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I love that the left vs right examples are "well-documented homosexual behavior in animal species" vs "Candace Owens declares herself 'neutral' with regards to what shape the planet might be"
On a deeplook vid about potted wasps that store living caterpillars in pots they make, someone commented: Caterpillar: what a lovely jar you made! Wasp: I'm glad you like it. It's for you.
Ooooh! That's my friend from university's research and I think that it is his film! He's cited in the credits, Prof. Ken Catania at Vanderbilt University. In his book, "Great Adaptations," Ken has a chapter on parasitoid wasps. It's a terrific book, but the Audible narrator isn't great and steps on all of the jokes. Get it in paper form or as an E-book.
Growing homes is a new field of research actually that might make some cool stuff in the future. Right now there's mycelium bricks and walls of mycelium but they can only grow in shapes already put in place, it would be really useful to be able to just grow a large structure. The wasps seem to be ahead of us in that area.
Theres a wasp for that is super true. People like to talk about how many beatles there are but the under studded reality is that for every beatle there are 3 layers of parasitic wasps eating them and each other.
@@Playlist4EllaI had to Google how many members of the Beatles there were so I could make another joke and by the time I finished I realized I was the joke
Parasitizing parasites is such a bizarre ecological niche, it’s simultaneously baffling and impressive that it’s filled by so many species. Life truly does find a way.
_Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,_ _And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum._ _And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;_ _While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on._ - Augustus De Morgan, _Siphonaptera,_ 1872.
I'm fully scientifically-minded, but this stuff really makes me think we have an evil code developer in the sky making stuff up for pure terror reasons
It’s staggering how many we know, and even more that we don’t know! Same thing with mites, there are a handful that we interact with in day to day life but then there are so many that aren’t even known to science-not because they aren’t common but they are understudied
I work in a plant nursery where we use a lot of these wasps against Aphids. Almost every time I spot some Aphids on a plant, there are parasitoid wasps nearby, and often times I'll see the larva of the wasps wiggling their way outside of an Aphid, leaving just the shell. This method isn't perfect but already reduces the use of harmfull chemicals by a long shot!
why not just use ladybugs? they devour the aphids a la final solution i used them a lot in the past, never had to use pesticides after the sprouting season while the aphids still did do damage to plants during leafing, it wasnt crippling to the plants plus, the kids love ladybugs.
As someone who keeps a lot of plants, hearing about one injecting it's babies into a mealybug gave me a greater appreciation for these wasps pretty early in the video.
More so than any of the freaky stuff, the thing that surprised me the most is learning that microscopic wasps are a thing, and that you can just buy parasitoid wasps to get rid of pest bugs. I was genuinely not expecting to learn cool stuff on halloween.
I knew parasitic wasps were a thing, but zombifying virus parasitoid wasps was news to me! But those micro-wasps are amazing! A little bug so small it makes a regular butterfly look like Mothra!
I didn’t learn anything new in this video, I love parasitic wasps. But it’s so, so awesome to actually SEE the things you read about, in high definition video!! I think that’s part of what makes this channel so great- you fill a niche for obscure crazy facts for normal people, awesome footage for people in the know, and humor for everyone
Yeah... Yeah, you definitely chose the perfect day to upload this. On one hand, fascinating. On the other, knowing there's wasps smaller than amoeba and how many more of them are out there than we perceive is terrifying
The amoeba sized ones are new to me, but if you're paying attention outside, you'll see micro wasps around fairly often, but they're easy to confuse with small mosquitos and gnats. Hey, if you plan to catch any, keep in mind they can have a painful sting. Most of the time though, they just do their thing and nobody notices. Look on the bright side, without micro wasps, there would be no figs.
I love parasitoid wasps! Currently doing my PhD on them. Fun fact, Darwin (once a clergyman) after seeing parasitoid wasps said “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae [a family of parasitoid wasps] with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.” So parasitoid wasps made Darwin doubt the existence of a benevolent god lmao
They are beautiful animals. Look at them and their colors. We humans, always looking for extraterrestrial life while all the aliens are already here. We just have to study them better. That’s one explanation for you.
I love them too. I even created a subreddit for them where I was posting photos but obviously there wasn’t enough people interested in them to actually start a community there. It’s also fairly easy to make a novel discovery of a parasitoid wasp species compared to some other kinds of insects which is cool. The only problem is that because they’re so diverse and have little taxonomic research being done on them compared to other insects it’s very hard to identify the species if you’re self-taught
Question, are their any specific wasps that parasitize hornworms or squash beetles? I'd love to sick my reptiles on them but they're just too poisonous for them.
Videos like this make you really appreciate the fact that we basically retired from the food chain and now rule it like a 40k emperor, but with more death, somehow.
And then we decided to explore areas where we never were a part of the food chain and the locals have no reason to treat us as anything more than a weird, but vital snack that might be all they'll eat for the next month. Same areas are also completely uninhabitable for us without excessive amounts of preparation, but we went there anyway.
Not really retired. We hide out from them in human-only biurrows and killed most that can eat us - but go tigerwatching in the south indian jungle or meet a jaguire at night in central america and your are still very much on the menue. Also - once we dont use it anymore, many of our siblings in the tree of life still love themselves a nice ape corpse to eat of, from cadaver flies to coffin beetles.
Thank you, Ze. Your work not only educates me -- I share these with my grandchildren (via their mom & dad for parental approval). The songs are especially appreciated.... I listen to them repeatedly. 🎶💕
Someone in my local insect identification group posted that they had found a bunch of crab spiders buried in their garden. Someone pointed out they likely accidentally dug up some wasp baby's dinner
@@tomarmadiyer2698 Specifically flower crab spiders. That's what happens when your bait is also the food source of your biggest predator. Wasp goes there expecting nectar, instead it gets nectar and a kid's meal bonus.
When we removed some cinder blocks from our backyard, it left a patch of soil that about a dozen parasitic wasps decided to use as a nesting site. It was absolutely fascinating to watch them dig the hole, then come back with a paralyzed bug, and measure the two to make sure it would fit. If the bug was too big, it would widen the hole until it was large enough to accommodate. Then it dragged it into the depths, lay its eggs, and carefully bury the insect. It would even scatter random pebbles and sticks to disguise the hole. Fascinating little creatures.
