Wasps

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Smudger1

Well-Known Member
Just found this, makes sense if true.......

You're having a few drinks in the garden with your friends, or a family BBQ, when a load of pesky wasps arrive to spoil the party. You haven't seen them all summer and then suddenly they're all over the place, annoying everybody, causing panic and helicopter hands. Sound familiar?

August is the time of year when people start to ask 'what's the point of wasps?' The answer may surprise you.

Did you know that there are approximately 9,000 species of wasp here in the UK? These include the parasitic wasps, some of which are so diminutive they are like pin heads. Of the 250 larger wasps which have have a stinger, the majority are solitary and cause no upset to humans.

However, when we talk about wasps, we're almost certainly referring to the our nation's nemesis, the Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris). To understand why these wasps become really annoying this time of year, you first need to understand their life cycle.

Common wasps live socially like bees but, unlike honey bees, they haven't evolved a way of storing food to allow the colony to survive the winter. In fact the only survivors are the young, fertilised queens who hibernate over winter. They emerge in the spring to build little walnut sized nests where they they lay around 20 eggs.

The queen feeds the resulting larvae until around May, when they mature and become workers. Then she focuses on more egg-laying and the workers get on with feeding them, enlarging the nest as they go along. By this time of year the nest has grown to around 40cm in diameter, often larger, and that nest can contains up to 10,000 wasps!

Then, in late August and September, a dramatic change takes place. The queen quits her egg laying (save a few that will go on to be future queens and males to fertilise them) and no longer releases the pheromone that causes the workers to work.

Basically, these workers are made redundant, and are left jobless and disorientated. And the problem for us is that, although adult wasps are insect predators, that meat is to feed the larvae not themselves. In their adult state wasps are not able to digest solid food and need sugary liquid to survive. Now, with fewer no larvae to feed, they become uncontrollably and insatiably hungry.

Wasps love easy food such as over ripe fruit and your fizzy drinks. Towards the end of their brief lives, their hunger drives them to search for easy sugar at exactly the time when we are more likely to be using our gardens and outdoor spaces for eating sweet things. The timing couldn't be better for them or worse for us.

So why are those who panic and try to swat them away more likely to be stung than those who remain calm?

Well the problem is that these redundant workers have their own pheromone, which helps protect the nest from attack earlier in the year, and that's essentially a chemical rallying cry to other workers that the nest is under attack.

So when you swat that annoying wasp and it feels under attack, that rallying cry will go out. Suddenly it all kicks off, and loads more wasps will start arriving in aggressive 'red-mist' mode, fired up and ready to defend their nest. This is why the best advice is to stay calm.

Think of it this way, from May that wasp has been working its socks off helping to keep things nice on planet earth. Now it’s going to die. So why not give it a break, save your swats, put a bowl of sugary drink somewhere out of your way, and let it go out on a nice sugar rush
clear.png
At the very least don't kill it.

What's the point of wasps? Without them it’s likely that human life would not survive because, in the absence of their role as predators, our planet would be overrun by even more damaging insects such as aphids, ants and caterpillars.
 
I saw this on Facebook a while back.
I used to absolutely hate wasps but over the last few years I've watched them more and more and grown to really quite like them.
If you think about it they're a lot like spreads, noisy, busy, industrious little bastards that just want everyone to f**k off out of their way so that they can get the job done.
Oh and then die young.
 
Nice post , appreciate wasps but had an enormous nest next to my horse stable and got so bad I had safety issues , not wanting to kill the nest I wired up two 6" screws a cm apart on a piece of wood ( mains) , stood at a safe distance and switch on. After they get too excited I switch off and wait a while to repeat. My own way of keeping the numbers down to a safe level without wiping them out completely as I know they do an important job
 
I dont mind them tbh, dont panic me and they seem to leave me alone. The persistent ones that wont leave you alone are annoying though
 
Nice post , appreciate wasps but had an enormous nest next to my horse stable and got so bad I had safety issues , not wanting to kill the nest I wired up two 6" screws a cm apart on a piece of wood ( mains) , stood at a safe distance and switch on. After they get too excited I switch off and wait a while to repeat. My own way of keeping the numbers down to a safe level without wiping them out completely as I know they do an important job
Yeah we've had half a dozen nests in the thatch over the years and I had them dealt with every time. Trouble is they get in and then chew through the roof timbers to make their nests. One of the timbers had been chewed right through!
 
Just found this, makes sense if true.......

You're having a few drinks in the garden with your friends, or a family BBQ, when a load of pesky wasps arrive to spoil the party. You haven't seen them all summer and then suddenly they're all over the place, annoying everybody, causing panic and helicopter hands. Sound familiar?

August is the time of year when people start to ask 'what's the point of wasps?' The answer may surprise you.

