Wasps buzz with unknown facts
By Lisa Racz, October 2009
Environment Editor
Wasps are a common sight in Arizona, but what is not commonly known about the wasp might be a surprise.
Wasps come in an array of sizes, shapes and colors with diets ranging from the predator that hunts other insects to the vegetarian that eats strictly vegetation or sap and some that collect pollen for their larvae.
Wasps get nick names from their brilliant coloring and by the way they build their nests, such as the common Arizona yellow jacket known for constructing a single mud pearl for its nest, not to be mistaken for the splotched mud nest that the black striped mud dauber makes, as if mud was daubed on something. Then there is the paper wasp or hornet, also know for their bright yellow coloring, yet they build a hexagon-shaped paper nest.
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Photo by Lisa Racz
A wasp drinking sap on a hot summer day. |
There are some facts about the wasp that are not known to all. Most regard the wasp as a common pest, an insect.
On the contrary, Carl Olson, known as “The Bug Man” and associate curator for the Department of Entomology at the University of Arizona says, “Wasps are mini-animals with a heart. They eat and bring up their young just like large animals do. They have important roles just like everything else on this planet, such as being part of bug management.”
Life and Routine
Wasps are social animals that live in colonies and will protect the survival of their colony by attacking and stinging only if they feel their nest is in direct danger. Like other small animals, the life of a wasp is not long.
“Depending on the species, most workers, who are all female, will die off in less than a year while the queen will live up to a year after emerging sometime in September,” says Olson. “Males are used for procreation purposes and soon die afterwards.”
Wasps have a sleeping mode that is different than most when they settle down for the night.
“Wasps don’t have eyelids to close, but they fall into a sleep like state by slowing their metabolism for the night. Almost like suspended animation where all their systems and senses come almost to a stop especially in the winter,” says Olson.
Female wasps are more aggressive than the males, and they are the ones who give the burning stings that characterize their reputation. Males are mimics of the female and don’t sting at all.
“The female wasp is more the worrier who protects her young, her workers and the queen,” says Olson.
Sensory Characteristics
Animals and insects have innate senses as well as habitually formed senses that are needed for basic survival, but what of the wasp? Can they see, hear, taste and feel?
“Wasps have compound eyes and see clearly, even in the ultra violet wave length,” explains Olson. “Their brains see images as well as color, especially red and yellows for pollinating wasps and greens for the predator to spot out grass eating grubs.”
Tasting is a unique trait for the wasp as they have several ways to taste other than by their mouths.
“They can taste with receptors on part of the mouth,” according to Olson. “Wasps can even taste with receptors on the feet and are thought to possibly taste while they walk.”
Most know animals hear by their ears, but in the case of the wasp, they have sensory devises on their body.
Wasps hear vibration through their antenna and body hairs and can determine normal movement from that of prey by the sound of wing beats or buzzing, says Olson.
Food for Wasps
The wasp has two types of diet. You have the wasp that strictly eats vegetation and the wasp that preys on other insects. You might see a wasp appearing to be resting on a bush when it could be sucking the liquid from the branch, especially in hotter months.
Most wasps are predators such as the “Cicada Killer” or more commonly know as the huge yellow jacket.
“Like the ant, wasps have the strength to carry prey three times the size of themselves, such as a cicada, which it takes back to its burrow for food,” explains Olson. “Some wasps such as the mud dauber eat other wasps and also the black widow spider.”
Deter Wasps Naturally
As wasps are an important part of the bug population management, so is their predator, the bird. Since wasps live in large colonies and can sometimes move into city locations possibly causing some human grief, there are natural ways to diminish the colony or to deter them from backyards.
“First, you can place birdseed near a wasp nest attracting the birds’ appetite to the seed and eventually to the wasps,” says Olson. “You can try hanging garlic near the nest as it is fowl smelling to the wasp or have the nest removed, hopefully before the young are laid.”
Humans as well as animals have innately learned to avoid yet live with the existence of wasps for centuries and will have future interaction with the wasp in one way or another.
“If you understand the wasp life, the fear can be lessened,” says Olson. |
