit out of my abdomen in a few places.
I ran around naked in the house swatting at the little bastard. I had to take another shower because of all of the sweat from running around swatting.
I got out of the shower to ANOTHER wasp on my towel. I noticed this one before it stung me.
I have since replaced the windows, but I STILL inspect my towels to this day.
Astonishing how often I see someone start swatting at a paper wasp when it gets curious.
The fuck? It’s like a dog smelling you, but that dog has a stinger. You don’t swat at the fucking thing. You chill out and act real casual. Maybe pretend you didn’t even notice it. What wasp? I didn’t see any wasps. Now check my back so we can get our asses inside.
Agreed. I was taught to stand still and let the bee do its thing.
Maybe that was all just propaganda by big bee……
Wasps are pollinators too 🥺
SOME wasps are, and often not very good ones.
Yellowjackets aren’t anywhere near prolific enough at pollination (or the insect corpse cleanup they specialize in) to make those flying terrorists worthwhile.
Solitary wasps like tree wasps are cool, though, they can stay.
Yellowjackets are definitely bastards. As far as I can tell they don’t provide any benefit to society whatsoever.
There are fig wasps, of course. And other species, yes, that aren’t quite as good as bees at pollinating, but neither are butterflies, but no one has a problem with labeling them as pollinators. Plus there are the wasps that eradicate pests. The year I had a paper wasp family move in near my garden was a bumper year for my brassicas, because they absolutely annihilated the cabbage white caterpillar population. Basically, wasps aren’t just useless enemies.
True if most wasps, yeah, but not yellowjackets. They can fuck right off.
When I was a teenager, I grew up in the country so we had wasps everywhere. I hated them. One morning in the summer I was dead asleep–until I was awakened by a wasp that stung me in the fucking neck. So this asshole had to fly into my room decide to land on me, probably crawl around a bit and then decide “Fuck this guy right here NNNNNNG”. I was so goddamn angry and confused. I had to get up and tend to the sting because I swell like a moteherfucker. However, being a lazy teenager, I went back to bed. I woke up about 10 minutes later because I then felt it CRAWLING ON ME AGAIN. I was so fucking furious, I just monkey pounded it into a million little pieces with my fists in the mattress.
Fuck wasps, I spent many years capturing them, holding them with tweezers and slowly cooking them over a candle. Not sorry.
This is me except with a Yellowjacket that flew into my ear and stung me in my ear canal then casually flew out.
It was actually so profound that it caused problems with my wax production and skin in that ear, and have had constant allergy issues with it ever since.
I swore to myself I’d wage war on every yellowjacket from that day forward. Same thing with carpenter bees, I actively swat and stomp those buggers - they’ve destroyed so much of my structural wood on my property they are beyond a nuisance.
Build a bee box for the carpenter bees. They arent completely terrible!
I am not trying to be a one-upper, but I do have a similar story.
Before rennovating a house I lived in, we had TERRIBLE windows. The kind that let drafts of air and all sorts of creepy crawlies in. Well, an engineering paper wasp decided to build a nest in the eaves above my bathroom window. I was battling those red wasps with the jet black wings for a whole summer.
I was in the shower one day. I got done. I grabbed my towel from the towel hook and started drying off. It turns out there was a wasp on the towel, and it stung the shit out of my abdomen in a few places.
I ran around naked in the house swatting at the little bastard. I had to take another shower because of all of the sweat from running around swatting.
I got out of the shower to ANOTHER wasp on my towel. I noticed this one before it stung me.
I have since replaced the windows, but I STILL inspect my towels to this day.
Bastards