wasps

[spiritwalker]

was wondering if anyone else knows if this is common practice for wasps. At our works i often see them touching webs to lure out spiders when the caterpillars are scarce mostly the spiders drop down on a thread to avoid them but sometimes they get lucky...

so is it a local thing or common as i have never heard of it or see it on any documentaries about them?

 

[JonathanD]

Some species prey on spiders and will use this method to get them out into the open.

 

[spiritwalker]

they are common wasps not the parasitic ones you see
was great to watch even though i hate wasps (phobia) its weird the way the spiders seemed to have cottoned on to it too

 

[Harvestman]

I've not heard of this, but it doesn't surprise me. Wasps are predators, and only rarely seem to get stuck in webs, so they might not have any fear of spiders. However, I wonder if the behaviour you describe is deliberate. Wasps do fly close to things to investigate them, and might brush a web or two in the process. If the spider came out and the wasp noticed, it might take the opportunity to attack and kill the spider.

Its a bit risky though. The spider might just as easily get the wasp, it if is a largish spider. What sort of spider webs are we talking about here? The typical 'orb' style, or horizontal sheets, or webs on walls around a hole? It makes a difference because it changes the sort of spider involved.

Nice anecdote though. Thanks for sharing.

 

[pango]

Spiritwalker, that thought ocurred to me this afternoon as I watched a wasp which I assumed had bumped into a spider web but it came back 3 more times.
By this time the spider was vibrating the web so fast it was a blur.

In the woods yesterday, a hornet shot past my ear and attacked a bumble bee on a dogrose. I know hornets will attack beehives but had no idea they'd hunt bees openly. It was no contest... and quite a fearsome sight!

 

[JonathanD]

Common wasps will do this. I've even seen them walking on the webs of house spiders to get them out, they are amazing as they seem to understand which are the safe and which are the sticky threads, as well as the threads that alert the spider.

 

[spiritwalker]

I've not heard of this, but it doesn't surprise me. Wasps are predators, and only rarely seem to get stuck in webs, so they might not have any fear of spiders. However, I wonder if the behaviour you describe is deliberate. Wasps do fly close to things to investigate them, and might brush a web or two in the process. If the spider came out and the wasp noticed, it might take the opportunity to attack and kill the spider.

Its a bit risky though. The spider might just as easily get the wasp, it if is a largish spider. What sort of spider webs are we talking about here? The typical 'orb' style, or horizontal sheets, or webs on walls around a hole? It makes a difference because it changes the sort of spider involved.

Nice anecdote though. Thanks for sharing.

its always the webs on walls around a hole type and they definitely hunt the spider cause they repeatedly tap the web to get the spider out, i hate wasps but i found this very interesting behaviour the natural world never ceases to amaze me

 

[shaggystu]

gemma and i spent many an hour watching the wasps (common wasps) on our veggies last year. it seemed that individual wasps (spend an hour, it's remarkably simple to work out individuals) had different preferences for prey. most of the wasps that we watched were more than happy to clear away the easy prey, cabbage white catapillers, whereas some individuals seemed to be much happier taking on the spiders. the battles between wasps and spiders are intense, and not at all one sided. from what we observed the most successfull spider hunting wasps went about in a really very methodical way, they'd start by having as poke about at the web, seemingly to entice the spider out of his little hidey hole, and then when the spider came out the wasp would climb onto it's back and then snip off the spiders legs one by one until there was just a torso left which would then be carried away. gemma also watched the wasps seemingly ramming the spider from it's web, presumably to remove the spiders advantage. nature's cruel! every so often the spiders would win and mr wasp ended up cocooned, we never watched this happen though so i don't know the best opening gambit should you find yourself coming back as a spider.

i only recently learned that the wasps don't actually eat their prey, it gets fed to baby wasps, then the adult wasps live on baby wasp poo. wierd. similar to ants and greenfly, but then ants and wasps are pretty much the same thing.

cheers

stuart

 

[Harvestman]

Wow, that's really interesting. The webs on walls are probably spiders of the genus Amaurobius, whose webs do not use glue at all, but rely on the 'velcro effect' caused by the spines on insect legs getting tangled in the scruffy silk fibres. Could be that wasps are just too powerful for that, and can move around without trouble, meaning they can hunt spiders. I also know of wasps taking spiders that are sitting in the middle of orb webs. The active hunting behaviour is very interesting.

I've seen wasps attack honey bees in flight too. They are serious predators.