How We Can Stop Hating Wasps

Recent studies have shown that wasps are among the most loathed of all insects. Consequently, much time and money is wasted on trying to eradicate them, especially by homeowners. Let’s consider why we have the attitudes we do, and how we can achieve coexistence with wasps.

A trio of Western Yellowjakcet workers dispatches a pest caterpillar.

Why do we hate wasps?

There are three main reasons wasps evoke fear and loathing.

• The sting. Females of some species can inflict painful stings on us tender humans. This is occasionally for self-defense, but mostly in defense of a nest full of immobile and otherwise vulnerable eggs, larvae, and pupae inside a nest. Only social wasps will bother us this way.
• Narrow definition of “wasp.” Most people equate the word “wasp” with “hornet,” “yellowjacket,” or “paper wasp.” All of these are social wasps, the ones most abundant in urban and suburban settings, and by far the ones we have the most negative encounters with. Some people recognize other kinds of wasps, particularly mud daubers, but consider their nests unsightly, a nuisance, or a potential threat. In reality, the overwhelming majority of wasps are solitary, like mud daubers, each female making her own nest, or using a host animal or plant in situ. Most wasps cannot sting people. Many cannot sting at all. Most are tiny, only ten millimeters or less in length.
• Social wasps exploit our habits and weaknesses. Yellowjackets (including the Bald-faced “Hornet,” and paper wasps make their nests in and around our homes and buildings. This is because our architecture mimics the cliff faces, rock overhangs, and natural hollows where they nest “in the wild.” A few yellowjacket species are scavengers, and your barbecue or picnic resembles an abandoned animal carcass that can be exploited. The wasps take protein matter back to the nest to feed their growing larval siblings. Meanwhile, your open soda or beer container offers sugary carbohydrates the adult wasps need to fuel their flight muscles. We like to think we are masters of our domain, or at least our private property, and wasps defy that desire with maddening efficiency.

Most wasps, like this "fairyfly," are tiny, solitary, and don't sting people.

Benefits of Tolerating Wasps

Positive outcomes from tolerating wasps, or even accommodating them, far outweigh any perceived benefits of eradication or control, excepting rare cases where you or another family member has hypersensitivity to insect venom, and there is demonstrable risk of a life-threatening incident.

• Saving money on products or services. This point is seldom made when arguing against the use of DIY pest control products, or the employment of professional pest control services, but it can be of profound financial consideration. Prevention is easier and more effective. More on that in a moment.
• Wasps are a pest control service. Most social wasps, even those that scavenge occasionally, are predatory on insects that are problematic in our yards, gardens, barns, and sheds. Solitary wasps are parasitoids of even more species that can be truly pestiferous. Among the hosts for wasps are caterpillars that eat garden plants, aphids that suck plant sap, flies that can potentially spread bacteria, cockroaches both outdoors and indoors, and spiders. There is scarcely any terrestrial arthropod that is not host to at least one wasp species.
• Wasps are pollinators. Technically, most wasps are “flower visitors,” coming to blossoms for nectar to fuel their flight muscles. They still effect pollination services, and there are some species in western North America that are obligate pollinators of certain wildflowers.
• Wasps dispose of animal carcasses. Those scavenging yellowjackets make quick work of the remains of small animal carcasses that vultures and other vertebrate scavengers ignore or cannot find. This prevents the accumulation of decaying animal matter, lessens risks to human health from problematic bacteria, and prevents explosions of filth flies that would otherwise use those dead animal resources.
• Wasps are a source of fascination and intrigue. Wasps can be easily and safely observed as they go about their activities of host-seeking, flower-visiting, and nest-making. You will be surprised by how many wasp species are living in obscurity in your yard and garden. Watching them will reveal amazing relationships with many other organisms.

Paper wasp nests can be safely observed and offer hours of fascination.

How do we get along?

We can prevent most negative encounters with wasps by taking a few precautions. It will literally save you physical pain and financial discomfort.

• Learn wasp body language. Paper wasps, the ones that make uncovered paper combs under eaves, in door and window frames, and elsewhere, are usually amicable neighbors. If you do approach a nest too closely, one or more wasps will stand on tiptoe and flare their wings. This means “back off.” You risk being stung if you ignore that warning.
• Inspect your yard regularly. Too often, underground yellowjacket nests, or those above ground, hidden in shrubs or rock walls, are not discovered until the lawnmower runs over one, or the hedge trimmer triggers an attack. Inspect your property thoroughly, including playground equipment, before using tools, or otherwise causing any strong vibration in the vicinity of a social wasp nest. It may take a little patience and keen observation to note the streams of wasps coming and going regularly from a specific location. Your kids may see them before you do.
• Serve beverages outdoors in clear glass or plastic.
Unattended beverages that are sweet or fermented will attract yellowjackets and other wasps that may crawl inside the container. Cans and opaque bottles mean that you will not notice a wasp inside. A sting to the tongue or throat can be a life-threatening experience regardless of whether you are allergic to stings.
• Cover food served outdoors. When not serving yourself or others, cover meats and sweets at the outdoor gathering. You can also set out a small, exposed plate of meat a good distance away from the serving table, to draw yellowjackets away.
• Seal cracks and crevices. To prevent wasps from nesting indoors, or seeking shelter in the winter, seal cracks and crevices. Mend holes in, or replace, window screens. Screen the attic vent with fine mesh. Replace worn weatherstripping around doors. This will help save on heating and cooling costs, too.
• Learn to recognize solitary wasps. Many wasps that are solitary may behave as if they are social. A large number of wasps flying low over your lawn are likely male wasps looking for females that have yet to emerge from the ground. An ominous gathering of iridescent blue mud daubers in a door frame at dusk means that males are bedding down for the night in a large group. Male wasps do not sting. Cicada killers are huge wasps, but solitary. Females may nest close together, making them appear social. Males keep watch over them and may fly “aggressively” to chase away any and all intruders. It is all bluff.

