Parasitic Wasp

When ever I hear or read about parasitic wasps they talk about the wasp stinging the victim and carrying it back to their nest where they lay an egg on it. I won't say they are wrong or any thing but it seems that there are other answers available.

For the past few days I've been watching a wasp out of the corner of my eye as I was making my nest recordings. It looks like she starts digging up a nest hole to catch a bee but then gives up early and moves on only to repeat the process again and again. Today when I was setting up my camera I was close enough to see the answer. The wasp is egging the bees nest. What looked like digging was knocking the egg down the bee hole mixed in with some dirt.

Much less work than catching and dragging victims home to the kids.

Here is the video
https://youtu.be/sZBI96HhiYc

If you read the description you can drag the progress bar to the segment you want to see. The first time listed on a line marks where the activity starts and the second when the subject leaves the field of view

Publicado el julio 16, 2022 01:08 MAÑANA por little_mousie