Wasp season
Aug. 6th, 2014 01:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterThis has been a great year for wasps in my area, to judge by all of the cute little wasp nests I've been seeing everywhere. One of the undergraduates recently posted a question about how to deal with a wasp nest near her house, which is a topic that seems to come up frequently, and I'm coming to agree with my wasp-studying colleagues that wasps are greatly misunderstood, but super-cool critters. So it's time to step up and talk about wasps for a bit.
The first thing to realize is that wasps do a lot of important jobs in the natural world. Many, many species are predatory, killing and laying eggs in all kinds of other insects - according to Wikipedia, just about every other kind of pest insect is preyed upon by at least one wasp species. At one extreme, there are wasps like tarantula hawks, who, as the name implies, paralyze tarantulas with their stings and lay their eggs in them (see here for one of the many overly dramatized YouTube videos of a tarantula hawk battling a tarantula). Interestingly, the size of tarantula hawks is correlated with the size of the tarantulas where they are found.
On the other end of the spectrum, a species of fairy wasp is the smallest known insect. For a sense of scale, here's an article with a photo of a fairy wasp next to an amoeba. Incredible.
Many species also work as pollinators, which means that as you're running around shouting, "Save the Bees!" you should probably be adding, "and the wasps!"
At the same time, much like bees, wasps are quite good at defending themselves with venomous stingers. I have a vivid memory from a childhood road trip, when our family stopped at a Washington State rest stop where some yellow jackets had discovered that the trash can and surrounding areas were an excellent place to forage (protip: manage all food waste and water with care if you want to prevent unwanted insects). I'd gotten a cup of sugar water (juice) from the coffee stand, and the yellow jackets could clearly smell it, so they came over and started landing on my hand, wrist, and the edge of the cup. I had been stung multiple times over the preceding year, mostly by bees, so I'd learned to move slowly and carefully, and all was well and good until one of the wasps decided she wanted to taste my wrist and gave me a light nip. I started, and all the wasps flew up, and then I got the heck out of there, but without a single sting. Unlike bees, wasps don't lose their stinger when they sting, so they're capable of stinging multiple times. However, stinging is still a costly activity, so most animals generally have to be provoked before they'll start issuing painful reminders that they're best left alone.
Now, what if a wasp has set up camp in an undesirable location - say, right above the crib of a wee bouncing babe. Why is the default reaction one of KILL IT WITH FIRE!! ? Just remember what happened when a Seattle-area man tried this method, and start from the standpoint of a calm, measured response. Something I'd consider only a tiny step below KILL IT WITH FIRE is the use of insecticides. Fast-acting insecticides are typically neurotoxins, which is why labels may warn you to remove small children and pets before use (do I need to add, ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL INSTRUCTIONS!!). But think about it for just a minute, preferably before you incapacitate all of your own neurons while accidentally huffing the stuff: if it is a fast-acting neurotoxin, do you really want to be spraying it about all willy-nilly? Even if it's targeting a type of neuroreceptor that occurs at a very low density in humans, it will still be targeting a whole host of other, innocent bystander animals, too. So, get in the habit of walking swiftly past that section of the hardware store, and dispose of existing insecticides as the hazardous waste that they are. If you have reached a point of last resort, research all of your options very carefully and choose something that is as target-specific as possible, and that will break down quickly.
Now what? Use more knowledge about wasps to figure out a better course of action. The WikiHow page on getting rid of wasps nests presents some good alternatives, actually. I personally like to freeze the most interesting insects I find, because once they are frozen and dead I'll have a chance to inspect them up close, and it's a great way to come to appreciate the many incredible forms of life that can be found all around us.
Also, chances are very good that, somewhere within your extended family or network of friends, there's someone who would be thrilled and enthralled to learn about the critter.
Further Reading
National Geographic info on wasps
Bees versus wasps, from the A&M Extension Services
Details on different kinds of wasps, from the A&M Extension Services
The first thing to realize is that wasps do a lot of important jobs in the natural world. Many, many species are predatory, killing and laying eggs in all kinds of other insects - according to Wikipedia, just about every other kind of pest insect is preyed upon by at least one wasp species. At one extreme, there are wasps like tarantula hawks, who, as the name implies, paralyze tarantulas with their stings and lay their eggs in them (see here for one of the many overly dramatized YouTube videos of a tarantula hawk battling a tarantula). Interestingly, the size of tarantula hawks is correlated with the size of the tarantulas where they are found.
On the other end of the spectrum, a species of fairy wasp is the smallest known insect. For a sense of scale, here's an article with a photo of a fairy wasp next to an amoeba. Incredible.
Many species also work as pollinators, which means that as you're running around shouting, "Save the Bees!" you should probably be adding, "and the wasps!"
At the same time, much like bees, wasps are quite good at defending themselves with venomous stingers. I have a vivid memory from a childhood road trip, when our family stopped at a Washington State rest stop where some yellow jackets had discovered that the trash can and surrounding areas were an excellent place to forage (protip: manage all food waste and water with care if you want to prevent unwanted insects). I'd gotten a cup of sugar water (juice) from the coffee stand, and the yellow jackets could clearly smell it, so they came over and started landing on my hand, wrist, and the edge of the cup. I had been stung multiple times over the preceding year, mostly by bees, so I'd learned to move slowly and carefully, and all was well and good until one of the wasps decided she wanted to taste my wrist and gave me a light nip. I started, and all the wasps flew up, and then I got the heck out of there, but without a single sting. Unlike bees, wasps don't lose their stinger when they sting, so they're capable of stinging multiple times. However, stinging is still a costly activity, so most animals generally have to be provoked before they'll start issuing painful reminders that they're best left alone.
