Wasps Are Effective Garden Pest Controllers Worth Welcoming

Full analysis

Margie Patlak makes the case that wasps deserve a place in any garden: some studies show they pollinate as effectively as bees, and they actively hunt insect prey to feed their larvae, keeping pest populations in check. A category called parasitic wasps is estimated to consume roughly half of all caterpillars. There is even a native wasp species that hunts Japanese beetles. Patlak notes that the aggressive species most people fear — yellow jackets and paper wasps — are social insects with large colonies and are vastly outnumbered by solitary wasps, which are unlikely to sting unless directly handled. The great black digger wasp, for example, can hunt down as many as 12 katydids, crickets, or grasshoppers in a single day.