More information about wasps can be found in this blog, in my book Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect, and elsewhere. Online, the most reliable sources remain college, university, and museum websites with a “.edu” or “.org” suffix in the URL. Thank you in advance for sharing a link to this post in social media, neighborhood groups, and other outlets.

A solitary thread-waisted wasp with a caterpillar she stung into paralysis. It will be food for her single larval offspring at the bottom of an underground burrow.

Sources: Schmack, Juila M., Monika Egerer, Susan Karlebowski, Astrid E. Neumann, and Ulrike Sturm. 2024. “Overlooked and misunderstood: how urban community gardeners perceive social wasps and their ecosystem functions,” Journal of Insect Conservation.

"Bird Food"

Recently, in certain circles, insects have come to be defined as “bird food.” I was going to devote this post to describing why this is offensive, because it is, but it also occurred to me how hilarious this is, because it is that, too. Let us begin.

Western Meadowlark with sphinx moth caterpillar

The first question that may come to mind is, “What is not bird food?” Like pretty much all animals, birds need protein matter to grow, and fats and carbohydrates to burn for energy. Berries, seeds, insects, and small vertebrates are all on the menu for at least some birds. There is obviously the need for resource partitioning among them all in any given habitat or ecosystem.

Spiders. Insects are spider food, but we do not want to bring those arachnids center stage, because they are even more revolting than “bugs.”

Heck, back in the day, we were probably bird food. Some five hundred years ago, the now-extinct Haas Eagle, known in legends of the Maori as te Hokioi or Pouakai, is thought to have been capable of killing human children. It was a real bird, but there are obviously no firsthand accounts of its predatory behavior. At least we did not encounter the giant, flightless “terror birds,” members of the long-extinct family Phorusrhacidae, which ruled parts of modern-day South America during the Cenozoic era, pre-dating humans by a wide margin.

Turkey Vultures

According to the old cinematic and television westerns, dead people were frequently bird food. If old Festus hadn’t been seen for a while, the other cowboys would go looking for him. The next camera shot would be of vultures wheeling high above, and you knew that, sadly, they had found him. Today, we understand that vultures circling overhead means they are riding thermal updrafts. If they start descending, you know that they spotted poor Skippy.

Furthermore, insects are food for nearly every other organism. They are, arguably, more important to bats than birds. More important to anteaters, the aardvark, aardwolf, certain bears, marmosets….You get the picture, it is a complex network. Spiders. Insects are spider food, but we do not want to bring those arachnids center stage, because they are even more revolting than “bugs.” Please.

A crab spider female, Misumena vatia, with an arctic butterfly, Oenis sp.

The basic message I am sending is that to single out insects in particular as “bird food” is silly at best, and misleading at worst. Framing insects as bird food is, however, easily converted into memes, and other over-simplified media services. We are doing the natural world a disservice by dumbing-down its complexities, and certainly by turning other organisms into one-dimensional entities. We do not approve when other humans are racially-profiled, stereotyped, and pigeon-holed. Right?

Whatever it is that birds do for you, in visceral and emotional terms, is what insects do for me.

I get it. The bird food message is an attempt to convince homeowners and gardeners to landscape with native plants to feed the caterpillars and other insects that in turn feed the birds. That works on those who already understand the way nature works. Most people do not. Will they tolerate insects more now because “my [bugs] bring all the [birds] to the yard*?” Maybe, but not likely, and any necessary application nuances for their particular biome will be lost on them.

A much better message would be one lodged in economics. The average household can save an enormous amount of money in maintenance, and possibly water use, by replacing lawnscapes and ornamental plants with native grasses, forbs, shrubs, trees, and vines. Everyone can comprehend that dispensing with the mower, fuel or electricity for it, and expenditures on fertilizers and pesticides is a “win” for their pocketbook as well as the planet.

Chipping Sparrow and queen Western Yellowjacket

The overriding problem, from my perspective, is that categorizing insects as bird food demeans any other human interest in insects. It prioritizes “your birds” over “my insects.” That air of superiority is what is offensive. Whatever it is that birds do for you, in visceral and emotional terms, is what insects do for me. Please understand that, and respect that my passion for insects is no less admirable and valid than your enjoyment of birding.

* Modification of the lyric “milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard,” from “Milkshake,” a song by Kelis.

