Wasps of Russia, children's book

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guest: Pavt, 22.11.2006 7:56

I would like to publish at my own expense a children's coloring book + accompanying
text for adults
on the topic "Wasps of Russia"
approximate content of the book:
Topic:
Public wasps and hornets
Burrowing wasps
Road wasps (a wasp that caught a huge spider)

The most interesting representatives seem to me to be the following:
Wasps
Hornets (what a horror!)
wingless wasps (just think!)
pill wasps (how beautiful!)
Spangle wasps (great!)
mazarid wasps (and wasps collect honey!)
scolia steppe wasp (listed in the Red Book-nature must be protected!)

...The book consists of 6 pages of useful text for adults + 14 pages
with drawings and a short accompanying text (7 pages of color drawings
and 7 pages of black and white outlines). Drawings are based on photos taken by a professional
photographer (agreement is available).
Size-60 X 90/16 or 70 X 90/16, offset paper with acceptable
print quality

Here is the first major chapter
I am waiting for constructive comments and suggestions
........................................
Paper wasps
Type: Arthropods
Class: Insects
Order: Hymenoptera Superfamily
: folding-winged wasps
Family: paper wasps

Latin name: Vespidae / Vespids
Subfamily:
Stenogastrinae
Polistinae
Vespinae

Paper wasps use chewed and salivated pieces of bark or old wood to build their nests, which after such processing turn into some kind of paper or cardboard, from which a nest consisting of irregular honeycombs is later built. Nests of brown or gray paper wasps are placed, depending on the species, in birdhouses, hollows, on tree branches, in the ground, often under the roofs of houses.
These insects are also called social wasps, as they live in large colonies-from several dozen to several thousand individuals. For example , an average bee hive can have up to 60 000 – 120 000 bees. In summer, the colony consists of the queen, the parent of this nest, which constantly lays eggs, and female worker wasps. It is the responsibility of the worker wasps to search for food and, if necessary, protect the nest. Males are devoid of sting and do not pose any danger. Adult wasps do not need protein food, and prefer the nectar of flowers, eat the fruits of fruit and berry crops, but when the eggs hatch larvae in need of protein food, the wasps begin to attack various insects: caterpillars, flies, bees or winged ants, they can eat fish hung out to dry to the bone, do not disdain and meat. The wasp kills its prey with a blow of its sting or jaws and, after chewing it into a pulp, carries it to the nest and feeds it to the larvae and uterus. In late autumn, the pupae do not produce working individuals, but a new generation of males and females. After the mating flight, females look for a secluded spot before the onset of winter and go into hibernation in order to organize new colonies next spring. Residents of the old nest die in winter.
It is impossible not to tell about one of the subspecies of wasps – hornets. They are larger than ordinary wasps and their venom is considered several times more dangerous than the venom of wasps or bees – even if you can easily tolerate the bites of these insects, this does not mean that a hornet bite will not lead to severe complications. Hornets ' nests are not gray, but brown in color, as they prepare paper for housing construction by gnawing the bark from young birch branches. Nests are placed in tree hollows, birdhouses, caves, on cliffs and in tree stumps, and some of them constantly sit on the surface, guarding the entrance to the nest. Sometimes such a nest can grow to the size of a bucket by autumn.
Working individuals of most European wasps have a body length of 12-20 mm, queens or "queens" are slightly larger. Females of the common hornet of the species V. crabro L. inhabiting central Russia. they grow up to 25 mm, and the uterus up to 35 mm. In the Far East, there are hornets of the species V. mandarina Smith, females of which can reach 50 mm in length.

