Wasps No More

this is an absolutely gorgeous shot. Like you I'm terrified of them (my mother's badly allergic to them and I have a minor allergy myself) but I hate to think of those deaths as well

Thank you, Dhamaka. Yeah, allergic here too. We don't have paper wasps at our place, and I hope they never settle here, as there wouldn't be much choice about destroying them. I just wish it wasn't necessary.

Fantastic image

Thank you, JD. I shot this on my desk, which being black gives me a nice background.

Wonderful, wonderful image. I'm not bothered by wasps really. I was in a meeting with bigwig directors and associate directors when a wasp flew into the room. The power brokers scatttered. I think one even started talking in a funny jittery voice. I finsihed the water in my glass and turned it over to trap the wasp.

Thank you, Taniwha. I don't get bothered by the ones we have, they do live in cracks and such at our place. During the summer, they do get inside, but it's usually only one at a time. They get trapped and relocated. I might freak if a huge nest of paper wasps decided to locate in our yard and got territorial.

It took Rick over a decade to calm me down about wasps and bees, even though I didn't like killing them. They used to follow me, try to land on me - Rick was astonished when he saw that firsthand, he hadn't quite believed me when I told him.

Stunning shot!

I have a strong aversion to wasps too. Particularly since I've had a more severe reaction to each sting I've received (five in total) and should probably carry an epipen with me.

One thing about wasps, unlike bees, is that they are not necessarily going to leave you alone if you stand still. They are hunters and meat eaters and I reckon that, in evolutionary terms, there is actually an advantage to them in stinging a large animal, which may die and become a source of food or the substrate on which food animals will breed. In a sense there is no immediate consequence to them, apart from the indirect likelihood of being swatted, unlike bees who will die because they cannot remove the sting without eviscerating themselves.

I'm not at all bothered by wasps and also admire their building skills. We have a nest in the roof but as no one here has any allergies as far as we're aware we've adopted a live and let live policy towards the stripey ones. With the onset of the colder weather they have now died off or whatever it is they do this time of the year.

Thank you, Euphro. Yes, most of the wasps I've run into you could categorize as fearless. A lot of them, downright aggressive. Our neighbor said neither he or his wife could even set foot in their back yard without being swarmed, so I understand killing the nest off. Seems a shame though. I'm very lucky in that the wasps that habituate our house are solitary and not on the aggressive side.

Twiglet, that's very cool you can live and let live. I'll have to get after Rick to post the pics of their nest. We don't do anything about ours, but as I said, they aren't aggressive.

Thanks for the highlight, hl fairy.

Great shot!! Looks like I could touch it.

Thank you, Looker! I have the wasps in one of my little tins. Such fragile things.

I have had internet connection problems and been so busy over the last few weeks that I have been missing out on so much on the blog, however, I have a free evening this evening so am doing a big 'catch up' .... and I have been so looking forward to catching up on your blog :) .... starting here and working backwards ....

I have always been in awe of the building skills of wasps (and bees and termites) .... however, I too, have an allergic reaction to their stings, so sadly, we have to spray any nests we find in our loft ...

Same here, Maggie. Their building skills are astonishing. It's a shame these decided to build in town. If they settled on a half mile out or so, they could have built on several old, unused barns and been unmolested.