Guest Post: "Friend or Foe?"

by Caity Judd

Caity Judd is one of those people who I put in the category of “best friends I haven’t met in person yet.” She is curious, adventurous, and a tireless advocate for all things unsung and underappreciated, including fellow humans. The following is a post she made to a Facebook group that we both subscribe to. It is so eloquent and passionate that I asked if I could publish it here as a guest post. I am grateful that she agreed. I will have a brief postscript at the end….

Sphinx moth caterpillars, like this Manduca rustica, consume a LOT of foliage; but they turn into lovely moths which pollinate flowers that bloom at night.

”I want to take a minute to talk about how we think about our exoskeleton-wearing neighbors. People really like to label things and put things in boxes. I get it. I love labeling things and putting things in boxes. That’s part of why I like the ID/taxonomy part of entomology and arachnology so much. But sometimes the boxes we try to put things in are so black and white that they end up missing any nuance about very complicated situations.

‘Friend or foe?’ is one such example. There are very few examples of any kind of animal (including humans) that are all-beneficial or only problematic. Even if we only look at animals who have been dubbed ‘invasive’ in an area, if you look at how that animal exists within its home range ecology, things get complicated again. So, maybe it’s fair to say that spotted lanternflies or emerald ash borers are “foe” outside of their native range. But the vast majority of animals can’t be wrapped up neatly into those labels, even within a certain range.

Did you know that the particular species of ladybugs, mantises, and honey bees that most US gardeners seem to believe are “friends” aren’t from here? They all have negative impacts on local ecologies when introduced to places they don’t come from. Are they ‘friend’ just because they are useful to us? They’re really not even as useful as people seem to largely believe; adult ladybugs and mantises often don’t stick around long enough to serve their utility for the person who introduced them. The idea that honey bees are solely responsible for pollinating food crops is hogwash. Instead, these animals displace their native counterparts, throwing off the balance even further.

’Friend’ and ‘foe’ are labels that artificially limit your understanding of the interactions of plants and animals in a geographic area. There’s nothing wrong with fondly calling something you happen to like ‘friend’; that’s different than trying to smush everything into a one-or-the other category. Instead of asking ‘friend or foe,’ perhaps we should attempt better, more complete understanding, by asking ‘how does this animal interact with the environment around it?’

If you try that route, you may learn that aphids, while they do drink your plants’ juices, are also hosts for tiny little parasitoid wasps who rely on aphids to continue their own life cycles, and act as a natural control for their numbers. You may learn that while we all love ourselves a house centipede, they’re not actually native in the U.S. You may learn that termites play an immensely important role in breaking down wood fiber, and feed all sorts of insectivorous animals. You might learn that dragonfly naiads and mayfly nymphs are good indicators of unpolluted water. You might learn about ants’ incredible seed-dispersing capabilities. The natural world, even the one in your backyard, has so much richness and complexity to be discovered, if only we don’t put limits on our curiosity in the first place.”

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As I mentioned previously, Caity is a fierce protector of persecuted human demographics as well, and I think it is important to note that we too frequently extend this “friend or enemy” mindset to fellow Homo sapiens. We are told that immigrants and refugees are “pests” in a manner of speaking because “they take our jobs.” Nonsense. We do not own resources of any kind, we share them. The more we frame our lives that way, the more peacefully we can coexist and solve the larger problems of the day, like climate change and species extinctions.

Thanks again, Caity, for a wonderful summary of how we can approach the natural world in our yards, gardens, and on our doorstep.

Conflicting Advice Is Killing the Rewilding Movement

All the major figures leading the modern conservation movement agree that converting your yard into wildlife-friendly habitat is the most important and impactful thing you can do to turn the tide of bird and insect decline. As for how to do that, there is precious little agreement to be had. The result is analysis paralysis, and the “lawnscape” continues to dominate urban, suburban, and even rural areas.

"No Mow May," or "No, go ahead?"

This happened to myself and my partner. We finally own a modest home in Leavenworth, Kansas, with modest yards in front and back. Our goal is to begin planting native flora, but we were confronted with opposing recommendations on how to begin. “Kill the lawn with a single application of glyphosate” says one authority. “Suffocate it” advised another party. Heck, do we even have a lawn to begin with? Sure, there is some grass, scattered among thick patches of henbit, red deadnettle, violets, dandelions, plantain, wild….garlic?

"Before" we did anything

The result is that after over a year of living here, my wife finally took the initiative to start burying a section of the yard under a layer of carboard covered in mulch. Now we wait four to six weeks….”No, it will likely take four to six months” said someone commenting on our proud social media post. Great. Next, we will hear “till once!” versus “no, don’t till at all!”

We need to stop circulating memes and sound-bite articles in the media….We want the easy fix, but it is rarely the best avenue.

I agree that one has to be patient. Nature generally operates at a snail’s pace, while we are now too eager after having flailed in the turbulent seas of “how-to” recommendations. We should know better, of course. We should learn from our previous experiences, however few.

Here comes the cardboard and mulch!

At our previous home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where we lived in a townhouse, we had about a 5x10 “yard” in the back, a tiny patio adjacent, and a shed, with a fence enclosing all of it. We planted milkweed in hopes of attracting Monarch butterflies. It was at least three years before the plant flowered. Oh, it proliferated underground, sending up shoots all over the place, but it was at year five before we found Monarch caterpillars. Garden gratification is seldom instant.

Where things stand right now....

We also put up a “bee condo,” a block of unfinished wood with holes of various diameters drilled into it. This effort did yield almost instantaneous results. Leafcutter bees and mason wasps began nesting. We also had sapygid wasps that parasitized the leafcutter bees. Neat fodder for blog posts.

Many experts now claim that bee condos are about the worst thing you can do. They attract parasites, become infested with mites and fungi, and are basically deathtraps for the very insect pollinators we are supposed to be helping. You need to replace the cardboard tubes inside the bored holes, if that is your style of bee block, or at least clean the cavities with a brush and dish soap diluted in water. I’m not sure exactly when you are supposed to do that….

Here in Kansas, bees simply nest in our siding. LOL!

Further, are we not giving bees and wasps enough credit for choosing healthy nest sites? They clean out cavities before they begin nesting anyway. Even in natural situations of old beetle borings in logs and dead, standing trees, there are always cuckoo wasps, leucospids, and others lurking, eager to parasitize the nests of other wasps, and bees. That is the way nature works.

Clover *does* feed the bees, and fixes nitrogen for other plants, but surely someone else will tell you differently....

Oh, I forgot about the dandelion controversy. Leave them, they are necessary resources for early-emerging pollinators. No, dandelion pollen and nectar has very low nutritional value. They do more harm than good. Do away with them….but, but….”No mow May!”

The bottom line is that recommendations will change based on new scientific research, and the collective experience of those gardening for wildlife. However, there is no one solution for every situation, every geographic location, every soil type, nor any other element that varies. We need to stop circulating memes and sound-bite articles in the media that claim otherwise. We most definitely need to stop the implied shaming of anyone who disagrees.

Daisy Fleabane "volunteers" in our yard and we are "weed tolerant."

We want the easy fix. It is in our human nature, but it is rarely the best avenue. Resist the impulse to jump on the latest bandwagon, and consult your state chapter of the Native Plant Society instead. Consult the list of noxious weeds for your state and eliminate any you find. Otherwise, be “weed tolerant” and see if most of those plants volunteering themselves are actually native wildflowers. Never use pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, or even fertilizers. Indeed, the soil is itself an ecosystem of microbes, and symbiotic fungi that enhance the vigor of plants.

Here at Bug Eric blog, I promise to continue sharing my own experiences, good and bad, and recommend dependable resources to further your own pursuit of biodiversity enhancement. Let me know what has worked (or not worked) for you. I will pass that along as well. Above all, please act, with whatever information you have already garnered. The inertia of inaction is the enemy of rewilding.

The Big Bug Hunt and How You Can Help

Last year in early October, I was approached by Jeremy Dore, founder of the company Growing Interactive, based in the United Kingdom. He was interested in having me collaborate in one of the company's major citizen science projects, "The Big Bug Hunt." He made a convincing enough argument that I signed on last month as one of the U.S. liaisons. What follows is a description of this ingenious endeavor; and how you can help, and benefit from, participating.

The Big Bug Hunt wants your Japanese Beetle sightings!

The aim of The Big Bug Hunt is to build a database that will be used to create a computer application which predicts with great accuracy the emergence of various pest insects in very localized areas. For example, if you have a vegetable garden in Raleigh, North Carolina, you will be able to receive a "reverse 9-1-1" alerting you to the possibility that squash bugs may be descending on your plot within days or weeks. You can then take preventative action now, and avoid using chemical controls later.

The technology that synthesizes this data and turns it into a predictive model is a facet of the discipline called machine learning systems. It means that computers are able to find patterns that humans cannot see. From what I understand, this technology is already applied to large scale agriculture. The goal of Growing Interactive and its subordinate projects like Grow Veg, is to provide the same kind of software tools to individual citizens and community garden personnel to insure their own success in meeting the collective mission of local food security.

The Big Bug Hunt can already predict some aphid emergences with precision

Growing Interactive is a family enterprise for Jeremy, his wife, and their friends; and they take great pride in serving the greater good. Jeremy decided to apply his background in app programming to farming more than ten years ago after his job as a network manager for a group of schools ended. What he has created since then is astonishing in its success. Growing Interactive enjoys the respect and collaboration of academic institutions like the University of York (England), for example.

The Big Bug Hunt is global in scope, but it has gotten off to its best start in the U.S.A. and the U.K. More data is needed, however, to facilitate better accuracy in predicting when common pests like the Japanese Beetle are likely to appear at a given locality. This is where you come in. Simply going to the website, or even clicking on the "Report a Pest" button at the top of my sidebar, will allow you to quickly report any insect, other arthropod, or even a slug or snail that you see in your yard or garden. It is that simple, no registration necessary. Reputational analysis will eventually weigh data according to accuracy, so no observation goes to waste.

