Welcome the wasps

Sprawled on a gingham blanket absorbing the height of the summer sun, your carefully cultivated tranquillity is easily shattered by an approaching buzz. Fight or flight suddenly triggered, your mind cogitates over potential sources for the noise. A bluebottle perhaps? Annoying, gross, but mostly harmless. A bumblebee? Scarier, some stinging potential, but hardworking honey-makers, nonetheless. The worst-case scenario then comes to mind — a wasp. Vicious, venomous, unrelenting. You jump up — eyes screwed shut — wildly batting the air around your head. The wasp, misunderstood and hungry, lands on your sandwich in hopes of a meal. 

While this may be the scenario anytime you bravely venture out for a picnic in the UK, this past summer was hardly an exception. From July to August, with no less than four heatwaves, the average temperature in the UK was 16.1 degrees Celsius — breaking the record previously set in 2018. This also came after the UK’s driest spring in 50 years, establishing an ideal environment — warm and arid — for wasp colonies to excel. 

Here, we are very lucky to have our own society dedicated to sustainable living and supporting pollinators — the St Andrews Bee Society! I spoke about the rise in wasps with their Head Beekeeper, Sapna Chudasama, who explained, “For social wasps, the warmer and drier weather contributed to a greater survival rate for wasp queens and aided faster nest construction, resulting in larger colonies.”

Indeed, it is during springtime that a wasp queen will begin to build her nest, relying on the hot weather to warm her body so that she can actively forage for materials. The nest is constructed using wood fibres (obtained from fallen logs, fenceposts, and doors — the dryer, the better) which are then chewed with the queen’s own saliva to form a sticky paste. Once the initial structure is complete, the queen rears the first worker wasps, who then take over the role of expanding the nest. At this point, the queen is producing eggs full-time when greater temperatures may quicken the laying process and egg maturation. As a result, the heat and low humidity accelerate the growth of the colony. 

Although it is unnerving to think of an ever-expanding structure pulsing with spindly, bullet-shaped insects, the importance of wasp species and their role in our ecosystems must be acknowledged. Best highlighted by Sapna, “[Wasps] are also invaluable pest controllers and play an important ecological role by consuming pests such as greenflies and caterpillars.” Their role as predators may also be welcome news to some. A fun fact from Sapna: “For those spider-hating people, many species of wasps actually prey on spiders and help control their numbers.”

Aside from pest control, with their buzzing from flower to flower scavenging sugary pollen as a meal, wasps also make excellent pollinators. In fact, some evidence has suggested that their role as pollinators is just as vital as that of bees. A 2024 study published in the journal Ecological Entomology found that wasps fared similarly to bees in their interactions with plants and ability to transport and deposit pollen. Sapna concurs, rationalising that, “although wasps can be really bothersome, particularly in the late summer, they are actually incredibly valuable to our environment and should be appreciated just as much as bees and butterflies. Thus, we may not see it, but wasps, like any other creatures, have a vital role in the food chain and in maintaining a balanced ecosystem.”

If you eat outside, you must be prepared for a noisy visit from a wasp. They may be intrusive, but they mean you no harm. As such, consider sparing a few crumbs as a peace offering — a sign of acknowledgement for their hard work and your own effort to look beyond their misjudged reputations.

Illustration by Eve Fishman