Wasp insect. Description, features, lifestyle and habitat of the wasp

Paper wasps, also known as social wasps, are a huge subfamily of the true wasp family. Includes a large group of polystines and vespins. The last subfamily also includes hornets. The name was given due to the structural features of the nest, a material that ultimately resembles paper. They live in a swarm led by a fertile female - the queen, each individual performs its own functions.

What if you were bitten by a wasp?

If the victim finds himself near a wasp nest or several other insects are flying near him, he should not wave his hands and try to drive them away.
This can provoke insect aggression and new attacks. You should immediately move away from the place where wasps accumulate. Insects crawling on clothes are carefully shaken off with a stick, and those that fly into the room are thrown out of the window or door with a towel. The bite site is wiped with hydrogen peroxide, cold water, or a cold compress or ice is applied to remove swelling. You can reduce itching with vinegar or saline solution, lemon juice, or fresh cucumber. If you have special gels or balms for insect bites in your home medicine cabinet, then lubricate the affected area with this product. The victim should definitely take an antihistamine

Antiallergic drugs for such cases are needed both at home and on trips to nature. When stung by wasps, drinking plenty of fluids is recommended to remove the poison from the body. In severe cases, if there is a deterioration in the condition: difficulty breathing, nausea and suffocation begins, call an ambulance.

When stung by a wasp, it is prohibited:

• rub and warm the wound;
• lubricate the affected area with iodine and brilliant green;
• smoking and drinking alcohol.

Construction and arrangement of the nest

Representatives of the wasp family obtain building material for their nests from wood fibers. Having chosen a suitable tree, the wasp spits out saliva. After 2-3 minutes, he scrapes off the top layer with his jaws and chews everything thoroughly. A sticky substance is formed from which a nest is formed. Arrangement:

1. The inner part of the nest, which contains the honeycombs with eggs, is the strongest. The reliability of the building is ensured thanks to intact wood chips added by wasps to the leaves of parchment.
2. The outer shell of the structure is made of thin paper plates. Such plates are quite elastic and easier to roll out into long strips.
3. The formed hive has a spherical shape, gray color, the entrance is located at the bottom. On top of the created frame, insects build up new walls, thus expanding the nest.
4. Sometimes parts of the wasp's inner walls are used for outer cladding. Because of this, the hive inside becomes more spacious.
5. Insects can process all parts of the settlement in different ways. The internal and external layers are not always made from the same material. Sometimes they use wood of different qualities: the interior of the nest may be made from young branches, and the outer lining from the wood of an old fence.
6. The air temperature inside the nest is 30 °C and remains at the same level.

Wasps do not sit idle and work at a fast pace, so they are considered hardworking builders. During the summer, insects manage to make new floors 6-7 times. At the same time, the wasp's nest increases in size several times.

Is it worth expelling insects?

In their natural habitat, insects build nests under stones, on trees, and in the soil. If wasps settle on human territory, this could be an attic, balconies, garden, or garage. Means for their destruction:

• baits with poison;
• traps;

Polyurethane foam is used to fill the nests located in the cracks of the walls. If the hive is under a roof, the wasps are destroyed with a vacuum cleaner, sometimes the hive is put into water or burned. Paper wasps are not only harmful, but also very useful. They pollinate plants in gardens and vegetable gardens, increasing productivity, and also destroy aphids and many other pests. In addition, they hunt bees.

Actions when bitten

When attacking a person, wasps do not leave a sting in the wound, as bees do, so the bite site must be treated to neutralize the effect of the poison. What to do:

1. The wound is lubricated with any product at hand. This could be vodka, hydrogen peroxide or iodine.
2. If no remedies are available, wash the bite site with soap and water.
3. Swelling is relieved with ice or other cold. You can make a compress by soaking a piece of cloth in cold water or adding lemon juice to it. You can replace water with a vinegar solution.
4. Sugar will help draw out the poison from the wound. A piece of refined sugar is applied to the bitten area and kept there for some time.
5. When a wasp stings, herbal infusions help.
6. Garlic or onion is cut into 2 halves and applied to the wound. This is an excellent disinfectant.
7. To remove toxins from the body, the victim of an insect bite should drink plenty of fluids. In this case, you should not drink milk or alcoholic beverages.

An insect bite is dangerous for humans, as it causes severe allergies. An allergic reaction may be accompanied by complications - swelling of the larynx and suffocation. Young children are especially susceptible to complications. If a wasp has attacked a child, you should not wait for the doctor to arrive. It is urgent to take any antiallergic drug. Popular drugs:

• diprazine;
• diphenhydramine;
• fenkarol;
• diazolin;
• suprastin.

Intramuscular and intravenous injections are given if a severe allergic reaction to a bite occurs.

How to destroy a wasp's nest?

You already know that no matter what wasp remedy is used, you can finally get rid of insects only by destroying their nest. How to do this? Let us describe a simple and well-known method.

You will need a bucket, pan or jar (the size of the container depends on the size of the nest) filled to the brim with water. The container should be carefully brought to the wasp shelter

You need to carefully position it so that the nest is completely submerged in water. It takes about five minutes to keep everything in this state.

At this time, the nest becomes wet, and the wasps in it die. To prevent those that escape from the trap from stinging you, you should first put on a mosquito net and gloves. To distract the wasps, it is recommended to place jam or sugar syrup at a distance of several meters from the nest.

Nest growth

After making the base of the nest, the female flies in search of building material. Having found suitable wood, she releases a drop of saliva onto it, which softens the wood fibers. The wasp scrapes off the pliable wood using its powerful jaws and rolls it into a small ball with its front paws. Moving along a woody surface like a precise mechanism, the wasp leaves behind a clearly visible trail.

The female carries the resulting lumps to the construction site. There she chews the wood again, mixing it with saliva and secretions of special glands. From the material, which becomes completely soft, the wasp makes a paper plate, carefully and evenly kneading the parchment lump with its front paws. The wasp attaches the resulting piece of paper to the base of the nest and flies for a new portion of material.

