Would you save the life of a wasp?

I’m too broke to donate any money to causes. If I did have discretionary income that I wanted to put towards life preservation, it would be towards a human cause, like diabetes research.

Short answer: no.

I can’t perceive any scenario where this would even be possible. I mean, if a wasp is in mortal danger then it’s pretty much fucked anyway. Which suits me fine, I don’t like em see.

Only if it’s the last wasp in the world.

I dont know about paying money, but I always go out of my way to save bees and wasps that land in the swimming pool. I always wait and watch them to make sure they dry off and fly away. :)

I hate them. Last summer one stung me and my whole arm swelled up. We also had a wasps nest in the roof and killed them all with spray. So no.

But if you were to give me a good reason why they should be saved like some kind of massive environmental benefit, I could put my personal feelings aside for the greater good.

I don’t donate money to any animal funds currently. However, if saving the wasp was going to have broader benefits than just saving the wasp, then perhaps. For instance, I would donate money into research into why our bee population is dying out, because bees are so important in terms of food production and within the eco system. It has nothing to do with cuteness or lack of though. It is purely about the wider impact losing wasps/bees might have. I might also donate to the World Wild Life fund to protect animals generally.

No. In fact I am more inclined to pay money for the spray that kills them.

Wasp? No. Butterfly? Yes. I believe many wasp species aren’t threatened by extinction, in fact, there are many of them out there multiplying at will, just like mosquito.

I’m always saving the lives of bugs, wasps are no exception I’m just a little more careful not to get hurt in the process.

As far as donating money to save wasps, I struggle to donate money to causes closer to my heart on my income so they take priority when I do have money to offer. I like bugs a lot, they fascinate me but I have never considered donating to their cause but I would donate to preserve habitats in which certain bugs may live.

No. That wasp will sting me the first chance it gets. It is not my friend. I would squash it faster than you can say, “Splat!”

Gadzooks, I really would not go out of the way to save either one of them. Maybe less for the wasp because its life is pretty ephemeral anyhow. The only plus the seal has is that it is an animal as oppose to an insect, higher up on the food chain, but still a creature.

No. If they stay away from my house and me, I’ll let them alone, but if they come near me I’ll kill them. I’ve never been stung by a dolphin.

No,for I am a murderess.;)

What about that mosquito on your elbow??? Live or die?

Given the number of wasp nests on the house eaves that I have sprayed with poison, and the number of yellow jackets I trapped, I would have to say “no”.

I have saved wasps in the past from a watery grave in my bird bath…. In that I plucked them out of the water & laid them on the deck to recover. Maybe once a bird took advantage of an easy moist meal while the wasp was coming to….. I don’t know, but good intensions where there from my part :-/

Even if I had all the money in the world and wasps were endangered, I still wouldn’t give money to save them, unless the world depended on it. I hate those fuckers.

I hate wasps. Anything that enjoys stinging me has to go.

“I thought I had a pebble in my sock. I pulled it off and shook out a wasps, it stumbled out lost, and without a pause, unstung as I was, still I stomped it…”

-These Few Presidents, by the band Why.

I agree with @josie. I always get stupid wasps building nest on my porch. I use to get someone else to spray them but now there are more that keep comming so I spray them all myself. At one point there were so many that everytime I went out there to water my plants, they would get aggressive. I figured if I didn’t bother them they wouldn’t bother me and I was wrong.
Bastards even try building nest in my lawn chairs.
They don’t pay rent and they make nasty roommates. They got to go.

I’d shoo it out of the house instead of flattening it. But I wouldn’t pay money for the WASP relief fund. The money would probably go to some Protestant, anyway.

Thanks for the answers everyone! =)

I don’t know if I would pay, but, I DID just save a wasp yesterday, it got in my house from it’s nest under the eaves in my garage and I captured it and let it out so it could tend to it’s little grubby babies. lol

I also ran into a butterfly driving the other day and it really bummed me out.

I believe we should not randomly kill anything unless it is a danger to us in some way, like a rattlesnake in my bedroom.

I always take the extra minute to try and catch something rather than just unconsciously squash it.

My house lizards thank me. haha

@wundayatta ROFL!

This reminds me of when I found a wasp on my bed in college. I vacuumed him up, but then I could see him walking around inside the clear trash compartment on the vacuum. I was inclined to leave him. My roommate took the vacuum outside and took it apart and let him free. She is more humane than I, I suppose.

I’m trying to figure out what kind of situation a wasp would be in where he/she would need his/her life saved. I really am! I’m just rackin’ my brains here. AND how an endangered wasp be alive long enough to get advertising out. SAVE THE WASP!!!

But, yes. If there was a wasp drowning in a pool I’d flip it out onto dry land. @Mariah I would have done the same as your roommate.

The individual is of no consequence. You will be assimilated.

@Coloma We live in the Monarch butterfly migratory path. I just HATE it when I take the car to the car wash and the front bumper is…you know. I hate that.

@Dutchess_III

I know, I was driving at about 55 when this Monarch flipped off of my windshield and I could see it’s little body flutter to the gutter. Oh, bad butterfly karma coming. lol

Bad BAD butterfly karma. X55 here. Bad.

@Dutchess_III

Well, maybe if you save some Wasps it’ll balance out. lol

I killed a tick a while ago. Ticks I will not save….

That’s a good counter question! Would you save the life of a roach or a tick?

No, not ticks, I live in tick land out here in the spring, they get the ‘Adavantage.

I gently transfer all bugs (save ticks) outside with a paper cup and 3×5 index card.

In the nice weather, I leave all doors and sliders open so that HRH can wander in and out at will. That means all the local insects arrive as well.