All this is giving me even more stories to tell people when I try to advocate for native plant gardens. Even just a few plants can host so many insects (I have only 30 square feet of space and saw 5-6 different kinds of bees and wasps alone, plus caterpillars that specialize for living on wild bergamot). It's great to give people more ideas of what to look for in gardens that you can't get with a lawn or nonnative landscaping.
One of the best, most frightening and disgusting videos you have produced. Great job. I first encountered this phenomenon on my tomato plants. I found this huge green caterpillar with a dozen or more small oval shaped white tumors on it (at least that's what I thought they were.) But nay, nay, nay, (apologies to John Pinette) it was worse than that. It was pure nightmare fuel. What I found was a Tomato Hornworm that had been parasitized by a small braconid wasp, Cotesia congregatus (think about that name for just a second.) And the larvae were feeding on the Hornworm from the outside inwards. It was both shocking and fascinating at the same time. I'll never forget seeing that. (gag)
as a parasitoid wasp lover I was so happy when I saw this video and even happier when my favourite insect (and probably favourite animal in general) Ampulex compressa was featured 10 seconds in!!
I really like parasitoid wasps. I even made a parasitoid wasp subreddit last year to post photos but unfortunately I was the only person who ever really used it. Parasitoid wasps are really fascinating insects that are usually either forgotten about or dismissed as bad pests because of their brutal life cycle but they’re actually very ecologically important as they help cull the populations of other insects that would take over if it wasn’t for predators like these. They also cannot and will not sting you so you’re completely safe around them.
@@kevincrady2831 Virtually every species of parasitoid wasp evolved alongside invertebrates to specialize in parasitizing specific types of invertebrates. There isn’t any know kind of wasp that parasitizes mammals or any other kind of vertebrate so it would probably take at least tens of millions of years before they’ve evolved to parasitize mammals even though they probably will never evolve to do that because it should be so much easier for them to find and infect invertebrate hosts as they far outnumber vertebrate hosts and the invertebrate hosts often live alongside the parasitoid wasps is things like rotting wood. TLDR: Parasitoid wasps specialize in parasitizing other invertebrates and cannot parasitize any kind of mammal so will likely never be able to infect humans.
If there's one thing I'm sad you left out, it's that parasitoidism is not just the lifestyle of the majority of wasp species, but actually the ancestral lifestyle of all Apocrita - which is the suborder that includes all wasps, ants, and bees! The stingers ALL those insects have originate from modified ovipositors used to lay eggs inside prey, they've just lost the "injecting eggs" functionality in stuff like bees! So even that cute bumblebee's ancestors were laying their eggs inside other organisms.
One of those cute bumblebees flew into my open car window and got caught between my thigh and the car door. I only noticed it when I opened the door and the little &%((&ç"/ rammed its ovipositor into my leg! (TMK bumblebees lay their eggs in rotten wood or other plant based material, AFAIK they are non-parasitoid hymenoptera) I barely managed to reach the house door and to get into the flat, because my leg swelled/ swole up (which is correct? non-native English speaker) so fast, that I had to cut my jeans open to get out of it (time elapsed from puncture ca. 3 min at most!), but also felt very sad for the animal, because I adore bumblebees. At the time I studied biology and tried to at least determine the species, but was not successful (I had hit it too hard in reflex...), At least I was 100% sure it was a female - and that botany would stay my preferred field. Even the tutors were perplexed when I related my experience, like "But bumblebees NEVER sting!" I begged to differ. Ah, the innocent late 1980s...
@@sabinegierth-waniczek4872 To answer your question, "swelled up" is correct. Swell up - swelled up - had/have swollen up. I don't know about European bumblebees, but here in the US, queen bumblebees build their hives in old mouse or rabbit burrows. And yes, bumblebees do sting, but only if you attack their hive, or if you swat at then. Otherwise, they are harmless. I have a lot of flowers in my backyard, so I get a lot of bumblebee visitors. I've never been stung by one. I've been stung by a mason bee, though, when one flew inside my Crocs shoe. But sting didn't hurt too bad, and the bee flew out of my my shoe unharmed.
@@hamsterama Thank you for your answer, and for giving solitary hymenoptera a sanctuary in your garden :-))) . Every day is a learning day! I felt really sorry that I killed the bumblebee in reflex (I only felt its weight against my skin without seeing it), and it still irks me a good 25 years later. Officially I am NOT allergic to (bumble)bee or wasp things, but better safe than sorry -> I'm happy to see them, but from afar ;-) . Have a great weekend!
@@sabinegierth-waniczek4872 You're welcome! I love bees so much! I have a pollinator garden in my backyard, where I grow flowers just to attract bees. I find it so relaxing to watch them. By the way, don't feel bad about swatting that bumble bee a long time ago. It was an accident! And bumble bees workers live only about a month. So, it's not as if you deprived it from having a very long life.
Here in Ohio I once watched a large wasp drag a wolf spider 40 feet across railroad tracks and up an embankment to a groundhog hole. It took about 1 hour and a half.
I found a poor tarantula in a canyon in California that was already stung by a tarantula hawk wasp. The wasp was slowly dragging it, but like in your story, it was slow progress. I really don't like spiders, but I felt bad for that guy, he just wanted to find a lady.
"I think at this point you know the drill" - indeed xD. Let's start a petition for "Butterfly Demon" "There's a wasp for that" - probably more true than I care to know. and those microwasps are CRAZY. Nature scary. Awesome as always, thanks Ze
i work at a summer camp every year as the photographer, and last summer the campers were mesmerized by a stump stabber wasp on a small tree next to an evening activity. they were really scared of it bc that thing looks like a MASSIVE stinger. so i used my phone to identify it and learn more and had a little info session with the campers about how not-dangerous but super-fucked-up it was. convinced the campers to give it space and admire it from a distance. what strange critters we share this world with 🙂 thanks for making this!
That ant attack at the very end was awesome! It was "this doesn't fit into the narrative really, but it's cool and has to be displayed somewhere in this video", I believe that was the thought process there 💯.
