Body Snatching Wasps

[T_Dog]

We've been noticing wasps building mud huts around the house lately and a few of them are filled with grubs like the photo. We did not know where they were coming from until we saw a wasp carry a grub into one of the mud huts. Some huts have 2 or 3 of these grubs and one had around twenty. It appears to be food for the wasp offspring.

Does anyone know more about this wasp? It is not a large one and the grubs are about a half-inch to 3/4 of an inch in length. The wasps struggle to fly this things in but they do manage to do it.

Frogs, insects, birds, and snakes seem to especially active now that the rainy season is starting.

[loong]

I believe that these are a type of "Potter wasp" Very similar to "Mud dauber wasp"

The mud dauber puts a spider in the nest and paralyses it in order to feed it offspring

The potter will also use spiders but will also use beetle larvae and prefer caterpillars.

Many people will kill these wasps, but they are not particularly aggressive and they will rarely sting. They are actually considered to be a beneficial insect, pollinating when feeding on nectar as an adult and hunting caterpillars to feed their young.

[T_Dog]

I believe that these are a type of "Potter wasp" Very similar to "Mud dauber wasp"

The mud dauber puts a spider in the nest and paralyses it in order to feed it offspring

The potter will also use spiders but will also use beetle larvae and prefer caterpillars.

Many people will kill these wasps, but they are not particularly aggressive and they will rarely sting. They are actually considered to be a beneficial insect, pollinating when feeding on nectar as an adult and hunting caterpillars to feed their young.

Great info Loong! We actually like them taking the caterpillars as our young fruit trees are getting hit hard by something at the moment. Likely these things the wasps are air-lifting. The only time the wasps are annoying are when they build a mud hut inside a window lock or on the inside corner of our house.

This makes me wonder if the dangerous Asian Tiger Hornets carry away the bee larvae they look for to feed their young.

[loong]

My memory is not so good now, so I am not sure if the amazing documentary that I saw some years ago was about the hornet that you mention.

It may have been Japan, but somewhere in Asia imported honey bees and they were not equipped with the knowledge to cope with the native hornets. The hornets would attack the hives and kill every single bee.

Apparently a scout from the hornet would find the bees' nest/hive and relay the whereabouts to its relatives.

When ever a scout appeared at the native bees' nest, they would surround it and if necessary sacrifice themselves, vibrating their wings and bodies to create heat. The heat kills the scout and so it cannot get back to tell its mates the position of the bees' nest

Edited June 26, 2012 by loong