What is the point of wasps?

Question

No, really... what do they do? Where do they fit in the food chain... Why...

Answer 1

excellent question, so I have rated it as such.

It was the same question I asked my teenage son last night when he opened up the loft hatch (here in UK) to get the christmas decorations out.

Not only did we get tinsel, baubles and fairy lights down but an awful lot of wasp detritus and whole, dead wasps.
We looked up and saw a huge - no longer inhabited - wasp nest above our heads.

As I banged my head jumping out of the way in fright, I caught hold of the christmas tree stand, which fell down (with me), onto the skin-irritating loft insulation and broke through into the ceiling below.

By the time we vacated the attic, my son and I had brought down about a kilo of wasp-stuff onto my bed below - nice.

So that's another reason why I now hate wasps and can't see the point of them. They are there to cause pain, suffering and holey ceilings.

(I know what some of you are like so please don't tell me I should get up there with my vacuum cleaner more often...)

Oh, Happy Christmas.

If someone comes up with an answer to help me like them, I would be very grateful...I like the thought of them being food for other creatures...

Answer 2

it's not really a question of the point. Like all animals - wasps are exploiting an evolutionary niche. In their case an insect colony that can forage for food at some distance and has increased it's chances of survival through an aggressive nature. The sting isn't really meant for us but for other wasps and animals that might threaten their colonies.

Answer 3

whilst will people understand there's a `element` in each thing. It`s no longer rocket technology. interior 4 years the human race would desire to die off if bees improve into extinct. the comparable is going for worms. you could besides ask why leaves fall from the timber (you will desire to already be attentive to that one). each thing has a objective - it`s observed as the stability of nature. Nature is so complicated that mere guy (who's a fabricated from nature) can in no way wish to appreciate the great of it. sure, wasps have a objective, alongside with each thing else. Stinging you is in basic terms their self-defence. YOU hit back don`t you while you're attacked or threatened?

Answer 4

Most wasp species are predators. Their function is in the control of many other insect species. They are actually very effective parasitoids, and because of this efficiency they have been used for decades as biological control agents. Many crop pests including hornworms and scale insects which cost millions of dollars in loss annulally are controled by wasps. Without these predators, tomatoes, oranges, tobacco, and many other important crops would be so scarce that the price of them would skyrocket.
Their method of efficiency is that they will lay one egg on the back of a caterpillar, and throught the process of polyembrony, the egg multiplies itself, producing hundreds of larvae. These larvae hatch, kill the caterpillar, and pupate. Once development is compltete, the newly formed wasps will emerge and go out in search of their own caterpillar to deposit eggs on. After a year, there are millions of these wasps and they are naturally able to control the number of potentially devastating pest species.
In nature, most moths and beetles have some species of wasp that is their specific parasitoid. Without these parasitoids, longhorn beetles would reduce the forest to sawdust and caterpillars would strip every leaf off of every plant they can find. Wasps act to control theri numbers, and keep a balance between the pests and the hosts.

I hope that answers your question!

Oh, and to clear up some of the confusion, yes they do pollinate, not to the extent of the honey bees for sure, but some wasp species are pollinators.

Answer 5

I think wasps are predators and kill and eat other insects. So, like spiders do the same. Without wasps and spiders there would be too many really gross bugs all over the place.

Answer 6

Boy are you lot lucky you didn't turn up in my biology class.
Organisms do not need a reason to exist, just an opportunity. Wasps exist simply to exist that is their purpose. Sure they are useful to man in pest control but that is by accident. Being animals they have to eat and they are very effective predators. They resist being eaten rather violently.
Wasps look after themselves, they do whatever they can to ensure that their species survives, nothing more nothing less.
Without wasps the population size of some other organisms would change, no biggy. The idea that removing one species from an ecosystem will destroy it is rubbish. Some objectivity please!!

Answer 7

they have evolved to fill a place in the food chain. They eat pests that attack plants and meat. They are a food supply for birds. They only sting if provoked although you may do this by accident. They are in fact one of natures more pleasing insects not a good as honey bees but still good and useful

Answer 8

I was thinking the same thing when removing suitcase from my attic I damaged a wasps nest built around the joists. As I made a world record escape from the attic and managed to pull the hatch down at the same time I split my head open on the light fitting.
The guy who came out to the house to the kill the little buggers said it was one of the biggest nest a wasp swarm could build, he estimated there was 5000 wasps in it.
Anyway to cut a long , expensive and tramatic story short I asked him, " what do wasps do?" and he said "Keep me in business".

Answer 9

They help control the populations of small arthrapods, either by eating them outright or laying eggs on some things that eat them alive after they hatch. (mosquitos, flies, moths, caterpillars, spiders, smaller wasp species, etc.)

They in turn become food for birds, spiders and larger predatory.

Answer 10

They don't help pollination. That's bees.
They eat rotting fruit and one good thing - they get rid of pests. Their larvae live in the bodies of spiders. Which aren't dead, but paralysed by the mama wasp.