THANK YOU!!! Thank you for bringing up those dark oxygen articles. They tried so fucking hard to sensationalize it. Made me so freaking mad. Disgusting, unethical behavior. We deserve to have our science communicated to us honestly.
@@Erika-gm2tf You should stick to gardening, because you sure as shit don't know what the fuck you are talking about. There is a certain manner of speaking that people who are insultingly unqualified to talk about a subject speak with. For instance your use of "real science" is weird, because it implies that out of the many varied disciplines of science, none of them have been real. None of them Erika? Nothing in astronomy, nothing in bioengeneering, nothing in regular engineering, nothing in food sciences, geology, psychotherapy, not even forensic science has done anything real in years, Erika? Computers and phones haven't gotten better in years, Erika? Get tf out of reply section. People becoming like you is why it's unethical to report on science with ambiguity and sensationalism.
Been following for a long long time and I absolutely love that you still have the same humor, the same style of narrating that accidentally informs everyone to the subject that you're showcasing. Dont ever change man. Love all that you do.
@@SuziQ. They live in the flower, but are absorbed and digested by the plant before it turns into a fruit, leaving no wasps after that point. This confuses some people as the flower resembles the unripe fruit. I would go into more detail but for some reason the censorship bots really don't want me to talk about plant and wasp life-cycles, so just look it up on Wikipedia.
@zefrank If you ever feel like everything you do is too much please know two Canadians just said, "There are two people in this world we have learned more about "life" from than anyone else in decades of life. And that is Sir David Attenborough and you. And today intelligent factual (hilarious, beautiful, engaging, thought provoking, etc etc etc) information is needed more than ever. Thank you for giving us a rare gift. The gift of peeking into what makes this world worth living and fighting for. You wrap it in such a way it makes core memories instead of info to be forgotten over time. I haven't had coffee so this gratitude post is not as elegant as I would have liked but hey I'm a species that cannot be defined at any time. Although I imagine my 3rd ovary would give you a place to start. 🤣 Love from two crazy Canadians (hubby and I) you've kept a bit saner. 🇨🇦♥️🇨🇦
Bro, that's missing all the death and insect carnage. It may be lacking visible damage, but within the threads is a *graveyard* of murder wasps and hollow moth beh-bies; pretty metal.
Who knew roaches could throw a perfect back kick! When the world becomes overwhelming, I watch or rewatch one of your videos. And btw one of my favorite go to’s is the puffin muffin. Bless you both.
Recently found out that there are MANY types of parasitoid wasps in my area of Pennsylvania. I always assumed (for no apparent reason) that they were not in anywhere but sandy or jungle like areas
There are many types of parasitoid wasps everywhere! While beetles hold the current record, some entomologists believe wasps are the order with the highest number of species overall, because for every beetle there's probably a wasp that eats that beetle alive.
parasites and parasitoids are such lovely little weirdos. basically every multicellular species has at least one specialized multicellular parasite or parasitoid, and most of those are beneficial to the health of the species as a whole! also Micropredators, like some ticks and mosquitoes, are less specialized but even more cool and vital! nature's little socialist tax collectors
Can confirm! The type that parasitizes the hornworm caterpillar is my favorite. Plus they're all too small to really hurt us and have no interest in using us as hosts! They're just little friends. (Also if you see a little cotton ball attacked to a leaf, that's also a parasitoid wasp's doing).
Your dad is not alone lol. Me and my old roommate had a suicide pact if the house ever got invaded by coclroaches. Heck in this new place I subscribed to big control before getting internet. F those things lol
Join the club! I found the footage featuring the cockroaches utterly satisfying - they, and ants, are very interesting insecta, but manage to bring out my dark side (I even would go so far as to admit to h8ing them, the biological value of at least ants notwithstanding!).
I can't get enough of your videos I don't know how many people are writing the script, but damn, the smaller the number, the better they are And they deserve a raise Keep this masterpiece of a channel alive as long as me please
One of the best videos ever from a channel that routinely hits grand slam home runs. My favorite part is pointing out that, as annoying as wasps are to us personally, and as horrifying as their behavior, they also are part of the balanced ecosystem, and keep worse pests under control.
Weirdly the microscopic parasitoid wasps end up being some of the most adorable insects out there, like the Baeus genus, which are basically a sphere that's half eyes by volume.
We use wasps to control the flies on our farm! Thanks for sharing, it’s fascinating to see behind the scenes of what those little guys are doing for us. Love your work
Has the world turned upside down? This was posted two days ago and only 28K views?? I'm shocked. Now settling in to watch all of the unsettling humor-laced commentary from Maestro Ze.
When I was a lad in the 1970's I was traumatized by an episode of the original 'Battlestar Galactica' wherein humans are parasitized by giant waspoids. There is also an old Dr Who episode in the same vein. Those were terrifying things to watch for a young kid! (And of course I loved every minute.)
Discovered my first one a few months ago, a fly-parasitoid wasp called Dirhinus. Their heads are bizarre and they look super cool. He baffled me and I had to go through a few groups to identify his strange forehead.
I love the trend of ZeFrank including more actual information and fewer asides to 'Jerry'. This particular video is superb! I am a professional biologist and even I learned a few bits of info I did not know: the size of the egg vs ovipositor, the ovipositor as a sniffer looking for CO2 or competing wasp larvae....simply fascinating.
I've heard there is a discussion around whether it's safe to release lantern moth parasitic wasps to stop their advance. It was nice to hear the unintended consequences were being considered. 😊
@skycat404 I'm sorry. Mine caught covid and died of pneumonia. It was a shock. Love these videos though, always make me smile Be gentle on yourself, grief is hard
I find it impressive how you managed to make a video about parasitoid wasps without even needing to mention fig wasps or their hyper-parasites. Nice flex. I really like how you came up with both a slogan AND a song for wasps. 😂
Ooooh, a spooky Halloween special! 🎃🪰🎃🪰🎃 When I had asparagus in my garden, I loved my parasitic wasps, who laid their eggs in the larvae of the asparagus beetles.
one of the best, most enlightening, most awesomely informative and groovy zefrank exposures of how friggin incredible mother nature is that i have ever seen! Pls keep goin, Frank! so grateful for the insights into our wonderful world.
