From their feeding habits to their tissue-damaging venom, here are 8 stinging facts about the
executioner wasp
Number 8 It’s native to South and Central America
The executioner wasp is a large, yellow, and brown insect that can be found in countries
ranging from Mexico to northern Argentina.
These insects belong to the order hymenoptera, which also includes other species of wasps,
bees, ants and sawflies.
They tend to prefer coastal and humid locations and are prevalent in tropical forests.
This species doesn’t seem to be particularly territorial, as their hives have often been
found near other nests housing Polybia and Mischocyttarus wasps.
Since they prefer tropical weather, the females hibernate during the winter.
They become plumper and fuller during autumn, in order to withstand this period of stillness.
The executioner wasp feeds mainly on caterpillars and nectar, but will prey on other small insects
as well.
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Number 7 It can sting more than once
Unlike bees, the executioner wasp and all other similar species, have no fixed limit
of times they might sting their prey and perceived enemies.
Bees must carefully choose when to use their prime defense mechanism as they end up losing
both their stingers and a great portion of their digestive tract.
This leads to the bee perishing soon after the attack.
The wasp, however, merely runs out of venom, and must simply wait for it to be replenished.
They’re capable of portioning the venom they release in each sting, and their poison
gland is in charge of renewing it.
There’s nothing that prevents them from continuing to sting once the venom is drained,
though.
This makes them far more likely to attack on demand, and makes them especially dangerous,
as they can continue to assault their victims until they no longer feel threatened or annoyed.
The executioner wasp is not a particularly territorial insect, but it won’t hesitate
to attack when it believes its hive’s integrity is in danger.
Before we continue with our list, answer this question.
How many queens are usually found in an executioner wasp’s nest?
Is it:
a.
More than 10 b.
Five c.
One d.
None
Let us know what you think in the comments section below and stay tuned to find out the
right answer.
Number 6 Their nests are often small and underpopulated
Though most wasp nests usually house up to 6000 individuals during the peak of summer,
executioner wasps prefer to keep their groups small and tight-knit.
These hives tend to be around 3.5 inches in diameter and accept groups of 4 to 13 individuals.
This particular type of wasp is sociable by nature, and their nests usually include several
horizontal cells where their offspring are kept apart from the rest of the group.
The young are also protected from possible predators and dangers.
In urban areas the executioner wasp’s hive hangs from the edges of roofs in cities and
towns, where they can find protection from the wind and the rain, while also remaining
hidden.
In the wild, they’ll choose low branches of spiky trees instead, with a preference
for areas close to swamps.
Their hives may be small but executioners are actually the largest among the neotropical
wasp species.
Even though it owns an incredibly painful sting, this insect is surprisingly nonaggressive.
That is, of course, unless it’s provoked.
Number 5 Only female wasps have stingers
There are many differences between male and female wasps.
Not only are the males of the species usually smaller and thinner, but they actually have
no stinger at all!
If you’re stung by an executioner wasp, there’s no doubt that a female was the culprit.
These significant differences occur because the female’s anatomy has evolved in accordance
to the extra weight and space required to carry the eggs, making their abdomen larger
and more prominent.
The reason they carry a stinger while males don’t, is related to their reproductive
system.
The ovipositor allows them to deposit the eggs to be fertilized and in turn, grants
them their greatest defense mechanism.
Even though a male wasp can’t actually sting you, sometimes they’ll mimic this act while
defending themselves purely out of instinct.
Number 4 It has spiky mandibles
The executioner wasp has short yet wide jaws outside their actual mouths, which they rely
on for practical use during their daily chores.
Working as tongs, these mandibles allow the wasp to cut pieces of vegetation, grab small
objects or even dig sections of their hives while constructing them.
It also works as a terrifying way of seizing a tiny insect and killing it, usually by decapitation,
in order to get a quick meal.
In addition to these appendixes, the executioner wasp also owns large teeth, with the third
one usually being considerably larger than those of other species, making it a terrifying
predator for bugs living near their nests.
They are notorious for their long lifespans, managing to survive for 6 to 18 months, which
is far more than other wasp species.
Number 3 The pain of being stung by one can last over 24 hours!
In 2015, a YouTube personality known as Coyote Peterson decided to conduct an experiment
to test the physical effects that being stung by different venomous insects had on the human
body.
He uploaded several videos to his channel, comparing different stings and the pain they
produced.
During the fall of 2018, Peterson decided to get stung by the Executioner wasp, which
he claimed would be the last video he uploaded from this series.
Apparently, not only was the sting incredibly painful, but the discomfort didn’t subside
for almost 36 hours!
Not only that but he claimed that the residual effects, though far milder, lasted for another
whole week.
The YouTuber stated that this particular sting had been far more severe than the Japanese
giant hornet’s and the bullet ant’s attacks, which are described as two of the most painful
stings in the world.
He thus dubbed the executioner as the “king of the sting”.
Number 2 Its sting doesn’t appear in the Schmidt sting pain index
Justin Schmidt was an entomologist born in the late 1940s, who won a Nobel Prize for
physiology back in 2015.
He created a sting pain index, in which the distress caused by hymenopteran attacks was
analyzed and classified into four distinct classes.
Schmidt claims to have been stung by the majority of Hymenoptera insects.
Pain level one is the mildest and includes insects like the southern fire ant and most
normal beetles.
Level four, on the other side of the index, is reserved for the most critical levels of
pain, only for the worst possible stings.
The bullet ant and warrior wasp can be found at this level.
In fact, the bullet ant was the only insect to be given a rating of 4+.
At the time Schmidt created his classification, the executioner wasp hadn’t been discovered
yet, and thus it doesn’t have a real position in the index.
Peterson, who we’ve previously mentioned on this list, claims it was, without a doubt,
the worst sting he’d experienced during his experiments.
So, how many queens can usually be found in an executioner wasp’s nest?
The right answer was c, just one queen per hive!
The worker wasps will not tolerate more than a single monarch, and if several queen wasps
are born in a certain colony, the original one will murder the would-be-usurpers.
This is meant to avoid creating confusion within the hive.
Number 1 Its venom can cause tissue necrosis
Not only can the executioner’s sting be excruciatingly painful for those suffering
from their attack, but it can also leave behind permanent scars.
Since it’s a relatively small insect, the effect its venom has on an adult human being
won’t be long-lasting, but the marks it leaves behind may very well be.
Not only will it cause inflammation in the affected area, which can last up to a few
days, but it can also tear the tissue surrounding it, creating small indentations or holes in
the skin.
This can produce a permanent scar in an adult.
If it can inflict this level of damage on mammalian skin just imagine the harm its venom
would cause a small insect!
Thanks for watching!
Would you rather try to outrun a group of bees and risk getting caught by all of them,
or allow a single executioner wasp to sting youw on the nose?
Let us know in the comments section below!