Wot! No wasps?

[moonunit100]

I haven't seen a single wasp yet this year. I don't know whether it's just in my part of the world (Luton, England) or whether something's happened to all of the wasps right up and down the country/world. Does anybody else have any observations on this or know the answer to the question - 'where's all the wasps'?

[b13thy]

Its not wasp season yet, they come around August, pesky little devils

[Rabelais]

Wasp are busy feeding the larva at the moment, they do this by catching insects mashing them up and feeding the resultant goo to them. The larva respond by pooing out a sugary liquid which sustains the worker wasps. In the autumn all the larva are raised and the source of sugary liquid ceases then the workers go out in search of food elsewhere. This unfortunately brings them into contact with us and our processed sugar diet. So where are all the wasps at the moment? They are busy doing gardeners favours, they soon be annoying the bejesus out of us when the kids are raised.

[moonunit100]

Oh nice!

Thanks guys, roll on August then eh?

[Artful]

You're lucky, moonunit. They're starting to wake up here and I keep finding dozy wasps in the strangest of places and, believe me, a dozy wasp's sting is just as bad as an August wide awake wasp.

[lindapinda]

Rabelais,what actually is the point of wasps,after they have stopped feeding the young.You sound very knowledgeable!

[spudqueen]

Were one or two wasps around at the barbecue I was at today in South Manchester, managed to kill one though.

[Rabelais]

What is the point of wasps after they have raised their young lindapinda? Why to annoy us of course. Other than that they serve very little purpose.

[ludwig]

I've thought for some years that there is a general decline in the numbers of flying insects. Wasps, bees, flies, butterflies, you name it, there seems to be less of them compared to say 30 years ago. It used to be the case that you couldn't sit in a beer garden without hundreds of wasps crawling all over your pint. Now you might get the odd 1 or 2, but nothing major.