What's up with wasps?

Unless you are an entomologist, these pictures taken in Niwot's Cottonwood Square on a warm June day, can only elicit one response – EEEEUUUUWWWW.

Or at least that was my reaction.

Wasps are a pain. Just ask my friend whose husband was repeatedly stung in the Achilles heel last summer as he mowed the lawn. Turns out the brickwork they installed the summer before provided the perfect environment for a wasp habitat. A few more choice words than EEEEUUUUWWWW were uttered though.

All of this got me thinking, what's with wasps? After an exhaustive (read 10 minutes) search on the internet, here are a few things I discovered.

Wasps have a positive function in nature. They are pollinators, but less efficient than bees, because they don't have fuzzy bodies to collect more pollen. Wasps help to keep caterpillars and other insects in check, thereby reducing the need for a more toxic spray. If they pose no risk, (or no exposure to an Achilles heel) don't destroy the nest.

Wasps build fascinating nests, and they build them almost everywhere, in trees, under picnic tables, in sheds as well in utility boxes in small Colorado towns. Some types of yellow jackets nest underground.

The good news is that the nest only lasts one summer, and except for the queen, worker wasps die with the return of cold weather.

As for next removal, no one wants to repeat the old joke of batting down a wasp nest into a garbage can only to have a horde of angry flying stinging insects come after you. One internet entry suggests cordoning off the area to give the wasps a wide berth.

By the time I went back to Cottonwood Square, the utility box was closed. I'm making no assumptions on the fate of those particular wasps. I'm still giving it a "wide berth" and will be silently thinking EEEEUUUUWWWW as I quickly walk by.