(The small grey lump wrapped in dried grass outside on the deck is one of our four-legged pests who take their chances showing up here. )

I would save them but donating .. only if I know people will actually use those funds to save.

@gailcalled I said it before and I’ll say it again…I LOVE THAT ROOM OF YOURS!!!!
Yes, our doors are open to all kinds of visitors too!

@gailcalled

“One dead mouse”, that could be a childrens book title. haha

which wasp?
This Wasp
or
This wasp

Of course. WASP is a pretty cool band.

Wassup, Wasp?!

Sure.

I save wasps all the time. They have a purpose.

I only kill bugs if they are too near my son’s playset…even then, I attempt to remove them safely first. Indoor wasps might get killed by a cat. Since I would prefer to not have any of my animals stung, try to catch them in a glass and get them outdoors.

Last summer, a wasp made her nest on our front porch. I was able to get it down while she was watching over her babies. I set it inside an old metal mailbox and moved the nest to a back corner of our yard. My son went to check on the babies everyday. One day he came running and said “All the babies have left their hive now!”

@SpatzieLover

Two summers ago a wasp made her nest ON a can of wasp spray in a bench on my deck that had storage under the seat. The irony was so amazing, like a Farside cartoon, I let her raise her family and then got rid of the mud ball nest. I just didn’t let anyone sit on the bench for a few weeks. lol

The wasp spray was some that my gardener had bought before he knew I am not a fan of poisons on my property.

That’s funny @Coloma! Wasp with a attitude!
@SpatzieLover I would save a wasp too. But not a cockroach. Would you save a cockroach?

That’s hilarious @Coloma. I think the universe may have been messing with you! ;)

@Dutchess_III Nope. Here in Wis we don’t have too many anyway…and have never had one in or near our home. Mosquitoes must die. I have extreme reactions to bug bites, and try as I might with every “deet” product I can, I still must slap many per day.

Nope. I am for the preservation of pretty much all life but some species do make it impossibly hard to like them. Wasps are one of them. Wasps, just fuck shit up

@Dutchess_III This question was the result of a night of celebration and one too many beers. ;)

@Dutchess_III I will always go out of my way to save roaches. For about 6 years or so, I kept them as pets. Although they were the giant madagascar hissing roaches, that doesn’t mean I think any less of the more common ones. They were my babies. I would play with them, let them eat out of my hands, and dust them with flour when they had mites. So, personally, I hold cockroaches higher than any other insect. They are amazing.

One individual wasp means nothing, it would be akin to “saving” your toenail clipping. Saving the hive on the other hand would make sense. As each wasp in a hive is genetically identical to it’s sisters, each wasp can be thought of as just part of a larger organism, the hive. Each hive is genetically separate from every other hive of the same wasp species but the individuals are not particularly relevant when it comes to saving wasps.

I certainly would not pay, but might spray.

@RareDenver

Depends of the species. The ones around my house are mud wasps, they build small like 6 cell mud nests and co-parent. And the paper wasps do the same. lol

Hornets on the other hand, OMG! I once found a Hornets nest that was bigger than a football. Scary!

@uberbatman That was freaking hilarious!!! My stomach hurts!!!

I kill those lazy ones that hang about in a dangerous way at the end of season though I tend to think the Buddhists are right and we shouldn’t kill anything.

I kill an ant
and realize my three children
have been watching.

Haiku by Kato, Shuson

I kill a roach
and realize my three children
are cheering madly.

(I just made that up. No inspiration from nowhere or nothing but in my own head! Ahem!)

@flutherother: Check Kato, Shuson’s syllables.

I kill an ant and
Realize my three children
have been watching me.

Not going to fix mine, are you @gailcalled. : (

Mess with perfection,

O perfect haiku writer?

I have no need to.

@gailcalled You don’t want to mess with a roach killer.

@Coloma those wasps we can do without, no team work, no survival

Well..I just got in and must toot my own horn, missed running over a squirrel that was extremely squirrely, I swear it was a goner, then, it popped out from behind my car again. lol
No bad squirrel karma for me today. Whew!

@RareDenver

But wasps have families too! ;-)

The last this is adorable. But nah, I wouldn’t save it. Not because it’s a pro at surviving, like the vulture, cockroach or the shark and doesn’t actually need my help, but because…well, man fucking with nature, even with good intention, is always pretty ugly.

Depends on the wasp. Some actually are beneficial, such as parasitic wasps. I am especially fond of the Ichneumon Wasp, which is parasitic, and no, I would not kill it, although this one moves much too fast to try to catch and release outdoors. http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg327.html

I never use pesticide.

Not when there are too many during particular summers.

Right now I have a small wasp nest between the eave and inside wall of my garage. It is so loud when it is vibrating between the molding and wall. It sounds EXACTLY like a vibrating cell phone. Zzzzzt, zzzzt, zzzzzt lol

I worry about you @Coloma.

Hey @Coloma! Will you answer that phone already?

@snowberry Hilarious response.

Save a wasp? Absolutely. Like all insects they have their role in the local ecosphere.

I feel the same way about bees, bumblebees & yellow jackets as well.

Resurrect this hornets nest ey? Okay, haha
I saved a Mole recently that got flooded out in the yard and was floundering around. Took it to higher ground, and I just saved a little brown spider today, not sure what it was but took it outside to scuttle away. We have a fake paper hornets nest hanging on the front deck to discourage wasps and hornets right now so no wasps in the vicinity.

Fake nests actually work? I thought wasps were curious and adventurous enough that they would eventually figure out they’re no threat. Guess not. I guess if they see it from afar and deduce that other wasps already live there and go no loser, it works.

@Symbeline So far, so good but there could be a squater wasps maybe. It’s a nice big nest. lol