Squash bugs are on the "hit list," too

With our ever-changing climate and landscape, a dynamic reporting and recording system like this is vital to every level of agricultural productivity, be it corporate or your own backyard vegetable garden. It will not work, however, without your willingness to contribute. Please consider adding your "two bugs worth," and I promise to keep you abreast of the latest developments here on my blog. Thanks!

Compost Insects

It is the season for sharing, and eating, and if you throw the cooking and table scraps onto the compost heap you are providing a wonderful feast for a variety of insects as well. A recent visit to my in-laws in Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, allowed me to discover a multitude of insects over the Thanksgiving holiday, thanks to their compost enclosure.

Having insect activity in your compost is a good thing. It means you have a healthy mini-ecosystem that includes decomposers which break down decaying organic matter into nutrient-rich natural fertilizer. Thus, the vegetable scraps from this year's harvest go on to feed next season's crops. Decomposers are more properly known to scientists as saprophytes, and they often require microorganisms and/or fungi to take full advantage of rotting organic debris.

Look at this yummy buffet!

I did not go digging into the already, uh....fragrant pile of material, but had I done so I certainly would have uncovered a host of invertebrates like springtails, insect larvae, millipedes, maybe woodlice, earthworms, and snails or slugs. Besides food, a compost heap offers insulation from cold weather, and even warmth given off in the process of decomposition.

Minute black scavenger fly, Coboldia fuscipes

Instead of digging and turning, I merely watched for insects appearing on the surface of the pile, or on the walls of the enclosure. These were mostly adult insects, especially flies, the larvae of which are the ones doing the work of decomposition. Chief among these were minute black scavenger flies, Coboldia fuscipes, in the family Scatopsidae. They are only 2-3 millimeters in body length, and can be mistaken for other flies of similar size.

Recently emerged adult minute black scavenger fly

I found a fair number that had just emerged from the pupal stage, with their wings in a rudimentary state awaiting full inflation. Their larvae feed in the mycelia of mushrooms, or on decaying fungal, plant, or animal tissue.

Pomace fly, Drosophila sp.

The next most abundant flies were pomace flies in the family Drosophilidae. Most people call them "fruit flies" because these are the tiny flies that hover around the overripe bananas on your kitchen counter. Indeed, they are drawn to fermenting matter where the females lay their eggs. The larvae feed mostly on the yeasts that invariably attach decaying sugars in fruits and vegetables.

Male Spotted-winged Drosophila, Drosophila suzukii

What was a little surprising was that the common pomace fly species was an exotic one: the Spotted-winged Drosophila, Drosophila suzukii. The males of this species of east Asian origin have an obvious dark spot near the tip of each wing. This fly started appearing in the northeast U.S. in 2011, and has since been recorded over most of the eastern half of the U.S. It is a known pest of a variety of fruits and berries, so it may be one of the few "bad guys" to be seen on your compost pile.

Dark-winged fungus gnat

Dark-winged fungus gnats, family Sciaridae, are abundant pretty much year round, even indoors where the larvae flourish in the soil of overwatered houseplants, feeding on roots and fungi. They are only slightly larger on average than the minute black scavenger flies.

Moth fly

Also present were moth flies in the family Psychodidae. You are probably familiar with their indoor relatives, the "drain flies" that you often see perched like tiny fuzzballs on the bathroom wall or sink basin. The larvae of moth flies enjoy eating algae, bacteria, and fungi, especially if it is exceedingly wet or sludge-like. Yum.

Male Forcipomyia sp. biting midge

Another surprise was to find an adult biting midge, probably in the genus Forcipomyia, or closely-related. Males of these tiny flies have fairly unique, bushy antennae. Depending on the species, the adult females may bite birds or mammals, or suck the blood of moths, dragonflies, and other large insects. Meanwhile, the larvae feed on algae, plant debris, or fungi.

Winter crane fly, Trichocera sp.

The largest fly I found was a winter crane fly, genus Trichocera (family Trichoceridae). It turns out the larvae of these slender, long-legged flies are scavengers on decaying leaves, vegetables, dung, fungi, and material found in rodent burrows. A few are even pests of stored tubers in your root cellar. You do have a root cellar, right?

Predatory mite

The vegetarian "bugs" also attract carnivores in the form of predatory and parasitic insects, and mites. I spotted one mite that made a cameo appearance near another insect I was photographing, but mites are typically among the most numerous of all soil-inhabiting animals. Next in line might be ants.

Japanese Pavement Ant?

I found two species of ants in and around the compost heap. Ants are difficult to identify without putting them under a microscope, but I am pretty sure these were the Japanese Pavement Ant, Tetramorium tsushimae, an Asian introduction now common around the St. Louis area and adjacent Illinois; and the Odorous House Ant, Tapinoma sessile.

Odorous House Ant

The Odorous House Ant is more of a scavenger than a predator, so it is likely to be seeking meat scraps and/or dead insects as sources of protein and fats. It is also fond of sweets.

I saw what I initially mistook for another species of ant, but it became quickly apparent it was a wingless female wasp. The ovipositor (egg-laying organ) protruding from its abdomen betrayed it as a female ichneumon wasp in the genus Gelis. So interesting is this one that you will have to wait for a separate post about it alone. Sorry!

