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Scientists Say Wasps Should be Appreciated
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(05-31-2019, 01:52 PM)Jason Miller Wrote: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48302414

The wasp often gets a bad rap as it is considered an unwelcome guest at picnics by getting into drinks and food and it is known for delivering painful stings. However, Scientists state that wasps are beneficial as they control the populations of other insects. Without wasps taking care of pests, we would have to use more pesticides.  Dr. Sumner of University College London states that ``They're the maligned insect of the insect world - they're viewed as the gangsters. Whereas actually we should be viewing them as a beneficial insect - they're doing us a favour, and we're just completely overlooking that favour." So the next time a wasp stings you, remember that they have another job controlling pests that may be more annoying to us and require us to use harmful pesticides. 
Both parasitic and predatory wasps have a big impact on the abundance of arthropods, the largest phylum in the animal kingdom, which includes spiders, mites, insects, and centipedes. They are right at the top of the invertebrate food chain. Through the regulation of both carnivorous and plant feeding populations, wasps protect lower invertebrate species and plants. This regulation of populations is arguably their most important role, both ecologically and economically. Although the majority of wasps lead solitary lives, it is a lot of species of social wasps which make the biggest impression on insect populations. Social wasp queens share their nests with thousands of offspring workers, who raise upwards of a big population of sibling larvae during the colony cycle. This means a single nest provides a whopping bang for the buck in terms of ecosystem services, killing vast numbers of spiders, millipedes, and crop-devouring insects. Many social wasps are generalist predators too, which means they control populations of a wide range of species, but rarely wipe any single species out. This makes them an extremely useful, minimizing the need for toxic pesticides, but unlikely to threaten prey biodiversity.


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RE: Scientists Say Wasps Should be Appreciated - by Aleksander Equbamickael - 06-09-2019, 01:40 AM

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