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Yes, wasps are territorial, but this just means that they will defend their nests at all cost. As long as you do not rock their nest (or otherwise cause strong

Yes, wasps are territorial, but this just means that they will defend their nests at all cost. As long as you do not rock their nest (or otherwise cause strong vibration) or stand directly in their flight path, you are safe. Different nests can be as close as a few meters and their inhabitants will mostly ignore each other. The hornets were about 7 or 8 meters away from the yellow jackets, and I have never seen them fight. If you put some fruit or honey somewhere, they will (mostly) peacefully share it. European hornets are not aggressive at all, they are just big and loud. When one gets into the house, I usually wait for it to settle down somewhere and then carefully catch it with a glass and a piece of cardboard. We also have mosquito nets on all windows and doors. Another fun fact: wasps will not spend much time around their nests. They usually leave the nest at high speed (do not stand there!) and then roam an area of multiple square kilometers. When they come back they immediately go back into the nest. Sometimes a single animal may inspect the closer area, but this is rare. Once you understand wasps, there is not much to fear. I understand your concerns regarding you child/children, and it is probably a good idea to keep wasps at a distance for some time. When children grow up, there is little danger, though. The sting of a single wasp or hornet will not harm a human being unless you are allergic. (European!) hornets use almost the same venom as yellow jackets, only more of it. (In Asia or South America, be more careful!) Finally, wasps do not want to sting you. Most of the time they are just investigating. When a flying wasp bothers you, slowly and carefully push it away with your hand. Most of the time it will just go away. On the net there are videos of some guy who tries to get stung by various wasps. It is educating to see how much he had to bother them before they did.

winReInstall 4y ago
Nonsense, hornets eat yellow jackets as snacks.
- nils-m-holm 4y ago
  Larger wasps prey on smaller wasps, but they can still coexist in close proximity. They do not spend the entire day with hunting.
  - winReInstall 4y ago
    It depends on the dietary needs of the hive, but beneath the pear tree of my fathers farm, they most definitly did. Swoop, crack open, slurp. Was a evening background noise..
eimrine 4y ago
> European hornets are not aggressive at all, they are just big and loud. Seems like you are talking about bombus, not vespa. The worst thing about hornets is that if one insect has bit you somewhere near their nest than you better run as fast as possible from that place because of pheromone mark.
- nils-m-holm 4y ago
  I am talking about vespa crabro, the European hornet. All social wasps use pheromones to mark intruders. If you are being stung while close to a nest, yes, do walk away. That being said, I have been stung once (own mistake) while standing 2 meters away from a nest and nothing happened.
  - TeMPOraL 4y ago
    Curious. The reason I mentioned nests being close together upthread is because - per my understanding - both being stung by a wasp/hornet and killing one releases pheromones that makes other wasps/hornets go into aggressive mode. So I'm imagining the two nests being so close to each other will, eventually, trigger a war, which only ends once one of the side is eradicated. I wouldn't want to see anything like that near my house.
rascul 4y ago
> Another fun fact: wasps will not spend much time around their nests. They usually leave the nest at high speed (do not stand there!) and then roam an area of multiple square kilometers. When they come back they immediately go back into the nest. Sometimes a single animal may inspect the closer area, but this is rare. Not the wasps here. There's always a few wasps flying around the nests when I find them. It also doesn't take much to aggravate them.
- nils-m-holm 4y ago
  If you mean directly in front of the entrance, yes, there will always be a bunch of wasps waiting for their turn to get in. And, yes, do not get too close to that spot unless you know what you are doing. In particular: know their flight paths and do not stand there.
  - lostapathy 4y ago
    So when they built a nest near my back door, I'm just supposed to surrender my back patio so them so I can stay out of their flight paths?
    - nils-m-holm 4y ago
      As I wrote before, if you want to get rid of them, there are ways to do so (and keep them away) without killing them. But to answer your question more directly: We have happily surrendered part of our terrace to wasps. Their right to live tops our desire for convenience. A nest lives for one year. If we do not want them to use the same spot next year, there are ways to make sure they do not.
      - lostapathy 4y ago
        I'm not surrendering "part of my terrace" to wasps - I'm talking about the rest of my family being unwilling to open the back door because there are always wasps flying near it. I'm not willing to surrender my back door to wasps for a year in hopes they find new flight patterns next year.
wlll 4y ago
> directly in their flight path My experience of sitting outside in the summer (modulo NW England) is that their flight path covers getting close to 100% of the airspace in my garden. Though I'm sure there are other varieties I've only ever seen one type of wasp in the UK, and that's this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket, and my experience of them is that they are irritating and aggressive bastards. I don't doubt that wasps are an integral part of the ecosystem, but I'd prefer it if they integrated into a geographically distinct part of the ecosystem from me and my lunch.
- merry_flame 4y ago
  Is there perhaps something related to smell or movement? The only time I got stung by a yellowjacket is when I pulled a Miyamato Musashi and caught one with some chopsticks. I got two deserved stings out of the experience, but yellowjackets have treated me well since. I've observed that though yellowjackets might want to land on people and investigate a while, they're soon gone as long as there's no beer involved. I just semi-freeze for a few seconds and let them do their thing. Obviously a bit uncomfortable when they land on the face or neck, but the only people I know who seem to have been stung as adults are those that are clearly panicky around wasps. I'd go so far as to qualify them as placid. Horseflies are aggressive and another beast altogether...
  - wlll 4y ago
    As far as I know they're attracted to things they can use as a food source, but that's a guess.
HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago
> stand directly in their flight path, you are safe Having been chased by wasps while on a riding lawnmower, I'm calling bullshit! And those suckers are fast!
joseda-hg 4y ago
I was going to say, back in my home country (South America) the recommendation was (is?) destroy nests on sight (If inside/near a home) because they tend to not only be territorial, but also proactively aggresive. (Our species don't fuck around, even the names are scary, eye stinger?, butcher wasp?, black cowboy?)

