Idk if it’s a species difference, but European yellow jacket wasps are pretty fucking chill. I’ve only been or seen someone get stung if they accidentally squish/step on them.
On the other hand they’re soooo persistent about stealing my food and bait. Like no, you can’t steal meat from my fork, fuck off. gets slapped, and comes back with 5 more sisters to bully me out of my lunch. It’s especially bad in late summer and so we have to eat indoors because of them.
Hornets can go fuck themselves though and I try to kill them on sight if they’re around the house.
I got stung by a wasp when I was a kid literally just for sitting in the backseat. I had done nothing at all, and I got stung like three times.
I used to own a house with two pear trees. I learned to pick up any fruit that dropped, because the pear juice would ferment under the skin in the warm sun, the wasps would pierce the skin and drink the pear liqueur, and then relentlessly chase me around the yard. It turns out that wasps are belligerent drunks, which shouldn’t be surprising.
There’s a portion of my porch with a ramp where they clearly didn’t measure the width of the poles in the side of the ramp guard rail so there’s visible gaps in the top and bottom portions where it meets the actual rail and wasps LOVE to hover on in there and poke around, up to no good. I assume they’re after moisture or other insects but i want them to leave
Bees on the other hand, are very fun drunks.
I was friends with a hive for years. One year they invited me to a spring bee-kegger. Many were just dancing, but some were so drunk they couldn’t lift-off from the grass because they couldn’t avoid the grass blades long enough to get into the sky.
I started providing a lift-off service so the drunk ones could keep dancing. Some of them were so drunk they just started snuggling my hand and would crawl into the nooks between my fingers and pass out for a while before waking refreshed and hitting the dance swarm again.
When I got home my daughter ran to me and gave me a hug. She jumped back so suddenly I was worried she almost killed a stray bee hiding somewhere and got stung.
“Where have you been?!” She said to me.
“Oh, I’ve been at a bee party all afternoon. They invited me. They were very drunk. It was amazing”
“Oh, that makes sense then. You smell like the essence of flowers, but not in a good way.”did you know that sober bees kick drunk bees out of the hive and dont let them in until they habe been sober for a while, and if they get violent/do it often they might be maimed by guard bees?
I did not. Thank you for the tidbit.
Everything seemed to be fine the next day. There were no forlorn bees outside any of the entrances (it was a Huge hive), and there were none hanging out at my house, where the sad boys usually spend a day or two after getting kicked out.
It was hundreds and hundreds of drunken bees. So I think they got a pass.
maybe the whole hive got drunk, including the guards, bees dont really tolerte drunks(and returning sick i think) because they can contaminate the hive and all the stored up honey, rosking a hive collapse, i bet the whole colony had a hangover xD
This is likely the best thing I will read today.
I’ve been stung by a bee exactly twice in my life. Both unfortunate accidents where the bee and I collided.
I have long since lost count of how many times I have been stung by wasps just for being near them.
Bees don’t make nests above my door, or under my patio awning. Or generally everywhere outside I need to be. Fuck them wasps.
Ha, same for bee stings. Once on I put my hand into one the ground, once swung my hand and hit one mid air that was just flying and didn’t expect me to move the way I did. Bees are alright.
If it has a stinger, doesn’t make me honey, and is at all aggressive toward humans, it’s kill on sight. Idc if it’s a pollinator or w/e - either the other pollinators can fill in the gap after its death/extinction, or the ecosystem collapses… which we’re speedrunning the latter anyway, so fuck it, we’re not going to make a significant impact on the global collapse of life by being a little extra aggressive to fuckers like wasps, mosquitos, etc.
It’s really because bees are fuzzy and able to be seen in a cute light whereas wasps are more metal and scary looking.
It’s also because wasps seem to be a lot more agressive, and will follow you, whereas your average bee just wants to get back to their flower.
whereas your average bee just wants to get back to their flower
that’s really all some of want, too.
Yeah but maybe if an invasive species didn’t try to nest IN MY FUCKING LIGHT FIXTURES then we wouldn’t be having this convo
I had more than that - a bunch of nests that didn’t die over the winters in my house’s attic when I bought it, behind the kneewalls. I must have killed thousands of wasps that summer. But then! They left their dirty wasp pheromones everywhere so wasps come back year after year trying to put new nests up. I have never had such a difficult relationship with an animal before. But that was before Argentine ants started attacking… fuck those bastards
Last time I was stung by a wasp I was just standing on the street. I wasn’t even moving. I was standing for about 30 minutes waiting when suddenly a wasp came, stung me on the neck and went away flying.
It was a “fuck you in particular” with qll the letters.
Literally my exact story with some Minor details.
Standing at bus stop, arms crossed, staring into distance, 15 minute wait
Watched the fucker fly from across the street, land on my arm, sting me, fly away
That happened to me too. I was standing in line at the bakery and got stung in the neck by a fucking wasp I didn’t even see coming. Fuck those guys.