I screen captured his new video& sent it to my husband in excitement. Always love ze frank, he makes a new video about every 4 weeks, right when im jonesing bad lol
Wow ~ that WASAP~ASAP~ PSA outro song was exactally what i needed to be slapped with without knowing it... Thanks for the hyperparastoid musical injection that will consume my every thought Ze.
Go to ground.news/ZeFrank to save 50% on the Ground News unlimited access Vantage plan and discover the full spectrum of truths and absurdities behind today’s headlines.
I love that the left vs right examples are "well-documented homosexual behavior in animal species" vs "Candace Owens declares herself 'neutral' with regards to what shape the planet might be"
@ZeFrank Thank you so very much for sharing your videos and sense of humour!!😅❤
Garbage in, garbage out.
Hey, who do we talk to about importing the wasp that kills spotted lanternflies?
@@Fralexion thanks for demonstrating that you're the kind of person who needs Ground News. Good advertising.
"...There's a wasp for that." is such a great slogan.
It needs to be a Ze Frank tshirt!
@@Prismaticlysm That's 1000% shirt potential.
You could make a religion out of this
so a "White Anglo Saxon Parasite"? Can we get a T-shirt depicting wasps in Victorian clothing? And would Nolan be into them?
it's like the old apple slogan
"mummy can we keep it?"
"oh dont worry we are gonna keep it" so devilish
That was so foul 😫
On a deeplook vid about potted wasps that store living caterpillars in pots they make, someone commented:
Caterpillar: what a lovely jar you made!
Wasp: I'm glad you like it. It's for you.
Ooooh! That's my friend from university's research and I think that it is his film! He's cited in the credits, Prof. Ken Catania at Vanderbilt University. In his book, "Great Adaptations," Ken has a chapter on parasitoid wasps. It's a terrific book, but the Audible narrator isn't great and steps on all of the jokes. Get it in paper form or as an E-book.
wish more parents had that attitude wuewuewue
The delivery of that honestly had me laughing for a few minutes. 😂
Ah yes. Nothing more Halloween than a parasite invading you the worst way possible
And then also uninvading you in the wors way possible. I mean, eating you from the ass all the way to and through your head? Fu...
Just watched Alien Romulus lol
Remember: every person’s fear is somebody else’s fetish.
And then there is a wasp larva eating on that wasp larva while another is also consuming that wasp larva.
@@DARKthenoble Good old Hyper parasites
Wasp: "Instead of building the house, let the trees build the house!"
I must admit, that's genius.
It comes from the trees, so let the trees make the houses
Let the trees build the house. I pay the Homer tax!
Growing homes is a new field of research actually that might make some cool stuff in the future.
Right now there's mycelium bricks and walls of mycelium but they can only grow in shapes already put in place, it would be really useful to be able to just grow a large structure. The wasps seem to be ahead of us in that area.
basically an elf roleplay
I always wanted to nowaki a house...but I'm lazy...just a whimsical idea.
Theres a wasp for that is super true. People like to talk about how many beatles there are but the under studded reality is that for every beatle there are 3 layers of parasitic wasps eating them and each other.
I thought there were only 4 beatles.
@@Playlist4EllaI had to Google how many members of the Beatles there were so I could make another joke and by the time I finished I realized I was the joke
Parasitizing parasites is such a bizarre ecological niche, it’s simultaneously baffling and impressive that it’s filled by so many species. Life truly does find a way.
Hyperparasites are fascinating
_Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,_
_And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum._
_And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;_
_While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on._
- Augustus De Morgan, _Siphonaptera,_ 1872.
They are like real life Xenomorphs i swear
I'm fully scientifically-minded, but this stuff really makes me think we have an evil code developer in the sky making stuff up for pure terror reasons
It’s staggering how many we know, and even more that we don’t know! Same thing with mites, there are a handful that we interact with in day to day life but then there are so many that aren’t even known to science-not because they aren’t common but they are understudied
I work in a plant nursery where we use a lot of these wasps against Aphids. Almost every time I spot some Aphids on a plant, there are parasitoid wasps nearby, and often times I'll see the larva of the wasps wiggling their way outside of an Aphid, leaving just the shell. This method isn't perfect but already reduces the use of harmfull chemicals by a long shot!
Saybwhat you will, Im not inviting the wasps.
I’d honestly prefer the chemicals. This shit is horrifying.
Whatever happened to using ladybirds. They love aphids too and I'd much rather spot a ladybug on my plant than a parasitic wasp!
why not just use ladybugs? they devour the aphids a la final solution
i used them a lot in the past, never had to use pesticides after the sprouting season
while the aphids still did do damage to plants during leafing, it wasnt crippling to the plants
plus, the kids love ladybugs.
As someone who keeps a lot of plants, hearing about one injecting it's babies into a mealybug gave me a greater appreciation for these wasps pretty early in the video.
More so than any of the freaky stuff, the thing that surprised me the most is learning that microscopic wasps are a thing, and that you can just buy parasitoid wasps to get rid of pest bugs. I was genuinely not expecting to learn cool stuff on halloween.
IKR! That wasp sneaking up on a fruit fly....I mean have you seen the size of a fruit fly in real life?
Right?.
I was like "😮😮" when he said that some wasps are microscopic like amoebas
@@cristhian4012 you may or may not want to look up malaria and Chagas disease, both blood borne parasites.
@@cristhian4012 to be fair, 'microscopic' can get really big. Look up stentors. You can see them with the naked eye.
I had to look it up, but there's tons of companies that sell trichogramma eggs for things like moth and caterpillar control, it's crazy
I knew parasitic wasps were a thing, but zombifying virus parasitoid wasps was news to me!
But those micro-wasps are amazing! A little bug so small it makes a regular butterfly look like Mothra!
I didn’t learn anything new in this video, I love parasitic wasps. But it’s so, so awesome to actually SEE the things you read about, in high definition video!!
I think that’s part of what makes this channel so great- you fill a niche for obscure crazy facts for normal people, awesome footage for people in the know, and humor for everyone
i just came for cute wasp footage
Multiple new fears unlocked.
yup D:
No kidding, this is some crazy nature shit.
The perfect Halloween video.
