I don’t know, they’re not all created the same. When I’m in the pool, I let bees land on me, or will fish them out of the water with my hands. Paper wasps look super frightening, but they’re even more docile than honey bees. Yellow jackets on the other hand are complete assholes. We had a nest of them in the yard once and they would go way out of their way to sting people, just for the hell of it. Like not anyone close to the nest or anything, just someone on the patio chilling. I would leave a beehive, but I eradicated the yellow jacket nest.
Yellow jackets on the other hand are complete assholes. We had a nest of them in the yard once and they would go way out of their way to sting people, just for the hell of it.
This was my experience too. I had thought that bees had moved into a bush in my yard. I was happy to have bees there. A week later I was mowing the grass and felt several stabs of pain on my back and wrist. I turn around and see the air is filled with them. I had swatted one in my escape and had a corpse to inspect later and found it was a Yellow jacket wasp. From a distance I could see they were entering and exiting a hole near the bottom of the bush. A quick internet search later I knew that they were nearly dormant at night, and that they need a special oil they produce on the outside of their body to breath. Dawn dish soap apparently strips that away and they die, and its not toxic to the ground or environment.
I put half a bottle of Dawn squirted into their hole at the bottom of the bush at night. I never saw another Yellowjack wasp.
Ugh, sounds awful, but glad you found a solution. I don’t remember what I put down the hole they had at the base of a tree. Wasn’t dawn, I don’t think.
I wasn’t prepared for those stings on my skin to still be hurting some a week later.
Oh, they’re SO painful. Really unnecessarily nasty.
Yep, paper wasps are chill as fuck. I had a hive of them living on my deck under the hand rail. I’d go out and chill with them daily with my coffee during that summer. They would stare at me for a bit. Then get back to eating bits of my deck.
They’re fun to watch because they often grab caterpillars from plants and take them away or eat them nearby. Great for gardens.
I don’t know if this is true but I’ve heard yellow jackets get intoxicated on fermenting fruit and become mean drunks.
A few months back I was visiting my retired parents, and I wanted to break the routine a bit and decided to sit at a lakeside table we never used because it was redundant.
As I walked up to the table and sat my stuff down, I heard a “FWOMP” followed by a sound I can only describe as “chitinous rubbing”. I slowly checked my surroundings until I noticed an almost basketball sized mass of wasps waking up that had fallen with part of a hive underneath the table. In a moment of extreme calculation I decided the only one of six things on the table worth risking stings for was the tablet, and I sprinted for the first time in years to get away.
So, I guess thanks to the wasps for the fun new core memory.
bro you need to sprint more
One of them is chill and just zooms around to pollinate. The other tries to get into every place I don’t want it to be violently and then starts stinging when it inevitably gets stuck. Wasps always try to get into my food, fly somewhere in my clothes where it’ll inevitably get stuck, fly into my face, etc.
I’ve been stung multiple times by both. Bees was always my full idiocy (I was obsessed with insects as a kid). Wasps was never my fault though, those cunts just put themselves in harms way only to “defend themselves” when the inevitable happens
I’m a gardener and every time someone approaches my door to solicit pest management, I ask if it will kill the wasps and spiders. Every single time they share an excited yes, I get to tell them that I don’t kill my gardening coworkers.
Wasps and spiders eat the bugs that eat my crops. Pesticides also greatly increase your risk of health issues. No thank you.
I think we can all agree this fucker deserves some hate, though:
Is that the Japanese hornet that eats whole colonies of bees?
Asian giant hornet, yeah.
Aka the MuRdEr hornet
I got stung by a wasp when I was a kid literally just for sitting in the backseat. I had done nothing at all, and I got stung like three times.
My dog got attacked by a colony of yellowjackets for having the audacity to go near their nest that was just on the other side of our fence line. He ended up in the ER for anaphylaxis. The neighbor’s dogs got stung too, though they weren’t allergic. Those little cunts can all die in a fire.
Paper wasps I hate less, I just wish they’d stop trying to make nests on the eaves of my house. They’re chill, but I just want them to find somewhere else to call home.
There are 3D models available for paper wasp nests, that can stop them from latching to your house. Wasps are HIGHLY territorial, and will not start a new colony nearby to another nest.
I left an old one up by my garage, and despite it being empty, no wasps come remotely close to my the front of my house anymore.
Many wasp species are quite gentle. We get a lot of great golden digger wasps on our spotted bee balm and despite looking quite scary, they are quite gentle and avoid human contact.
We have a bird bath and when the water has evaporates, the blue mud dauber wasps will sit on the side and very patiently watch me refill it.
They eat parasites and protect the garden. Truly, the more the merrier.
The nest of meat-eating vulture bees:
I think a sort of crucial point; they eat dead, rotting meat.
They don’t eat anything that lives or fights back.
They look like their stings give you Scarlet Rot.
I’m usually surrounded by paper wasps who don’t really seem to care unless you actively injure them. Have been bumped many times and they contonued on their way.
I’ve heard yellow jackets are usually the type to screw you over because they can.
(Un)fortunately, afaik yellow jackets are actually a pretty effective means of pest control for several crops because they more aggressively collect protein for their larvae.
The parasitic wasps can fuck right off. I worked in the southern I25 corridor of Colorado for a while and saw Tarantula Hawks. My first thought was that I had seen a humming bird the first time I saw one - they are that big. The poor little male tarantulas are just venturing for a end of life hookup and then they have to worry about being eaten alive by the spawn of these fuckers. Poor bastards.
Parasitic wasps keep hornworms from destroying my garden and haven’t stung me once. I vote they stay.
Also, I like figs.
Paper Wasps ✔️ Yellowjackets ❌
A paper wasp keeps trying to make a nest in my doorway and we look at each other every time I open the door. Since they’re not aggressive they don’t do anything unless you actively are messing with them (and sometimes even then they don’t attack!)
Anyways, it flies away and I remove the beginnings of the nest every time. Then it comes back overnight and makes another one in the exact same spot. It’s a little game I play with the wasp at this point
When the Interspecies Olympics finally get organized you’ll both be ready!
The only time I’ve been stung by a bee is when I was little and walking outside bare foot and stepped on one. I’ve been stung by wasps for things like being outside or being inside when a wasp got in the house.
Idk if it’s a species difference, but European yellow jacket wasps are pretty fucking chill. I’ve only been or seen someone get stung if they accidentally squish/step on them.
On the other hand they’re soooo persistent about stealing my food and bait. Like no, you can’t steal meat from my fork, fuck off. gets slapped, and comes back with 5 more sisters to bully me out of my lunch. It’s especially bad in late summer and so we have to eat indoors because of them.
Hornets can go fuck themselves though and I try to kill them on sight if they’re around the house.
Naw, ichneumon wasps are cool as fuck
