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  • Benefits of wasps?

    Hey everyone,

    So yesterday while having a fire I had a little look in my bird box which was near by and there was like a leaf stuck on the hole, so I thought Id move it with my little tree saw I had to hand so I didnt put human scent on it only to find something wizz past then two little wasps pop out and sit watching for a bit then began to repair the damage I done :/

    I want bees in my garden and gonna plant some flowers for them to be attracted to it but will the wasps keep them away?

    Im not botherd about them being there and they are about 5foot off the ground so the kids cant get at them but I was wondering what benefits is there to having these there? Should I leave them or move them else where?

    As I say im not fussed either way was just a bit surprised.
    If you want to view paradise
    Simply look around and view it.

  • #2
    Wasps are great predators. I've sat and watched one kill a caterpillar, then cut it up and cart it off, piece by piece.

    Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
    By singing-'Oh how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade,
    While better men than we go out and start their working lives
    At grubbing weeds from gravel paths with broken dinner-knives. ~ Rudyard Kipling

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    • #3
      Yep, wasps eat a lot of garden pests for us gardeners.

      They are only a real bother in late summer when they're attracted to ripe fruit and picnics (distract them with a wasp trap, it does work).
      All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

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      • #4
        I've often seen wasps capture craneflies - the larva of which are root-munching pests of a variety of plants.
        Wasps will also take caterpillars and many other insects or larvae.

        It's mostly later in the season (early autumn) when wasps get interested in sweet damaged or fallen fruit and may be aggressive. Early in the season wasps are often too busy building nests and ferrying supplies of food to their own larvae to want to get involved in many confrontations.
        .

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        • #5
          Wasp larvae exude a sweet substance which wasps use to feed on. The larvae are fed on grubs and other insects caught by adult wasps.

          When wasp rearing ends in autumn, no more larvae so no more food for wasps in the nest - so they go hunting for sweet things - fruit,ice creams etc...

          I have just collected a swarm of honey bees and had to clear a wasps' nest from the (used) hive I wanted to put them in! Wasps not very pleased.. (It was a big swarm so the wasps that were left hanging around did not stand a chance and fled...)
          Last edited by Madasafish; 03-07-2013, 05:20 PM.

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          • #6
            6 Tips on How to Make a Wasp Trap - wikiHow

            Wasp traps.

            Wasps give other flying things a bad name.

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            • #7
              We had a nest in a verge about 5m away from my bean frame at the plot one year. They made short shrift of the black fly, until a badger came and dug up the nest. I can hear them all over the plot at the moment chewing on my willow beds and obelisks to make their nest, no idea where they are this year though.

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              • #8
                OK so I am not mad and i really did see a wasp virtually suck a caterpillar dry.

                It was only a small caterpillar, But it got smaller and smaller.

                Then the wasp took it away.

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                • #9
                  Wasps are very beneficial in the garden and people have given them a very unfair name which is a real shame.

                  Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

                  Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

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                  • #10
                    I heard a loud aggressive buzzing noise on the plot,yesterday and had a look to see what was going on. On the floor there was what appeared to be a wasp stinging the carp out of a black fly. It grossed me out so I left.

                    I find them quite fascinating and I agree they have an unfair reputation. People say they sting for fun but whenever I ask people, they can't actually tell me of anyone they know who has been stung without provocation. Usually it's when you pick something up with a jasper attached, or accidentally put your hand down on one.

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                    • #11
                      I've been attacked by a wasp swarm for going within 5ft of a nest (that was underground) that I didn't know was there....not exactly provocation!

                      I don't particularly like them but will tolerate them in my garden for their pest-eating abilities!

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                      • #12
                        Well I didn't necessarily mean deliberate provocation, but if you accidentally kneel or put your hand down on one, or disturb a nest then that is obviously going to provoke them. They're territorial aren't they, so going near a nest is going to end bad. What I mean is, I don't buy the stories that they just fly up to people minding their own business and start stinging them just for the hell of it. I saw some more fly murdering in the poly today, was quite brutal.

                        By the way OWG, that would freak the hell out of me if that happened. *shudders* Also think I would be forever traumatised.

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                        • #13
                          Lots of wasps here at the moment. There are 2 underground nests and I know better than to cross their flightpath - having been stung twice when I did so. Going behind them is OK though.
                          Also, the apples are falling and the wasps are finding the pecked or bruised bits. Before picking up an apple I give it a nudge with a stick, just to be certain that there are no wasps on or in it. Again, once bitten, twice shy

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                          • #14
                            I watched a wasp today try to steal a trussed up small fly out of a spiders web. It repeatedly grabbed the fly and pulled, but the web was too strong. It even landed on the web to try but still couldn't get it. Didn't seem to stick to the web itself at all. The spider stayed well hidden and didn't put in an appearance at all, not even a peek to see what was going on with its web.
                            The wasp gave up in the end and went to search the jostaberry for caterpillars, which was a shame, 'cos I'd just done that very thing myself, and squished all I found.
                            Location - Leicestershire - Chisit-land
                            Endless wonder.

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                            • #15
                              Years ago when I worked as a gardener in UK I remember a workmate, who was to be fair a bit of a twit, watching a wasp stinging his arm, he had about four or five big red stings on his arm and very cheerful about it! But my point is that he didn't appear to provoke the wasp at all. Perhaps the wasp just took an extreme dislike to him!

                              I don't mind wasps so long as they don't sting me!
                              The best things in life are not things.

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