As if wasps weren’t evil already.
How about the parasitic Fungi?! 😮
Zombie apocalypse anyone?!😅
"What's even better is that the bebbes are vegetarians! _hippies_ " 🤣🤣
His delivery is so good
❤
"There's a wasp for everything" would make a great slogan!
T-shirt!
I'd buy that!
There are even Parasite Wasps for other Parasitic wasps....
Coffee mug!
Parasitoid wasp to deal with the IRS. Best choice anyone can make.
Yeah... Yeah, you definitely chose the perfect day to upload this. On one hand, fascinating. On the other, knowing there's wasps smaller than amoeba and how many more of them are out there than we perceive is terrifying
The amoeba sized ones are new to me, but if you're paying attention outside, you'll see micro wasps around fairly often, but they're easy to confuse with small mosquitos and gnats. Hey, if you plan to catch any, keep in mind they can have a painful sting. Most of the time though, they just do their thing and nobody notices. Look on the bright side, without micro wasps, there would be no figs.
1:21 The gall of these wasps!
I love parasitoid wasps! Currently doing my PhD on them. Fun fact, Darwin (once a clergyman) after seeing parasitoid wasps said “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae [a family of parasitoid wasps] with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.”
So parasitoid wasps made Darwin doubt the existence of a benevolent god lmao
How do you even get into a specialization like that? Genuinely curious!
Darwin: "Gross!"
Also Darwin: "Fascinating..."
They are beautiful animals. Look at them and their colors. We humans, always looking for extraterrestrial life while all the aliens are already here. We just have to study them better. That’s one explanation for you.
I love them too. I even created a subreddit for them where I was posting photos but obviously there wasn’t enough people interested in them to actually start a community there. It’s also fairly easy to make a novel discovery of a parasitoid wasp species compared to some other kinds of insects which is cool. The only problem is that because they’re so diverse and have little taxonomic research being done on them compared to other insects it’s very hard to identify the species if you’re self-taught
Question, are their any specific wasps that parasitize hornworms or squash beetles? I'd love to sick my reptiles on them but they're just too poisonous for them.
the process of parasitic wasps is both fascinating and also the most nightmarish of nightmares I will ever have
Videos like this make you really appreciate the fact that we basically retired from the food chain and now rule it like a 40k emperor, but with more death, somehow.
There's probably a wasp for that... 0.o *shudder*
@@Nephilimfields Indeed. They're called Psychneuein
@@16SKB good thing we have no psychic abilities (we know of)
And then we decided to explore areas where we never were a part of the food chain and the locals have no reason to treat us as anything more than a weird, but vital snack that might be all they'll eat for the next month. Same areas are also completely uninhabitable for us without excessive amounts of preparation, but we went there anyway.
Not really retired.
We hide out from them in human-only biurrows and killed most that can eat us - but go tigerwatching in the south indian jungle or meet a jaguire at night in central america and your are still very much on the menue.
Also - once we dont use it anymore, many of our siblings in the tree of life still love themselves a nice ape corpse to eat of, from cadaver flies to coffin beetles.
Thank you, Ze.
Your work not only educates me -- I share these with my grandchildren (via their mom & dad for parental approval).
The songs are especially appreciated.... I listen to them repeatedly.
🎶💕
"You know that problem you have? Well, there is a wasp for that" is a great sales pitch
"What you need is a W-A-S-P A-S-A-P." This brilliance is up there with "Koalas in the Rain."
It's close but Koalas ftw.
Super catchy
or the classic outro of "mosquito says HELLO"
Close, but no cigar.
Koalas in the Rain is still the best xD
Nope! The "Ostritch" and "Puffin" songs had me singing them in real life.
Zombie wasps for Halloween? You DO love me!
Ye
Ehh more like zenomorph wasps
Someone in my local insect identification group posted that they had found a bunch of crab spiders buried in their garden. Someone pointed out they likely accidentally dug up some wasp baby's dinner
Crab spiders are gods favorite wasp snack
@@tomarmadiyer2698 Specifically flower crab spiders. That's what happens when your bait is also the food source of your biggest predator. Wasp goes there expecting nectar, instead it gets nectar and a kid's meal bonus.
When we removed some cinder blocks from our backyard, it left a patch of soil that about a dozen parasitic wasps decided to use as a nesting site. It was absolutely fascinating to watch them dig the hole, then come back with a paralyzed bug, and measure the two to make sure it would fit. If the bug was too big, it would widen the hole until it was large enough to accommodate. Then it dragged it into the depths, lay its eggs, and carefully bury the insect. It would even scatter random pebbles and sticks to disguise the hole.
Fascinating little creatures.
All this is giving me even more stories to tell people when I try to advocate for native plant gardens. Even just a few plants can host so many insects (I have only 30 square feet of space and saw 5-6 different kinds of bees and wasps alone, plus caterpillars that specialize for living on wild bergamot). It's great to give people more ideas of what to look for in gardens that you can't get with a lawn or nonnative landscaping.
One of the best, most frightening and disgusting videos you have produced. Great job. I first encountered this phenomenon on my tomato plants. I found this huge green caterpillar with a dozen or more small oval shaped white tumors on it (at least that's what I thought they were.) But nay, nay, nay, (apologies to John Pinette) it was worse than that. It was pure nightmare fuel. What I found was a Tomato Hornworm that had been parasitized by a small braconid wasp, Cotesia congregatus (think about that name for just a second.) And the larvae were feeding on the Hornworm from the outside inwards. It was both shocking and fascinating at the same time. I'll never forget seeing that. (gag)
Oh lordy. I googled it. WHY. Uuugh, my back is all squirmy now xP
@@DuchessofEarlGrey - 😂😂
Those baby wasps did you a favor and saved your plants!
@@DuchessofEarlGrey Ok, now I gotta google it... *googles*... 🤢 oof
@@Nephilimfields Nooo, now I'm thinking of those images again!
as a parasitoid wasp lover I was so happy when I saw this video and even happier when my favourite insect (and probably favourite animal in general) Ampulex compressa was featured 10 seconds in!!
my favorite is pepsis. ampulex are adorbs too tho
I really like parasitoid wasps. I even made a parasitoid wasp subreddit last year to post photos but unfortunately I was the only person who ever really used it. Parasitoid wasps are really fascinating insects that are usually either forgotten about or dismissed as bad pests because of their brutal life cycle but they’re actually very ecologically important as they help cull the populations of other insects that would take over if it wasn’t for predators like these. They also cannot and will not sting you so you’re completely safe around them.
