By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Spring in Kansas ushers in a good deal of positive things: warmer temperatures, rain flowers, and baseball. Then there are the things that sting and bite. Flying insects that may be considered a nuisance are on the move in Central Kansas, but Alicia Boor, agriculture and natural resources agent in the Cottonwood District for K-State Research and Extension, reminds residents that bugs like bees and wasps play their role in the natural world.
“Bees are pollinators, so they go from flower to flower to grab the pollen, and solitary bees do other things,” she said. “Wasps are predators. What they are doing is actually attacking and getting rid of pest species. So they are beneficial, just in a different way.”
Boor said neither bees nor wasps are aggressive. Many have lived alongside paper wasps without getting stung. One other big difference between the two insects is how they sting.
“Wasps can sting multiple times,” Boor said. That goes along with being a predator because what they do is sting their prey to immobilize it. That is why they can sting multiple times. Most of the times, the ones that are the actual hunters are the females. With honeybees, they only sting once. When they sting, there are barbs on that stinger, and it pulls it out of their abdomen, and they die.”
Other than the pain of a sting, there are more serious health issues to consider, namely allergic reactions. Boor said someone can be allergic to a bee sting but not a wasp sting and vice versa. While leaving the stinging insects alone may be the best way to avoid a sting, Boor offered a few tips if there is interaction with the bugs or a paper wasp nest.
“If you need to remove it because it’s too close to your house or something like that, the best time to do it is at night because they are kind of sleeping and it’s easier to control them at that point,” she said. “If you do need to get rid of them, that’s the best time to do it. Also, if you are eating outside, anything that contains sugar, like sugary drinks or punches, they are attracted to the sugar. Keep a lid on those, and that will help keep them away from you. Otherwise, if you see them and they’re not harming anything, leave them alone.”