While building the frame, the female simultaneously lays eggs and feeds the growing larvae. The newly matured wasps join the construction. As soon as the female manages to raise 10 new wasps, she stops building and from that time on only lays eggs, then her children build the nest.

Features of anatomy

Wasps belong to the suborder of the stalked-bellied Hymenoptera, and only by looking at the features of the internal structure of the wasp, you can understand why this order got its name. Between the belly and chest of this insect there is a rather narrow “waist”, and some wasps (species of which you can see photos above) generally have an almost invisible “stalk” instead of a waist.

Thanks to this feature, wasps are able to almost fold their own body in half, and also have the ability to sting the victim at any desired angle. Due to this, they can win fights even with some of those insects that are noticeably larger than them.

The body of the wasp is divided into three distinct segments - the abdomen, thorax and head, and it is worth noting that the body is covered with a fairly strong chitinous skeleton. The head is quite mobile, and is equipped with two antennae, which are responsible for a fairly large number of different functions, including capturing air vibrations and odors, as well as assessing the taste of liquid food or even measuring the length of honeycombs in nests.

Nest design

The nest is created with just one female. It works methodically and the result is an excellent refuge for small larvae.

1. A location is selected and the main base rod is made.
2. Two cells are created on the sides, which will eventually become the base of a whole hive.
3. The wasps arrange the honeycombs in an arc, one next to the other, and when they grow, they become floors.
4. A shell of the same paper is made around it, like a cocoon. It helps maintain temperature and humidity inside.

Types of wasps

Social varieties are more often found on plots and in gardens; they are the ones that most cause concern and anxiety to their owners. Social wasps include:

Common wasp

A yellow-black insect up to 2 cm long, living in cool and temperate climates. Creates some of the most numerous colonies.

European paper wasp

The insect's body is no more than 1 cm in length. The abdomen is thin and traditionally yellow-black in color, but with a predominance of black. They live in nests consisting of multi-story cells.

Hornets

Large predatory wasps, their body length reaches 5.5 cm. Their bites are painful for humans, and fatal for small insects. They love to eat aphids, flies, ticks, and locusts.

Of the single species, the most common are burrowing, sand, flower, road, shiny wasps, German wasps, Scolia, Typhia. Their larvae feed on caterpillars, spiders, flies, and chafer larvae, while adults feed on flower nectar.

Varieties

In total, entomologists count about a thousand species of paper wasps. They belong to the family Vespidae (true wasps) and two subfamilies: Polistinae and Vespinae. The greatest diversity of species is concentrated in Asia, South America and other regions with hot climates.

It was probably thanks to paper wasps, abundant in Southeast Asia, that the Chinese created the first paper.

About 30 species of paper wasps can be found in Russia. In Western and Eastern

In Europe, there are such varieties of paper wasps as forest, Austrian, German, French, and synagris.

The hornet is the largest wasp found in temperate latitudes. Its bite is most dangerous for both people and large animals. Hornets' nests are not grayish, but brown. Adult insects are distinguished by their brightly colored abdomen: yellow and black stripes are clearly visible from afar. Some other, non-poisonous insects have learned to copy this warning coloration.

How to get rid of wasps?

Lures and traps

There are many ready-made wasp traps on sale. But it can be made quickly and inexpensively from a plastic bottle.

Cut off the top cone-shaped part of the bottle. Next, remove the lid from this part and cut off 5–7 cm from the neck. The resulting funnel is inserted with the narrow side down into the first part of the bottle and the sections are secured with tape. To attract wasps, use sweet bait - fruit syrup or jam diluted with water. You can use beer, which insects love. It is also mixed with sugar and poured into the trap.

Wasps fly to the smell, fall into a trap, but cannot get out of the liquid. The dead insects are shaken out of the bottle and the container is refilled with syrup. Such traps are hung in the garden on trees, near the house and placed near the grape bushes before the harvest begins to ripen.

Traditional methods

The wasp's home is treated with soapy water. Liquid soap is diluted with water, poured into a spray bottle and this mixture is poured into the nest. Soap creates a dense, airtight film that is harmful to wasps.

The area where wasps accumulate is sprayed on all sides with acetic acid. The pungent odor will cause insects to fly away.

Chemical and biological drugs

Chemicals to kill wasp nests are used in cool weather. When the temperature drops, insects are less active. It is better to carry out treatments late in the evening in low light. At this time, most insects will be in the nest.

Dichlorvos

Long-lasting spray against many flying insects. Before use, shake the can and spray the product for 5-10 seconds. If the treatment was done in a closed room, then you need to leave it and ventilate it after 20 minutes. There should be no food, people or animals near the spraying site.

Buzzard

The drug is produced in the form of a gel, which contains food additives that attract insects. The gel is applied in strips to pieces of cardboard or planks and placed near the wasp nest. The insects taste the poison and quickly die. The gel is used several times, as it only kills adult individuals.

Executioner

Fast-acting new generation insecticide. For wasps it is used as an additive in bait. Dissolve 1 tsp of the product in 1 glass of sweet water.

Harmless biological control agents are essential oils of mint, cloves, and geranium. Wasps don't like these smells. Pieces of cotton wool are moistened with aromatic oils and placed near the wasp areas.

How to get rid of a wasp's nest?

It is easier to destroy a wasp's home at the beginning of the season. The colony is not numerous and the nests are still small

Before such an important operation, you need to protect yourself well: put on a thick jacket and trousers, rubber boots, gloves, a mosquito net on your head, and a hat on top

Insect nests in tree hollows are destroyed using a sulfur bomb. The smoke has a suffocating effect on them. After the wasps fly away, the hollow is sealed up, since the surviving individuals can return back.

If wasps have settled on a stone wall, then the honeycombs can be quickly burned: pour flammable liquid over them and apply a match. But this option cannot be used near wooden buildings, trees and flammable objects.

