Here’s a shot of the paper wasp that made a nest right outside the door to my parents’ house! The nest is much bigger with many more chambers now as this was taken a couple weeks back. The truth of today’s strip is that I’ve been trying to keep my mom from knocking the nest down. Also true: paper wasps have built-in facial recognition technology! Check out the interesting article here. Not so true: The wasp isn’t racist, thankfully, but we’ll be exploring that concept a bit more in the next strip…
—
Apologies for the late strip! I’m smack dab in the middle of moving, which is making it difficult to get JEFbot strips up on time. Hoping to get some writing and drawing done ahead of time for next Tuesday’s strip. *fingers crossed*
I’d get rid of it. They’ll make another one soon and hopefully not near their front door.
yeah, while part of me hates to get rid of the nest now that it’s so built up, i saw how big the nests can get and think it’s a bad idea to keep around by the front door, Jereme.
anyway, check you out: you just achieved the Shades of Firsting! wear them well – these have compound lenses which will help you see just like an insect! (not sure if that’s a good thing. hmm.):
😎
Anything to help my eye sight! I let people put on my glasses and they get headaches from them! Thanks for the shades of firsting! I feel…well FIRST! 🙂
heheh. the Shades of Firsting are guaranteed to be headache-proof, Jereme!
Took me a second, but I got an extra chuckle once I got the racist WASP joke. 🙂
although it would seem that i constucted the “WASPy” nature of the joke, it was just a happy accident, Saeed! one that came about because an actual wasp picked a really bad spot to construct its nest. 🙂
I love wasps and bees – but I too will knock down nests that are near a door. I leave them up and enjoy the busy little creatures when they are in a safer (for them as well as us) location.
yeah, i should’ve shooed the wasp away as soon as it started building its nest, Sachi. but by the time i realized what it was, it had already constructed a few chambers and my fascination wouldn’t let me tear it down!
Heh. We haven’t had any paper wasps around here in quite a while… I guess Corky’s Pest Control has been keeping them away. We used to have them around quite often; they would make their nests in the eaves of the house, including the one above the front entryway! Those were tricky to get down. I suppose it’s possible that some still nest in the highest eaves (above the garage), but we don’t look up there often.
As for the wasps themselves… well, they make me nervous. I prefer honey bees. 🙂
i’ll agree – honeybees are way cuter than wasps, Insectoid. wasps just look more angular and evil, like little, armored mechs. which is kinda cool. 🙂
That wasp is why I hate going to your mom’s house to see Willy! Its really scary..
i don’t blame you, Nat – i’m afraid the next time i visit, there’s gonna be a whole bunch of wasps buzzing about outside that door!
I’m sorry, that nest would have to go ASAP, no if, ands or butts about it!
But, it did remind me of this story I heard as a podcast last month.
http://escapepod.org/2012/05/03/ep343-the-cartographer-wasps-and-the-anarchist-bees/
Makes you think about destroying those nests, but honestly, I’d still destroy it.
i checked out that link and couldn’t resist reading through the story, TPC. now, if either my parents get rid of the wasp or it abandons its home, i’m going to have to boil the nest, just to see if there’s a map there, with tiny wasp-writings. 😉
I had some wasps in a storage closet on the balcony of an apartment in which I used to live. I thought “live and let live” and was all set to ignore them until one of them decided I was a potential threat and stung me in the face. I showed my displeasure by emptying a can of bug spray into their, rather large, nest. I ripped it down and squashed the larvae. Only the level head of my roommate prevented me from setting it all on fire.
I then realized my facade of pacifism is all that keeps me from being a insecticidal maniac. I’m assuming this doesn’t happen with humans but no person has ever stung me in the face so I don’t know if I’d go all Keiser Soze…
i, too, have a truce with bugs, ebonicplague, but that truce would be broken if the paper wasp stung me – especially if it stung me in the face! this weekend, when passing the nest while visiting my parents, the wasp turned to face me with its stinger held up in the air in a threatening manner. if my face gets stung, i guess i’ll have no one to blame but myself.
