Transcript:

Today on Animal Fact Files we’re going to be talking about wasps. If you like learning facts about animals then subscribe to this channel so you can stay up to date on all the new content.

So this episode was inspired by our collaboration with the Midnight Marinara channel. We did a reading of a creepypasta that had some wasps in it and just had to cover them as an homage. I’ll be honest; I went into the research for this one wearing wasp repellent armor because I, like a lot of people, am absolutely terrified of wasps. And I pretty much was expecting to talk about how profoundly horrible they are. But gosh darn it! Wasps are like super insect allies to us and they do a lot to keep the environment in balance. I guess everything has its place. Its stinging, buzzing, flying, darting and probably kill you in your sleep since they took up residence in your curtains unbeknownst to you place. *sigh* Well, I guess I ought to explain.

So wasps are part of the same order as bees and ants. Basically anything that is not a bee or an ant in that order is a wasp. That means that yellow-jackets are wasps and hornets are wasps, too. Bees and ants are not wasps, they’re just really closely related. Also, there are TENS of THOUSANDS of wasp species. Don’t buy your ticket to Jupiter just yet, though. See, wasps are split up into two groups, social wasps and solitary wasps. Solitary wasps are generally, well, just that, and won’t bother you. It’s the social wasps you probably think of when your blood starts pumping at the sound of that low hum. Uh-uh. Here’s the thing, though, only about 1,000 species of wasp are social wasps meaning that the vast majority are generally non-stingers. That’s still 1,000 too many in my book, though.

The largest wasps can reach lengths of almost two inches (5cm) while the smallest are a mere 0.005 of an inch (127 micrometers). To put that into perspective the largest wasp is about half the width of your hand while the smallest could land on a single strand of human hair. That’s a pretty drastic difference and is just has me wondering why the stinging ones couldn’t all be that small. To be fair, though, like I said earlier, they are really beneficial. Most wasps help keep insect populations at bay and, like spiders, they’re some of the best pest controllers. To see a wasp in your garden is actually usually a good sign because they’ll help get rid of crop destroying insects like aphids and caterpillars. In fact, without wasps we wouldn’t even have fig fruit as they are its only pollinators.

So, maybe they aren’t all that bad. Still, seeing their nests gives me the heeby-jeebies. Like, uh-uh. Nope. NOPE! What’s surprising, though, is that a lot of wasp species build their nests underground - yes, like those yellow-jacket jerks. Most of the nests you may associate with wasps are built by a sub-family of wasps called paper wasps. Paper wasps build their nests out of wood fiber and saliva… yummy. Some other wasps might use mud, though, like mud-daubers whose nests you’ve more than likely come across on the sides of buildings or under bridges. It really just depends on the wasp and whether or not they’re social or solitary.

Plus, a lot of wasps actually only live for about a year. Most social wasps found outside of the tropics will be born in the springtime as part of a brood from their colony’s queen, and die before winter, eating a bunch of fruit as a sort of last hurrah before they die. As for solitary wasps, usually it’s all about the female emerging from hibernation, constructing nests and filling them with nutrients for her young such as insects and OH GOD that’s a tarantula. Yup. Nope. The young hatch, breed, and then start the cycle over. Kind of interesting if you think about it, or completely diabolical. Really though, you probably only see the same wasp in a single year, after that, it’s gone.

They also come in tons of colors. Of course there is the black with bright yellow strips or warning spots but they can be red and blue and pretty much anything in between. They’re pretty recognizable by their narrow waist, or their petiole and in fashion, we’ve followed the trend of aiming to be “wasp-waisted.”

So it would seem that wasps really aren’t all that bad. Sure, they still incite terror in me even when I see them through a closed window, but I think knowing a little more about them helps me to appreciate them just a little more. (Except yellow-jackets, screw those guy in particular amiright?)

For more information on wasps, because, trust me there is WAY more, we barely scratched the surface here, check out the links in the description. Let us know what childhood menace you would like us to cover next time! Also, if you want to check out the reading with did with Midnight Marinara, you’ll find a link in the description. Don’t get too spooped! Thank you for watching and be sure to give a thumbs up for more Animal Fact Files.