What is the name of the sub?
r/parasitoidwasps
As long as evolution never tells them, "You know, a human body could host a _hell_ of a lot of wasp babies..." 😬
@@kevincrady2831 Virtually every species of parasitoid wasp evolved alongside invertebrates to specialize in parasitizing specific types of invertebrates. There isn’t any know kind of wasp that parasitizes mammals or any other kind of vertebrate so it would probably take at least tens of millions of years before they’ve evolved to parasitize mammals even though they probably will never evolve to do that because it should be so much easier for them to find and infect invertebrate hosts as they far outnumber vertebrate hosts and the invertebrate hosts often live alongside the parasitoid wasps is things like rotting wood.
TLDR: Parasitoid wasps specialize in parasitizing other invertebrates and cannot parasitize any kind of mammal so will likely never be able to infect humans.
@@kevincrady2831, check out the Danish TV series "Fortitude".....
If there's one thing I'm sad you left out, it's that parasitoidism is not just the lifestyle of the majority of wasp species, but actually the ancestral lifestyle of all Apocrita - which is the suborder that includes all wasps, ants, and bees! The stingers ALL those insects have originate from modified ovipositors used to lay eggs inside prey, they've just lost the "injecting eggs" functionality in stuff like bees!
So even that cute bumblebee's ancestors were laying their eggs inside other organisms.
Wow, that's an interesting fact, I didn't know that! I think parasitic wasps are super cool, especially the species that prey on spiders.
One of those cute bumblebees flew into my open car window and got caught between my thigh and the car door. I only noticed it when I opened the door and the little &%((&ç"/ rammed its ovipositor into my leg! (TMK bumblebees lay their eggs in rotten wood or other plant based material, AFAIK they are non-parasitoid hymenoptera)
I barely managed to reach the house door and to get into the flat, because my leg swelled/ swole up (which is correct? non-native English speaker) so fast, that I had to cut my jeans open to get out of it (time elapsed from puncture ca. 3 min at most!), but also felt very sad for the animal, because I adore bumblebees.
At the time I studied biology and tried to at least determine the species, but was not successful (I had hit it too hard in reflex...),
At least I was 100% sure it was a female - and that botany would stay my preferred field. Even the tutors were perplexed when I related my experience, like "But bumblebees NEVER sting!" I begged to differ. Ah, the innocent late 1980s...
@@sabinegierth-waniczek4872 To answer your question, "swelled up" is correct. Swell up - swelled up - had/have swollen up. I don't know about European bumblebees, but here in the US, queen bumblebees build their hives in old mouse or rabbit burrows. And yes, bumblebees do sting, but only if you attack their hive, or if you swat at then. Otherwise, they are harmless. I have a lot of flowers in my backyard, so I get a lot of bumblebee visitors. I've never been stung by one. I've been stung by a mason bee, though, when one flew inside my Crocs shoe. But sting didn't hurt too bad, and the bee flew out of my my shoe unharmed.
@@hamsterama Thank you for your answer, and for giving solitary hymenoptera a sanctuary in your garden :-))) . Every day is a learning day!
I felt really sorry that I killed the bumblebee in reflex (I only felt its weight against my skin without seeing it), and it still irks me a good 25 years later. Officially I am NOT allergic to (bumble)bee or wasp things, but better safe than sorry -> I'm happy to see them, but from afar ;-) . Have a great weekend!
@@sabinegierth-waniczek4872 You're welcome! I love bees so much! I have a pollinator garden in my backyard, where I grow flowers just to attract bees. I find it so relaxing to watch them. By the way, don't feel bad about swatting that bumble bee a long time ago. It was an accident! And bumble bees workers live only about a month. So, it's not as if you deprived it from having a very long life.
Here in Ohio I once watched a large wasp drag a wolf spider 40 feet across railroad tracks and up an embankment to a groundhog hole. It took about 1 hour and a half.
I found a poor tarantula in a canyon in California that was already stung by a tarantula hawk wasp. The wasp was slowly dragging it, but like in your story, it was slow progress. I really don't like spiders, but I felt bad for that guy, he just wanted to find a lady.
That is like a Calvin and Hobbesian time wasting adventure. Sounds like fun
Your patience impresses me..😊
That, I believe, was a mantidfly wasp. They lay their eggs in wolf spiders, as the entymologist i took it to, explained
"There's a wasp for that." I was prepared but it still hit me in the face.
"I think at this point you know the drill" - indeed xD.
Let's start a petition for "Butterfly Demon"
"There's a wasp for that" - probably more true than I care to know.
and those microwasps are CRAZY. Nature scary. Awesome as always, thanks Ze
Nature is very scary. You don't have to go farther than us humans for proof of that.
7:55 "heheh, dont worry we're gonna keep it" caught me so off guard i laughed into a coughing fit. Amazing video as always!
Glad I'm not the only one, I was worried what it says about me that this is the part that got me so hard 😅
Ah, but it's the tone of voice that really kills it!😂
8:50 I vote we officially give it the name "Butterfly Demon"
It needs to be a boss in a souls game.
Be extra fancy & spell it "daemon"
When you meet one a health bar appears and the music turns to latin
As an entomologist, I love you ZeFrank
i work at a summer camp every year as the photographer, and last summer the campers were mesmerized by a stump stabber wasp on a small tree next to an evening activity. they were really scared of it bc that thing looks like a MASSIVE stinger. so i used my phone to identify it and learn more and had a little info session with the campers about how not-dangerous but super-fucked-up it was. convinced the campers to give it space and admire it from a distance. what strange critters we share this world with 🙂 thanks for making this!
2:54 These are all over my compost pile every year. I remember freaking out the first time I saw them because I thought they had giant stingers.
Please never stop making these.
That ant attack at the very end was awesome! It was "this doesn't fit into the narrative really, but it's cool and has to be displayed somewhere in this video", I believe that was the thought process there 💯.
