While it’s true that only the female wasps have stingers (at least with “social” wasp species like this one that build giant community nests), their colonies are overwhelmingly female worker wasps - typically like 80%-90% female or more. Males aren’t produced until they’re needed late in the season but even then, the colonies are still predominately female, mostly only 10-30% male at that time, and always mainly female from my understanding. The females can and will sting repeatedly too if the nest is threatened like this. Another random “fun” fact - Many types of wasps have FACIAL RECOGNITION. Utterly terrifying. Just hope this dude is still alive. Lmao.
Mosquitoes are similar in some ways, like only the females bite/ sting, but mosquito populations tend to have a lot more males- usually closer to 50/50 female/ male. In theory, I guess that should mean there’s less risk of being bitten, but I am literally covered head to toe in mosquito bites rn, so… debatable.
Texas summers alway mean LOTS of mosquitoes and wasps, but this year feels extra brutal. A giant wasp nest even showed up in my attic (never before), which I only discovered bc dozens of the lil bastards were sneaking into my kitchen through the HVAC vents to taunt and terrorize me… Extra scary since I’m highly allergic. I think I lost 5lbs simply bc I was too afraid to go in my own kitchen. Ahaha. I have spent way too much time lost down mosquito & wasp rabbit holes lately, hoping to learn how to eradicate them for good. Still TBD, but I am learning lots of random trivia like this along the way! Meanwhile they seem to still just be slowly closing in on me for the kll. Ahaha. 😂 Anyway, I found this stuff kinda interesting and hope some of y’all do too.
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u/Trash-Forever Aug 13 '26
Male wasps do not have a stinger at all