There are about 18,000 species of wasps in North America. Roughly 20 of them can hurt you.
The wasps people fear are all from one family: Vespidae. They make up less than 1% of wasp species on the continent. They build the visible nests, they defend them aggressively, and they're the ones you remember from a bad encounter.
The other 99% live solitary lives and ignore humans entirely. Many can't sting at all. Many more have stingers but never use them on people because they don't have a nest to defend.
What they do instead is hunt other insects. A single mud dauber stocks her nest with paralyzed spiders, including widows and recluses. A braconid wasp lays eggs in tomato hornworms. An ichneumon wasp parasitizes wood-boring beetles that kill ash trees. A cuckoo wasp infiltrates the nests of other wasps and bees. Some species control aphids; others control caterpillars, beetle grubs, or flies.
Most agricultural pest insects in North America are controlled, in part, by parasitic wasps that almost no human ever sees. There are over 25,000 species of ichneumon wasps alone, and they keep entire orders of insects in check.
The five or so wasp species that ruin a picnic in late August are real. The 17,995 species that are running the pest control infrastructure of an entire continent get almost none.
🔥🚨BREAKING: An Iranian Shahed drone that was fired towards Israeli targets today was seen with a sticker reading “In memory of Tupac Shakur” and “Killilluminati,” referencing his 1996 album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory.
Tupac “We didn’t even come to hurt nobody… but it’s my life or your life”
“Got nothin’ to lose, got nowhere to go”
“Ride for the cause… I’ll die for the cause”
“Plan, plot, strategize… and bomb first”
🚨 FLORIDA MAN SAYS DOLPHINS KIDNAPPED HIM AND FORCED HIM TO BUILD AN UNDERWATER CITY
Reportedly, deputies in Lee County found a man lying on the beach before sunrise Monday, soaked, dehydrated, and drawing architectural blueprints in the sand.
When they asked what happened, his story got bizarre fast.
He claims a pod of dolphins dragged him underwater while he was swimming and took him to a location about 40 feet below the surface.
There, he says, they forced him to help build entire underwater structures including cities, towns, and condo-like buildings.
According to the man, the dolphins communicated using clicks and had a leader named “Gerald.”
He also claims Gerald somehow created an air pocket that allowed him to breathe underwater while he worked.
The man says he spent three days helping construct the structures before the dolphins finally released him and sent him back to shore.
But not before telling him something chilling.
They would return for “phase two.”
Doctors treated him for dehydration but reportedly found no head trauma or signs of mental confusion.
Even stranger, medical tests showed seawater and marine particles deep in his lungs, something that normally causes severe damage after prolonged time underwater.
Yet his lungs were functioning normally.
The man reportedly holds a master’s degree in aerospace engineering and has experience with deep-sea technology, which he believes is exactly why the dolphins chose him.
Some people think the story is completely fake and impossible.
Others say the medical evidence is the part they can’t explain.
What’s more likely here… this guy made the whole thing up, or something strange is actually happening in the ocean?
Girls are weird. They will directly call a dude creepy and complain that he is sending them weird texts constantly and a day later you see them dancing with that same guy at the bar.