A hanging wasp's home is drowned in a bucket of water

Carefully place a thick cloth or bag without holes over the nest, pull it together and tie it around the nest, and then tear off the bag and place it in a bucket of water. Cover the top with a lid, place a weight and leave it like that until the wasps die.

Insecticides are used instead of water. The nest is wrapped in a bag and filled with a chemical spray through a small hole. After treatment, it is better to wait 2 days to make sure that the insects are dead. The bag is then removed and burned.

If the wasp's nest is located inside the house, then it is destroyed without chemicals using a washing vacuum cleaner. Pour soapy water into it, turn it on and catch insects with a hose. After turning off, the outlet of the vacuum cleaner is quickly covered with a cloth to prevent wasps from flying back out.

Common or paper wasp

Why paper

Wasps of this species use paper to build their nests, which they make themselves by chewing and moistening wood fibers with sticky saliva.

What does it look like

The paper wasp has the traditional classic wasp coloration of black and yellow stripes. The body consists of three distinct parts - the head, chest and fusiform abdomen. All parts are very mobile, as they are connected to each other by thin stems. The wasp easily turns its head, and its thin and flexible “waist” allows it to literally fold in half. Such acrobatic capabilities help, firstly, to hunt other insects, which are often larger and stronger than a wasp, and secondly, to defend themselves from the attacks of their enemies. This insect has two powerful weapons at opposite ends of its body - massive and strong jaws on the head and a sharp, hard stinger at the tip of the abdomen. Flexibility gives her the opportunity, if necessary, to use both and emerge victorious from a fight with a stronger opponent.

The wasp is one of the best-eyed insects. She has five eyes! Two large main compound eyes are located on the sides of the head. They consist of a huge number of individual elements that form a mosaic picture of the world. These eyes have a wide angle of vision, allowing them to record the slightest movement in their immediate vicinity. Given the mobility of the head, we can say that the wasp has a constant view within a radius of 180 degrees. The main eyes have one drawback - they are not very good at focusing on details. However, this gap is compensated by three small eyes on the wasp's forehead. In structure, each of them resembles a human one and even has a pupil that responds well to the brightness of the lighting.

FACT
The wasp not only sees well, but also perfectly distinguishes the faces of its relatives. Even a person could envy her phenomenal memory and ability to navigate in space.

Another very sensitive organ located on the head is the antennae of the wasp. They detect odors and air vibrations, with the help of which the insect can evaluate the taste of liquid food and measure the length of the honeycomb in the nest. The antennae also serve a communicative function. By touching their antennae, wasps transmit certain information to each other.

Wasps, like any social creatures, have a lot of ways to communicate with each other:

• tactile communication through touch;
• sign language using postures and body movements;
• Chemical secretions also carry information. On the underside of wasp legs there are glandular formations that can secrete pheromones.
• Sound signals.

INTERESTING
Wasps do not have a special organ that produces sounds. For this purpose they use wing muscles. When the muscles contract rapidly, the chitinous parts of the exoskeleton of the chest vibrate, producing a buzzing sound. Wasps buzz in different ways - sometimes intermittently, sometimes protractedly, sometimes low, sometimes high, and each vibration has its own meaning, understandable only to its fellow creatures.

How long does he live?

The life of a wasp is short. The queen lives on average ten months, and the lifespan of worker wasps is only a month. In this short period of time, a lot needs to be accomplished and everything must be done to preserve the species, and therefore with wasps everything happens quickly, if not rapidly. Before you know it, there’s a wasp’s nest hanging in a place that was still empty yesterday!

How does it reproduce

Preparations for rapid spring reproduction occur in advance. The wasp is like a good owner who prepares a sleigh in the summer and a cart in the winter. So is the wasp - mating and fertilization of the female occurs in the fall - most often in October. The female mates with several males at once, so that everything is, so to speak, for sure. Soon after mating, the drones and worker bees die, and the fertilized female, having found a secluded place, hibernates. With the first rays of the warm spring sun, she awakens and begins to actively search for a suitable place for the hive. The female builds the first honeycomb herself. They lay eggs in them and wait for offspring. Literally after 6 days, larvae emerge from the eggs, which, in the process of development and increased nutrition, wrap themselves in a web and turn into pupae. Already 3 days after the creation of the cocoon, an adult hatches from it.

NOTE
In spring and summer, exclusively sterile females emerge from eggs - worker wasps. This process is controlled by the uterus itself. Only at the end of summer does she begin to lay eggs from which wasps of both sexes capable of reproduction can emerge. They mate with each other and then leave the hive forever.

The newly born worker bees take care of building the nest and feeding the offspring, and the queen is busy laying eggs. And then everything develops exponentially. The hives quickly increase in size, and the wasps zealously guard them. They become aggressive and stop any attempts to approach their home by using their sting.

FACT
Wasps never sleep. After sunset, they return to the nest to chew the bark they brought during the day to build a hive.

What does it eat?

The diet of the common wasp depends on the stage of development at which it is located. Larvae that have just hatched from eggs feed exclusively on protein foods. Adult wasps feed their offspring by catching insects and chewing them with their powerful jaws. A young, growing organism receives food that is almost ready for rapid absorption. The wasp obtains complete proteins for children not only by hunting - they are always publicly available in markets, meat and fish stalls and other places with street stalls. The wasp's jaws are capable of pinching off small pieces even from a very large carcass. If there is an apiary in the immediate vicinity of a wasp nest, then the bees will become easy prey for the wasp. A wasp can attack a bee even in flight and instantly paralyze it with the venom of its sting. A bee is a complete meal for both “mother” and “child” - the adult gets the nectar, which she squeezes out of the bee’s abdomen, and the paralyzed insect goes to feed the young. Nectar eaten by a bee is harmful to the larvae.

FACT
The stomach of the young is so tuned to protein foods that the larvae of some wasp species do not even have enzymes capable of digesting and assimilating carbohydrates.

