Many moons ago, A friend of mine shared a Youtube video alleging to show a cool trick for killing hornets. In the video, some goober takes a jar of gasoline and thrusts the jar over a wasp nest hanging from the eve of a structure. These wasps were not hornets, but were actually paper wasps, if they were hornets they would have been all sorts of rilled up and their nest likely would have been too big to fit a mason jar over. I thought this was no good, since wasps are pretty cool, kicking around out there doing neat stuff in the ecosystem, like pollinating and preying upon many bugs that can be garden pests. On top of that, many wasps are supper cool architects, like paper wasps and mud daubers, warms my heart to see little beings making some of the siickest vernacular structures around. Anyway, it is goofy to hear any black and yellow wasp be interpreted as a hornet and for them to all be treated with disdain or fear when there is such an incredible variety of these little guys! And so I began the practice of #WaspagandaWednesday. Most Wednesdays I find a wasp fact to share with my coworkers, friends, and family.
AND NOW I SHALL BE SHARING THEM HERE!
HERE'S A LINK TO AN RSS FOR THESE WASP FACTS TOO!
NOVEMBER 11, 2026
Did you potter and mason wasps have a sybiotic relationship with mites? It isn't known if the mites are helpfull to the wasps, but two genera (Parancistrocerus and Monobia) have a special chamber in their abdomen called an acarinarium that provides the little mites a dwelling.
These mites are passed from males to females when they mate and the mites later migrate to the eggs the female lays. These mites feed on the wasp larva but do not kill them, they just poke a little hole in their tough cuticle and slurp on their wasp juices a bit. Wierdly, in atleast one species, the female wasp larva eventually eat the mites that dwell in their brood cell, but males do not. This allows the mites to catch a ride when the male wasp is ready to emerge, thus continuing the cycle.
If the mites are helpful, I hypothesis it's through sanitation, maybe they help keep the brood cells clean, indirectly protecting the larva from some pathogens. I got this idea from a PBS Deep Look video about giant cockroachs and their symbiotic mites! The closer ye look, the weirder and more interconnected the world turns out to be!
NOVEMBER 4, 2026
Did you know horntails are primative wasps in the suborder Symphyta? These waistless wasps date back to the Triassic Period (~200 million years ago), and notably their larva consume wood fiber, which they are able to digest thanks to symbiotic fungi!
OCTOBER 28, 2026
Did you know the Spangled-winged Thread-waisted Wasp (Ammophila pictipennis) hides her earthen burrow from predators and nest parasites by sealing the entrance with a pebble or other small object? She also moves the excavated dirt away from her burrow as to leave no exidence of her excavation, a crafty little friend if ye ask me!