Not meaning to be cheeky here, but if it's a mud dauber, then I think it will require some mud and that it will sculpt its own furniture, if you can create a habitat that will adequately simulate a suitable living environment. Now, there's a problem here: although mud daubers do drink nectar (hence, the observed acceptance of honey), a significant fraction of the "food" they harvest is spider prey... how well will that sit with people here if you try to catch spiders to feed your pet wasp? I have no horse in this race. It's your throat that you're exposing here, @A cave cricket, to the largest community of spider lovers in the world! Do so at your own peril....
This brings back a rueful childhood memory. I found a male and female pair of Dasymutilla occidentalis "Red velvet ants" or "cow killers" (native to eastern US, not found in Britain, so possibly unfamiliar to you) -- really a wasp species in which the females are wingless and can deliver very powerful stings, exaggerated in folklore as being able to kill cows; you get the idea. Cicada killers like Sphecius speciosus are some of the largest, toughest wasps in existence (larger than European hornets). Well, red velvet ants eat cicada killers; you further get the idea.
She doesn't need to eat spiders. While some adult mud daubers may occasionally feed on hemolymph from spiders, their primary diet is nectar or fruit juices.
Imo its the same as feeding crickets to a T. Some people may like crickets, but the T needs to eat.Not meaning to be cheeky here, but if it's a mud dauber, then I think it will require some mud and that it will sculpt its own furniture, if you can create a habitat that will adequately simulate a suitable living environment. Now, there's a problem here: although mud daubers do drink nectar (hence, the observed acceptance of honey), a significant fraction of the "food" they harvest is spider prey... how well will that sit with people here if you try to catch spiders to feed your pet wasp? I have no horse in this race. It's your throat that you're exposing here, @A cave cricket, to the largest community of spider lovers in the world! Do so at your own peril....
This brings back a rueful childhood memory. I found a male and female pair of Dasymutilla occidentalis "Red velvet ants" or "cow killers" (native to eastern US, not found in Britain, so possibly unfamiliar to you) -- really a wasp species in which the females are wingless and can deliver very powerful stings, exaggerated in folklore as being able to kill cows; you get the idea. Cicada killers like Sphecius speciosus are some of the largest, toughest wasps in existence (larger than European hornets). Well, red velvet ants eat cicada killers; you further get the idea.
And they were beautiful! Truly as though they were tufted with with the most vivid red and black velvet. I was walking with my mother and noticed the female velvet ant crawling along in some dirt at the side of the road, the male flying just above her and frequently landing on and around her most amorously. I dumped the drink I was carrying to use my glass to catch them. And while the male landed to make a romantic overture, I succeeded in capturing them both! My cup had no top, but I covered it with my hand, the logic being that the female can sting but can't climb the side of the glass to sting my hand, whilst the male can fly up to my hand but can't sting. Perfect! or as a British person would preferentially say: Brilliant!
I was ecstatic, and happily rattled off all kinds of facts about these wonderful insects to my much-amused mother.
Then came the problem. I needed to sneeze, badly, to throw a big sneezing fit, an unstoppable and unavoidable urge... so I quickly and carefully transferred the glass to my mother's care, moving her hand to cover the top to prevent the male from escaping. Then, during my sneezing fit, I heard my mother screech, withdrawing her hand, and I saw my prized male velvet ant fly away. Being a good boy, my first concern was that my mother had been stung. Human mothers matter more than insects, I suppose, even if the insect be a prized specimen. That wasn't it, though: my mother had not been stung. The male had just flown up and brushed against her hand. In all my excitement telling insect facts and of how nasty a sting this species could give, I had forgotten to tell her that the males cannot sting. Doesn't everyone know that stingers are modified ovipositors, that males don't have stingers because they don't have ovipositors, because they have no ova to oviposit? I guess not.
SO, it was practically a Shakespearean tragedy, and I was the culprit. I destroyed a beautiful insect romance.
The male flew off to who knows where. I was as mad as King Lear, and having done so much wrong to the female, I named her Cordelia and kept her as a cherished pet for the rest of her short life. Today she rests, skewered with a pin through the thorax to an insect collection board in a box in my basement. I'm pure evil, I know, undeserving of any mercy or reprieve. If it softens at all how harshly I must be judged, then consider please one minor mitigating factor. At least I did not skewer her through the heart, because the insect heart (or chain of hearts, technically "dorsal vessel") runs through the abdomen, and hardly at all in the thorax.
Now, @Pmurinushmacla, I'm not accusing you of being heartless, and not even saying you're wrong -- in fact, I agree with you completely -- but I merely think I should point out that this is exactly how a savage brute might justify cannibalizing a smaller and weaker member of his tribe.
It really isn't the same. A predator like a tarantula needs to eat other living creatures (like crickets, mealworms, or roaches) to survive. A fully mature wasp does not need to eat spiders. She will do just fine with nectar or fruit juice - which is what she would primarily eat in the wild. It is only the wasp larvae that need to eat spiders.
That's a great point, @chanda. By the way, hello, and I always appreciate reading your posts.
What is this?
blogs.biomedcentral.com
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I am not well educated in wasp keeping as I hate them and have been stung dozens of times. I was under the impression that it was necessary for them to survive or at least a good idea due to that being their natural forage (might miss out on needed protein etc). If they can live the same without spiders then I agree, but even if they can live without, id still probably feed it a spider once in a while. If that makes up a large portion of their natural diet (IF) then Id speculate they have somewhat developed to rely on it in their diet. All speculation tho, I hate wasps and am no wasp expert.
Concern for a fellow human being that exhibits erratic behavior.
This thread is about keeping a wasp. Parasites that affect the wasp in question by causing its wings to fall off... ...that sounds odd, and, if true, would be on-topic and very interesting.
Well in that case its human eat human, not wasp eat spider. But rest assured, if I was in such tribe and the weaker tribemate posessed beneficial skills like cracking coconuts, he would be spared.
I like your attitude. Practical, utilitarianist ethics a la John Stuart Mill. You can be part of my tribe, @Pmurinushmacla, the tribe I will form if doomsday should strike. Beekeepers would be quite useful to us I think, for honey and for pollinating crops to reestablish agriculture. People that keep parasite-ridden wasps and won't explain the parasites they harbor, less useful. We could eat them!
