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TIL that wasps are pollinators. Not sure why but growing up I was always informed that they are not. They were predators who did not provide honey and so there was no need for them to be near flowers for pollen. Either I’m old or I grew up in a really shorty education system. (WhyNotBoth.gif)
Thanks to this image I looked it up and learned something. Thanks for teaching me something new today!
If you wanna learn about some more wasp pollination, look up fig wasps (Agaonidae). Wasps are legitimately one of the coolest groups of animals.
i mean that’s a pretty unusual pollinator/plant relationship
Indeed very cool, but also quite disturbing the more you learn about less common wasps…
Now tell me something nice about flies and mosquitoes so I don’t go on a murder rampage.
You’re probably thinking of the big guys, like hornets and paper wasps. Most wasps are tiny, and the average person would likely confuse them with a fly. There are thousands of wasp species ranging from top-level predators to tiny parasites
I was a wasp agnostic until I saw them pollinating the flowers in my yard. They aren’t all assholes. Some hornets are aggressive but most wasps are chill and helpful. Everyone loves bats though, don’t they?
There are 100,000+ wasp species, and many usually dont sting or target specific species / bugs, or are solitary
I had mason bees living in the brick around my garage. Instead of murdering them all. I put out an insect house on a nearby tree, than cemented over all their homes well they were empty.
They promptly redirected to the new home, everyone was happy. Sometimes you have to be creative and put in a tad more work to redirect supposed pests.
(If anything we humans are the “pests” and “invasive species” ahaha)
Too many people believe that keeping honey bees is good for the environment, when in fact it damages biodiversity since they outcompete native pollinators.
Honey bees also actively take pollen back to their hive, meaning relatively little of it is spread to other flowers. They’re also often involved pollen theft, where they take pollen, but don’t spread it appropriately at all.
Bees and ants are in the wasp family.
If wasps go, so to does much of the biodiversity among pollinators.
