Wasps - love them or hate them .....

[fabindia]

I was telling one of my colleagues at work yesterday about wasps, and by strange coincidence, there was a feature on wasps today the BBC website relating much the same account.

Anyway, you may have noticed that wasps are generally not a nuisance in the early spring but come the autumn, they are all over the picnic tables, barbecues and cans of coke and beer, etc. There is a reason for this according to my beekeeping book (section on bee evolution) that I was reading at the weekend.

Like bees, wasps live in colonies, and like bees, the female worker wasps, tend and feed the young larva. Unlike bee larva, however, young wasp larva are carnivorous, and the adult workers bring them food such as caterpillars, aphids, grubs, etc. In return, the larva, excrete a sweet, sticky substance that in turn feeds the worker wasps and encourages them to go off hunting again, get rewarded again, and so it goes on. Unlike a bee colony, which works together to store food for colony in order to to survive the winter, only the queen wasps survive the winter. As a result, come the autumn, less larva are raised, and hence the worker wasps become somewhat redundant. Worse still they are not getting their sweet 'fix' from the brood larva and they go in search of anything else that is sweet and sticky, rather than hunting for food for the young. Hence, the nuisance they cause.

All sort of makes sense once you understand the cycle of wasp life.

The BBC website has had a few problems lately, so if I can find the article I will post a link later.

[HazellB]

Interesting stuff, thanks for posting it.

As somebody who used to have a nasty wasp and bee sting allergy, I was lucky enough not to be bothered by them for many years until last summer (when I discovered I'd almost grown out of the allergy as most people do). A few years previously I'd happily sat watching a hive forming in, then around, a bird nest box about ten feet from where I sit in my barn's doorway and never thought to move them. However, come late summer they got quite nasty and my partner moved them up the field one dull afternoon. If I'd known, we could have fed them sugar and left them alone. I feel mean and bad now

[Mo]

Hazel. It seems that I feel about wasps what you feel about snakes. I was saying 'leave it alone and be glad you've got it' under my breath to the other thread. But OH has just been to the garden centre for wasp powder to deal with the colony going through the knothole in the barge board, and those finding a gap under the roof tiles.
How long does wasp powder last - the old stuff doesn't seem to work and I'm sure we bought it this century.
I'm allergic to stings too (after half a hive up my veil) and carry antihistamines which I always need while fruit picking - they seem to be at their worst just as the pears are ripe (just before WE think they are ripe, so we have to pick them early or be left with a skin & core). It must look silly, fruit picking in gloves, but I think it cuts down the amount of venom.

[enigmatica]

It's good to see a positive set of posts for the much maligned wasp. If we're lucky the weather will persuade them to keep their brood going a bit longer than usual.

[fabindia]

Found the link. It was on Radio 5 Live.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p023c4ry