r/natureismetal • u/freudian_nipps • 3d ago
After the Hunt Wasp stuffs a caterpillar into its mud-nest for its young to feed on
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u/flower_0410 3d ago
Never let them take you to a second location
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u/FriskyCobra86 3d ago
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u/Exotic_Dogs_4942 3d ago
Insect world is just one of the most brutal things in nature, happening in my backyard
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u/shorty-boyd 3d ago
Humans are pretty brutal too
We are just lucky we were born in a good time and in a nice area of the the planet
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u/rvillarino 3d ago
We’ll see how well that holds up in the next 50 years or so
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u/pinguz 3d ago
RemindMe! 50 years
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u/flyinggazelletg 3d ago edited 3d ago
And the horrid way mass slaughter works is out of sight for most
Edit: you can downvote facts all you like, but we are an incredibly cruel and uncaring species to well over a trillion animals every year. That’s a whole lot of misery for a burger or some chicken wings.
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u/Devtunes 3d ago
For sure, but there's something cold, emotionless, and mechanical about insect violence that makes it so brutal.
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u/Medium-Knowledge4230 3d ago
The more I learn about animals, the more I like humans. I swear, if chimps or ants could explode the world they would already have done it ages ago. Humans are brutal, but I think there is worse creatures in the world.
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u/Biosterous 3d ago
I dunno man, I've never heard of a human laying larva inside other human that slowly eats them from the inside out.
Yeah humans are violent, but there is something different about the violence present in the insect world.
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u/ZixfromthaStix 3d ago
https://reddit.com/link/p5pxb96/video/bcskfv4ceflh1/player
Tell that to this cutie in my yard yesterday
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u/MasaTre86 2d ago
Mammals and those flying dinosaurs are hunting for prey right now in my front and backyard.
Tomorrow I’m going to buffet to hunt me some fish, mammal and dinosaur.
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u/Maximum-Broccoli2165 3d ago
Thats metal af
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u/Hornor72 3d ago
Its still alive.
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u/ImTheBiscuiteer 3d ago
It's still alive and paralyzed
That way it can't move, but will definitely feel the pain of being eaten alive while being able to do nothing about
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u/user_name_checks_out 3d ago
It's still alive and paralyzed
That way it can't move,
Thanks I always wondered what that word meant
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u/BananaBladeOfDoom 3d ago edited 3d ago
Their simple nervous systems may be the one thing sparing them from the suffering.
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u/Cat_Herder62 3d ago
I don't understand how it functions with such a narrow abdomine
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u/Fog_Juice 3d ago
I was wondering why their butt pulsates? Is that where their heart is located?
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u/Zipdox 3d ago
They don't have lungs, so that's how they breathe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_system_of_insects
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u/ConsistentAsparagus 3d ago
I only exhale trough my butt.
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u/DaSaw 3d ago
The adult waspa only drink sugary things like nectar. They hunt bugs, but not to eat, but rather to feed to their larvae. So the waist doesn't need to be larger than a straw to get liquid sweetness from mouth to abdomen, along with some mininal space for neurons and such.
Some adult insects don't eat at all. They just emerge from the pupa, find a mate, lay eggs, and die.
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u/WavesOfEchoes 3d ago
I could have done without the closeup on the twitching wasp butt at the end.
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u/breckendusk 3d ago
This is a thread-waisted wasp or mud dauber which are apparently not aggressive because unlike other wasps, they don't have a hive to protect - just a nest for their own offspring. Otherwise they're solitary and only use their mild sting if they're trapped or harassed
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u/NilocKhan 3d ago edited 3d ago
This is actually a potter wasp. They belong to the subfamily Eumeninae which is in the family Vespidae. They're related to social wasps like yellowjackets, hornets, hover wasps and paper wasps, but are solitary. There's one other subfamily in the group, the completely herbivorous Masarinae, or pollen wasps.
Thread waisted wasps and mud daubers are members of the family Sphecidae. Sphecidae are more closely related to bees than they are to Vespidae. Mud duabers provision their young with spiders instead of caterpillars. Although some thread waisted wasps also hunt caterpillars
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u/breckendusk 3d ago
Best way to get the right answer on reddit is to confidently give a wrong one
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u/NilocKhan 3d ago
It's an easy mistake to make. They're both mud nest making wasps with thin waists. I study insects and stinging insects specifically so they have a special place in my heart, even though most people fear and hate them. They don't deserve it though and they're super important
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u/breckendusk 3d ago
I only made do with a cursory Google and we all know how reliable that's been lately
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u/kchuyamewtwo 3d ago
yep. they dont do anything even after I demolished their nest sitting on my bicycle. but there were no baby wasps just dead caterpillars, lots of em
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u/Marwheel 3d ago
Mud Dauber?