winReInstall 4y ago

Nonsense, hornets eat yellow jackets as snacks.

nils-m-holm 4y ago
Larger wasps prey on smaller wasps, but they can still coexist in close proximity. They do not spend the entire day with hunting.
- winReInstall 4y ago
  It depends on the dietary needs of the hive, but beneath the pear tree of my fathers farm, they most definitly did. Swoop, crack open, slurp. Was a evening background noise..

eimrine 4y ago

> European hornets are not aggressive at all, they are just big and loud. Seems like you are talking about bombus, not vespa. The worst thing about hornets is that if one insect has bit you somewhere near their nest than you better run as fast as possible from that place because of pheromone mark.

nils-m-holm 4y ago
I am talking about vespa crabro, the European hornet. All social wasps use pheromones to mark intruders. If you are being stung while close to a nest, yes, do walk away. That being said, I have been stung once (own mistake) while standing 2 meters away from a nest and nothing happened.
- TeMPOraL 4y ago
  Curious. The reason I mentioned nests being close together upthread is because - per my understanding - both being stung by a wasp/hornet and killing one releases pheromones that makes other wasps/hornets go into aggressive mode. So I'm imagining the two nests being so close to each other will, eventually, trigger a war, which only ends once one of the side is eradicated. I wouldn't want to see anything like that near my house.

rascul 4y ago

> Another fun fact: wasps will not spend much time around their nests. They usually leave the nest at high speed (do not stand there!) and then roam an area of multiple square kilometers. When they come back they immediately go back into the nest. Sometimes a single animal may inspect the closer area, but this is rare. Not the wasps here. There's always a few wasps flying around the nests when I find them. It also doesn't take much to aggravate them.

nils-m-holm 4y ago
If you mean directly in front of the entrance, yes, there will always be a bunch of wasps waiting for their turn to get in. And, yes, do not get too close to that spot unless you know what you are doing. In particular: know their flight paths and do not stand there.
- lostapathy 4y ago
  So when they built a nest near my back door, I'm just supposed to surrender my back patio so them so I can stay out of their flight paths?
  - nils-m-holm 4y ago
    As I wrote before, if you want to get rid of them, there are ways to do so (and keep them away) without killing them. But to answer your question more directly: We have happily surrendered part of our terrace to wasps. Their right to live tops our desire for convenience. A nest lives for one year. If we do not want them to use the same spot next year, there are ways to make sure they do not.
    - lostapathy 4y ago
      I'm not surrendering "part of my terrace" to wasps - I'm talking about the rest of my family being unwilling to open the back door because there are always wasps flying near it. I'm not willing to surrender my back door to wasps for a year in hopes they find new flight patterns next year.

wlll 4y ago

> directly in their flight path My experience of sitting outside in the summer (modulo NW England) is that their flight path covers getting close to 100% of the airspace in my garden. Though I'm sure there are other varieties I've only ever seen one type of wasp in the UK, and that's this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket, and my experience of them is that they are irritating and aggressive bastards. I don't doubt that wasps are an integral part of the ecosystem, but I'd prefer it if they integrated into a geographically distinct part of the ecosystem from me and my lunch.

merry_flame 4y ago
Is there perhaps something related to smell or movement? The only time I got stung by a yellowjacket is when I pulled a Miyamato Musashi and caught one with some chopsticks. I got two deserved stings out of the experience, but yellowjackets have treated me well since. I've observed that though yellowjackets might want to land on people and investigate a while, they're soon gone as long as there's no beer involved. I just semi-freeze for a few seconds and let them do their thing. Obviously a bit uncomfortable when they land on the face or neck, but the only people I know who seem to have been stung as adults are those that are clearly panicky around wasps. I'd go so far as to qualify them as placid. Horseflies are aggressive and another beast altogether...
- wlll 4y ago
  As far as I know they're attracted to things they can use as a food source, but that's a guess.

HeyLaughingBoy 4y ago

> stand directly in their flight path, you are safe Having been chased by wasps while on a riding lawnmower, I'm calling bullshit! And those suckers are fast!

joseda-hg 4y ago

I was going to say, back in my home country (South America) the recommendation was (is?) destroy nests on sight (If inside/near a home) because they tend to not only be territorial, but also proactively aggresive. (Our species don't fuck around, even the names are scary, eye stinger?, butcher wasp?, black cowboy?)