Yeah, I just checked that out. So: Twitter TheWeaselKing, not me. Minecraft Forums TheWeaselKing: Not me. Dreamwidth TheWeaselKing: Me, on a technicality since I don't actually use it.
People think I'm vanity Googling, but actually I'm making sure someone out there isn't poaching the ol' 'nym. (A hold-over from my days as a moderator on a game forum, wherein certain man-children were emphatically not beyond revenge by impersonation.)
-- Steve's been lucky so far on that front. *fingers crossed*
Wow, no, that's not me. That's not even an account I signed up for once and then forgot about, which was my original first thought. That's some other dude.
The only kind of wasp regularly encountered around here, to my knowledge. There are huge black ones out in the cedar woods, but they're actually quite well tempered. Terrifying if you see them and think "one inch long stealth-bomber yellowjacket!!!!" but generally non-aggressive.
Yellow jackets, on the other hand... "Were you drinking soda? I'm just going to try to crawl in your mouth and check, because fuck you, I'm a wasp."
We've gotten gigantic*, easy-going hornets in our neck of the woods -- central VA -- which were, at one point, living somewhere in our attic, and moseying into the house via the ceiling lights if we left them on after dark. Sumbitch. Fortunately, we have a central vacuum, and it's rather satisfying to hear them clattering down the long tube to their doom.
Most fortunately, they only nest in a location for one season, and don't return, so we just waited them out -- where the alternative is a very spendy extermination visit, because while they're easy-going, they're also territorial, and if you seek out their nest, you'd best have heavy-duty gear on.
The black ones are likely mud dauber wasps, which are less aggressive because they don't have nests to defend. One spring, when I had an apartment with one of those in-window air conditioners, a mud dauber decided to lay its eggs in the air conditioner (they build multicelled chambers out of mud, each one containing a paralyzed insect or spider with an egg implanted into it - the egg hatches and the larva devours the waiting prey). So for a couple weeks, every morning I'd wake up and so would one of the newborn wasps - it would fly into the room and kind of lazily hover around, bleary-eyed. I'd wait until it landed, place a glass over it, and sweep up the forlorn wasp corpse later that evening.
Yes, I murdered wasp babies. I'm not proud of it.
Meanwhile, last week the huge goddamn angry yellowjackets out at my parents' place decided I wasn't allowed to put charcoal in the bin outside in the garden; every time I got close, several of them would show up and just hover in place, threateningly. There must be a nest nearby but we can't find it. I don't know why they didn't sting me - I guess they think it's funny when I run.
Then there's bumblebees, who aren't aggressive but are so clumsy you can be fooled into thinking otherwise. They are particularly drunk this year, several times walking home I've had something go vvvvvvv THUNK vvvvv as it bounces off my forehead on the way to the next pub.
MURDER MOAR WASPBABIES. Wasps are evil. The only good thing about wasps is that the parasitic variety are pretty much your one-stop shop for arguments against any non-malevolent creator-with-a-capital-c. And I guess they fertilize fig trees to the extent that figs might go extinct without them, but I don't like figs.
They should not be confused with bees because they are not bees-- they are wasps. Completely different taxa. Even if they were on the same suborder, wasps would be distinguished by their douchiness.
Bees in general and bumblebees in particular are chill and they have every right to be insulted if you mention them in the same sentence as wasps. They're chill enough that they won't sting you just for that, but maybe they should.
All of this is forgiven by virtue of your status as a waspbabymurderer.
Oh, yeah, I was just thinking of bees in the context of "flying stinging insects". Everything about wasps is either horrifying or cruel.
I hear the original latin name for the common yellowjacket was going to be vespula douchimus maximus but they had to abandon that due to its similarity to an existing name for a species of bird that imitates common cellphone ringtones just to see who reaches for their pockets.
Although "yellowjacket" is losing popularity in academic circles and is being replaced by the more accurate term "utter bastard wasp".
