On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 04:52:23PM +0100, Steven Chamberlain wrote: > If someone dares to take a really close look at one, try to see if it > has the distinctive three dots on its face, and that should confirm it > is one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespula_germanica > (wasps). At least the roughly ten wasps who got very excited very fast about my (lunch pack) apple in the zoo yesterday were common wasps (so, a non- divided line on their head, where the Germanica has three dots). Proof: [0] [food stall area under a tree which isn't super-far away from the venue; I am relatively sure the nest of the girls who won the fight was somewhere in the tree above us as they usually don't swarm that quickly if at all] I really have to stress here that wasps (and bees) aren't aggressive, they are defensive. Wasp can be a little annoying as they aren't on a vegetarian diet as their bee sisters, but even if wasps can carry a lot, a human is way too big for a loot run… (to use proper nerdy terms here). It was actually very interesting to look at (and feel) them on my hand practically "battling" in the air (they looked very different, so I think this were at least two different nests: at one point a wasp picked another one of from my hand and carried her away, beside that they roamed over each other quite often) for the best spots on the apple and my hand to land, eat, cleanup and fly away again. Also, I could easily (with a bit of care as they were crawling all over it) set the apple down as well as pick it up after the other people around me had eaten their food (without too much attention from the wasps – even through some of the kids there practically covering their faces in ice cream, but I guess that is a too common sight in that area compared to an apple…). Moving the apple just a few meters made all the wasps move away expect one which had managed to cover herself in fruit juice, so she had to crawl from the apple on my hand and clean herself up for a minute before being able to fly again… So, I shared my apple with the bunch of wasps, we had all a lovely experience and nobody was hurt in the process (at least not in the human - wasp interaction. I am not sure about the wasp - wasp part). Of course, I wouldn't recommend trying this at home^WDebConf to avoid heartattacks for our lovely frontdesk "working bees", but this phobia is really not needed… DebConf isn't a crazy horror b(ee)-movie. I know they can be annoying flying around you in search of something to eat and even more so if they have chosen your food/drink as a source, but we would have far worse problems without wasps. So, just be a little careful while drinking/eating and "Don't Panic" or even beat them. You don't want to be pushed around, so why should they like it… Trying to blow them away is btw counterproductive as well as the lower oxidation levels are a very strong alarm signal. Oh, and it should be obvious, but: whatever you do, do not kill one! That IS basically the only fail-safe way of getting stung as a dead bee/wasp releases pheromones to rally their sisters which tend to take revenge (and even a "dead" – like beheaded or otherwise maimed – wasp is still capable and in this case even very "happy" to sting). In other words: Treat them as very small and very curious children and you should be fine… (assuming you aren't some sort of sociopath). [If you really want to encounter annoying wasps, try collecting grapes in the autumn then the nests are 'closed' and all the workers as they can't go back to the nest anymore continue eating until they are either too fat to fly or are flying around at random on a sugar overdose… and no, even in that state they aren't trigger happy either…] And for the record: Beside various large, larger and small animals as well as an exhibit of "homo sapiens hackerensis subspecies debianius" in a close by venue [the sign is very hard to read without camera zooming], the zoo has an official nest of bees, where you can look inside (and where the bees can't exit on your side in case you wonder) as well as an "insect hotel" in case you wanna find out why insects are cool – not as cool as cows are of course, but pretty close. ;) (Tomorrow on Davids Animal channel we will talk about ants: The insects who invented agricultural and animal breeding at a time dinosaurs still roamed the planet) Bzzzz & Best regards David Kalnischkies [0] https://kalnischkies.de/tmp/applesharing.png (really bad picture as it's a cropped screenshot from a short video – mostly chosen as one with a thick line is facing the camera – I forgot that I would need proper proof for the debianius'es instead of just watching them being busy)
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