How are wasps important to the environment?

Question

For a biologogy report.
I'm supposed to list three answers.
so far I've got
a. Wasps eat some harmful pests.
b. Wasps eat decaying debris (dead animals and food)

I just need one more but I've looked it up, and I can't find anything.

Answer 1

They also help pollinate flowers, just like bees. Without insects doing pollination, there would be no bright colored flowers in the world (unless you count those pollinated by fruit bats)

Answer 2

Importance Of Wasps

Answer 3

a. Wasps eat harmful pest and some species deposit their eggs into a harmful insect where they hatch and become parasites on it.

In biocontrol (pest control without pesticides) a specific species of insect has a specific wasp that hunts it so those that hunt pests can be incouraged and those that prey on bees or helpful insects can be removed.

b. Some wasps do eat decaying animal and food debris.

c. Wasps can be eaten by birds and small mammals and are an important part of the food chain.

d. Wasps can be pollen spreaders.

e. Wasps hibernate so they are easier to control and don't act as a drain on the environment when the winter comes.

f. Since specific species of wasps prey on very specific insects they can be an indicator of the amount of that species of insects and it could be easier to count the number of wasps rather than all the insects they prey on. Some of those insects like beetles are hard to find, but flying wasps are much easier to observe. This lets you not only control the amount of a specific insect species in an area, but a good rough idea of how many of those prey species are in the area.

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp
"Wasps are critically important in natural biocontrol. Almost every pest insect species has a wasp species that is a predator or parasite upon it. Parasitic wasps are also increasingly used in agricultural pest control as they have little impact on crops. Wasps also constitute an important part of the food chain....

Generally wasps are parasites as larvae, and feed only on nectar as adults. Some wasps are omnivorous but this is relatively uncommon, they feed on a variety of fallen fruit, nectar and carrion. Many wasps are predatory, preying on other insects. Certain social wasp species, such as yellowjackets, scavenge for dead insects to provide for their young. In turn the brood provides sweet secretions for the adults.

In parasitic species the first meals are almost always provided from the animal the adult wasp used as a host for its young. Adult male wasps sometimes visit flowers to obtain nectar to feed on in much the same manner as honey bees. Occasionally, some species, such as yellowjackets, invade honeybee nests and steal honey and/or brood...

At a certain time of year (often around autumn) the bulk of the wasp colony dies away, leaving only the young mated queens alive. During this time they leave the nest and find a suitable area to hibernate for the winter."

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fig_wasp
"The life cycle of the fig wasp is closely intertwined with that of the fig tree they inhabit. The wasps that inhabit a particular tree can be loosely divided into two groups; pollinating and non-pollinating. The pollinating variety forms a mutually beneficial symbiosis with the tree, whereas the non-pollinating variety is parasitic. Both life cycles, however, are very similar."

Answer 4

Well you could put that they are also eaten by birds and other insects such as dragonflies, or how they spread pollen in plants - though many wasps are carnivorous but with respect, all the answers miss a point.

Tell your teacher wasps aren't around to contribute to the environment. Wasps are here to reproduce and make more wasps.

Answer 5

If all the bees and wasps ect... all became extinct we'd soon follow I hate wasps but they're just dojng thier job I guess thank whoever