What’s the point of wasps? The proof is in the pollination!
9th July 2021
They pillage your picnic and pack a powerful sting, but a new survey aims to prove once and for all that a world without wasps would not be a better place.
Adam Hart, Professor of Science Communication at the University of Gloucestershire, and Seirian Sumner, Professor of Behavioural Ecology at University College London (UCL), have long argued that not only do wasps have a point, they are vital to our ecosystem.
And now they are asking the public to support a new survey that will provide further evidence for their research.
The Big Wasp Survey is asking people to post photographs on social media of wasps on flowers – using the hashtag #WaspFlower – so that more can be discovered about the role of wasps as pollinators. Few people realise that wasps do pollinate, just like bees and butterflies, but scientists know very little currently about which flowers benefit from wasp pollination and which wasps are most useful.
The insects we most commonly identify as wasps are the social wasps, who buzz around our barbecues seeking out sticky substances, but this is just a tiny fraction of overall wasp diversity, estimated at more than 7,000 species in the UK alone. Most wasps are solitary, some are tiny (a few species practically microscopic), never bother us and virtually all are overlooked.
To find out more, visit the university website.