After reading this I heard the voice of Daniel Tosh(Tosh.0) saying “Is… it….. racist!”
heheh. maybe the wasp can get on his show, 52pickup. 🙂
I love creepy crawlies, I’m the one in charge of getting rid of them when they are found in the apartment. 😛
i love ’em, too, DJ, as long as they remain peaceful and keep their stingers, mandibles and whatnot to themselves.
I should not have seen that photo! Ever since the horrible field trip in second grade, I’m pretty much traumatized because of all the bugs. Our teacher told me and some other classmates to go down a little hill, and we accidentally stepped right in an groundwaspnest (sorry I don’t know what the right translation of jordgeting is! its swedish) Literally every kid in class got stung and I was forever afraid of any wasp-like creature (even more than before).
The second panel is my reaction to anything that flies through the air and buzzes.
yikes! i think if i had stepped into a, um, “jordgeting” when i was a kid, i would not be so bug-friendly either, DAS!
So it’s Anti-Asian, eh? Darn. At least I don’t look too Asian to get mauled by that wasp.
it could be, ShadowShuffler! at least full-Asians (like Mombot.) it seems to be more accepting of the half-asians (like jefbot.) 😉
I think wasps are really cool too, but from a bit more of a distance. Bees don’t really scare me – I really like bees. Wasps that can each sting more than once are more of a threat. They just seem to be really pissy. (Note: I am really just talking about yellow jackets here. I don’t have much experience with paper wasps.)
We had a nest inside the wall of our house right outside the back door. Every time one of our dogs would go out, the wasps would sting the crap out of it. Is it any wonder they decided peeing inside was a better idea? 😛 We got rid of that nest FAST.
Moving. 😛 Yuck. I hope it is over with soon and is as painless as possible.
Oh, and I meant to say that crows also can recognize individual people. So don’t go pissing off any crows, either.
my parents have lots of crows by their house, Shanna! i’ll have to keep that in mind.
yeah, i’ve always been on friendlier terms with bees than with yellow jackets and other wasps, Shanna. but after i read that article about paper wasps being able to identify each others’ faces, i just couldn’t kill it. but lately, it’s been getting “pissier” – probably as now it has larvae growing in those chambers. i’m thinking it might need to go before it starts acting more aggressively. 🙁
re: moving. thanks! so far, it has been a much easier move than the last one. let’s hope it stays that way.
Bees, ok, Bumblebees, cool, pettable according to my mother.
Wasps, in any way shape or form… Kill it with fire. I don’t mind bugs, I don’t even mind spiders, but wasps are the most hatefull creatures in this world…
Evolved to be total dicks and stingy with their barbless stingers. at least honeybees have a noble sacrifice to make for their hive (and are therefore less stingy)
i think bumblebees are kinda cute, Icarus, but i’ve never tried to pet one. how cute would it to be to have a tame one as a pet, though? 🙂
and, yes – wasps are pretty mean, from my experience. just look at that picture! nothing cuddly about it.
🙁 .. Now, you say get rid of it..looks even worse close up! I thought it was going to be a little nest w/2 or 3 cells… and the wasps would eat harmful bugs. You can take it down next time you’re here. 🙂
yeah, it does look pretty frightening close up, Mombot! heheh.i’ll admit i made a case for it to stay, but now that nest is almost too big to take down! i’m going to need a full-body, sting-proof, beekeeper outfit and a blowtorch, methinks. 😉
Sorry dude, but I’m with Mombot on this one. I’m allergic to wasps (so is my mom), so we eliminate the blasted things as quickly as possible. We’ve got a lot of exposed wood outside our house so we attract muddaubers and papers. I like to take a lighter and torch the paper nests. Muds get crushed.
seems i’ve been outvoted, KB – everyone here seems to think i should’ve taken that wasp nest out when i had the chance! you guys are probably right.
