What’s more British than a summer picnic ruined by a plague of wasps? We plead the case for leniency on their behalf…

by Katrina ffiske

A bee buzzes past and it is greeted with reverence and gratitude for saving the world. A wasp appears, is shrieked at and everyone attempts to kill it. But why? They might not provide us with delicious honey, and they’re undoubtedly more streamlined than their fuzzy cousins, but do wasps deserve their reputation as single-minded pesterers of pub garden pleasure seekers?
Firstly a few wasp facts: wasps are the ancestors of bees (and ants) and there are more than 7,000 species of wasp in the UK. Most of these are ‘social’ wasps, which live in colonies consisting of thousands of female workers supporting single egg-laying queen.

Inspirational insects
These are the typical wasps of our summer encounters. They create fabulously intricate paper nests, unfortunately for us (and them, as a quick call to the pest controller can wipe them out in an instant) often in our roof spaces and outbuildings. In fact, a Chinese legend tells that 2,000 years ago, Cai Lun, a Chinese eunuch court official, sat in his garden watching a wasp building a nest. Wasps create hexagonal cells from fine slithers of chewed-up wood. Inspired by watching these insects create their intricate nests, Cai Lun was inspired to experiment with wood mulches, eventually creating paper.

Crucial creatures
Wasps are valuable plant pollinators, but they’re also excellent insect predators. While adult wasps only consume sugar (hence their attraction to jam and cider!), they feed their larvae a diet rich in protein. This means they munch their way through an estimated 14 million kilograms of aphids, caterpillars and beetles (source: Natural History Museum). Many farmers choosing not to use pesticides, use wasps as a natural pest control for their crops.
If I still have not converted you, then I recommend reading Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps by ecologist Seirian Sumner. Among other amazing facts, Sumner explains that wasps can recognise human faces, and that their sense of smell is so powerful that they are used to sniff out drugs and explosives.
So if a wasp lands on you, keep calm and wait for it fly off. And if you really can’t learn to love these little yellowjackets, perhaps consider moving to Antarctica, the only place in the world without wasps.