Tiny brutality.

Yesterday morning I was outside bringing the dogs inside so I could go to work when I heard a buzzing on the ground.  A wasp and a honeybee were entangled on a walkway stone, going at it.  I fought the urge to break them up and watched to see what would happen.



I ran inside to grab the macro lens but it was still hard to tell exactly what was going on until it had already happened. 


This next photo best shows what was about to happen.  The wasp has a firm grip on much of the honeybee's abdomen, most of which has been torn from the honeybee's body. 


The last little bit holding the abdomen together was broken and the wasp flew off holding the big round butt of the honeybee. 

The honeybee fluttered around on the ground, still alive. 


I put a leaf over it and killed it to end the torture. 

The wasps have been around all summer but this was the first time they really pissed me off.  I will no longer be tolerating their existence.  I found this dumb meme on the internet that sums things up:
 
 Watch out, wasps.  You're going down. 

Comments

  1. I am totally with you. You know Darwin offered wasps as an argument against the existence of a deity? Also on the subject of evil in the universe, you know some higher power erases what ever I've written in your comments box if I haven't already signed in under a Google or Facebook or other ID? This time I had only two sentences to retype, or I might have just said to hell with it, like I've done before. (You didn't miss much)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am with Darwin there. Sorry you have to jump through hoops to leave a comment, but thanks for jumping through them!

      Delete
  2. I love me some nature, but those yellowjacket traps work really well. Just saying.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aren't yellowjackets native? I always assumed they were, but don't actually know. Epic coverage.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think there are both native and non-native yellowjackets, though I'm not certain what this particular asshole is.

      Delete
  4. Ever since I was a wee lad having happy walking-with-a-dog-in-a-wyoming-field-because-fuck-else-is-there-to-do-in-wyoming-as-a-wee-lad time and a wasp flew up my breezy knee-shorts to deliver stings most punishing, I have operated with a kill on site policy.
    10/10 would recommend.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Come on! The yellow jacket is native and the honey bee isn't, so shouldn't we be rooting for the local team? :) Besides, it coulda been worse for the bee. If a "bee wolf" wasp, the honey bee would have ended up paralyzed and in a nest for the babes to eat Aliens-style.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I guess we have to let nature take its course but I def always make any critter to its corner and sit a while till Im gone, I break up fights...guess if I didn't see it it didn't happen! What is the fire situation in Oregon now? Its on my list!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Here's another cute wasp trick that recently made science news:
    http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/08/wasps-force-zombie-spiders-weave-cocoon-webs?utm_campaign=email-news-latest&utm_src=email

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment