So... About those wasps...

THE HORROR.

I'll be mentioning solitary wasps a few times on this site, so I wanted to provide a little bit of information here.

First of all, in the photo above, you can see that is a very tiny little wasp (a member of Chrysididae, I believe?) crawling around on my finger. Can they sting? Technically, yes- the females can, anyway. Do they sting all of the time? Certainly not (and this one did not sting me).

These are cuckoo wasps, which means they build their nests in the nests of other insects. Some will lay an egg next to the other insect's egg, and when the wasp baby hatches, it will eat the other insect and/or the other insect's food supply. Some of those insects are pests, so you want parasitic wasps like these around to keep those pests in check. Parasitic wasps are one of the main predators of the invasive stink bugs!

Oh the humanity! WHAT IS IT DOING!?

Here's another solitary wasp mama. She has paralyzed this small caterpillar (both she and the caterpillar were just a little over an inch long) and will carry it to her nesting site, where she will leave it for her young to eat. I haven't actually witnessed this happen very often, so even though I do love caterpillars, I was SO excited to spot this wasp and realize what she was doing. I only had my cell phone with me, but I was able to get this picture before she flew off with the caterpillar. Since this was just a cell phone, I had no macro lens or special zoom or other features- in other words, I was all up in this wasp's business. She didn't become aggressive or try to scare me away- she was definitely more worried about me than I was about her, and made a hasty getaway with her to-go meal.

Here is one more I'll leave in this post. This is another solitary cavity-nesting wasp who didn't mind me getting a close up to her (or him) while she was hanging out on a redbud leaf. Look at those gorgeous blue wings!

Most of the times if you're oberving wasps feeding on flowers (or sometimes even when they're hunting), they're busy doing what they need to do and aren't going to become aggressive and go after you. In general, the only wasps who are aggressive are social wasps who live in big nests/colonies and feel a need to defend their family. How can you tell, just by looking, which wasps are solitary (and thus, more docile and friendly) and which aren't? Unless you know a lot about bugs, unfortunately you probably can't tell just from looking.

Some are more obvious: Yellow Jackets and Bald Faced Hornets. You don't want to mess around with those.

But this post is mainly to point out that not all wasps are "bad guys" or scary- some are, frankly, quite beautiful! And almost all of them are great pest control and beneficial pollinators! Please keep in mind that when you see a wasp, it's not always out to "get you" ;)

Enjoy your day!

-Samantha