Now, what if a wasp has set up camp in an undesirable location - say, right above the crib of a wee bouncing babe. Why is the default reaction one of KILL IT WITH FIRE!! ? Just remember what happened when a Seattle-area man tried this method, and start from the standpoint of a calm, measured response. Something I'd consider only a tiny step below KILL IT WITH FIRE is the use of insecticides. Fast-acting insecticides are typically neurotoxins, which is why labels may warn you to remove small children and pets before use (do I need to add, ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL INSTRUCTIONS!!). But think about it for just a minute, preferably before you incapacitate all of your own neurons while accidentally huffing the stuff: if it is a fast-acting neurotoxin, do you really want to be spraying it about all willy-nilly? Even if it's targeting a type of neuroreceptor that occurs at a very low density in humans, it will still be targeting a whole host of other, innocent bystander animals, too. So, get in the habit of walking swiftly past that section of the hardware store, and dispose of existing insecticides as the hazardous waste that they are. If you have reached a point of last resort, research all of your options very carefully and choose something that is as target-specific as possible, and that will break down quickly.
Now what? Use more knowledge about wasps to figure out a better course of action. The WikiHow page on getting rid of wasps nests presents some good alternatives, actually. I personally like to freeze the most interesting insects I find, because once they are frozen and dead I'll have a chance to inspect them up close, and it's a great way to come to appreciate the many incredible forms of life that can be found all around us.
Also, chances are very good that, somewhere within your extended family or network of friends, there's someone who would be thrilled and enthralled to learn about the critter.
Further Reading
National Geographic info on wasps
Bees versus wasps, from the A&M Extension Services
Details on different kinds of wasps, from the A&M Extension Services
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no subject
Date: 2014-08-06 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-06 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-06 10:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-07 02:20 am (UTC)Which one(s) were you looking at? The stuff I have and the couple of other ones sold as "wasp and hornet killer" don't say that. Only one even says "cover aquariums", though they do say "don't spray on pets" (I'd say "Duh!", but such idiocy is why we can't have nice pesticides.) Course, they're labeled/registered for outdoor use only, so I wonder if it's mostly legal ass-covering.
But think about it for just a minute, preferably before you kill all of your own neurons while accidentally huffing the stuff: if it is a fast-acting neurotoxin, do you really want to be spraying it about all willy-nilly?
Please be careful with your wording. Huffing wasp and hornet killer will cause brain damage, but that's because it's 99+% light hydrocarbons (probably propane). The pyrethroids in the stuff don't kill nerve cells; that's not how they work (jam a Na channel, preventing repotentiation). Even military nerve agents don't do that (ACh-ase inhibitors).
Even if it's targeting a type of neuroreceptor that occurs at a very low density in humans, it will still be targeting a whole host of other, innocent bystanders, too.
Well, sure, off-target activity is a problem with most of the household insecticides -- see above about nice things -- but people who spray this stuff like it was water get what they deserve: a garden with no bugs.
So, get in the habit of walking swiftly past that section of the hardware store, and dispose of all existing insecticides as the hazardous waste that they are.
Eh, as a scientist, I much prefer people get in the habit of critically thinking about claims and evidence. ;)
That said, I've had to use chemical warfare on the hymenopertans only three times, and all after other methods failed. I actually get along with the order pretty well; for whatever reason, they don't seem to find me at all threatening.
Any idea how well they can learn? I usually have at least one bumblebee nest in my gardens, and they seem to habituate to me. (Sometimes too well. :) ) Usually by this time of year, they don't seem to notice me at all, even if I'm practically touching them. (I did touch one once accidentally, and it just flew away.)
no subject
Date: 2014-08-07 01:32 pm (UTC)Toxicologists note that "the dose makes the poison," so in that respect my inclination is to stay away from things that don't provide a wide margin of safety, especially when I know I want to be able to spend a lot of my time with someone who is very sensitive to them.
A part of this post has been in response to the reactions by undergraduates here to the insects they encounter. I know part of it is cultural, but there's a strong tendency in the South to apply the "kill it with fire!" approach to pest control, and this country has a long history of denial and abuse when it comes to chemical control methods (as in, we're still exporting DDT, despite everything we know about its bioaccumulation). Certainly, things like antibiotics have been revolutionary for human health and well-being, so I also get fed up with the ZOMG CHEMICALS ARE POISONING US!! people. But I still think the larger thing to fight is the abuse of biological control agents in household settings (see, e.g., the success of almost the entire Swiffer industry). I extend this to even things like bleach, because I am personally sensitive to levels of chlorine that don't seem to bother most other people (I can swim in a chlorine pool, but don't ask much of me for the rest of the day after that).
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Regarding Hymenopteran learning: As tends to be the case, most of what we know comes from the cows of the insect world, domesticated European honey bees. There have been fairly extensive studies of olfactory conditioning and learning in European honey bees, which is stuff that's highly developed in bees as a part of foraging behavior, and the bees are very much capable of learning to associate different smells with nectar rewards (generally tested by puffing an odor across the antennae, and then measuring the proboscis extension reflex). I wouldn't be too surprised if bees habituate to certain circumstances, and I've definitely seen the inverse (Africanized honey bee colonies showing heightened response to repeated disturbance). In your Apis case, I would guess the bees were responding to a specific odor - perhaps a deodorant?
More examples of "kill it with fire!" gone wrong...
Date: 2014-08-08 06:45 pm (UTC)Man Sparks House Fire While Trying to Kill Ants: http://eberesamuel.blogspot.com/2014/08/man-sparks-house-fire-while-trying-to.html
Woman Sets Fire to Her Home Wile Trying to Kill Spider: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/07/woman-fire-spider_n_5657015.html
Texas Woman Sets Snake on Fire, Snake Sets Her House on Fire: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/woman-sets-fire-snake-burns-house-article-1.1296414