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Madison Pflugbeil is a third-year student at the University of Maine. After recently overcoming her fear of bugs, she is pursuing a career in entomology.
The bounties of summertime are endless and wonderful: beach visits, ice cream, swimming pools and picnics. But there is one ever-present disturbance that throws a wrench in our sweet summer plans: the wasp. These buzzing pests are everywhere we don’t want them to be. They couldn’t be any more deserving of our ire, right? For these surprisingly helpful and charming insects, there may be more than meets the eye.
While wasps are feared for their stings, out of the hundreds of thousands of species, only a few will readily do so. Of the docile wasps, many are solitary and less aggressive without a hive to protect. Stinging wasps usually act in the service of their hive, protecting their sisters, queen, and all the babies within the nest.
Wasps sting more readily than bees because they suffer far fewer consequences. Bee and wasp stingers are both modifications of something called an ovipositor, a tube used to deposit eggs. The stinger of a bee is barbed, lodging in the bee’s target, and allowing the stinger to release more venom, packing more of a punch over time. This also results in the ovipositor being ripped out of the bee. Because it is attached to the bee’s reproductive system, she will inevitably die as a result. Unlike bees, wasps have smooth stingers. They can keep their defense system intact, so they don’t have to be as cautious about their defenses. When you are a small, delicate creature with a family and a home to defend, it helps to have a consequence-free shank on your behind to remind everyone around you to back off.
Wasps are essential components of the ecosystem. Many solitary wasps are parasitoids, meaning they kill their host, not just live in or around it like parasites. In order to feed their babies protein- and fat-rich meals, they will lay their eggs on aphids, hornworms and cabbage caterpillars, among other garden pests, removing them from their host plants. A more iconic wasp group, the yellowjackets, keep fly populations under control by feeding on larvae. By attacking unwanted and invasive species, wasps help preserve the balance of the ecosystem.
Not to mention, they are also excellent pollinators. As wasps buzz around from plant to plant, feeding on other insects, nectar or pollen, they help pollinate flowers. Thousands of fig species depend upon specialist fig wasps to wiggle into their tiny flowers, and orchids have evolved to even mimic wasp pheromones to attract them.
Not satisfied with just defending the outdoors, wasps — particularly the venom in their stings — have a key place in the medical field. Each species has its own unique venom cocktail, providing a whole world of organic compounds to explore the uses of. While we traditionally think of insect stings causing swelling, there is evidence that properly utilized wasp venom can actually help relieve the swelling caused by arthritis. As the scientific community struggles against drug-resistant diseases and their symptoms, turning to the naturally occurring compounds found in wasp venom has been shockingly promising, treating autoimmune diseases and even some cancers.
Beyond protecting plants, fiercely defending their families and treating diseases, wasps are just plain interesting. The diversity of the group once more lends a hand, with wasps existing in every imaginable color, shape and size. Cuckoo wasps, known for their iridescent greens, blues and oranges, can curl into a ball when frightened. Fairy wasps, the smallest known flying insect, are so tiny that their wings are little more than bristly clubs. A Baeus wasp’s eyes are nearly bigger than its body. And velvet ants aren’t ants at all — they are wasps that resemble tiny pandas!
I ask not for us to begin to welcome wasps into our homes, or to ignore the dangers that they may pose. But as with any creature, big or small, wasps play an essential role in the world. They are worth a second chance in our hearts.