With age, the wasp's food preferences change greatly. A sexually mature individual has a big sweet tooth - she can smell jam, honey and even sugar a mile away and, of course, will not miss the opportunity to enjoy it. The diet of an adult wasp is based on ripe sweet fruits. Juicy pulp and easy-to-bite peel are the most important criteria for choosing a wasp. Peaches, plums, raspberries, strawberries, and grapes most closely correspond to these parameters. In the absence of a choice, an apple and a pear will do, despite the rather hard peel - the wasp will not remain hungry. She finds special charm in fallen fruits in which the fermentation process has begun. It is quite possible that the brew gives her the slight feeling of euphoria that a person experiences when intoxicated. In any case, experienced gardeners often use beer as bait to trap these insects.

Nutritional Features

The bee is a true vegetarian and collects only nectar and pollen from flowers. Her nutritional principles are shared by bumblebee, a fellow connoisseur of flower products.

But wasps and hornets are avid hunters and predators. The protein menu is necessary for the larvae, so the workers attack small insects, sometimes even larger than them. Often their prey is a bee or a fly. To immobilize the victim, wasps do not always use their main weapon - the sting.

They successfully cope with weak opponents with the help of powerful jaws. Each species has its own strategy and tactics of attack, but in most cases they drag their prey into the nest, riding it on horseback.

With great enthusiasm, wasps and hornets eat fermented or fresh fruits, sugar-containing foods, sweet drinks and even beer.

Why are paper wasps

Nest of paper wasps.

This prefix to the name of the wasp was deservedly received. It all has to do with their way of building nests. They make their own paper. It happens like this:

• the wasp breaks off a sliver of wood;
• grinds it into fine powder;
• moistened with sticky saliva;
• applied to the nest.

After the mass dries, it becomes a loose mass, similar to loose paper. The honeycombs are created quickly and accurately.

Social structure

In winter, wasps hibernate under tree bark, fallen leaves, and in their nests. The nests are located in secluded corners. In the spring, the queens fly out and look for a new place to build nests. Nests are needed so that the wasp can reproduce and increase the size of the colony. Tree bark, small pebbles and other natural building materials are used in the construction of nests.

The first offspring are sterile individuals. They subsequently continue building the nest and provide food for the queen, caring for the offspring. At the end of summer, the queen produces a new brood, which is also capable of breeding. Once the females have been fertilized, they look for a place to spend the winter. Males die quickly.

Ground wasp

Most predatory wasps live in the ground. Only a few do not rebuild their nests at all, settling in natural openings. Single individuals prefer to lay eggs in separate cells, which is not typical for social ones. There is no connection between the larvae and adult insects of solitary wasps. Once clogged, the larvae survive on their own. A remarkable fact is that the male larvae are placed in smaller cells. From this we can conclude that males are smaller than females.

Solitary individuals build more interesting nests than social ones. These include: Burrowing wasps, otherwise called Sphecidae. They build nests in protected corners. These are mainly places on the side of the house walls. Flower wasps, otherwise called Masarinae, build their homes in exactly the same way.

Start of construction

A wasp nest begins to be built by a female, and sometimes by several females, who unite during construction. Waking up from hibernation in early spring, they find a suitable place, protected from the wind and prying eyes. Most often, the choice falls on a branch of a tree, but often females choose abandoned buildings or rarely visited attics of residential buildings. It happens that the home for the future generation becomes a tree hollow, a rotten stump, a space behind the skin of a human home, or even a hole of some rodent.

The basis of the future nest is a thin stalk made from the female’s saliva frozen in air. Subsequently, it often remains a clearly visible “leg” on which the paper ball hangs. This stalk firmly attaches the nest to the surface that the female has chosen for attaching the future home. The insect attaches the first 2 wax cells to this stalk - the beginning has been made.

Features of the life of wasps

Wasp nest of several tiers

Social wasps live in large families, the number of which can reach several thousand individuals. They settle on the branches of bushes and conifers, in tree hollows, in attics, under the roofs of houses and outbuildings. Nests consisting of several tiers of hexagonal honeycombs are built from their own material, reminiscent of cardboard. With their jaws they chew particles of wood fibers, moisten them with saliva and roll them into long paper strips.

Female social wasps live 10 months, males and workers do not live long - only one summer month. In autumn, insects begin their mating season. Young females mate and the fertilized ones go into hibernation, while males, worker wasps and old females die.

With the arrival of spring, the queens wake up and fly out in search of a new place for the nest. They build the first honeycomb themselves and lay one egg in each cell. After 4–6 days the larvae appear. Their queens are fed protein food - chewed insects.

The females continue to build the nest until the larvae develop into worker wasps. The larvae live for 20 days, then wrap themselves in a cocoon web and enter the pupal stage, and after another 2 weeks the colony is replenished with working individuals.

In the future, the queens only lay eggs, and the worker wasps solve economic issues. Now they get food for the larvae and the queen. Adult wasps feed on flower nectar and sweet plant juices.

In total, each female produces 800–2000 wasps per season. Only towards the end of summer do the eggs develop into males and young females who will go on mating flights.

Solitary wasps do not have such an organized lifestyle. They constantly change their location, spending the night in different places: in flowers, in the grass. They reproduce in the second half of summer.

The female digs a hole in the ground, finds a small insect and paralyzes the victim. It drags prey into a burrow and lays eggs on its body.

After this, the wasp climbs out and closes the passage. For each larva, females prepare a separate place and look for a new victim. The larvae grow and feed independently on the flesh of the prey insect. When the food runs out, the larvae pupate and spend the winter in this form. As the weather warms up, adults emerge and fly out. They live no more than 5 months.

Harm to a person

Wasps bring undoubted benefits in gardens, orchards, and dachas. They play an important role in

pollinate plants and destroy garden pests such as aphids. However, it is important to remember that wasps also prey on bees. Both outside the city and in cities, wasps destroy many harmful insects, such as flies.

Children should definitely be taught safety precautions - behavior that does not frighten wasps or provoke them. Under no circumstances should you wave your arms trying to drive away the wasp.

