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What good is a wasp?

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This story was originally appeared The Guardian and Climate Table collaboration.

For those who have been asked what the wasp points are, there is now a wide answer. They are embarrassing predators of pest insects, produce powerful antibiotics in the poison, pollinate plants, and make a nutritious snack.

They are revealed in the first major scientific study of ecosystem services that provide the benefits that highly hated insects have for humans. It was based on discussions and 33,000 known species of wasp hunting that live in every corner of the world.

Yellow jackets and armadillos, picnic pests that have given the wasp a bad name, make up a small proportion of all wasp species. But they provide little-known support, such as raising caterpillars on plant stains. They are researching yellowjacket poison as a promising cancer treatment.

A lot insect populations are plunging, threatens human well-being, but wasps seem to have greater resistance. Even among entomologists, however, many seem to be avoided, and scientists said more research was needed to understand them.

“When I tell strangers I’m learning wasps,‘ Oh, what good are wasps? ’” Said Professor Seirian Sumner at London University College. “Why don’t you study bees instead? They are much more useful. ”Previous research has shown this people hated wasps because they didn’t know what they were doing.

“We’re pretty happy with the idea that bees bite because we know they do good in the world,” he said. “So we’ve gathered available evidence to put wasps on the map in terms of their ecosystem services. Wasps could be just as valuable as other beloved insects like bees, if we gave them more chances.”

Studies, published in the journal Biological opinions, has analyzed 500 scientific reports on wasp stings. There are 100,000 known wasp species, but 70,000 are parasites, which are bite-free and relatively well studied. They are already used in agriculture to control pests without the use of insecticides. There are about 22,000 species of bees. “Wasps are the ancestors of bees, so they are wasps that have forgotten to hunt bees,” Sumner said.

Wasps are the main prey in the insect world. Recent research has shown that this is common hunting wasps can control a fallen army worm It attacks Brazilian corn crops, as well as the bar moth that eats sugar cane. The use of other predatory insects to protect crops is estimated to cost more than $ 400 billion a year, but wasp hunters have barely been considered, scientists have found.

Yellow jackets and armadillos are among the most effective, as they are social insects and live in large colonies. “So you’re going to have a lot of hunters go out and get rid of insects and arthropods,” Sumner said. About 1,000 wasp hunters are social. The rest are lonely.

“Lonely wasps are very fresh. Their poison contains a huge cocktail that paralyzes the prey and contains a lot of antibiotics, “Sumner said. Many lone wasps bury their eggs with paralyzed prey once they come out to feed them.” So they want to make sure the food is properly preserved. ” and the antimicrobial properties of larval secretion have long been known in traditional medicine.

Sumner’s analysis found that wasps visit at least 960 plant species, of which 164 were dependent on them for pollination. The flowers collect orchids that attract male wasps by mimicking the back end of the female wasp.

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