Well, you say those ovipositors aren't stingers, but really stingers are modified ovipositors. So. . . Kinda sorta, but kind-of sort-of not.
"Yes but actually no"
All stingers are ovipositors, but not all ovipositors are stingers. The point is that they can't sting people.
I prefer getting stung over getting ovipositored.
@@bugjams And we all prefer it that way.
@@eljanrimsa5843didn't hear about any wasps that can parasitize humans. Some flies can though, botflies for example
THANK YOU!!! Thank you for bringing up those dark oxygen articles. They tried so fucking hard to sensationalize it. Made me so freaking mad. Disgusting, unethical behavior. We deserve to have our science communicated to us honestly.
Hopefully science will be getting better again now. Aside from Ze Frank, real science has been on hiatus for a few years.
@@Erika-gm2tf You should stick to gardening, because you sure as shit don't know what the fuck you are talking about. There is a certain manner of speaking that people who are insultingly unqualified to talk about a subject speak with. For instance your use of "real science" is weird, because it implies that out of the many varied disciplines of science, none of them have been real. None of them Erika? Nothing in astronomy, nothing in bioengeneering, nothing in regular engineering, nothing in food sciences, geology, psychotherapy, not even forensic science has done anything real in years, Erika? Computers and phones haven't gotten better in years, Erika? Get tf out of reply section. People becoming like you is why it's unethical to report on science with ambiguity and sensationalism.
Fucking parasite.
Been following for a long long time and I absolutely love that you still have the same humor, the same style of narrating that accidentally informs everyone to the subject that you're showcasing. Dont ever change man. Love all that you do.
Suddenly, I'm a lot less grossed out by the symbiotic relationship of fig wasps and their fruit.
Still never eating figs again, tho. 🤣
They live inside the fruit? 😮😱
@@SuziQ. Yeah, but don't worry: the figs produce an enzyme that breaks down the bodies inside 🤮
@@SuziQ. They live in the flower, but are absorbed and digested by the plant before it turns into a fruit, leaving no wasps after that point. This confuses some people as the flower resembles the unripe fruit. I would go into more detail but for some reason the censorship bots really don't want me to talk about plant and wasp life-cycles, so just look it up on Wikipedia.
@@chitinskin9860 ,
Thanks. I did.
The song at the end.... magnificent touch Sir
Yes the outro blew my mind, lol
This is like 'Alien' level horrifying.
Yeah, Xenomorphs are largely based off these wasps.
@zefrank If you ever feel like everything you do is too much please know two Canadians just said, "There are two people in this world we have learned more about "life" from than anyone else in decades of life. And that is Sir David Attenborough and you.
And today intelligent factual (hilarious, beautiful, engaging, thought provoking, etc etc etc) information is needed more than ever.
Thank you for giving us a rare gift. The gift of peeking into what makes this world worth living and fighting for. You wrap it in such a way it makes core memories instead of info to be forgotten over time.
I haven't had coffee so this gratitude post is not as elegant as I would have liked but hey I'm a species that cannot be defined at any time. Although I imagine my 3rd ovary would give you a place to start. 🤣
Love from two crazy Canadians (hubby and I) you've kept a bit saner.
🇨🇦♥️🇨🇦
I freaking love parasitic wasps. They're so darn interesting. Thanks for the vid on my favorite insects
10:19 this is just metal enough for me to actually want to do to take care of my clothes moths
Brutal
@@ArgentCosmonautI would feel so badass knowing a tiny war happened on my clothes, just to keep my clothes in good condition lol
No no holes in your shirts is way more metal
Bro, that's missing all the death and insect carnage.
It may be lacking visible damage, but within the threads is a *graveyard* of murder wasps and hollow moth beh-bies; pretty metal.
Yeah thats pretty hardcore, little moth massacre followed by the death of a wasp bloodline through lack of baby's to consume, that's metal.
1:30 "watchyagonnafindisa waSp BeBeh" I love the way he speaks
Happy Halloween everyone! And perfect, a spooky True Facts from ZeFrank ❤
The outro song is honestly a jam, well done
Who knew roaches could throw a perfect back kick! When the world becomes overwhelming, I watch or rewatch one of your videos. And btw one of my favorite go to’s is the puffin muffin. Bless you both.
5:06 something about that wasp activates primal horrorific fears in me
ZeFrank, teaching us more about the animal kingdom than anyone else for over a decade 🙌
Recently found out that there are MANY types of parasitoid wasps in my area of Pennsylvania. I always assumed (for no apparent reason) that they were not in anywhere but sandy or jungle like areas
There are many types of parasitoid wasps everywhere! While beetles hold the current record, some entomologists believe wasps are the order with the highest number of species overall, because for every beetle there's probably a wasp that eats that beetle alive.
That assumption was your brain trying to protect you. :)
Nah, they are literally everywhere.
parasites and parasitoids are such lovely little weirdos. basically every multicellular species has at least one specialized multicellular parasite or parasitoid, and most of those are beneficial to the health of the species as a whole!
also Micropredators, like some ticks and mosquitoes, are less specialized but even more cool and vital!
nature's little socialist tax collectors
Can confirm! The type that parasitizes the hornworm caterpillar is my favorite. Plus they're all too small to really hurt us and have no interest in using us as hosts! They're just little friends. (Also if you see a little cotton ball attacked to a leaf, that's also a parasitoid wasp's doing).
My dad hates cockroaches to death, like, he legit can't stand them. He was very happy once I told him about the Emerald Wasp :p
Your dad is not alone lol. Me and my old roommate had a suicide pact if the house ever got invaded by coclroaches. Heck in this new place I subscribed to big control before getting internet. F those things lol
Join the club! I found the footage featuring the cockroaches utterly satisfying - they, and ants, are very interesting insecta, but manage to bring out my dark side (I even would go so far as to admit to h8ing them, the biological value of at least ants notwithstanding!).
I can't get enough of your videos
I don't know how many people are writing the script, but damn, the smaller the number, the better they are
And they deserve a raise
Keep this masterpiece of a channel alive as long as me please
One of the best videos ever from a channel that routinely hits grand slam home runs. My favorite part is pointing out that, as annoying as wasps are to us personally, and as horrifying as their behavior, they also are part of the balanced ecosystem, and keep worse pests under control.
