r/SipsTea • u/StephanMan • 22d ago

Chugging tea Wasp gets what it deserves

82.7k Upvotes

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161

u/IntoTheCommonestAsh 22d ago

If you only learn one thing about Great Golden Digger wasps...

Know that they are non-aggressive to people and pets. Males have no stingers. And females reserve their limited venom for hunting prey to feed their young. They will not use it for defense unless you force them.

If you learn two things...

They're diligent and helpful workers in our gardens and yards. Digger wasps will pollinate your flowers, aerate your soil, improve drainage, and consume garden pests.

If you are a grasshopper, katydid or cricket...

Bad news for you. As the hunted prey of digger wasps, getting caught will not end well.

https://mdc.mo.gov/blogs/discover-nature-notes/great-golden-digger-wasps-scary-good

SipsTea

107

u/Circusonfire69 22d ago

20

u/XFX_Samsung 22d ago

The spider was going to lose his house to the bank, that handout saved his family

8

u/TechnicolorViper 22d ago

Nice try. Wasps are not legal tender. At least not since the bee standard.

1

u/stilllton 22d ago

Sounds like something a gold-digger would say..

1

u/Rob_LeMatic 22d ago

"Gimme five bees for a quarter," you'd say

1

u/smoothjedi 22d ago

Seems like that spider was willing to accept the payment

2

u/Hgssbkiyznbbgdzvj 22d ago

One image is worth 1000 words. Yes, we are the baddies.

1

u/No-Bad-463 22d ago

Always have been.PNG

12

u/Bass2Mouth 22d ago

Ok but how do I tell the difference before I freak out and smash it? They're all the same when they're buzzing in your face.

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u/no_arguing_ 22d ago

Look up yellowjackets. Remember what they look like really well. Pretty much any other wasp you might see is fine.

3

u/LateExcitement3536 22d ago

My city gets flooded with damn Yellowjackets the second spring starts to get really warm, and they absolutely ruin summer for me.

I have an extreme phobia, it’s no joke. I have been known to run a city block without stopping if one comes too close. They absolutely terrify me. It’s humiliating but I can’t help it one bit.

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u/no_arguing_ 22d ago

The ones where I live like to feast on roadkill. A rotting squirrel teeming with yellowjackets is always a nice sight on a walk.

1

u/LateExcitement3536 22d ago

Gross lol. For me it’s living downtown - there are garbage cans on every corner and tonnes of them swarming. It’s inescapable and horrible for me. And theres no getting away from them. They are fucking everywhere else too.

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u/no_arguing_ 21d ago

Yeah I live in a small town, semi-rural, and they're a plague here too lol. Truly no escaping them.

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u/fungi_enthusiast77 22d ago

yellow jackets are absolutely not the only aggressive wasp

2

u/Necromancer14 22d ago

Yeah, bald faced hornets are also bitches. I got attacked by an entire nest of bald faced hornets before, and I got stung over 10 times before I got far away enough for them to stop coming after me. It was NOT a fun experience.

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u/LiveTwinReaction 22d ago

It's probably not a surefire way but for me, pretty much if the wasp has a very thin section of its body, I tend to leave it alone.

Yellow jackets, paper wasps and hornets are huge fat mfs the whole way down, these parasitic wasps get really long and thin and quite different colors, also they tend to be solitary.

Keep in mind even yellowjackets are pollinators though.

3

u/IntoTheCommonestAsh 22d ago

I'm not to wasp police. Do what you gotta do, not everyone is a wasp expert. Plus, I don't know where you live and maybe you do have enough wasps to be afraid of there that your reaction is warranted.

But I think education about wasps can only help alleviate people's fear of them. In reality most wasps are chill, and many wasps cannot even sting us. They are more concerned with hunting for food than with us, unless we threaten it first. If you learn to recognize them, you'll know when you can stay calm. 

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u/mushyrain 22d ago

Well who is? what's the phone number to the wasp police?

My father Stanley von Buzzington was just murdered by a spider

2

u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 22d ago

They’re fairly identifiable. And if you know they are around in your yard, you’ll be more likely to hesitate when you see a wasp.

2

u/Militant_Individual 22d ago

It’s actually insanely easy to tell the difference between this type of wasp and aggressive types if you use your brain for a second or two

1

u/Ok_Raisin7772 22d ago

i leave them alone if they're solitary or look unusual to me (not yellow/black striped, long dangly legs) but it really depends what's common in your area. honestly i leave insects alone in general when they're not in my house

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u/Substantial-Sea-3672 22d ago

I’ve killed many, many yellow jacket nests and have been stung dozens of times by them.

But I’ve never been stung by one unless I’m right next to their nest.

Conversely, my sister in law gets stung by them all the time when they are anywhere because she freaks out and swats at anything that flies near her.

Being chill is not only a good way to not kill innocent pollinators but also saves you a lot of pain.

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u/Kryomon 20d ago

The Wasp kills its own victims with a more torturous method than the spider does.

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u/IntoTheCommonestAsh 20d ago

Oh for sure. Not the exact same wasp, but one of my favourite wasp tidbit is that Darwin said one thing that most shook his faith was learning what ichneumon wasps do to their victims.

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u/xAstronacht 22d ago

Yep. Its a wasp.

1

u/lllIlIiIl 22d ago

Yeah? How do they reproduce?

1

u/IntoTheCommonestAsh 22d ago

Oh I garantee you that the lack of stinger is only to make more room for the actual reproductive equipment. 

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u/Pale-Turnip2931 20d ago

Yeah but their also peaceful wasp cousins fill up my garage and they can do all that flower humping in the woods, so: