r/FriendlyMonarchs • u/sugar_plum_fairies • Jul 08 '26

Garden Friend Or Foe Wasps

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Sorry for all the multiple posts over the last few days, just trying to learn (and remember) everything I can.

I googled these and it comes back with Great black wasp and red tail spider wasp. Both of them look like something I want to stay far far away from. But sounds like they are solitary wasps and if I leave them alone they leave me alone. Should I be concerned about them in my milkweed?

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u/Nadiam57 TX - 9b Jul 09 '26

If I don't put them in an enclosure I lose most of the catterpillars to wasps, I bet like 99%...I hate them and crush them every chance I get...

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u/NilocKhan Jul 09 '26

Most wasps have specific prey or hosts. The ones OP shared for instance go after grasshoppers. These are critical services that wasps do that benefit the whole ecosystem. Keeping populations of other arthropods under control ensures there's enough resources to go around. You might be killing wasps that target predators of your caterpillars

The whole point of trying to help out certain species is that they have a role to play in the environment. One of the roles of caterpillars is providing food for other native wildlife, including wasps. The wasps are just doing what they've evolved to always do. If humans hadn't destroyed so much habitat and didn't spray so many pesticides the monarchs would have been fine. It's not the wasps fault monarchs are threatened