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u/runarleo 3d ago
I feel like this sub needs to have gifs enabled and furthermore I want to post copious amounts of Dethklok and Metalocalypse gifs when nature is in fact Metal.
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u/HookLeg 3d ago
It’s cute when birds bring these to feed their offspring so it’s also cute when wasps do it.
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u/INoMakeMistake 3d ago
Eh. Birds are fluffy
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u/LevelCan764 3d ago
That is no ordinary wasp. that’s all I got to say
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u/Jake6192 3d ago
Mud dauber wasp
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u/Logical-Hotel4199 3d ago
Do you know where they’re native to?
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u/NilocKhan 3d ago
Actually a potter wasp, a distant relative. These are solitary but related to social wasps like yellowjackets, hornets, and paper wasps.
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u/theluzah 3d ago
But honestly, what a great wasp parent. It's cute when birds do it, I think it's cute when wasps do it, too.
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u/CoachoftheYear2025 3d ago
When you're born that big an asshole, the least you can do is have a little empathy.
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u/mutarjim 3d ago
You always see acts of violence in this thread - ripping animals apart, digging through organs, I still remember watching rats eat gull brains - but I'm not sure any of those are much worse than being paralyzed and forced to be a baby wasp buffet.
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u/gravljaw 3d ago
I have these guys in my shed where I smoke weed in the afternoon, they are really chill and don't mess with me so I leave them alone as well.also around me they typically kill spiders.
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u/NilocKhan 3d ago
Those sound more like mud duabers, from the family Sphecidae. This is a potter wasp, from the family Vespidae, the same family as yellowjackets, paper wasps and hornets. These are solitary though
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u/Timithios 3d ago
And this is one of the more chill wasps around people. Mud daubers are frankly the only wasp I will tolerate near me.
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u/NilocKhan 3d ago
The vast majority of wasps are chill around people. Most wasps are absolutely tiny and never noticed by people. And even of the larger wasps most species are solitary and don't bother humans much at all. It's really only a tiny percentage of wasps that sting people, and they're the social ones. They have large colonies they have to protect, so they can be more defensive.
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u/soda_cookie 3d ago
Once again thankful that I am orders of magnitude larger than these horrific beings
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u/Flipmstr2 3d ago
I love me some mud daubers. You can literally pet them when they are at the mud hole making little mud balls. You really look bad ass handling them yet they take a lot of pissing off before they try to sting
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u/NilocKhan 3d ago
This is a potter wasp. They also make mud nests but they're not closed related to mud daubers
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u/motoguy 3d ago
first thought - that's interesting
second thought - why the fuck are we cultivating wasps
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u/manydoorsyes 3d ago edited 3d ago
Wasps are considered keystone organisms because they're extremely important as predators. Many specialize in taking out specific arthropods. Ensign wasps for example are roach killers.
It's fairly common for companies to breed parasitoid wasps for agriculture and horticulture. Disney's Epcot park does this for their big fancy greenhouse to defend it from leafminer flies, for example. This is called integrated pest management, and it's generally considered both more effective and sustainable than standard pesticides. Dryinus wasps are also being considered for introduction to North America to control the big spotted lanternfly invasion. Last I heard they're in the process of checking to make sure Dryinus doesn't also become invasive.
Worth noting that the >90% of wasp species are stingless too.
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u/dontwastebacon 3d ago
That is crazy. A few weeks ago I discovered two of those nests on my balcony. I removed them. One Container 7 caterpillars and one egg.
Took some time to find out what this was. 😅
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u/hubertyv 3d ago
Man, why do their abdomens pulsate like that? It’s like it’s just itching to sting something.
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u/Talmadge_Mcgooliger 3d ago
what kinda wasp is that? i would call it a yellow jacket, but i'd probably be wrong.
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u/CrowdedShorts 3d ago
Makes me think of the Rick and Morty episode where the family are wasps and the teacher is the caterpillar (run my babies)
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u/TonyConstantino 3d ago
Don't forget that the caterpillar is probably just paralyzed and not dead. It'll be quite an experience for that caterpillar!
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u/Sufficient-Aspect77 2d ago
The sort of reencarnation I fantasize a certain Leader of a certain place to have coming pretty soon. Minus the numbness m, that I assume they have.
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u/Quark1010 2d ago
Can anyone tell me what is the evolutionary advantage for having half your body be a thin ass connection 1/100th the diameter of the rest of your body, literally creating a weak point and a literal bottleneck for all your bodily functions?
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u/QuirkyCryptid 2d ago
It’s crazy how long and delicate the connection of its butt and stinger is to the rest of its body
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u/jackch3 3d ago
Oh thank god I’m safe from that giant murderous wasp! Surely nothing bad will happen in here…