Did you know that there are approximately 9,000 species of wasp here in the UK? These include the parasitic wasps, some of which are so diminutive they are like pin heads. Of the 250 larger wasps which have have a stinger, the majority are solitary and cause no upset to humans.

However, when we talk about wasps, we're almost certainly referring to the our nation's nemesis, the Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris). To understand why these wasps become really annoying this time of year, you first need to understand their life cycle.

Common wasps live socially like bees but, unlike honey bees, they haven't evolved a way of storing food to allow the colony to survive the winter. In fact the only survivors are the young, fertilised queens who hibernate over winter. They emerge in the spring to build little walnut sized nests where they they lay around 20 eggs.

The queen feeds the resulting larvae until around May, when they mature and become workers. Then she focuses on more egg-laying and the workers get on with feeding them, enlarging the nest as they go along. By this time of year the nest has grown to around 40cm in diameter, often larger, and that nest can contains up to 10,000 wasps!

Then, in late August and September, a dramatic change takes place. The queen quits her egg laying (save a few that will go on to be future queens and males to fertilise them) and no longer releases the pheromone that causes the workers to work.

Basically, these workers are made redundant, and are left jobless and disorientated. And the problem for us is that, although adult wasps are insect predators, that meat is to feed the larvae not themselves. In their adult state wasps are not able to digest solid food and need sugary liquid to survive. Now, with fewer no larvae to feed, they become uncontrollably and insatiably hungry.

Wasps love easy food such as over ripe fruit and your fizzy drinks. Towards the end of their brief lives, their hunger drives them to search for easy sugar at exactly the time when we are more likely to be using our gardens and outdoor spaces for eating sweet things. The timing couldn't be better for them or worse for us.

So why are those who panic and try to swat them away more likely to be stung than those who remain calm?

Well the problem is that these redundant workers have their own pheromone, which helps protect the nest from attack earlier in the year, and that's essentially a chemical rallying cry to other workers that the nest is under attack.

So when you swat that annoying wasp and it feels under attack, that rallying cry will go out. Suddenly it all kicks off, and loads more wasps will start arriving in aggressive 'red-mist' mode, fired up and ready to defend their nest. This is why the best advice is to stay calm.

Think of it this way, from May that wasp has been working its socks off helping to keep things nice on planet earth. Now it’s going to die. So why not give it a break, save your swats, put a bowl of sugary drink somewhere out of your way, and let it go out on a nice sugar rush
clear.png
At the very least don't kill it.

What's the point of wasps? Without them it’s likely that human life would not survive because, in the absence of their role as predators, our planet would be overrun by even more damaging insects such as aphids, ants and caterpillars.
I will not read this
 
Had a few stings, not hurt except for 1 wasp got caught between fingers when I was on a run it zapped me loads of times till I shook it off, and a bee stung me right in ear hole on hols when I was about 8 that I still remember like drilling with hot cork screw .
But ignore them and they ignore you. Thier only interested in flowers n sugary drinks etc .
 
Good post smudger , the vicar across the road from job I was at last week got stung big time had loads of them attack her tbh I don’t know why but also read something similar to your post , in England people drop there food scraps all over the place which doesn’t help , see it especially on beaches this month
 
In the Ukraine last year it was roasting hot in summer and they wouldn't leave us alone. I actually put one into my mouth along with the gulp of beer it landed it.. I was absolutely terrified
 
Not had many mosquitos around but when abroad they are bastads !

Got bit to fek by ants in Malta and Turkey , our ants ain't so bad tho.
 
Had a few stings, not hurt except for 1 wasp got caught between fingers when I was on a run it zapped me loads of times till I shook it off, and a bee stung me right in ear hole on hols when I was about 8 that I still remember like drilling with hot cork screw .
But ignore them and they ignore you. Thier only interested in flowers n sugary drinks etc .

I got a fly in my ear once. It flew into my ear and I slapped it down my earhole somehow. It was fcukign horrible. I could hear it buzzing around in my head. I poured olive oil in there in the end. I don't know if that killed it or just glued its wings together. It's still there as far as I know because I never saw it again.
 
Earwigs are called that for a very good reason ,
 
Just found this, makes sense if true.......

You're having a few drinks in the garden with your friends, or a family BBQ, when a load of pesky wasps arrive to spoil the party. You haven't seen them all summer and then suddenly they're all over the place, annoying everybody, causing panic and helicopter hands. Sound familiar?

August is the time of year when people start to ask 'what's the point of wasps?' The answer may surprise you.

Did you know that there are approximately 9,000 species of wasp here in the UK? These include the parasitic wasps, some of which are so diminutive they are like pin heads. Of the 250 larger wasps which have have a stinger, the majority are solitary and cause no upset to humans.

However, when we talk about wasps, we're almost certainly referring to the our nation's nemesis, the Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris). To understand why these wasps become really annoying this time of year, you first need to understand their life cycle.