I don’t know, they’re not all created the same. When I’m in the pool, I let bees land on me, or will fish them out of the water with my hands. Paper wasps look super frightening, but they’re even more docile than honey bees. Yellow jackets on the other hand are complete assholes. We had a nest of them in the yard once and they would go way out of their way to sting people, just for the hell of it. Like not anyone close to the nest or anything, just someone on the patio chilling. I would leave a beehive, but I eradicated the yellow jacket nest.
Yellow jackets on the other hand are complete assholes. We had a nest of them in the yard once and they would go way out of their way to sting people, just for the hell of it.
This was my experience too. I had thought that bees had moved into a bush in my yard. I was happy to have bees there. A week later I was mowing the grass and felt several stabs of pain on my back and wrist. I turn around and see the air is filled with them. I had swatted one in my escape and had a corpse to inspect later and found it was a Yellow jacket wasp. From a distance I could see they were entering and exiting a hole near the bottom of the bush. A quick internet search later I knew that they were nearly dormant at night, and that they need a special oil they produce on the outside of their body to breath. Dawn dish soap apparently strips that away and they die, and its not toxic to the ground or environment.
I put half a bottle of Dawn squirted into their hole at the bottom of the bush at night. I never saw another Yellowjack wasp.
Live by the stinger, die by the stinger
Ugh, sounds awful, but glad you found a solution. I don’t remember what I put down the hole they had at the base of a tree. Wasn’t dawn, I don’t think.
I wasn’t prepared for those stings on my skin to still be hurting some a week later.
Oh, they’re SO painful. Really unnecessarily nasty.
I don’t know if this is true but I’ve heard yellow jackets get intoxicated on fermenting fruit and become mean drunks.
It’s true, I used to be a yellow jacket
What do you mean? Are you not French anymore?
Yep, paper wasps are chill as fuck. I had a hive of them living on my deck under the hand rail. I’d go out and chill with them daily with my coffee during that summer. They would stare at me for a bit. Then get back to eating bits of my deck.
I’m so confused, the paper wasps around here are territorial assholes. Had a nest built on my porch and had to stop using that door. We let them be because we built the house in their woods, but they were definitely not chill at all haha
Edit: Did some learning, the regional species of paper wasps we encounter are known not only for their aggression but also their vastly more painful sting. Wonderful!
Which region if I may ask? Id love to know where never to camp ;)
Ozark Mountains! But you should definitely still camp here, I live in the woods and wouldn’t trade this area for anything!
It looks wonderful on pictures, but I live in Norrbotten, Sweden so its a bit far away for a camping trip
Norbotten is gorgeous! I’ll come camp with you, you come camp with me?!
Its very much summer now
They’re fun to watch because they often grab caterpillars from plants and take them away or eat them nearby. Great for gardens.
I think we can all agree this fucker deserves some hate, though:
Is that the Japanese hornet that eats whole colonies of bees?
Asian giant hornet, yeah.
Aka the MuRdEr hornet
I cut down a tree yesterday for a few reasons. One was that these bastards were way too interested in it and it’s right next to my house’s door (the other was roots damaging the house as it grew bigger and blocking light in my window). I had one in the house the first year we moved here and that was not a fun experience.
Please tell me you’re not in the PNW. I thought we had eradicated the fuckers on this side of the big pond.
(sorry about the tree though. that sucks.)
I’m in rural Japan.
My favorite wasps are the wood-boring parasitoid varieties. Ovipositors twice as long as the rest of their bodies, and they drill holes in trees and logs to get to the grubs in the wood to lay an egg. They’re incredibly chill to be around and tons of fun to watch while they work
Ovipositors twice as long as the rest of their bodies
OwO
A bee has never aggressively investigated my lunch and refused to fuck off when I’m eating outside.
the ones inspecting human food are one of the few agressive species. take care and maybe set up some traps at the table
3d print a fake hornet nest and put it near or on the table. Scares away wasps
But does it attract hornets?
Also trap the nest with glue
Only if it has curb appeal
Like I’d happily spare some if they’d just get the fuck out of my face
Decoy plate: put a lil food for ‘em a distance away from ya. Blew my mind when I first saw someone do that
This is wasp propaganda.
Bees have never chased me down to sting me. Wasps however…
I’ve been chased by bees.
I once cut down a dead tree, not knowing that it contained a bees nest. They chased me until I jumped into a nearby creek. That was not fun.
Well that sounds like fair game. I support humans who kill belligerent wasps, and I support bees who sting belligerent humans
I used to keep bees. They absolutely do go psycho mode on occasion. They hate, absolutely hate, the smell of banana. Also, when they are in a mission to sting you, they are terrifying. They go for your ears, eyes and mouth, and they do it with precision.
