Transcript of audio, notes on the audio, photos, and additional information follow below.
All Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 7-24-15.
TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO
R. W. Merritt and K. W., Cummins, An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America, 2nd Edition, Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, Ia., 1984.
From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is
Virginia Water Radio for the week of July 27, 2015.
SOUND – ~5 sec - Yellow jackets buzzing around recorder
That’s a sound you’re better off not hearing, except electronically.
Have another listen for about 15 seconds, and see if you know what kind
of highly social—and at times highly aggressive and defensive—insects made
these sounds. And here’s a hint: if you
see this kind of flashing yellow,
don’t grab your jacket, just GO!
SOUND - ~15 sec - Yellow jackets buzzing around recorder
If you guessed yellow jackets, you’re right! Those were the defenders of a nest hidden
within a Blacksburg house’s wooden deck in June 2015. Yellow jackets are among over 100,000 insect
species worldwide considered to be a kind of wasp. Many of these have
“wasp” in their common name, such as paper wasps and spider wasps, while others
don’t, like hornets or velvet ants. But
they share the trait of having part of their abdomen narrowed into the
so-called “wasp waist,” allowing the abdomen to move in many directions. Most wasp species, known as parasitoids, use this ability to insert
their egg-laying organ, or ovipositor,
onto or into other insects or plants, where the wasp lays one or more eggs. The eggs develop into larvae that eat the
host insect or plant, often from the inside out. In contrast, the ovipositor of predatory wasps is modified into a venomous
stinger, used to paralyze prey that is brought back to developing young in nests,
including the elaborate paper-based nests f the social wasps—that is, paper wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets.
As a group, wasps connect to water both directly and indirectly. Direct
connections include some parasitoid wasps using dragonflies or other aquatic
insects as hosts; mud daubers visiting wet areas to gather mud for
nest-building; social wasps using watery saliva to turn plant materials into
paper; and some social wasps fanning their wings to evaporate water in order to
keep their nest from over-heating. Indirectly, wasps influence the water
uses and impacts of the wide variety of insects and other creatures that they
parasitize or prey upon, including many species that are pests to humans.
Knowing that won’t make you feel better,
though, if you get stung by a yellow jacket or other social wasp. So keep away from known wasp nests, and if
you do disturb one and defenders come after you, don’t stand and swat ‘em, just
run, like this guy did:
SOUND – 3 sec – Yellow jackets buzzing, door closing, “whew.”
For more Virginia water sounds, music, and information, visit
us online at virginiawaterradio.org,
or call us at (540) 231-5463. Virginia
Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part
of Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment. Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo
version of Cripple Creek to open and close the show. In Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you
health, wisdom, and good water.
AUDIO NOTES AND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The yellow jackets sounds were recorded on June 18, 2015,
6:30 a.m., at a Blacksburg, Va., residence.
PHOTOS
Examples of wasps’ nests.
Top: Mud-based nests of a type of solitary predatory wasp, mud daubers
on a Blacksburg, Va., residents, July 2015.
Middle: Nests of Bald-faced Hornets collected in Montgomery County, Va.,
on display in July 2015 at a Blacksburg, Va., business. Bottom: A small, inconspicuous hole (brown
area in center of photo) leading to an underground yellow jackets nest in a
Blacksburg, Va., lawn, July 2015.
EXTRA FACTS ABOUT
WASPS
The word “wasp” is believed to derive from a Germanic word
for “weave,” related to social wasps’ nest construction.
“Do’s and Dont’s of
Avoiding Stinging Wasps,” from the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension
Publication EPP-7305 (see full citation below under Sources):
Do Not use
sweet-smelling colognes, perfumes, and hair sprays in wasp areas.
Do
Not wear bright-colored clothing;wear tan, khaki, and dark-colored
clothes.
Do
Not picnic, sit, or stand near trash cans, fallen fruit, or other
wasp feeding sites.
Do
Not swat or move rapidly when a wasp visits you or your food or
drink; move slowly.
Do
Not approach a nest; if you do disturb a nest, run away from
attacking wasps.
Do
cleanup food and drink refuse, clean trash cans, and fit them with a
tight lid to reduce wasp visits.