My Grandfather is Bee-keeper so insects with poison needles as their choice of defence are in general not unwelcome around me.
However Wasps are not Bees and they can… Buzz off.
ha! did you take your sunglasses off before you said that last line, Maryz?
and it does seem as though the majority of BOTreaders are cool with bees, not so cool with wasps. hmm.
My mom and brother are novice beekeepers, so I’ve learned to live with the buzzing things. Honestly, I like bees well enough. They leave me alone if I leave them alone. Wasps, though…kill with fire, as Anne Wheaton says sometimes.
Funny side note, to the WASP racial joke, I got to be in a local production of Steve Martin’s play WASP. It was a lot of fun, and about what you’d expect from the great comedian. 😀 But it amused me to no end to see you pull the “racists!” card.
now i’m starting to feel bad about leaving that wasp nest up for my parents to deal with, T! i think i’m going to have to do a little research on what the most humane way is to get rid of those things…
i’ve never seen “WASP” – if it comes to my neighborhood, though, i’ll try and get a ticket. i mostly love Steve Martin’s stuff!
Oddly I’m also not afraid of bees.. But every other insect I am afraid of, along with all spiders.. I have three fears spiders(insects) , clowns and zombies.. I’m pretty sure though I would hang the person who would tell me to save a wasp hive outside of my house for treason..
funny, i saw an artsy sci-fi movie the other night at the Silent Movie Theater in hollywood, Satoshieyes, and before the screening, they played the trailer for the movie, Arachnophobia. the entire place was freaking out! so apparently, many can relate to your fear of spiders. 🙂
Despite my love for John goodman I could never see that movie, for fear of embarassment of hiding the entire time.. The only other film I could never see is A.I., for a different type of embarassment.. While I am a frood, I would not be acting like one during that film because I would just start crying at the end again.
Last summer, I had a wasp that visited my room whenever I left the window open because our windows don’t have screens. I caught what I believe was the SAME loud wasp twice. Once with a jar of smelly wax and the other with an empty fishbowl.
It kept buzzing around my now always closed window.
They never attack me. They just fly in like they own the place and say WAZZZZZP-UP?
…
That joke was a bit of a stretch. :/
heheh. i like it, Rinthia! if the paper wasp outside my parents’ house greeted visitors like that, i think i’d have to let it live. but seeing as how it has no vocal abilities, i think it’s going to have to go before it hurts someone.
I find it really nerve racking to disturb a nest of wasps while being at least fifteen feet off the ground hanging onto a rock ledge. I found myself in this position a few years back. Fortunately, I made it back to the ground without being stung. I deduced that I was near a whole nest of the wasps when I noticed that all of the wasps buzzing me were two inches long and black with no markings ( the same species ).
yikes! glad you made it safely back to the ground, Rainey! that could’ve been bad.
Attacking mombot like that is unforgivable. Kill it with Fire!
you BOTreaders have convinced me, Jiro! the wasp has to GO.
Good Morning BOTiverse!
Been sick and just all around yucky the past week and a half. Stupid TS Debby!
Had to practically swim to work.
Maybe the wasp liked your facial expressions more than MomBot’s?
morning, Pixie! sorry to hear you’ve been sick and yucky. 🙁 hope you’re feeling better!
and it is possible that the wasp liked my expressions more than Mombot. she was kinda scowling a bit… 😉
Hate wasps. Hate ’em. They’re the bullies of the insect world.
Bees, I love. There’s a point to bees.
I can’t wait to see how awesomely ridiculous this one gets!
A wasp nest has taken up residence in my parents’ mailbox of all places! There will be a war conference tomorrow to establish battle plans…
Spray some WD40 around the wasps nest. They hate the smell and will go away never to return.
KILLL ITTT BURN IT WITH FIRE!!!
You wont believe what’s on my door. Wasp! I’m totally serious. Can they identify front doors, too?