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Wasps are beneficial. Do you enjoy figs, or wine? If so, thank your local wasp.

Thousands of Wasp Species

The term "wasp" is used to describe thousands of species within the order Hymenoptera. These groups include the parasitic wasps, like ichneumonids and braconids; hunting wasps, like mud daubers, digger wasps, and spider wasps; and pollinators like fig wasps.

Paper wasps, hornets, and yellowjacketsall belong to the same family, the Vespidae. These social wasps share the ability to construct their nests of wood fibers, which are carefully chewed into pulp by the wasps and molded into paper.

That may not sound like good news to those of you who have been aggravated by the yellowjackets hanging around your garbage cans, or terrified by the huge hornets' nest you just discovered in the shrub near your pool. We take notice of the social wasps because they build visible nests, often close to our own homes and because they will defend these nests aggressively.

Benefits of Wasps

As a group, wasps provide extraordinarily important ecological services, including pollination, predation, and parasitism. Put simply, without wasps we would be overrun with insect pests, and we would have no figs, and no Fig Newtons.

Hornets and paper wasps prey on other insects and help keep pest insect populations under control. Paper wasps carry caterpillars and leaf beetle larvae back to their nests to feed their growing young. Hornets provision their nests with all manner of live insects to sate the appetites of their developing larvae. It takes a lot of bugs to feed a hungry brood. Both hornets and paper wasps provide vital pest control services.

Yellowjackets don't get quite as much credit for being beneficial, although they should. Yellowjackets mostly scavenge dead insects to feed their offspring. We do need these services, too, of course. What would the world be like if all the dead bugs just piled up? Unfortunately, their scavenging habits and their love of sugar puts them in close proximity to people, which almost never ends well for the yellowjacket or the person.

Wasps and Yeast

Researchers at the University of Florence recently discovered another important role of both hornets and paper wasps–they carry yeast cells in their guts. Yeast is an essential ingredient in making bread, beer, and wine, but we know very little about how yeast lives in the wild. The researchers found that wasps and hornets feed on late-season grapes, which are rich in wild yeast. The yeast survives the winter in the stomachs of hibernating queen wasps and is passed on to their offspring when the mother wasps regurgitate food for their young.

The new generation of wasps carries the yeast back to the next season's grapes. So raise your glass to the wasps and hornets!

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Creosote Bush Medicinal Uses

Historically, creosote bush has served many medicinal purposes. Indigenous people rely on creosote as a ‘cure-all’ plant with wide reaching applications. Ethnobotanical notes mention creosote was used as a cure of fever, colds, stomach pains, a general pain killer, diuretic, arthritis, sinusitis, anemia and an anti-diarrheal.

Creosote bush is also antimicrobial. Thereby the plant is useful for cuts and bacterial or fungal infections.

Tea was made from the plant. The waxy leaves and small branches were gathered, dried and stored in the sun. When dried, the material was pulverized and steeped into tea.

Parts of the Creosote plant were also smoked for various reasons. In northern Mexico, the Seri smoked insect galls that grew as infectious growths from creosote branches. These galls were caused by an infestation of a desert midge. Apparently, inhaling this smoke offered the Seri great pleasure.

The Pima of North America also inhaled smoke from burning creosote as a remedy for laziness. Another North America tribe, the Papago held their feet above smoldering creosote branches to ease the pain from sore feet.

After learning of the medicinal use of creosote from Native Americans, scientists began to explore the medicinal nature of this plant.

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Mornings in Arizona. This bird seems to be in a dragon's eye.

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Wasp's get thirsty too.

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Have yourself a Merry Yule.

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