Common wasps live socially like bees but, unlike honey bees, they haven't evolved a way of storing food to allow the colony to survive the winter. In fact the only survivors are the young, fertilised queens who hibernate over winter. They emerge in the spring to build little walnut sized nests where they they lay around 20 eggs.

The queen feeds the resulting larvae until around May, when they mature and become workers. Then she focuses on more egg-laying and the workers get on with feeding them, enlarging the nest as they go along. By this time of year the nest has grown to around 40cm in diameter, often larger, and that nest can contains up to 10,000 wasps!

Then, in late August and September, a dramatic change takes place. The queen quits her egg laying (save a few that will go on to be future queens and males to fertilise them) and no longer releases the pheromone that causes the workers to work.

Basically, these workers are made redundant, and are left jobless and disorientated. And the problem for us is that, although adult wasps are insect predators, that meat is to feed the larvae not themselves. In their adult state wasps are not able to digest solid food and need sugary liquid to survive. Now, with fewer no larvae to feed, they become uncontrollably and insatiably hungry.

Wasps love easy food such as over ripe fruit and your fizzy drinks. Towards the end of their brief lives, their hunger drives them to search for easy sugar at exactly the time when we are more likely to be using our gardens and outdoor spaces for eating sweet things. The timing couldn't be better for them or worse for us.

So why are those who panic and try to swat them away more likely to be stung than those who remain calm?

Well the problem is that these redundant workers have their own pheromone, which helps protect the nest from attack earlier in the year, and that's essentially a chemical rallying cry to other workers that the nest is under attack.

So when you swat that annoying wasp and it feels under attack, that rallying cry will go out. Suddenly it all kicks off, and loads more wasps will start arriving in aggressive 'red-mist' mode, fired up and ready to defend their nest. This is why the best advice is to stay calm.

Think of it this way, from May that wasp has been working its socks off helping to keep things nice on planet earth. Now it’s going to die. So why not give it a break, save your swats, put a bowl of sugary drink somewhere out of your way, and let it go out on a nice sugar rush
clear.png
At the very least don't kill it.

What's the point of wasps? Without them it’s likely that human life would not survive because, in the absence of their role as predators, our planet would be overrun by even more damaging insects such as aphids, ants and caterpillars.
Knew a plasterer use to have jam sandwiches for his dinner wasp used to land on sandwiches and he would just crush the wasp with fingers (old school )
 
I always get bombarded by horseflies for some reason, I was working on a farm a couple of years ago and got bit in my arm,it swelled up like a t**t. Course if antibiotics. On a happy note read this

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism
Oh you're not wrong about these being bastards. We get quite a few over the Pool and when I'm sweating away they home in on me. Apparently their jaws are like two interlocking saws that cut you. f**k**g feels like it to.
 
Oh you're not wrong about these being bastards. We get quite a few over the Pool and when I'm sweating away they home in on me. Apparently their jaws are like two interlocking saws that cut you. f**k**g feels like it to.
I hate them with a vengeance mate, I’ve had some nasty bites in my time. The last time I squeezed the bite area and infected it, hence the swelling.
 
Lad I worked with got stung........thought nothing of it, bit painful but more irritating than anything else..........week later got stung again........this time went into anaphylactic shock! Throat closed, couldn’t breathe, rushed to hospital and now has to carry an antidote as the next one might kill him! Apparently it was the two doses of venom close together that did it.
 
Lad I worked with got stung........thought nothing of it, bit painful but more irritating than anything else..........week later got stung again........this time went into anaphylactic shock! Throat closed, couldn’t breathe, rushed to hospital and now has to carry an antidote as the next one might kill him! Apparently it was the two doses of venom close together that did it.
I'm like that with Multifinish.
 
I hate them with a vengeance mate, I’ve had some nasty bites in my time. The last time I squeezed the bite area and infected it, hence the swelling.
I've been bitten three times by them this afternoon alone! Luckily these were some of the smaller type and I don't usually swell from the bites, just bleed.
 
Another lad I worked with was seen dancing about in field several yards from the job, hands waving, running, dodging, managed to get back to site without a sting, but we still had to take him to hospital...............coming past the skip he trod on a bit of wood with a nail in it!.......... right through ( no nail proof soles them days)....he pulled it off and what a gusher that was!.......blood everywhere.........( goes misty eyed at the reminiscences).....pffft.
 
Another lad I worked with was seen dancing about in field several yards from the job, hands waving, running, dodging, managed to get back to site without a sting, but we still had to take him to hospital...............coming past the skip he trod on a bit of wood with a nail in it!.......... right through ( no nail proof soles them days)....he pulled it off and what a gusher that was!.......blood everywhere.........( goes misty eyed at the reminiscences).....pffft.
Ah the days of working in Hytech Squash trainers. Happy days indeed.
 
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