Weirdly the microscopic parasitoid wasps end up being some of the most adorable insects out there, like the Baeus genus, which are basically a sphere that's half eyes by volume.
Omg thanks for this, I just GIS'ed Baeus and my kids are absolutely losing their minds over these round little friends.
so derpy-cute!
That wasp song was pretty funky but the puffin song is still topping the charts.
@@jongroskin729 No Sir, it's second to "Koalas in the Rain."
Nah its the mother fucking sexy ostrich
We use wasps to control the flies on our farm! Thanks for sharing, it’s fascinating to see behind the scenes of what those little guys are doing for us. Love your work
Has the world turned upside down? This was posted two days ago and only 28K views?? I'm shocked.
Now settling in to watch all of the unsettling humor-laced commentary from Maestro Ze.
When I was a lad in the 1970's I was traumatized by an episode of the original 'Battlestar Galactica' wherein humans are parasitized by giant waspoids. There is also an old Dr Who episode in the same vein. Those were terrifying things to watch for a young kid! (And of course I loved every minute.)
The construction of the ovipositors are amazing, I LOVE learning about human technology which animals have already inadvertently invented
I have a friend obsessed with Parasitoid wasps I'll send her this video!!!
Discovered my first one a few months ago, a fly-parasitoid wasp called Dirhinus. Their heads are bizarre and they look super cool. He baffled me and I had to go through a few groups to identify his strange forehead.
1:48... "hippies". LOL... some of the best lines from this guy are missed by many. The amount of research that goes into these videos is amazing.
I love the trend of ZeFrank including more actual information and fewer asides to 'Jerry'. This particular video is superb!
I am a professional biologist and even I learned a few bits of info I did not know: the size of the egg vs ovipositor, the ovipositor as a sniffer looking for CO2 or competing wasp larvae....simply fascinating.
I'm supposed to be studying for a quiz but a new True Facts video dropped so this is more important!
Sudden Half-Life pfp jumpscare.
Yeah, I have an exam in 2.5 hours, but this is more important
Well this is also educational
Oh yeah, time to get some of that A+ knowledge straight to the dome, with A++ commentary.
Always love when Frank makes a little song for the end of the video.
I think the channel is a backdoor was for Ze Frank to release his album.
I am always SO EXCITED when a new one of their videos get uploaded !!!! It's literally like my favorite TH-cam videos. 😂
I've heard there is a discussion around whether it's safe to release lantern moth parasitic wasps to stop their advance. It was nice to hear the unintended consequences were being considered. 😊
I am fascinated and totally creeped out all at the same time! Great presentation!
"The babies are vegetarians (hippies)" 😂😂😂😂😂😂 I bout spit my coffee out
There i was, hugely bummed out by grief, but lo, a gross ze frank video is here to take my mind off my dead father and on to parasitic wasps
Eyyyyy mine is in Stage 4 cancer so I feel ya bud. Check out his nudibrach videos.
@@skycat404love that one
Condolences 😔
@skycat404 I'm sorry. Mine caught covid and died of pneumonia. It was a shock. Love these videos though, always make me smile
Be gentle on yourself, grief is hard
@@FlinnGaidin thank you
I find it impressive how you managed to make a video about parasitoid wasps without even needing to mention fig wasps or their hyper-parasites. Nice flex.
I really like how you came up with both a slogan AND a song for wasps. 😂
The emerald jewel wasp has been one of my favourite insects for a long time.
Ooooh, a spooky Halloween special! 🎃🪰🎃🪰🎃
When I had asparagus in my garden, I loved my parasitic wasps, who laid their eggs in the larvae of the asparagus beetles.
Nancy just smacking that very rude wasp 😂
Dang, I'm seeing every TH-camr I love getting sponsored by Ground News nowadays. A+ sponsor who deserves all the support it can get!
Hosea Jan " ; Ze" ; Frank...
YOU my good man, are one brilliant Dude. 👍🏻
one of the best, most enlightening, most awesomely informative and groovy zefrank exposures of how friggin incredible mother nature is that i have ever seen! Pls keep goin, Frank! so grateful for the insights into our wonderful world.
Always a great day when Ze drops a new video.
We need many more ❤
I screen captured his new video& sent it to my husband in excitement. Always love ze frank, he makes a new video about every 4 weeks, right when im jonesing bad lol
Than insect martial arts is some next level footage. I never imagined that they'd fight on that level, using their legs to kick each other and stuff
1:48 Legit Hilarious.
Hippies
Hippies lol
😂😂
This really changed my perspective on wasps, I think this is one of my fav zefrank vids just because of how informative it is
I just accidentally came across this and I couldn't be happier!!! This was hilarical!! One more subscriber!
@5:25 how fitting that someone with the last name Eggs, is the primary author on a study that looks at how wasps lays eggs!
Good eye! 😂
Wow ~ that WASAP~ASAP~ PSA outro song was exactally what i needed to be slapped with without knowing it...
Thanks for the hyperparastoid musical injection that will consume my every thought Ze.
Thanks i feel disgusted and intriqued, mostly disgusted.
😂
Horrifying and fascinating, all packaged together
Same🤮
Dam YT didn't even notify me! Like I've said before, you rekindled my love of nature learning!!!
This is like a million times crazier than I thought it was going to be. I'm genuinely in shock. Nature is pure madness
0:26 “It’ll beetle’larious” 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼
The closing music was just a riot! My favorite part of the presentation.
"There's a Wasp for that", is my new go to sentence.
3:19 legit replayed this sound so many times 🤣🤣🤣 more please~
The episode was awesome, but that hook at the end will stay with me all day! W.A.S.P!
ZeFrank saying "sus" button : 0:42
0:43 works better
He’s not having it lmao *SUS* 😂
Man google sent me a notification 1 min after being attacked by a wasp
That's the Surveillance Society for you. Welcome to the Panopticon!
The song at the end. Love it!. Thanks for all laughs.
Fascinating as it was horrifying on many levels, but presented in a way that still managed to amuse... that was... a lot. Nice work.