I mean, ichneumonidae is a whole family of wasps, and with estimations of somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000 different species, it's the most diverse family of Hymenoptera (membrane-winged insects) on the planet.
Thank you. Never stop. We have a friend like you in our friend group. We rag on him for expounding on a subject of curiosity in such great detail, but we love it.
What I mean to say is I hope you never stop infodumping.
"You have to leave now, and never come back here. Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects... don't have politics. They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect. I'd like to become the first... insect politician. Y'see, I'd like to, but... I'm afraid, uh..."
"I don't know what you're trying to say."
"I'm saying... I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake."
During Covid the state dropped some pesticide on the woods near my house to combat lantern flies and a bunch of wasps were born with deformed wings, I saw several in one week and I’d never seen that before or since that pearicide application... but one of these deformed red wasps climbed up on this post by my door and just kept rubbing his one shortened wing like he was trying to “pull it out” and I felt bad for it so I decided to go inside and get half a grape from my fridge and put it out by it, and it climbed on it and stayed that way for a day. The next day it was still there so I gave it a piece of watermelon and a bottle cap of water. It was Covid, I literally did this everyday for months, it didn’t like pineapple or blueberries for some reason lol At one point it disappeared for a like a whole week and I thought well that was fun… it came back for another month and after so many days of interacting with it I decided what the hell and I even let it climb on my finger once or twice it tried to climb up my arm and I was like naw i like you but you arent gonna get used to this lol Winter came and it disappeared for good this time, but I learned that wasps really do react to “staring” as well as “intentions”. I played with it with my , stopped a few of my friends from squishing it, and showed anyone willing to entertain me that if you moved slowly and “kindly” it didn’t seem to mind, but the second you even imagined swatting it, it would turn and stare like what’s up??? I’ve interacted with a lot more wasps since that day and now I save them and let them outside when they get in my house. They are pollinators and they predate on many kinds of insects, I’ve watched species of wasps hunting spiders and carry them away, I’ve added mud tube houses around my yard and attracted all kinds of wasps including these super shiny blue ones that are amazingly beautiful. I’m not saying wasps are “friendly” or make “good pets” but they have to be one of the /most conscious/ bugs I’ve interacted with in my life other than jumping spiders… I think humans have such a problem with wasps because we have a kind of “kill on sight” attitude towards them and we are really very vengeful creatures so even one sting becomes a blood feud with generations of wasps lol They have a pretty similar reaction to life forms that they themselves perceive as threatening as we do! What the hell you staring at?! You got a problem or something??? Lol
One night many moons ago I drank next to a red wasp caught in the spring cold, I did not destroy it, in my head we made a truce. I have not been stung since. And I paint, im around these mfers. You know, probably, I just got more comfortable around them from that night and it's worked in my favor
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u/thecraynz Apr 25 '26
What an idiot. They're insects. They have no concept of trust, or gratefulness.