Here in the UK we just have wasps, species-singular. I think they're probably what you folks call yellowjackets: yellow and black stripes and a bastard attitude.
(Bees, on the other hand, we have many species of.)
The bad news is that apparently giant asian hornets have gone native in France and are working their way north towards the English Channel. Those fuckers are evil.
I must be the only person in the world who befriends wasps (albeit yellowjackets only. The little mosquito-sized assholes can FOAD). Every summer, a wasp will fly up to me at a barbecue, sit on my can of pop, pause as if asking permission, and down he goes to take a sip. He'll fly out again in a moment, and I'll take a sip. Then he will. We take turns, and he seems pleasantly surprised I don't slosh the can around rudely and put my big dumb face up to the opening while he's in there. Once his thirst is sated, he flies away. They never sting me while this is going on, perhaps because I don't thrash around (and don't allow other people to "help" shoo them away).
I've only been stung by a yellowjacket once, and that was my fault. I sat against him after leaving my car window open. The smaller, meaner wasps, I've been stung through no fault of my own (walking away from their nest).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 06:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 06:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 06:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 06:54 pm (UTC)That one is definitely not you; it's for a musician in St. Louis.
-- Steve never thought to look until now.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 06:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 07:00 pm (UTC)Sheesh, you'd think picking a completely arbitrary name in 2004 would provide at least SOME futureproofing.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 07:16 pm (UTC)-- Steve's been lucky so far on that front. *fingers crossed*
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 06:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 06:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-17 08:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-18 02:37 am (UTC)Yellow jackets, on the other hand... "Were you drinking soda? I'm just going to try to crawl in your mouth and check, because fuck you, I'm a wasp."
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-18 04:35 am (UTC)Most fortunately, they only nest in a location for one season, and don't return, so we just waited them out -- where the alternative is a very spendy extermination visit, because while they're easy-going, they're also territorial, and if you seek out their nest, you'd best have heavy-duty gear on.
Want to see photos? I have photos.
* No, seriously. 1.5"+.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-18 02:22 pm (UTC)Yes, I murdered wasp babies. I'm not proud of it.
Meanwhile, last week the huge goddamn angry yellowjackets out at my parents' place decided I wasn't allowed to put charcoal in the bin outside in the garden; every time I got close, several of them would show up and just hover in place, threateningly. There must be a nest nearby but we can't find it. I don't know why they didn't sting me - I guess they think it's funny when I run.
Then there's bumblebees, who aren't aggressive but are so clumsy you can be fooled into thinking otherwise. They are particularly drunk this year, several times walking home I've had something go vvvvvvv THUNK vvvvv as it bounces off my forehead on the way to the next pub.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-18 03:03 pm (UTC)They should not be confused with bees because they are not bees-- they are wasps. Completely different taxa. Even if they were on the same suborder, wasps would be distinguished by their douchiness.
Bees in general and bumblebees in particular are chill and they have every right to be insulted if you mention them in the same sentence as wasps. They're chill enough that they won't sting you just for that, but maybe they should.
All of this is forgiven by virtue of your status as a waspbabymurderer.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-18 03:35 pm (UTC)I hear the original latin name for the common yellowjacket was going to be vespula douchimus maximus but they had to abandon that due to its similarity to an existing name for a species of bird that imitates common cellphone ringtones just to see who reaches for their pockets.
Although "yellowjacket" is losing popularity in academic circles and is being replaced by the more accurate term "utter bastard wasp".
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-18 04:04 pm (UTC)I'm very, very tired right now.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-18 08:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-19 02:45 pm (UTC)(Bees, on the other hand, we have many species of.)
The bad news is that apparently giant asian hornets have gone native in France and are working their way north towards the English Channel. Those fuckers are evil.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-18 04:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-18 11:31 pm (UTC)I've only been stung by a yellowjacket once, and that was my fault. I sat against him after leaving my car window open. The smaller, meaner wasps, I've been stung through no fault of my own (walking away from their nest).