Wingless female ichneumon wasp, Gelis sp.

Another wasp, this one fully winged, was crawling around the perimeter of the top of the wood enclosure. At this time I am unsure if it has any relationship with the compost, or is merely something that blew into the area and became too cold to fly off. I await a proper identification and will supply update this post when I have one.

Unidentified wasp

The benefits of composting to your yard and garden should be obvious, but look at what you are feeding in the meantime: an entire biosphere in miniature, pretty much. Just remember that if you're hungry, they're hungry. Bring them inside. Wait, that's not how it goes....

"Product" is NOT the Answer to Every "Problem"

While I prefer to continue winning people over with compelling, fascinating stories of insect life and diversity, I would be remiss if I did not periodically issue posts aimed directly at changing human behavior in ways that will benefit them personally and other organisms as well. Thank you for indulging me in this exercise today.

Through my volunteer efforts and associations with AllExperts.com, Facebook groups, and even this blog, I am frequently asked questions that begin with "How do I get rid of...?" The automatic assumption is that an insect or spider in the house, workplace, yard, or garden must have an inherently bad disposition, or negative effect on people, pets, or property. This is the mindset that needs changing.

Let me give these individuals some credit for asking at least. The people who never ask at all, who literally spray first and ask questions later, are the ones we should really worry about. First of all, they will never know what kind of creature they are dealing with, and whether the product they are using will even have the desired outcome. Secondly, they inevitably do not follow the application instructions and risk poisoning themselves, another member of the family, a pet, and/or unintended targets in the form of beneficial invertebrates; they could even blow their house to splinters and bricks. They don't call them bug bombs for nothing. Never mind that failure to adhere to application instructions is a violation of federal and/or state law.

The real crime, however, is that we are incessantly conditioned that "product" is the answer to every problem (even when there is NO problem), and we are paying for it in so many ways, not the least of which are the side effects of chemical dependency in the agricultural and gardening sense.

Here is what no one is going to tell you. The nursery and landscaping industries have sold us on the idea that we can plant whatever trees, shrubs, and flowers we like, wherever we live, with no negative consequences. This is proven to be not only false, but an enormous ecological catastrophe when you understand the effects of exotic botanicals run amok (invasive species), and the chemical dependency required to prop them up in inappropriate soils, climatic zones, and exposure to local animal life. Further, imported plants invariably bring with them exotic insect and other invertebrate pests that themselves wreak havoc on native plants and ecosystems. So begins the "pesticide treadmill" first articulated by entomologist Dr. Robert van den Bosch in the 1970s.

Without fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and other treatments, most ornamental plants cannot survive outside their native lands. Native plants do not need this kind of intensive care, are vastly better at supporting beneficial insects, birds, and other wildlife we actually like to see, and their use in landscaping helps mend the holes in fragmented habitat that comes with suburban sprawl. Even in dense, urban areas, native vegetation can draw a shocking diversity of insect life normally relegated to what we would consider "wilderness."

We also greatly underestimate the ability of native plants to withstand nearly complete defoliation and bounce back just fine the next year. This is especially true of trees. A defoliated tree or shrub is not by definition "dead." The resiliency of flora in the face of natural agents of destruction is amazing. Meanwhile, the chemicals we dump on plants to "help" them? Not so good.

I cannot take credit for articulating all of this. Professor Doug Tallamy, in his landmark book Bringing Nature Home, outlines this dilemma eloquently. He also has the scientific studies and statistics to back up his claims. Besides the book, he also speaks to this idea wherever and whenever he is asked. Please check out this Youtube video for an example.

Making responsible choices in the marketplace and adjusting the attitudes within one's own mind are the keys to turning the planet's health around.

The same applies indoors. We panic and reach for the can of insecticide before we ask whether this one individual "bug" represents an actual pest problem or is merely an incidental, accidental visitor. We fail to repair the worn weatherstripping around doors, mend the holes in the windowscreen, inspect incoming objects from outdoors, and otherwise take simple preventative measures to exclude insects and arachnids in the first place.

If there is ever one post on this blog that I would ask you to share, it is this one. Please help spread the word that people can save money, time, and anxiety by simply being more curious, tolerant, willing to learn, and having faith in the way nature works without intervention. I will end with the remark that I have seen minds change, so I know it is possible. Stay tuned for those stories.

More Drama at the Bee Block

I was going to write at some point about how one of the other benefits of putting up a bee block ("bee condo") for solitary bees and wasps is that their parasites have a harder time finding them there than in a more natural situation. Well, last week I was proven completely wrong about that. On the positive side, I identified two new tenants in the block in our backyard.

Female mason bee, Heriades sp., on milkweed, before I had identified it

Early in the week I happened to see an insect fly from one of our blooming milkweed plants and literally make a bee line into one of the smaller holes in our bee block. I was not able to make an identification, so swiftly did it disappear.

