Vespa, the Wasp

All boys who grow up in the country, no matter what inhabited place on earth, know that one important purpose for rocks is to knock down a "wasper's" (wasp's)  nest because there is adventure there - there is danger and there is also the good feeling that he got away with it.  I sometimes wonder if there is a sign on such a nest that only boys can see that says, "throw a rock at me."

I was one such boy when no nest was safe, whether paper wasp, yellow jacket, or hornet.  I also paid the price for such entertainment on several occasions.  But sometimes I was innocent, like the time I was wading through mountain ivy bushes and bumped a hornet's nest.  When I stopped running the obligatory 50 yards, one of the hornets which, I suspect was riding on my shoulder, popped me in the ear.  It felt as though all the fires of Hell had concentrated itself in that one stinger.  In my 7th grade school picture my right ear was almost twice as large as the other, a painful reminder not to mess around with hornets.

This is a brown paper wasp, Polistes exclamans, which is very common and is found nesting under eaves and porch ceilings - really anywhere outside the house (or in the house if you let them).  There are twenty-two species of paper wasps in North America, but over 400 worldwide.

This nest has only four or five members and they are very interesting to watch.  They are in almost constant motion walking around and back and forth on the nest.  When a member flies off and returns, it is greeted by one of them, probably to determine whether it is recognized and to give the wasp password.

These wasps are not at all aggressive.  The built on an outside door frame and they tolerate my coming and going.  Wasps, although, hated and feared by many people are tremendously beneficial insects.  They kill or paralyze for their young, scores of insect pests - those which make our lives uncomfortable.  Like snakes, many people see them as something to be gotten rid of and bring out the Raid hornet and wasp spray.  I don't do that except on yellow jackets, which are very aggressive and will attack with little or no provocation. However, people who suffer anaphylactic shock reaction  when stung by wasps and bees would be best advised to avoid them altogether.

Some time back I posted a blog about my "taming" a nest of paper wasps on my back deck,  Each day, and several times a day I would approach closer and closer until they decided that I was no threat to them.  They became so used to me I could touch one without being stung, but here is the interesting part: sometimes one would deliver a very small amount of venom to say, "Don't get too familiar; we have a weapon you don't want to feel."

My contention is that all living things have intelligence, to a greater or lesser degree.  In my years of observing them I have come to the realization that insects are not stupid.  They actually learn and that means that they think.

I put some sugar water on my finger tip and they drank from it.  That doesn't mean that they understood I was being friendly or helping them, but it just could have been a source of food and I was the bearer.

In this picture I hadn't any sugar on my finger.  I just wanted to show that they didn't consider me a threat.

Eating sugar water from my finger.