What ecological contribution do wasps make?

Question

Was discussing this with my sister over Sunday dinner and realised that no one seems to know what Wasps actually do. Any one know?

Answer 1

Wasps keep the pest insect population under control. When they are breeding, they only eat insects. Without them, the insect population would explode.

Answer 2

Food for other animals like various species of birds like blackbirds, magpies, starlings, insects like dragonflies, robber flies, hornets, centipedes, and spiders,skunks, bears, badgers, bats, weasels, wolverines, rats, mice.

Predators of spiders, caterpillars, ants, bees, and flies.

Pollinators of plants.

Some wasps are scavengers.

With all these roles, they are an important contributors in ecology.

Answer 3

Wasp  are kinda the "lions" of the garden or insect world. Wasp eat other bugs, thus helping the insect population. And they help pollinate too. When they land on a flower to rest they pick up pollen and transfer it. So all things, even mean stining ones, have some good.  

Answer 4

They make nice striped jumpers.

Went to the pet shop and asked to buy a pet wasp, the guy says he doesn't sell them, I was a bit miffed as he had one in the window.

On a more serious note :

At the peak of the wasp season wasps in honeydew beech forests have an average biomass of about 3.8 kg per hectare — 10 000 workers per hectare.

The behaviour of at least three species of native bird is affected by this reduction in honeydew, but it is unknown if this affects the survival or reproductive success of these birds.

The predation rate of wasps on some invertebrate prey species is so high that the probability of an individual surviving through the wasp season is virtually nil. Hence wasps probably reduce or eradicate populations of some invertebrates. Wasp abundance needs to be reduced by 80-90% to conserve some native invertebrate species.

Wasps could also affect nutrient cycling in the honeydew beech forest community by reducing the flow of carbon to micro-organisms in the phyllosphere and the soil, ultimately this could affect soil solution chemistry.

Answer 5

There are a large number of wasps that most people never notice, and have a huge economic and environmental impact.  Many of these are parasitic species that lay their eggs in the eggs or larvae of other insects - many of which we consider pests.

However, I suspect you are refering to yellowjackets and hornet type eusocial stinging wasps.

These too are very important, and actually quite beneficial to humans.  The workers feed primarily on high sugar nectar (which is what attracts them to our fruit juices, soda pops and Slurpees).  Usually they get this nectar from flowers, and the wasps act as important pollinators.  They're not quite as specialized at it as their bee relatives, but there are a lot of plant species that depend on them.

Yellowjackets also look for high protein food to feed to their growing larvae.  This is what attracts them to the meat at our picnics, but their main source of protein is usually insects such as flies and especially caterpillars.  Wasps are actually amongst the best pest controllers out there, almost as beneficial as spiders.

Answer 6

Look up DARWIN .,. they don't have to 'contribute' ANYTHING  ..

They simply have to be more successful in adapting to the current environment than the nearest competition (i.e. 'out evolve' the opposition)

NB> The suggestion that 'life' exists to 'contribute to the well being of the planet' is meaningless simplistic wishful thinking  .. life has always adapted itself to whatever current conditions it finds (although sometimes specific species have changed the Planet to their own doom - where do you think all the OXYGEN came form ???)