Yellow jackets are mean, but don't confuse them with paper wasps which are chill little dudes. They'd rather head bump you to get you away than sting you.

Hey!!! Now, waitaminit!

Those "pieces of shit" do a bang up job of keeping the caterpilars and other pest creepy-crawlies off the fruiting trees.

NGL, have a friend whose house has 2-inch eaves (not soffits) that are lined each summer with wasps nests.

They do nothing but ferry all the caterpillars off the peach trees to their nests all summer long.

Also, as there are always people outside on the porch, the wasps are totally chill with everyone and no one has ever been stung or swooped at.

(Friend shares the bounty.. we get lots of peaches for their diligent work.. peach pies, peach cobbler, peach schnapps, peach jam, peaches with ice cream... you get the idea...)

It's about being a part of the territory, not an interloper.

I like the wasps.. now the white faced hornets.. that's another story. Utter cunts, those ones are.

I used to live in a house with 2 pear trees. I quickly learned to pick up any fallen fruit, because the pear juice would ferment under the skin in the warm summer sun, the yellow jackets would pierce the skin and drink the pear liqueur, and then drunkenly chase me around the yard. Turns out, yellow jackets are belligerent drunks, which is, frankly, not surprising.

My dad calls them flying Ferrari knife-shits. Cause they look fast like a Ferrari but also are shits with knife butts.

Nah these guys are chill. They kill all the pests in my garden and don't bother with me at all

Downvoted for self-censorship

You can't say shit on the internet anymore, or what?

I fucking hate these guys...

Indian yellow wasp, aka Ropalidia marginata.

I am honor bound to come wasps' defense. They are very cool critters! The vast majority cannot and do not harm humans, and are largely an ecological boon. They prey on cultured crops pests. Some even specifically prey on roaches.

I've lived in paper wasp territory my whole ass life and only been stung twice, and it wasn't even all that bad. Like the pain was gone in a minute tops. And I consistently stick my hand and fingers into unexplored, and frequently inappropriate, areas.

Wasps are bros as much as spiders are. I would argue more so because they actively hunt pests, and are responsible for far less human deaths than spiders.

actually the wasp eats pests. but it's also very ignorant when it senses food. so yeah, i get the resentment

Please learn the difference between PAPER WASPS (non-aggressive) and YELLOW JACKETS (super aggressive). They both look like the one on the far right, but paper wasps are friend.

Sorry this is basically an ad for a pest control company, but it does a good job at explaining the differences: https://www.lindseypest.com/resource-center/post/paper-wasps-vs-yellow-jackets-whats-the-difference

Replace "piece of shit" with "avoid this asshole". Take these jerks over mosquitoes or ticks any day.

Yellowjackets are rage with wings. Fuck the little bastards.

They give other wasps a bad rap.

Fuckin' influencer wasps.

When I was a kid, I used to turn over the landscaping timbers around the house to find lizards and such to catch. One time, wasps had built a huge nest under one and I ripped the nest open when I turned it over. Man, did those things sting the ever-loving shit out of me. My whole body was covered in stings.

Any nest I found after that, I made it my mission to get rid of it. I’d put on whatever clothes I had like winter gloves, long sleeve shirts helmets, etc. Of course, whatever I put on always seemed insufficient to protect me and I’d still get the shit stung out of me. What a dumb kid.

If we could somehow get the yellowjackets to hunt down ticks then maybe we could come to an agreeable truce

Wasps aren't bees. And most wasps don't suck, just yellow jackets and maybe a few other species that I'm not familiar with. European Hornets are quite chill too, as long as they don't get stuck in my house and get mad. And I presume they're all useful, even yellow jackets, but unlike the rest of them, the yellow jackets don't seem to understand when to fuck off.

I have a huge pine tree next to my apartment, it towers above the apartment building. In the past month (maybe more), the thing is basically buzzing all the time. It's a bumblebee invasion, hundreds of them. But we also get many European Hornets and the occasional wasp. It's quite impressive to see, in a time where all these specifies are under huge pressure, this massive tree seems to almost single-handedly feed multiple colonies of different species. Makes me realize how important even a single tree can be. Also for my entertainment, because I love to be on the balcony and stare at the activity in the tree a few meters away. Interestingly enough I also have only had one bumblebee enter the house accidentally, and nothing else, despite having doors and windows open almost continuously the last weeks

Fuck wasps fr!

was expecting https://files.ohai.social/media_attachments/files/110/572/540/754/559/825/original/6ef5db5a6eab7c39.png

Ok, then wtf is this?

They aren't this high resolution in real life and they are moving all over. I'm fine with the big fatties but anything else I tuck my arms into my sleeves and make a high pitched scream.

Invasive pos | native pollinator | native pollinator

FTFY

Two of the three I save when paddling.

For those who are allergic, they're all shit because they're all deadly predators.

It's also good to know that honeybees will not attack humans unless provoked. What they will do is fly very close to you because your scent is interesting. They probably won't land, because it's not something they want or need, but they will take an interest in you and that might seem aggressive, so a person might try to swat them away. If you do that, the bee may sting.

As someone who is allergic to bees, I have had to train myself to remain calm in their presence. I no longer fear them, per se, but I'm also aware that they could choose to kill me. Just like I can choose to kill them. So I will be a little more cautious. I'll stop, and look for a safe way to create distance. Bees rarely pursue someone they do not intend to sting.