You cannot kill a wasp - in this case, there is a high risk of attracting many other aggressive wasps.

Quite often, an unusual, strong odor can provoke wasp aggression. In the summer, especially on vacation or at the dacha, you must be extremely careful when using perfumes, deodorants or eau de toilette with a strong odor.

According to observations, in temperate latitudes, wasps become most numerous and aggressive in the second half of summer - at the end of July and August. However, the risk of being stung by a wasp is possible at any warm time of the year. Unlike a bee, which leaves a sting at the site of its bite, the same wasp can sting a person several times in a row. Wasps do not leave stings in the wound; it is only necessary to neutralize the poison.

Road wasps are caring parents who lay an egg in the paralyzed body of a spider, after which the larva feeds on the still living animal. You can easily make a wasp trap with your own hands. Find out how by reading this article.

If you often vacation in the forest, then you should get vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis. Read the full description of the disease in the article at this link.

Wasp traps

If wasps appeared on your property, for example, from a neighbor, then there are ways to reduce their number - the use of homemade traps.

one of the simple safe ways

• An ordinary plastic bottle is suitable for making a trap. Its neck is cut off to approximately 1/3 of the total length of the bottle;
• In the remaining cylindrical part, two holes are made at the top edge and a rope is tied. This is necessary so that you can hang the trap on a tree, under a canopy, or in another place that is difficult for children and animals to reach. It is best to choose low-traffic areas;

• The bait is placed in the bottle. Old jam, ordinary sugar, which is mixed with beer and creates a fermentation smell attractive to wasps, will do. You can also use old honey diluted with water, sugar syrup, rotten fruit, spoiled raw meat;
• Now you should close the trap with the cut part of the bottle, placing it with the neck down. The amount of bait in the container should be such that the neck does not reach it a few centimeters. Wasps will easily get inside through the neck, but it will be difficult for them to get out.

The inconvenience of this method is that the drowned wasps will still have to be destroyed somehow, because they will be alive for some time. Therefore, experienced summer residents advise adding poison to the bait. It is enough to add one ampoule of the product to combat the Colorado potato beetle. Then the insects will die by themselves, and those who manage to get out will bring poison to the nest, which will lead to the death of the remaining individuals.

simplify the task,

There are a large number of ready-made baits for wasps on sale. They are small containers filled with a flavored liquid, the walls of which have small holes. Their operating principle is the same as homemade ones.

If wasps live directly on your site, then it is necessary to take more radical measures, namely, destroy their nest.

Why are wasps dangerous?

Wasps can cause both significant material damage and undermine human health. As for financial losses, they are borne by farmers, beekeepers and amateur gardeners. If the fruit harvest is intended for sale, then wasps can spoil the presentation of the fruit to the point of being completely unsightly, negating potential profits. Where the wasp has bitten the fruit, black spots remain on the thin peel - the fruit begins to deteriorate right on the branch. This is especially true for delicate peaches that are sensitive to touch.

Wasp nests near an apiary can also become a real disaster for its owner. Wasps behave like pirates - if they see easy prey concentrated in one place familiar to them, then they will visit there regularly, until the bees are completely exterminated.

A person’s health may also suffer if he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even one bite does not bode well for the victim of an attack, and after numerous bites from several angry insects, you may not survive. A bite to the neck or throat is especially dangerous - swelling in this case can lead to blockage of the airways and suffocation.

Description of appearance

If you ask a person to describe an ordinary wasp, he will begin to talk about the paper wasp, which is known to absolutely everyone and lives everywhere. There are about 1 thousand species of this subfamily in the world, 30 of them live in Russia.

The head is black, lowered down, with a small mustache. The mouthparts are equipped with powerful jaws, which the insect uses to collect building material, as well as when fighting an enemy, if it is impossible to pierce with a sting. Three pairs of legs, thin transparent wings. A photo of a paper wasp is shown below.

Paper wasps

According to Wikipedia, there are up to 1 thousand species of the paper wasp subfamily in the world. There are 30 species living in Russia. In temperate climates, a large wasp is found - the hornet. This is the most dangerous type of wasp for both people and animals. Description:

1. The color of the insect is bright, alternating black and yellow stripes. Sometimes the stripes may be orange. The body consists of 3 parts: a transversely elongated head, chest and abdomen, which can be of different shapes. The abdomen and thorax have a thin transition. This is where the concept of “wasp waist” came from.
2. The head is black, slightly lowered. There is a pair of short antennae on it. The jaws are highly developed. With their help, the wasp protects itself from enemies, if it is not possible to defeat them with its sting, and also collects building material.
3. The eyes are faceted, convex on the sides.
4. The wings are transparent, membranous. Six light-colored legs with five segments for collecting pollen.
5. The sting is sharp, similar to a needle. Easily pierces the skin and pulls back out. Unlike males, the bite of females is quite painful and can cause allergies.
6. Insects use sounds to communicate, transmit signals about danger or finding food.

When attacked, a wasp can sting 6 times and this is in just one attack

A strong smell can provoke insect aggression, so in the summer it is necessary to carefully use aromatic toilet water, as well as perfumes with a strong odor

In our conditions, an insect lives for 1 year; in a tropical climate, their life expectancy is 2 or more years. Social activities of the insect:

1. The female lays eggs in the spring. Fertilized in the fall, she begins to look for suitable shelter for wintering. It hides in cracks, under the bark of trees, waiting for warmth and spends the whole winter in a daze.
2. After awakening, the female goes to the place selected for building a nest. Makes a leg from which he fashions cells. The result is a honeycomb, in each of which she lays her offspring.
3. From the eggs, larvae are born - white, voracious worms. To develop, they require protein food, so wasps bring pieces of meat, killed insects in the form of flies, aphids, etc. to the hive. Before feeding them to the larvae, the insects need to chew them. At first, the queen feeds the larvae herself. When the first generation grows up, care of the new offspring passes to them. The thick, syrupy liquid secreted by the larvae indicates that they are sufficiently fed. This liquid is eaten by worker wasps. Ants, termites and other types of insects exchange food within the colony, which allows them to communicate with each other. This metabolic process is called tropholaxis.
4. Then comes the pupation stage, the larva turns into an adult. Since development from egg to adult lasts 3 weeks, the insect colony becomes noticeable only by July. Over time, the nest grows to the size of an apple.
5. Adults feed on fruit juices, flower nectar, and secretions from aphids. The diet varies depending on the region where it lives. For example, an insect that prefers to drink fruit juice will be forced to drink flower nectar if there are not enough ripe fruits in the region.
6. The wasp family is gradually growing, reaching over a thousand individuals. Most insects become workers. Their task is to search for food, build, protect the nest, and feed the larvae.

