what are wasps for?

[johnny37]

They are a nuisance when they build nests in my loft. Annoy me when Im having a drink in the garden. Sting me when I get rid of them. What are they for?

[another-view]

Why should they be for anything? Only a human's arrogance would assume every other living creature must benefit him in some way.

No doubt the wasp is thinking, "What use is a human?"

[bigmamma]

What are wasps for ........to scare the bjeeezus out of me !

[jackthehat]

I think it is the Germans who refer to them as 'God's little joke'.

[ChuckFickens]

pollination, pest control, part of the food chain and to cause people to invent whole new genres of dance.

[TheMime]

Well pest control for a start!

A wasp is a predatory, flying, stinging insect, with a stinger and membranous forewings and hindwings. It is related to ants and bees, with all of them being members of order Hymenoptera, but is separated from ants and bees by having a stinger and no hair; bees have hair. A rough definition of the term wasp is any member of the aculeate family Vespidae. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers, or natural biocontrol. Parasitic wasps are increasingly used in agricultural pest control as they prey mostly on pest insects and have little impact on crops.

But im with you johnny, i hate the little sods!

[loves-it]

they are a very good natural insceticide, Wasps are highly important to ecosystems. Sawflies consume vegetation and so limit plant growth. Most other wasps are either parasitic or predaceous and so play a vital role in limiting the populations of thousands of other insect species. All wasps are eaten by other species, thereby providing many links in the food web. Many parasitic wasps have been cultured and used in the biological control of agricultural pests. Although a few of the stinging wasps are considered nuisances, they also provide benefits. Wasps feed on flower nectar and play a role in pollination.

[loves-it]

they are also responsible for making me look like a breakdancing loon whenever one comes too close! lol

[TheMime]

lol!

[fredpuli47]

johnny, you have answered your own question in stating it. What are they for? Wasps are to be a nuisance when etc

[China Doll]

This comes up so often... Now personally, I hate the bar steward creatures, can't stand them... However;

There's a wasp like a fraction of the inch of your thumb nail that is native in forests many miles from here and this tiny creature is the basis of an entire eco system in a huge tree.. If that wee creature didn't live then that tree and all that live from it wouldn't.

Now the above tree has bog all to do with how I live my life... But I'm pretty sure that the percentage of the world that would miss that tree is larger than the percentage of people that would ever miss me. It just depends how you look at things :c)

(Still hate wasps though!)

[mallam]

An obviously anthropocentric question, and even all these competent answers in terms of ecosystems etc. don't really get away from the anthropic principle, do they? But even if we try to imagine the general scheme of things sub specie aeternitatis, humans plough the fields and scatter the good seed o'er the land, which does seem a bit more impressive than just carrying on as hunter-gatherers like the pesky wasps, hunting us as well, and gathering what they can scrounge from us. But if they didn't pollinate those fields while they were about it, our ingenuity would be tested a bit harder, eh?