I just want to share some notes about Wasps .. and to offer the reminder that these winged-creatures are our friends. But like any friend, if you assault them with negative energy, they will respond accordingly.
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After having visiting Wasps in our garden on the remote Somerset Levels and being, what we thought, pestered by them; my partner and I re-thought the strategy of being part of Nature that has to co-exist. Instead of trying to push them away and make them angry by our actions we decided to allow them their own space within ours. Now my partner feeds several hundreds of wasps daily from late July on when they start to appear. They are fed on Honey, Jam, Fruit. So far after 3 years; they seem very social creatures, a sentry wasp comes to the door when they need food and flies around to let know and then flies back. So far sitting with them, photographing them within inches of the food, no stings. They land on the camera/s, investigate – fly off. They land on hands, arms and, once again, investigate and then fly off. This year the garden has been very quiet with Greenfly/Blackfly. They can be comical when watched especially in sticky Honey when they try to fly off and when coated, as they can get, others come and clean them up. I feel they know we are not a threat. They do have their moments with each other, usually short term (maybe different colonies?), they seem to be very aware that none are in danger. I am fascinated by their presence, which was much less this year until this past few weeks when the numbers have risen. As to their purpose, just think of the rotting fruit they dispatch, the other insects they keep down and if we are silly enough to eat sweet foods in ‘nature’s’ garden and attract them and then try to ‘swipe’ them then they have a reason to retaliate I guess, all creatures have a purpose and before we call the ‘kettle black’ just look at how we act – and then we call ourselves ‘civilized’ – no, I think Nature has it sorted out, it’s us that need to realize we don’t own the World in our arrogance to believe we are ‘more than’, we simply are part of a greater whole. M. Dixon – Somerset UK
(This website no longer exists, but this is my source …. http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,,-1158,00.html)
There is a delicate balance between predators and prey in the world’s ecology, and wasps are part of that balance. They may appear to just be a pest, but they also do a lot of good in keeping other insect pests under control. They are really a gardener’s friend. For most of the year we are not particularly aware of the wasps around us, it is only at the end of the season when they become a nuisance. A knowledge of the wasp’s life cycle will help understand this.
Mated queen wasps hibernate during the winter and emerge in spring. The queens find suitable nesting sites and begin to build a nest out of a form of paper, made from chewed wood fibres. During this time they will visit flowers and feed on nectar — this is the one time when wasps are pollinators. The queen lays eggs and feeds the larvae on insect prey. The insect bodies are chewed into a liquid which is fed to the grubs. When these first worker wasps emerge they take over most of the queen’s duties, except for egg laying. Wasp colonies rapidly increase in size and in just a few weeks populations of 20,000 are quite possible.
Adult wasps feed on nectar or anything sugary. They feed their larvae on insect prey and the larvae exude a sugary liquid on which the adults feed. They are more beneficial to us than people realize: one worker wasp can collect over 100 aphids a day.
At the end of the season, the colony will produce drone wasps and new queens. They go off to mate and for the queens to find somewhere to hibernate. The old queen stops laying, and this is where the nuisance phase starts. No eggs means no larvae; and no larvae means no sugary feed. The wasps have to find alternative sources of food such as ripening fruit, jam, and beehives for the honey.
When the cold weather comes, all of the wasps will die, except for the hibernating new queens.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_purpose_of_a_wasp
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… with gratitude ^_^