Never underestimate a wasp -- new study shows they're smarter than we thought

CNN ^ | May 8, 2019 | Jack Guy

[sport]

Red wasps are not the only ones that are afraid of hornets. So am I, I discovered an underground nest of them one time and I was glad when they let me go.

[the OlLine Rebel]

WASPs? Yeah, they’re pretty smart. Finally getting credit for it?

[null and void]

Eric Frank Russell thought wasps were pretty special.

Not bad for a Spakum...

[Flaming Conservative]

Or battery operated racquet type zappers!

[Deaf Smith]

"I have killed them any way I can."

...........

I have a violent reaction to wasp stings.

I will find that wasp and kill him.

I will find his nest and kill all wasp present.

I will hunt down his kin and kill their nest and all present.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Does that colony collapse syndrome affect wasps? If not it’s a damn shame.

[Clutch Martin]

“Wasps have no natural defense against vacuum cleaners...”

I take two rubber bands and Link them together and knocking crazy with that I’m finished him off with my bucket hat or I take a paper towel and just crack their heads with pinch...

Carpenter Bees are built like tanks.

[steve86]

" After all, they perform feats of advanced mathematics whenever they fly from one place to another and land perfectly at the spot they wanted. "

You need to make the distinction between knowing how and knowing that. The wasp knows how how to execute a perfect turn-to-base and final approach, but presumably is ignorant of the flight equations making possible its performance or knowing that the Bernoulli effect is involved, etc.

[shotgun]

Barn swallows. Natures anti-wasp warfare fighter planes. I quit knocking down their nests when I realized their talent. Now I look forward to their return every year. The only problem is their about a month behind the wasp emergence schedule.

[exDemMom]

The wasp knows how how to execute a perfect turn-to-base and final approach, but presumably is ignorant of the flight equations making possible its performance or knowing that the Bernoulli effect is involved, etc.

I think that was kind of my point. The ability to use advanced mathematics is innate, but only humans have devised a system to represent these innate functions symbolically. And not all humans are intelligent enough to grasp the symbolism.

[Fedora]

Exactly.

[Does so]

My fear of wasps is bordering a phobia.

And well it should!

A good Navy buddy died in Texas after accidentally touching a wasp nest under a chair. He never expected the consequential anaphylactic shock, and no near access to an epinephrine injection.

[SamAdams76]

I came here thinking White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

But it turned out to be about some stinging bee-like creature instead.

[M Kehoe]

Hi.

There is a wasp called a yellow hornet. Some call them yellow jackets.

The only reason I mentioned this is because they live underground.

They are nasty little assholes, and persistent to boot.

Never pitch your tent over a yellow jacket hole.

5.56mm