What is the purpose of wasps, tics or lice?

Question

I can't think of any useful purpose they serve, or were they put on earth just to annoy us?

Answer 1

They make up the food chain.

We might be annoyed by them and i am sure we annoy them but to other creatures they are vital for survival

Answer 2

Wasps, ticks and lice, like all organisms, have only one purpose in life. To reproduce and increase their numbers. All organisms have this primary aim.

The primary purpose of humans is to produce more humans. The primary purpose of tigers is to produce more tigers. And so on with all creatures and plants. How they do it is a whole new ball game!!

Answer 3

defo to annoy us and to scare us lol..

Answer 4

Wasps pollinate and/or eat spiders and probably other insects depending on what kind of wasp.  They're also pretty docile when they're not protecting their nest.   I think skunks can eat wasps right out of their nest.  Ticks and lice?  Hmmm. Monkeys have a great time eating them off each other.

Answer 5

they are all ectoparasites

Answer 6

Their all god creatures, be nice.

Answer 7

Do animals have a purpose?

What about viruses?

Answer 8

Wasps are mostly around to pollinate plants, or in the case of predatory wasps, help keep other members of the insect world down.  Did you know their are wasps that prey on the larva of houseflies?  I live on a farm.  We actually PURCHASE those wasps, to help keep fly populations under control naturally.

Critters like tics, lice, and fleas also serve a purpose.  They are there to spread disease if a populations gets out of control.

Sometimes nature gets out of whack.  I know everyone assumes nature is always in balance.  That's actually not true at all.  Nature is always constantly waging wars, with animal populations rising and crashing over and over again.

Every once in a while the rabbit population in Idaho goes insane.  The entire ground litterally hops, there are so many rabbits.

Men would go out at night, and spotlight rabbits (shine a light in their eyes) and shoot them.  They could shoot entire heaping pickup truck loads of them.  At that point, the rabbits were breeding far faster than humans, and wild predators could kill them.

It was finally a disease that took care of the rabbit population.  The disease was carried by fleas.  

The ability of the nasty critters, like tics, fleas, lice, or mosquitoes is a way for nature to bring an out of control population under control very, very quickly.

It's not nice, it's not pretty, but that is what the parasites are there for.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

Active wildlife study over 40 years

Answer 9

To sting ,[wasp],and annoy us!

Answer 10

To drive us insane!

Answer 11

You missed Politicians from your list!

Answer 12

to annoy people. keep on lovin'

Answer 13

A wasp is any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor ant. The suborder Symphyta, known commonly as sawflies, differ from members of Apocrita by having a broader connection between the mesosoma and metasoma. In addition to this, Symphyta larvae are mostly herbivorous and "caterpillarlike", whereas those of Apocrita are largely predatory or "parasitic" (technically known as parasitoid).

The most familiar wasps belong to Aculeata, a division of Apocrita, whose ovipositors are adapted into a venomous stinger, though a great many species do not sting. Aculeata also contains ants and bees, and many wasps are commonly mistaken for bees, and vice-versa. In a similar respect, insects called "velvet ants" (the family Mutillidae) are technically wasps.

A much narrower and simpler but popular definition of the term wasp is any member of the aculeate family Vespidae, which includes (among others) the genera known in North America as yellowjackets (Vespula and Dolichovespula) and hornets (Vespa); in many countries outside of the Western Hemisphere, the vernacular usage of wasp is even further restricted to apply strictly to yellowjackets (e.g., the "common wasp").

Wasp

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Wasp

Aleiodes indiscretus

parasitizing a gypsy moth caterpillar

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia



Phylum: Arthropoda



Class: Insecta



Order: Hymenoptera





Suborder

Apocrita

See text for explanation.



The basic morphology of a female Yellowjacket wasp.

Wasp stinger, with droplet of venomA wasp is any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor ant. The suborder Symphyta, known commonly as sawflies, differ from members of Apocrita by having a broader connection between the mesosoma and metasoma. In addition to this, Symphyta larvae are mostly herbivorous and "caterpillarlike", whereas those of Apocrita are largely predatory or "parasitic" (technically known as parasitoid).

The most familiar wasps belong to Aculeata, a division of Apocrita, whose ovipositors are adapted into a venomous stinger, though a great many species do not sting. Aculeata also contains ants and bees, and many wasps are commonly mistaken for bees, and vice-versa. In a similar respect, insects called "velvet ants" (the family Mutillidae) are technically wasps.

A much narrower and simpler but popular definition of the term wasp is any member of the aculeate family Vespidae, which includes (among others) the genera known in North America as yellowjackets (Vespula and Dolichovespula) and hornets (Vespa); in many countries outside of the Western Hemisphere, the vernacular usage of wasp is even further restricted to apply strictly to yellowjackets (e.g., the "common wasp").

Contents [hide]

1 Categorization

2 Characteristics

3 Biology

3.1 Genetics

3.2 Anatomy and gender

3.3 Diet

4 Wasp parasitism

5 Nesting habits

5.1 Solitary wasps

5.2 Social wasps

6 Social wasp reproductive cycle (temperate species only)

6.1 First stage

6.2 Second stage

6.3 Third stage

7 Social wasp caste structure

8 Common families

9 See also

10 External links



[edit] Categorization

The various species of wasp fall into one of two main categories: solitary wasps and social wasps. Adult solitary wasps generally live and operate alone, and most do not construct nests (below); all adult solitary wasps are fertile. By contrast, social wasps exist in colonies numbering up to several thousand strong and build nests—but in some cases not all of the colony can reproduce. In the more advanced species, just the wasp queen and male wasps can mate, whilst the majority of the colony is made up of sterile female workers.

Characteristics

The following characteristics are present in most wasps:

two pairs of wings (except wingless or brachypterous forms in all female Mutillidae, Bradynobaenidae, many male Agaonidae, many female Ichneumonidae, Braconidae, Tiphiidae, Scelionidae, Rhopalosomatidae, Eupelmidae, and various other families).

An ovipositor, or stinger (which is only present in females because it derives from the ovipositor, a female s*x organ).

Few or no thickened hairs (in contrast to bees); except Mutillidae, Bradynobaenidae, Scoliidae.

Nearly all wasps are terrestrial; only a few specialized parasitic groups are aquatic.

Predators or parasitoids, mostly on other terrestrial insects; most species of Pompilidae (e.g. tarantula hawks), specialize in using spiders as p