A wasp can attack a person if he accidentally waves his arms near the nest. And given that the insect signals danger to its relatives, a whole swarm of insects will immediately arrive. They become most aggressive in the late summer months.

Social activity

In tropical countries, paper wasps live for years; in our area, insects have only one year. A young fertilized female in the fall looks for a place to winter under the bark of trees, in crevices, and with the onset of spring she begins building a nest and laying eggs.

To obtain building material, the paper wasp finds wood, spits out saliva, and after a few minutes scrapes off the top layer with its jaws. It chews with its jaws and turns it into a sticky, viscous substance. It flies to the chosen place and initially forms a leg for the future nest. Then he makes the honeycomb, cell by cell. She lays eggs in each.

Initially, the queen herself is responsible for feeding the larvae, but after the appearance of the first generation of working individuals, she transfers all responsibilities to them. Gradually a nest of average size about the size of an apple is built. It resembles a sphere, with an entrance at the bottom. You can see what a finished paper wasp nest looks like in the photo below.

Vespiary

Gradually, the number of the wasp family increases, reaching several thousand by the end of summer. The main part are working individuals that perform different functions. They build a nest, find food, feed the larvae, and protect the family.

Interesting!

Paper wasps communicate with sounds. They transmit signals to each other about danger, help, and finding food. If a person happens to be near the nest and carelessly waves his hands, he risks being bitten by one wasp, but after a few seconds a whole swarm will arrive.

Notes

1. Carpenter JM
   On ''Molecular Phylogeny of Vespidae (Hymenoptera) and the Evolution of Sociality in Wasps'' // American Museum Novitates. 2003. No. 3389. P. 1—20.
2. Striganova B. R., Zakharov A. A.
   Hymenoptera - Hymenoptera // Five-language dictionary of animal names: Insects (Latin-Russian-English-German-French) / . - M.: RUSSO, 2000. - P. 298. - 1060 copies. — ISBN 5-88721-162-8.
3. Dapporto L, Cervo R, Sledge MF, Turillazzi S (2004) “Rank integration in dominance hierarchies of host colonies by the paper wasp social parasite Polistes sulcifer
   (Hymenoptera, Vespidae).”
   J Insect Physiol 50
   :217–223

Habitat

All wasps are divided into two groups - social and solitary. Their habitat differs depending on their lifestyle.

Social individuals live in nests and hives. They choose their habitat depending on how much material there is nearby for building a home. Insects also try to settle in places where there is a lot of food.

The hive can be formed in the crown of trees or thickets of bushes. Some species build homes in dense grass or in the ground. They also choose human dwellings for nests. Wasps can settle on the balcony, attic, and also on the roof of the house. They often choose barns and garages for hives.

Solitary individuals, unlike social ones, do not have a permanent place of residence. They spend the night in the grass and on flowers. To stay on the plant, insects cling to it with their jaws or paws. At dawn, single birds fly to a new place.

Pompilid species

Road or ground wasps live all over the globe, differ in size and color, but lead an identical lifestyle.

Pompilid species

• Dipogon is average. Latin name Dipogon hircanum. Completely black. Body size is about 1 cm. Wings with small dark spots. They hunt sidewalk spiders. They live in trees, building burrows inside branches, shoots, and hollows. They are representatives of the fauna of Japan, Eurasia, and Kamchatka.
• Crucifix wasp. In Latin Batozonellus lacerticida. A large black wasp with yellow stripes on its belly and orange wings. The limbs are black and red. Body size up to 21 mm. Cross spiders become victims. Nests are formed in the soil. They live in Eurasia, Japan, and North America.
• Red-bellied wasp (Anoplius viaticus). The insect reaches a size of 15 mm. The body is black, the abdomen is red. Hunts a wolf spider. Builds nests in the ground. The species is distributed in Eurasia.
• Black and white wasp. In Latin it is called Monobia quadridens. The body is black with white stripes and spots. The size of females is about 18 mm. The white wasp builds nests in various cavities and abandoned hives of tree bees. The victims are butterfly larvae.

Insects benefit agriculture by destroying a huge number of pests. However, an accidental collision between a person and a predator can result in a bite.

Basic characteristics of the wasp

The insect belongs to the Hymenoptera family. A characteristic feature of individuals is the presence of a so-called “wasp waist”. The abdomen and sternum are connected by a small thin plate.

The body consists of three parts:

• heads;
• sternum;
• abdomen

The wings consist of two sections. The front is always larger than the back. The wings are thin and transparent, with translucent veins. In some individuals, they shimmer in the sun and acquire a purple tint.

There is a sting at the bottom of the abdomen. It looks like a thin needle. The sting connects to a special gland that produces poison. Depending on the type of wasp, the toxicity of the released substance also varies.

Individuals use the sting in several cases:

• to protect the nest;
• in self-defense;
• to immobilize the enemy.

The paws consist of five parts. Antennae are used to navigate in space. They pick up any sounds and also react to smell. Most wasps are yellow-black or orange-black in color.

This is interesting! Wasps can change the length of their body. Thanks to this, they easily bend and sting the victim. The needle enters at any angle.

The jaws are covered with chitin. This is a very hard substance. Wasps are dangerous to other species, as they are able to bite through the shell of their enemies.