Stakeout: female Sapygid wasp patiently eyeing potential hosts

Friday, June 24, I happened to glance at the bee block and noticed a very slender insect in one of the corners. I broke out the camera, took a couple pictures, and identified it as a sapygid wasp, family Sapygidae. Sapygids are parasitic on bees in the families Megachilidae and Apidae, and mason wasps in the family Vespidae, subfamily Eumeninae. The larvae of the sapygids either feed on the food stored for the host's offspring, or live as ectoparasites on the host larvae. Great.

Territorial dispute? Another sapygid joins the first one

Oh, here comes *another* sapygid. There were two on the nest block for only a brief time, and though it is not easy to separate the genders, I had no way of telling if it was a pair, or I believe they were two competing females. Males have even longer antennae and a blunter tip to the abdomen.

While photographing one of the sapygids, I got lucky. One of my pictures captured the mystery lodger in the bee block from earlier in the week.

Target detected: Sapygid wasp spies Heriades mason bee giving away its nest location

The insect coming to one of the smallest diameter holes is a type of mason bee in the genus Heriades. There are only eleven species of Heriades in North America north of Mexico, and five species in Colorado. Only Heriades cressoni has been officially recorded in El Paso County, but our bee block resident could still be one of the other species.

The female bee uses a pre-existing tunnel, such as an old beetle boring in a dead tree or log, or a hollow twig, in which to make her nest. She creates a series of cells with a partition of plant resin dividing one from another. She usually leaves one empty cell at the entrance before sealing the completed nest with a resin plug. Should a parasite break in, it might be duped into thinking the nest was empty; or at least dissuaded from having to break through a second "door."

Female Heriades sp. mason bee collecting pollen beneath her abdomen

The mother bee gathers pollen with a brush of hairs on the underside of her abdomen. Back at the nest she mixes the pollen with nectar she regurgitates from her crop (an internal food storage organ). This is "bee bread" that she fashions into a ball or "loaf" for each cell. She then lays an egg in the cell, and finally seals it with the resin partition. She repeats this scenario until the nest cavity is filled.

The sapygid wasp that had been waiting patiently for just the right moment to lay her own eggs in the bee nest finally made her move. She quickly backed halfway into the hole on the bee block and presumably deposited one or more eggs before fleeing the scene. This is the strategy that many, if not most, bee parasites use. They stake out a nest in the process of being provisioned, and enter when the host bee leaves to gather more nectar and pollen, or material used in making a partition between cells.

Game on! Female sapygid wasp laying eggs in Heriades mason bee nest

Another surprise happened when I saw a mason wasp approach and then enter another hole on the block. This one is different from the one I wrote about a couple weeks ago. It is smaller and more ornately patterned. It is either Parancistrocerus sp. or Stenodynerus sp. One cannot tell the two apart from images of live specimens in most cases. Even with actual specimens under a microscope it is difficult to make an identification. Like most cavity-nesting mason wasps, paralyzed caterpillars will serve as food for the larval offspring.

Female mason wasp, Parancistrocerus sp. or Stenodynerus sp.

I can hardly wait to see what comes next to our bee apartment building. Please comment if you yourself have a bee block (or more than one), and share what is coming and going from it, what parasites or predators you have seen lurking, and any other pertinent observations.

Sources: Krombein, Karl V. 1967. Trap-nesting Wasps and Bees: Life Histories, Nests, and Associates. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press. 570 pp.
Scott, Virginia L., John S. Ascher, Terry Griswold, and César R. Nufio. 2011. "The Bees of Colorado (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila)," Natural History Inventory of Colorado No. 23, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, Colorado. 112 pp.
Scott, Virginia. 2015. "Resin Plugs (part 1) and Their Bugs," The Bees' Needs Blog.

A "Boring" Place to Nest

Last week I talked about the benefits of putting out bee blocks ("bee condos") for solitary bees and wasps to nest in. I thought it might help to understand why this is important in light of where these insects normally nest in nature.

Passaloecus aphid wasp near her nest hole

Dead, dying, and weakened trees are exploited by a number of different wood-boring beetles. The adult female beetles lay their eggs in bark crevices and the larvae that hatch then bore into the wood, feeding as they go. Eventually they enter the pupa stage near the surface of the wood. The adult beetle that emerges from the pupa then chews its way out. The result is a round or oval exit hole.

Solitary bees and wasps make use of these abandoned beetle borings. In fact, competition for the right size holes is keen. A wasp can modify the entrance to some degree by chewing-off wood fibers to expand the size, or plastering mud or resin to shrink the opening. That is a lot of effort, though, so wasps will look high and low for a hole that fits them perfectly.

A typical deathwatch beetle, family Ptinidae, that makes the holes that many wasps nest in

Among the most coveted of holes are those made by emerging deathwatch beetles in the family Ptinidae (formerly Anobiidae). These are tiny insects, and you might be hard-pressed to fit an entire pin or tack (head and all) into one of their perfectly round exit holes. Deathwatch beetles are also prolific, and so there will be many holes in a given dead tree. It may look like someone fired a load of buckshot into the bole.

