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Having spent several summers living with dirt daubers, they don’t build nests in the ground, they build them right above your bed. Which I’d be fine with (cause they really never bother anyone) if they didn’t decide to do it at 6 AM SOUNDING LIKE AN ELECTRIC DRILL.
This is all just made from someone’s uneducated opinions, so I wouldn’t call it a cool guide. Honeybees are great where they are native, which is Eurasia. In the americas, they are invasive, and hurting native bee populations. Commercial beekeepers have co-opted the “save the bees” slogan to sell their products, but they are a major cause of bee decline by outcompeting native bees, and by shipping hives across the country to various pollination contract sites, which spreads disease and pests.
Hornets and yellow jackets (which are both subsets of wasps) and other wasps are all great in context. You probably don’t want a yellow jacket hive next to your front door, but they are fantastic general purpose predators that can help keep your garden pest free. Likewise, there are many highly specialized wasps that will hunt specific pests like hornworms. Many wasps are also great pollinators like all the varieties of fig wasps.
The cicada killer description is spot on except it leaves out how absolutely massive they are. They look like a small red humming bird.
It’s missing bald faced hornets, which in addition to being ill tempered jerks like yellow jackets, can memorize faces of people who they perceive as a threat and will single them out of a group to attack.
I disagree with how benevolent this infographic paints wasps. Wasps bad. Wasps very bad.
The ecosystem services wasps provide are worth billions per year, and if you’ve got the flowers they need they’re generally pretty docile.
Paper wasps would rather bump you with their heads than sting. They are chill, and I’ve worked around them and left nests where I walk because they don’t bother me unless I get really close (and flail, that resulted in a sting).
There is a nest of paper wasps living beside my garden. They’re allowed to stay as long as I’m here because I haven’t had an aphid problem since they moved in.
Wasps are great. Fantastic pest control for gardeners. Especially if they are a “general purpose” predator
Check out the book Endless Forms. It’s an interesting exploration of types of wasps and hornets.
Also, the last house I lived in had wasps and yellow jackets all over the yard. I only got stung twice, both times by yellow jackets, because I once mowed their nest, and another time when my dog stuck his whole head in another nest. If you don’t have threatening energy, they have no concern for you
Honey bees have stung me more than all other local insects combined.
Even mosquitos? Impressive.
That’s a bite my dude
Wasps: I like to hurt people
Chart is missing Charlie Brown
I have a family of carpenter bees in my patio stair railing (iron). I’ve just repainted it and that’s when I’ve noticed that they keep entering the pipe on one end with nearly cut green leaves.
Should yi actually be concerned about them? One of them did fly aggressively around me before when I kept banging on their pipe (unrelated to them being in their) but no sting.
What’s the deal with hornets?
Hornets are a type of social wasp. We actually don’t have any native Hornets in america, but there are some types of wasp that we call hornets, like bald face hornets. We do have European hornets here, which are bigger than yellow jackets, and infamously, we also have some of the Asian giant “murder hornets”.
I like the dirt daubers that are metallic blue! I don’t see them much, but when I do, they are a sight!
