• Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    Paper wasps have a unique perspective of “provoked.”

    I was tired so I just decided to land and rest on your head. Why are you provoking me?

    I was building a nest in the only door you use to come in and out of your house. When you tried to leave, I flew directly into your path and basically body checked you. Why are you provoking me?

    • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      Yeah, those wasps are assholes, just not quite as much of assholes as yellow jackets. Weirdly enough, I’ve been stung by everything on this list that is capable of doing so including bumble bees. Bees hate me and I hate them, but I still refrain from killing them because we need them around.

      • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        I always avoid killing bees but I am terrified of wasps. I grew up getting stung by these fuckers constantly. That’s how I found out I’m allergic.

        They’re extremely aggressive and live in giant nests together. If you kill one, it releases pheromones or something that signals to the others and they swarm. I would beg my parents to do something about them because they made life absolutely miserable, but they had this weird fatalist attitude about them like “the wasps were here long before we were. They’ll be here long after.”

        Realized as an adult that decoy paper wasps nests are very cheap and work surprisingly well as a repellent. You can also just use a brown paper sack. Could have saved myself from some very traumatic encounters if I had known that sooner.