A super-slender keyhole wasp, Trypoxylon sp., about to enter her hole

Last week I came across just such a tree, a cottonwood, that was teeming with wasps coming and going from various holes. I recognized at least three genera: Symmorphus mason wasps, Trypoxylon keyhole wasps, and Passaloecus aphid wasps. None measured more than about six millimeters. Mason wasps harvest caterpillars as food for their offspring. Keyhole wasps hunt spiders, and aphid wasps go after aphids. Some yellow-faced bees, also known as masked bees, genus Hylaeus, are also known to use such holes.

A cuckoo wasp, family Chrysididae, bides her time

Meanwhile, metallic green cuckoo wasps, family Chrysididae, and wild carrot wasps, family Gasteruptiidae, were looking for opportunities to lay their own eggs in the nests of the other wasps, at the expense of the host's offspring. Mostly, though, there was competition for nest holes, and male wasps harassing the females for mating opportunities. A male or two might jump on a female, and they would tumble off, leaving the door open for another female wasp to claim the nest hole.

Want to witness this action yourself? Look for dead, standing or half-fallen trees with bark stripped off, and usually in a shaded location or at least on the shady side of the tree itself. You might be surprised to see a wasp enter a hole head first, then exit the hole the same way. Somewhere inside there is enough room for the wasp to turn around.

A mason wasp, Symmorphus sp., checks out her potential new digs

You may have trouble finding dead trees, and this is why solitary wasps and bees need our help. Property owners, and even managers of natural parks, will cut down trees deemed a potential hazard, such that they can avoid potential liability issues including litigation should a tree fall on a person, vehicle, home, or other valuable object. The consequences of this include a housing shortage for everything from flying squirrels, woodpeckers, swallows, wrens, owls, and other birds, to solitary bees and wasps.

Please consider building or buying a simple, but quality, bee block and installing it somewhere on your property. You can find resources to do that in last week's blog post. Let me know what tenants you get as a result. We know precious little about most insects that are not considered economically important in a good or bad way, so all observations are important. Thank you.

The Mason Wasp Euodynerus foraminatus Endorses Bee Blocks

Those "bee blocks," chunks of wood with holes of varying diameters drilled into them, are all the rage now for attracting solitary native bees like leafcutter bees and mason bees. They do work, no matter where you live, and I have proof. Ok, so the first occupant in our newly-hung bee block is actually a wasp, but that is also a good thing, and I'll explain why.

A bee block need not be as fancy as the one shown here. There are some standards you should adhere to, though, and a thorough explanation is found here. Solitary bees come in a variety of sizes, so having a good selection of various diameter holes is helpful.

Why am I excited that a solitary wasp is using our block? Wasps are "flower visitors" that go to flowers strictly for nectar to fuel their activities (think gas station, not grocery store), but they do a fair bit of pollinating in the process. The biggest benefit of wasps, though, is that they are parasitoids of insects we consider pests.

The scenario for the mason wasp using our nest box, Euodynerus foraminatus, goes like this: The female wasp catches and paralyzes a caterpillar, and flies it back to the nest hole where she stashes the victim, and usually several more, as a larder of food for a single larva offspring. She lays an egg on the first or last victim, and then erects a mud partition. She repeats the steps, such that one of those holes you drilled might end up filled with several cells, each holding numerous caterpillars that won't be eating your garden plants. The preferred prey of E. foraminatus are larvae of moths in the families Oecophoridae, Tortricidae, Gelechiidae, Pyralidae, Crambidae (subfamily Pyraustinae). All of these include some notorious pests, as well as caterpillars that conceal themselves in rolled or tied leaves that other wasps won't go to the trouble of extracting.

We know at least one nest tunnel is complete because it has been plugged with mud. You can identify the different types of bees and wasps using a "bee condo" by the kinds of closures they make. Some megachilids (mason and leafcutter bees) will make the final closure with a plug of chewed-up leaves. Other bees will plug a nest hole with plant resins.

Besides the comings and goings of the bee block inhabitants, you can get some other kinds of drama. While watching the bee block for signs of activity last Friday, I noticed a crab spider hanging out under the "eave" on our bee block. Sure enough, when the wasp approached the spider reacted, hanging of the roof and opening its "arms" in a potentially lethal embrace. The wasp ignored or never noticed the threat, but I ushered the spider to another part of our yard anyway.

You may think that there is no way one of these boxes would work in your yard. The above image is of our yard, behind our townhouse unit. Look at it! It is literally like ten-by-twelve feet. Surely, if we can make this work, so can you. It takes virtually nothing to put one up, and it offers both critical bee real estate for the insects, and hours of entertainment for you and your family. Since solitary bees and wasps do not have vast quantities of offspring and honey stores to defend, they are not going to sting you. Besides, they are too busy working.

Back to that mason wasp for a second. Euodynerus foraminatus is a very widespread species, found coast to coast in the United States, plus all Canadian provinces, and down into Mexico, too. There is a very good chance you could attract one to your own bee block.

Sources

: Buck, M., Marshall, S.A. and Cheung D.K.B. 2008. "Identification Atlas of the Vespidae (Hymenoptera, Aculeata) of the northeastern Nearctic region," Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification No. 5: 492 pp. (PDF version).
Stone, H.B. 2014. "Insects of the Week: Eumenids and Chrysidids," The Bees' Needs Blog.