Re:Why do we hate wasps and love bees?
by justtopost on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @11:19AM
(#18024776)
I can answer this.
Besides the obvious honey advantage, bee stings hurt much much less.
This week I have had the fortune of having been stung by both. The bee was accidental, I swatted my neck absent mindedly, and basically stung myself. It hurt, and mildly throbbed for hours afterward, and was slightly tender for a day or so.
The wasp stung my ankle while walking in the grass, having inavertently walked on an underground wasp nest. They signaled and all exited the nest and chased me. They were still stinging my clothing as I stripped, yelling like a hellfire preacher. Somehow I only got stung on my foot, but that did not stop a whole body alergic reaction, and some of the most intense local pain I have ever experinced. It subsided after about a day, after which all swelling was gone. I read wasps are a 3(out of 4) on the biting pain scale by the nutjob that gets posted here yearly.
That is my own, highly biased, but fresh, opinion on this matter.
However, lest I leave readers hating wasps, many are prolific bug killers. I think one species is one of the few to attack boring beetles. If they would only drive off the invasive ground squirrels whose holes they often inhabit.
Re:Why do we hate wasps and love bees?
by wahern on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @04:57AM
(#18022858)
It's common knowledge that wasps are far more aggressive than the bees commonly found in Europe and North America. Maybe that common knowledge is wrong, but AFAICT the paper doesn't dispute that. It does admit that wasp stings are more painful, but then waves that away by arguing that most wasp species can't even sting, which is irrelevant.
Also, you're far more likely to find wasp nests (of the stinging variety) in very inconvenient places, like under an eave near your front door. This makes them far more of a potentially dangerous nuisance than bees.
Besides the obvious honey advantage, bee stings hurt much much less.
This week I have had the fortune of having been stung by both. The bee was accidental, I swatted my neck absent mindedly, and basically stung myself. It hurt, and mildly throbbed for hours afterward, and was slightly tender for a day or so.
The wasp stung my ankle while walking in the grass, having inavertently walked on an underground wasp nest. They signaled and all exited the nest and chased me. They were still stinging my clothing as I stripped, yelling like a hellfire preacher. Somehow I only got stung on my foot, but that did not stop a whole body alergic reaction, and some of the most intense local pain I have ever experinced. It subsided after about a day, after which all swelling was gone. I read wasps are a 3(out of 4) on the biting pain scale by the nutjob that gets posted here yearly.
That is my own, highly biased, but fresh, opinion on this matter.
However, lest I leave readers hating wasps, many are prolific bug killers. I think one species is one of the few to attack boring beetles. If they would only drive off the invasive ground squirrels whose holes they often inhabit.
Also, you're far more likely to find wasp nests (of the stinging variety) in very inconvenient places, like under an eave near your front door. This makes them far more of a potentially dangerous nuisance than bees.