SOURCES
Used for this Episode
Eric R. Day, “Yellowjackets,” Virginia Cooperative Extension
Publication ENTO-49NP, 2013, available online at http://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/ENTO/ENTO-49/ENTO-49.html.
Howard E. Evans and Mary Jane West Eberhard, The Wasps, University of Michigan Press,
Ann Arbor, 1970.
Eric Grissell, Bees,
Wasps, and Ants: The Indispensable Role of Hymenoptera in Gardens, Timber
Press, Portland, Ore., 2010.
Helmut Kovac, Anton Stabentheiner, and Sigurd Schmaranzer, “Thermoregulation
of water foraging wasps (Vespula vulgaris
and Polistes dominulus),” Journal of Insect Physiology, Vol. 55,
No. 10 (October 2009), pp. 959-966.
R. W. Merritt and K. W., Cummins, An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America, 2nd Edition, Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, Ia., 1984.
E.C. Mussen and M.K.
Rust, “Yellowjackets and Other Social Wasps,” University of California-Davis “Pest
Notes,” Publication 7450, March 2012, available online at http://www.ipm.ucdavid.edu.
Hal C. Reed, Richard Grantham, and Russell Wright, “Paper
Wasps, Yellowjackets, and Other Stinging Wasps,” Oklahoma Cooperative Extension
Service, EPP-7305, undated, available online at http://osufacts.okstate.edu.
Vincent H. Resh and Ring T. Cardé, eds., Encyclopedia of Insects, 2nd Ed.,
Elsevier Academic Press, Burlington, Mass., 2009.
Virginia Tech Department of Entomology Insect Identification
Lab, “Household and Pantry Pests,” online at http://www.insectid.ento.vt.edu/fact-sheets/household-pantry-pests/index.html.
For More Information about Wasps
Iowa State University Department of Entomology, “BugGuide,”
online at http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740.
Kenneth G. Ross and Robert W. Matthews, eds., The Social Biology of Wasps, Cornell
University Press, Ithaca, N.Y., 1991.
University of California-Davis, “Pests of Homes, Structures,
People, and Pets/Yellow Jackets and Other Social Wasps,” online at http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7450.html.
University of Florida Department of Entomology, “Featured
Creatures/Yellow Jackets and Hornets,” online at http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/urban/occas/hornet_yellowjacket.htm.
Virginia Tech Insect ID Lab Fact Sheets, “Household and
Pantry Pests,” available online at http://www.insectid.ento.vt.edu/fact-sheets/household-pantry-pests/index.html.
RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES
For previous episodes on water-connections to insects,
“Insects” category at the Index link (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).
SOLS INFORMATION FOR
VIRGINIA TEACHERS
This episode may help with the following Virginia’s 2010 Science
Standards of Learning (SOLs):
Grades K-6 Earth
Resources Theme
4.9 - Va. natural resources, including watersheds, water
resources, and organisms.
Grades K-6 Life
Processes Theme
2.4 - life cycles.
3.4 - behavioral and physiological adaptations.
Grades K-6 Living
Systems Theme
2.5 - living things as part of a system, including habitats.
3.5 - food webs.
3.6 - ecosystems, communities, populations, shared
resources.
4.5 - ecosystem interactions and human influences on
ecosystem.
5.5 - organism features and classification.
6.7 - natural processes and human interactions that affect
watershed systems; Va. watersheds, water bodies, and wetlands; and water
monitoring.
Life Science Course
LS. 4 - organisms’ features and classification.
LS.6 - ecosystem interactions, including cycles and energy
flow.
LS.8 - community and population interactions, including food
webs, niches, symbiotic relationships.
LS.11 - relationships between ecosystem dynamics and human activity.
Biology Course
BIO.2 - impact of water chemistry on life processes.
BIO.6 - bases for modern classification systems, including structures,
biochemistry, and developmental stages.
BIO.8 - dynamic equilibria and interactions within populations, communities,
and ecosystems; including analysis of the flora, fauna, and microorganisms of
Virginia ecosystems.
Virginia’s SOLs are available from the Virginia Department
of Education, online at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/.
