When I was a kid, I was inadvertently trained to be a bit fearful of all wasps, bees and hornets. Over the years I’ve learned that most are pretty tolerant of humans, and if you approach them carefully, they leave you alone. When getting macro photos, especially with extension tubes, you have to be super close, and I’ve never been stung when photographing them. Wasps and hornets do pack a potent sting, and I’ve gotten “tagged” many times when I’ve been on a bike, and one has flown into my helmet, shirt or pant leg! As for yellow jackets, I give them a seriously wide berth. They seem to be born (hatch) angry.
These digger wasps are important pollinators and controllers of insect populations. In order to feed their young, adult wasps collect insects like grasshoppers and katydids, stinging them multiple times to paralyze them, and then laying an egg on each one. Once hatched, the developing wasp eats the victim. It sounds like something from a Sci-Fi flick. Often birds such as Gray Catbirds and House Sparrows will steal the wasp’s prey for themselves.
Whenever I do a painting of an insect that isn’t a butterfly, dragonfly, bumble bee or one of the other rare “glam” insects, I figure most people will either have no interest or be repulsed by it. That’s ok. These paintings are pretty much for my own interest and entertainment. If anyone else happens to admire them, great! They are my kind of people. Not everyone appreciates a jumping spider or wasp, but I sure love them!
The photos I took as reference for these had a green background that didn’t really make the wasp stand out. After some thumbnail tests in Photoshop, I decided to render the background on a faded gradient from pink to a subdued yellow from the bottom flowers.
Please contact me if you’re interested in buying the original watercolor or a print of this painting. Some of my work is also available for licensing.
Leave a Reply