…rather a lot as it happens. Wasps get a bad press but are actually an interesting, beneficial and ecologically important group of insects.

This article from Dave Hubble is a great look at these unsung heroes and cultural references to them. You’ll never look at a wasp in the same way again!

Wasps get a bad press because they can sting, buzz around us when we have sugary food, and are poorly understood, but are actually an interesting, beneficial and ecologically important group of insects. There are about ten species of ‘typical’ wasps, including the hornet, in Britain, but depending on how ‘wasp’ is defined, there are something like 250 – 300 species, not including the 1,000-plus species of parasitic ichneumons which are related but aren’t really ‘wasps’. A few dozen of these are black-and-yellow to some extent, but most are not, and many are small. The more familiar species are social, much like honey bees, living in a nest with an egg-laying queen and sterile workers – sometimes you might see them scraping at wood to form pulp which they use to make the paper of their nest. Others are very different such as the bright metallic green, blue or red ‘jewel wasps’ which are tiny and beautiful – and may well be found in your garden. Others, like the potters and masons, make small mud turrets over the entrance to their burrows, or small mud ‘pots’ as nests.

However, although they can damage fruit crops, this is massively outweighed by their benefits as
important (if under-appreciated) pollinators as they collect nectar (hence being attracted by our
food and drink), and predators and parasites of more troublesome invertebrates, including a lot of larvae and flies that are considered crop pests. They are also food for a lot of other animals including many bird species.

There are many cultural references to wasps, from Aristophanes’ 422 BC play The Wasps, (referring to a chorus of old men), to science-fiction (H.G. Wells wrote about giant wasps), animation (Chip and Muffin in Antz), sport (Wasps rugby union team), wasps-waists produced by terrifying levels of corsetry, and the term ‘waspish’ meaning ‘easily angered’… talking of which, let’s finish with stings.

As we know, the familiar species can sting, but only do so if threatened. Most commonly this means approaching a nest too closely or swatting at them; this happens most in late summer as colonies stop producing new workers and the existing ones search for sugary foods (which we have with us in the sunny outdoors). It hurts, but unless you have a serious allergy to them, which is quite rare, isn’t harmful. Unlike honey bees, they can sting repeatedly, but venom takes a lot of energy to produce so they don’t use it unless necessary. Hornets in particular are quite docile despite their large size; ironically, wasps aren’t particularly waspish. So, if a wasp crawls on you or is flying around you, don’t swat at it. If you are near a nest and they appear aggressive, simply move away – if there’s a nest somewhere you can’t avoid, call a specialist to remove it. Other than that, watch them, enjoy them, and see how many species you can spot.

If you enjoyed this, read more from Dave Hubble: