Now that fall is almost upon us, the remaining wasp nests are at a break neck speed to finish-up for the summer. The queen will produce new males and queens – these will fly away from the nest, mate and the new queens will find somewhere to hibernate. Once autumn kicks in, the cold weather and lack of food kills off the males. At this point we forget about the distaste we have for wasps but really - why do we not embrace wasps for what they are. Wasps regulate insects, arachnids, myriapods, and crustaceans’ populations, including insect vectors of human diseases and crop pests. The fact that wasps have the ability to sting repeatedly is my personal disdain for them. Wasps are indeed universally disliked; words used to describe wasps are emotive and negative. Researchers have concluded that the reasons why we have a negative perception of wasps is our low level of interest and knowledge regarding the ecosystem services wasps perform.
