Live and Let Live
Lately I have been considering the insects around the farm. I have written about and photographed ants, lizards (which I miss), dragonflies, butterflies, bumblebees, and honey bees. If you were to come to my house right now (though it would be a very hot and windy visit) you would see many paper wasps flying around under the eaves. They might make you wonder if it was safe to come any closer to our front door. But for the most part you would not need to worry. Here is a link to a good review of them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_wasp
Ours are more black and yellow rather than the brownish red ones. When we first started building here we would tear down their nests when they built them near entrances. We didn't know but we thought they might attack us. But soon laziness got the better of us and we left them. We have found that when you don't bother them, they don't bother you. Sometimes they land in your hair when they first fall from their nest but we have never been stung. Wasps are considered beneficial but most people fight to keep them away from their homes. However, they are very unlike yellow jackets who look similar but don't have the hyper narrow waist and are more fast flying and VERY aggressive. Luckily we don't have yellow jackets. The paper wasps eat many bugs that pose a threat to garden veggies and they like to eat flies. Come summer we get a huge amount of flies. Right now I feel sorry for the goats due to this fact. I wish some paper wasps would set up shop over there actually. The heat never seems to get them down.
Another resident here is the mud dauber. You can see a photo of it and some bio here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_dauber
They eat some nectar but mostly like insects, especially spiders. They are said to cram their larders full of spiders and know just where to find them. Some even prefer black widows which we have in abundance. I had no idea these slow flying, seemingly mild wasps were such fierce hunters of spiders. Nature is full of surprises and oddities. Given the extreme thinness and extension of their waists, it seems almost impossible mud daubers don't snap in two. But of all the dead bodies I have seen, they hardly ever break here. When we had the grasshopper invasion in 2009 the wasps loved to pick up the carnage of dead and dying grasshoppers from the porch and carry them back to their nests. I must say I liked them for that. Is that wrong?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_wasp
Ours are more black and yellow rather than the brownish red ones. When we first started building here we would tear down their nests when they built them near entrances. We didn't know but we thought they might attack us. But soon laziness got the better of us and we left them. We have found that when you don't bother them, they don't bother you. Sometimes they land in your hair when they first fall from their nest but we have never been stung. Wasps are considered beneficial but most people fight to keep them away from their homes. However, they are very unlike yellow jackets who look similar but don't have the hyper narrow waist and are more fast flying and VERY aggressive. Luckily we don't have yellow jackets. The paper wasps eat many bugs that pose a threat to garden veggies and they like to eat flies. Come summer we get a huge amount of flies. Right now I feel sorry for the goats due to this fact. I wish some paper wasps would set up shop over there actually. The heat never seems to get them down.
Another resident here is the mud dauber. You can see a photo of it and some bio here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_dauber
They eat some nectar but mostly like insects, especially spiders. They are said to cram their larders full of spiders and know just where to find them. Some even prefer black widows which we have in abundance. I had no idea these slow flying, seemingly mild wasps were such fierce hunters of spiders. Nature is full of surprises and oddities. Given the extreme thinness and extension of their waists, it seems almost impossible mud daubers don't snap in two. But of all the dead bodies I have seen, they hardly ever break here. When we had the grasshopper invasion in 2009 the wasps loved to pick up the carnage of dead and dying grasshoppers from the porch and carry them back to their nests. I must say I liked them for that. Is that wrong?
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