Development cycle

Initially, the construction of the nest and feeding of the larvae is carried out exclusively by the female who founded the colony. First, the larvae feed on the secretion secreted by the female’s thymus gland, and later on insects. From the first larvae, working individuals develop, which are smaller in size.

Stages of paper wasp development

Working individuals complete the nest, and also feed new larvae and the female. The worker wasps carry the caught and chewed insects to the nest and feed them to the larvae and the female. The larvae, in response to feeding, regurgitate droplets of liquid licked by the wasps. This mechanism ensures the development of ostrophallaxis—the exchange of food within individuals of the same colony.

Polyethism in paper wasps is weakly expressed. Working individuals perform various functions in the nest. If you remove the female, they begin to lay eggs in her place.

In one season, the number of wasps in one nest increases significantly - from several tens to several hundred individuals. Most of them do not survive the winter.

Closer to autumn (in temperate latitudes - in August), males and females emerge from special large cells. At first they are in the nest. Having grown stronger, they fly out of the nest and mate. The males soon die, and the females overwinter and establish new colonies in the spring. In the fall, before the cold weather, the workers stop feeding and destroy the remaining larvae and pupae. Working individuals do not overwinter and die. Some tropical wasp species can have perennial colonies.

Life cycle

In autumn the nest empties. Roy leaves the summer house, which they worked so hard to build throughout the warm season. With the onset of cold weather, working individuals and the old queen become inactive and slow. Some of them die from natural enemies, others freeze. Only young females remain over the winter to continue the race, to start all over again.

The larvae are white worms. Extremely gluttonous. They feed exclusively on protein foods, while adult paper wasps require nectar and fruit juices. In order to feed the larvae, wasps attack other insects, people, and carry pieces of meat into the nest. At the last stage of development, the larvae pupate and the imago emerges from the cocoon. The entire period from egg to adult takes about 20 days. Therefore, a colony of paper wasps becomes noticeable by mid-summer.

Reproduction of paper wasps

Lifestyle and habitat

Wasps can be found almost everywhere, in almost every corner of the planet, with the exception of areas that are particularly unsuitable for life. They prefer to settle close to humans, because in the immediate vicinity of people and their homes there is always something to eat.

Now it's time to talk more about the social structure inherent in paper wasps. It is these representatives of the diversity of species already described that should be given special attention, because when they talk about wasps, they usually mean wild social wasps. Although this is not entirely correct.

The groups in which these insects gather to live together are close-knit families called colonies. They can have up to 20 thousand members. In such families there is a clearly established social structure and division into castes with a certain range of responsibilities.

Wasps and their honeycombs

The uterus is engaged in breeding offspring. Worker wasps look after the larvae, feed the rest of the family and guard the common home. The queen builds a nest out of a paper-like material.

It is produced naturally by wasps themselves, by grinding wood and mixing the material with their own saliva. Powerful jaws help these creatures build nests.

With these, the queen is capable of finely grinding hard wood. Worker wasps and drones are on average about 18 mm in size, but the queen of these insects is slightly larger. Males and females are approximately the same color, but females have a slightly larger abdomen. Single wasps may not build nests, but use burrows made by other insects and small rodents.

Construction of paper nests

It's no secret that in industry paper is obtained from recycled tree bark. Paper wasps are no exception. They chew and actively moisten areas of the tree bark with saliva.

After which it becomes softer and resembles paper or cardboard. Wasps use it to build internal walls and partitions. The end result will be a nest assembled from irregularly shaped honeycombs.

It is necessary to take into account that aspen paper is quite strong and almost does not get wet from rain, however, more “smart and experienced” wasps try to build their “houses” in places well sheltered from rain.

Most often, paper nests can be easily found in the soil, on trees (mainly on branches), under the roofs of houses, in the hollows of other animals and birdhouses. As a rule, these nests are brown or gray in color.

Types of wasps

The main classification divides these insects into 2 large groups.

Social wasps

They can be called differently, including paper. They form numerous families with up to 1 million individuals. They build nests of different sizes. A standard hive is the size of an apple, the largest being 60 cm in diameter. An image of the photograph can be seen below.

There is a clear division into castes. Individuals communicate with each other using sounds and signals. At the head of the family is the female queen, who is engaged in the reproduction of offspring. Some species of wasps provide several fertile females in one hive, but they do not pretend to be the queen, they simply help increase the number of members of the wasp society. Close-up of the wasp next.

Social wasps

Singles

They are distinguished by primitive behavior, each individual lives separately. There are no nests as such, there is no swarm. Most of them are predators. Eggs are laid on the abdomen of the larvae of large beetles, spiders, etc. The larva develops independently, eating the victim from the inside. At the end of the stage, it pupates and remains in this form for the winter. In spring, adults appear. The venom of some solitary wasps is extremely poisonous; the bite has been compared to piercing the skin with a hot nail. Photos with names can be seen below.

Wasps are ubiquitous in Russia. Among them there are polystina, vespin, scoli, road, typhy, sand.

Single wasp

Main types

The wasp insect is often familiar to us from photographs. But besides the standard one with a striped yellow and black belly, there are other varieties. Wasps can be solitary or live in groups. They can also settle in different areas.

Everyone is familiar with paper wasps, which we often see on the street in the summer. They are named so because to create nests, these species use a thin material that resembles paper in properties. And they produce it themselves, mixing their saliva with wood dust.

Wild wasps, on the contrary, settle away from people. They can often be found in the forest.

It’s interesting that a new trend has emerged today – house wasps. Some people get a dog or a cat, while others are interested in watching the life of insects. To keep such wasps, special closed aquariums are used. They are beautifully designed and look very stylish. But such a “pet,” of course, is not for everyone.

Everything about OSes - interesting facts

Individual specialists study the life of wasps and continue to amaze ordinary people with interesting facts.

There are extremely many representatives of this species of Hymenoptera in the world, each of them is unique and has its own characteristics.

