Ow! That Hurts!

       Wasps tend to have a bad reputation because of their ability to sting. Hence there tends to be screaming and running when one is in the same vicinity of a wasp. But, why does a wasp even sting? Wasps can sting to suppress predators or a wide variety of insects. Wasps are apart of the order Hymenoptera and to the contrary, most of them do not inflict painful stings and are civil with humans. Such wasps are known as solitary wasps because they tend to go about their business acting as predators to insects and bringing them back to their nests for their young (Mealie, 2018). However, there are a couple of wasps that do pose a threat such as hornets, yellowjackets, and paper wasps from the family Vespidae. These wasps are considered to be social wasps because they build large nests with colonies of thousands. They are also regarded as predatory insects because they feed on other insects and in return control the insect population. Only the females can sting because they contain ovipositors, which is an organ they use to lay eggs and sting their enemies. Males do not have ovipositors; therefore their primary use is to fertilize the female wasps to reproduce (Peta).

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/82542605640916121/?lp=true

       The most prominent wasp in North America is the yellowjacket (Johnson, 2017). The life cycle of a yellowjacket starts when the fertilized female starts building a nest. The female yellowjacket starts laying eggs that hatch as additional female wasps that work in the nest. These female worker wasps, which are sterile, continue to build the nest, and the female queen wasp continues to lay eggs, in which they are essentially building a fortress. These nests also tend to be in the ground, but occasionally be in hollow logs and can have up to 25,000 workers (Peta). Female queen wasps can continuously lay eggs due to their ability to mate with a male wasp once in the autumn and store his sperm for a while. The sperm tends to run out around the following summer or early fall, which results in the queen bee laying unfertilized eggs, which are hatched as males. The males then leave the nest to mate with other queen wasps and die off shortly after (Johnson, 2017). 

http://vauvat.info/yellow-jacket-nest/

       Yellowjackets can communicate with each other through the use of pheromones. These pheromones can be used to alert other wasps in the colony for enemies or food. Since queen wasps tend to leave their nests in late summer or early fall to mate, there is a higher disposition for them to sting whatever provokes them. They also can sting their enemy multiple times because their stinger does not fall off (Peta). A stereotypical situation of a wasp stinging a human usually happens when a wasp is disturbed searching for food in the late summer or early fall (Vetter, 1999).  Most wasps are omnivorous, meaning they are attracted to a wide variety of food, but predominately sugary food (Erlich). A wasp will not sting if otherwise swatted, or stepped on, etc. Another scenario in which a female wasp can sting is if the female queen wasp is already fertilized and in the nest, and a human stumbles upon the nest and beckons at the colony’s protection (Vetter, 1999). For non-human enemies, because the yellowjackets have such a huge nest, it is prime nutrients for predators like raccoons, skunks, bears, etc. which agitates the yellowjacket queen wasp (Peta).

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/animals/wasps.shtml

        The skin is the primary organ that suffers from the sting of a yellowjacket queen wasp (or any social wasp for that matter). The results of a sting can be as mild as a localized inflammation to as severe as an urticarial rash (Mealie, 2018). Wasps, to the contrary, have beneficial roles that they play in the environment. They control a wide variety of insects and pollinate certain crops. Knowing that they are essential, it is best just to avoid them. (Peta).

Reference List

“Wasps and Bees.” PETA, www.peta.org/issues/wildlife/dealing-household-guests/wasps-bees/.

“What Is the Purpose of Wasps? | Ehrlich Pest Control.” DeBugged, www.jcehrlich.com/wasps/purpose-of-wasps/.

Vetter, RS, et al. “Mass Envenomations by Honey Bees and Wasps.” Advances in Pediatrics., U.S. National Library of Medicine, Apr. 1999, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1305553/?page=1.

Mealie, Carl A. “Wasp Stings: Background, Pathophysiology, Epidemiology.” Background, Pathophysiology, Etiology, 1 Mar. 2018, emedicine.medscape.com/article/169324-overview.