Source

Natural enemies of wasps

Wasps, especially social species, are collective animals. Together they can hold the defense when attacked by the enemy.

However, even wasp colonies have natural enemies:

Ways of coexistence of wasps with humans

People often become victims of stinging insects. Wasps in an apartment or house can find a decent source of food. Human dwellings attract large numbers of insects, which become prey. Flies are their favorite food, so these predators settle in places where cows are grazed or kept. Nature has endowed individual species with varying degrees of aggressiveness. For example, insects living on the forest floor sting any creature that is near their home.

Paper wasps

Paper wasps, which often settle near homes, do not attack humans unless someone tries to destroy their nest. The aggressive behavior of these insects towards humans in this case is usually a simple accident. For example, if the object on which it was sitting fell into your hands. Wasps often climb into a house to establish a colony for the purpose of self-defense, since their natural enemies, for example, dragonflies, are scared away into a person’s home. In addition, these insects can hide in the cracks of windows in order to overwinter in better conditions and not die.

How to protect yourself from harmful insects

The main rule that must be followed in order to protect the area from large concentrations of flies is ideal cleanliness. You can also use the following preventive measures:

1. Plant a walnut tree in the yard, as flies cannot stand its smell.
2. Castor beans, currants and bird cherry repel flies well.
3. In multi-storey buildings, areas that are located in close proximity to the garbage chute must be regularly treated with disinfectants.
4. Since flies do not like the smell of vinegar, it is advisable to lubricate windows and doors indoors with the solution.
5. Floors pre-treated with turpentine mastic are good at repelling flies.
6. It is advisable to ventilate the room as often as possible.

Fly larvae found in cesspools or temporary latrines can be destroyed using disinfectants, which should be poured into them several times a month.

How wasps arrange their homes

The queen wasp begins building a nest; to begin with, she only needs a dwelling the size of a walnut - there she will lay her first clutch of eggs. She builds only one layer of the nest, then gradually builds on the next.

She will begin to build the nest herself until the worker wasps hatch from the first clutch, which will continue their work, completely freeing her for further procreation and increasing the number of livestock in the swarm.

By the size of the wasp nest, you can understand the size of the number of working individuals in the wasp family.

Wasps of a single species build their homes in their own way. This may be a small cell located in a place where prying eyes will not penetrate and precipitation will not fall.

For example, pottery wasps build dwellings from natural mud, shaped like a vase; structures are attached to tree branches or to the walls of human buildings.

Some wasps make homes in plant stems they have bitten through or dig holes in the soil. A single wasp can settle in any small crack located on a piece of thick cardboard, or in gardening gloves forgotten and lost in the garden.

The peculiarity of solitary wasps is that having laid a clutch, they seal it, and there is no interaction between adults and larvae.

There is an observation that from those cells that are smaller in size than the others, male larvae hatch, which means that the males are smaller in size than the females.

The largest wasp in the world

Lawn fertilizer: description, types of fertilizing

The size of the wasps varies widely: from 1 cm for the small flower wasp to 6 cm for the Asian giant scolius.

The spotted wasp Scolia is considered the beauty among the largest representatives of the Hymenoptera. The body size of the largest wasp is 32 mm for the male and 55 mm for the female.

Insects lead a solitary, primitive way of life. Scolia, with its impressive dimensions, is harmless to humans, although the bite can cause the hand to go numb.

The hornet from Asia is a giant copy of the European representative, but without a brownish tint in color: the body is up to 50 mm long, the amplitude of the wings reaches 60 mm. The named hornet wasp has a terrifying appearance. In common parlance, the hornet is called a sparrow-bee.

Description and features

People for the most part do not like insects and treat them with arrogant disgust. Of course, compared to us, the highly developed inhabitants of the planet, at first glance they seem primitive, unpleasant, often annoying, and sometimes even downright disgusting. But still, the world of insects is a whole universe of amazing creatures worthy of the pen of a science fiction writer.

After all, each of these creatures has its own unique abilities. For example, the hero of our story, the insect rider, is endowed by nature with the interesting property of turning its own kind, that is, representatives of the class of insects and other arthropods, into real zombies. We have to find out how this happens and why riders need it.

Such creatures can be very small, barely noticeable, less than 1 mm in size. But there are also huge varieties in comparison with babies, reaching a length of up to 5 cm. In appearance, equestrians are very diverse. At a superficial glance at representatives of individual species, you can mistake them for ordinary beetles.

In fact, these are more likely wasps, and even look similar to them, but instead of a sting on the back, they have a very noticeable ovipositor, pointed at the end, often comparable in size, and sometimes even larger (in special cases 7.5 times ) of the insects themselves, but in some cases very tiny.

With the help of this organ, these creatures place eggs in the bodies of their victims, and only in this way are they able to exist, develop and continue their race. Ultimately, the life activity of equestrians most often turns out to be useful for humans.

Although, in fact, for arthropods they are very dangerous parasites, and therefore they are often called parasitic wasps. According to the systematization of living organisms, they belong to the stalked bellies. This order includes the same wasps, as well as bumblebees, bees, and ants. And therefore it turns out that these are the closest relatives of the riders.

The body of the described creatures is elongated in shape and is supported by six thin legs. These insects have a small head, equipped with long antennae extended forward like antennae.

These devices help them recognize their surroundings. The riders are hymenoptera, and therefore representatives of most species have membranous, elongated, transparent wings with a brown or grayish tint, mottled with veins. But there are also wingless varieties, which are very reminiscent of ants.

Other riders, due to the abundance of different colors inherent in them, are often confused with related bees, as well as with a number of other insects. Riders come in bright red, orange, spotted, and striped colors. But the most common body color is predominantly black, complemented by bright, different shades of transitions.

Mistaking ichneumon wasps for wasps, people are often frightened by their huge ovipositor, believing that it is a terrifying sting that is poisonous to humans. But this opinion is wrong. By the way, only females have this terrible organ, and the male half is naturally deprived of it, as well as, of course, the ability to lay eggs.