Are wasps dangerous to humans?
Like all stinging hymenoptera, Vespid females have a piercing sting that is used by social wasps to defend themselves from enemies. At rest, the stinger is usually hidden and only extends out of the tip of the abdomen when necessary. Wasps are able to very quickly apply several injections and inject venom, fly away, as they easily remove their sting and do not die, unlike honeybees, which, leaving the sting in the body of the victim, quickly die. The stinger is approached by the duct of the poisonous Dufour gland, the contents of which are injected into the wound during injection. When stung, the insect releases 0.2-0.3 mg of venom. Vespid venom contains proteins, amines, and free amino acids. This dose is not large and is not fatal for a healthy person. Unfortunately, some people have an increased sensitivity to the venom of these insects, which can lead to swelling or even severe allergies, with a fatal outcome for humans.
Although wasps can be a fearsome sight for women and children, they don't hunt humans on purpose. But a person can accidentally or intentionally provoke a wasp attack. For example, out of curiosity, a child may accidentally kick a hornet's nest located on a tree stump, or just get too close without even noticing it.
The smell of alcohol or pungent perfume can also make a dangerous insect angry. Often, wasps fly up to people, attracted by the smell of juices or sweets. Wasps become very aggressive when they sense organic compounds from the group of esters and alcohols, including pentanol-2. This substance is used not only in perfumery, but also in the food industry, in synthetic aromatic additives with the smell of banana or apple. The danger of pentanol-2 is that its composition is very similar to the natural enzyme that wasps produce when attacking an enemy, as a signal for an immediate attack.
The situation is compounded by the fact that the venom of these insects also contains aromatic substances, so a person (or animal), once stung by a wasp or hornet, receives an odorous mark, which allows other insects to quickly find the enemy. It is not surprising that you can only escape from an angry swarm of bees or wasps by jumping headfirst into the water.
Using the ability of wasps to sense even the faintest odors, American scientists at the University of Georgia have developed a method for training certain types of predator wasps-microplitis croceipes, allowing them to use them to search for drugs, explosives, search for people under rubble, and even to detect cancer in humans.
Flight speeds:
bees – 22.4 km / h
bumblebees-18 km/h
hornets – 25.4 km/h
wasps - 9 km/h
human run 15-20 km / h
Treatment when bitten
, human organisms react differently to poisons injected by insects. Some people feel only a slight burning sensation and a slight redness at the bite site, while others develop severe swelling, body temperature rises, dizziness or even fainting may occur. A shot of diphenhydramine is usually enough for a bite and the venom resolves.
But if the human body is severely weakened (children, the elderly), or has a very strong reaction to bites, then rest, warming the limbs, hot, plentiful drink, and immediate medical attention are necessary. From medications recommended inside amidopyrin (0.25 g each), analgin (0.5 g each), cardiac agents, antihistamines, antiallergic drugs (diphenhydramine 0.025-0.05 g inside). Injection of 2 ml of 0.5% novocaine solution and 0.3 ml of 0.1 % epinephrine solution into the bite site. If there is a life-threatening acute manifestation of an allergic reaction - anaphylactic shock, then you will have to treat it. That is why doctors recommend that allergy sufferers constantly carry histamine preparations-suprastin, claritin, and the like, in order to immediately take it, as soon as possible, neutralize the allergenic property of the poison that has entered the blood.
In severe cases (with mass bites or several hornet bites) - calcium chloride (10 ml of a 10% solution) intravenously, prednisone 0.005 g orally or hydrocortisone intramuscularly.
Especially dangerous are stings to the head or mouth, the mucous membrane of the lips, and even the pharynx, which happens when eating fruit, jam, when an insect enters the mouth with food. In such cases, death can occur very quickly not from general intoxication, but from laryngeal edema and suffocation - an urgent tracheotomy is necessary. In such cases, you should contact the doctor immediately, without hoping that "it will pass by itself".
Recommendations
When going out in nature, do not get carried away with alcohol, do not spray perfume and deodorants, do not wear dark clothes, tightly close bags of food and sweets. Before settling down to rest, carefully explore the surrounding area. If wasps or bees fly up to you, do not shout and wave your hands, if the insect is too annoying, it is better to swat it with a fly swatter or a thick magazine. Don't forget about the first aid kit.
There is nothing "harmful" or "useful" in nature, every living being has the right to exist. But if there are wasps near your house that annoy you and your family and pose a danger to your children, in order to avoid accidents, you need to contact specialists so that they destroy the entire nest. If you decide to do it yourself, it is best to carry out the destruction at night, when the insects gather for the night and fall asleep.
To get rid of accidentally flying wasps, you can use a special trap made from a liter plastic bottle. The upper conical part must be cut off and inserted into the remaining cylinder in the form of a funnel. It is necessary to pour a glass of syrup, jam with water or even beer into it and install it in places where insects gather. They can no longer get out of this trap.

Pavel
09.11.2006

Comments

22.11.2006 17:48, vespabellicosus

Very good indeed. At the moment, there are very few book publications dedicated to the folding-winged wasps of Russia, and it is good that such publications are appearing.There are , however, some comments on taxonomy. If you follow the watchtower, the family of folding-winged wasps Vespidae usually includes 6 subfamilies: the ones you mentioned and also Eumeninae ( the same pill wasps ), Euparagiinae and Masarinae. However, when they mean only true paper wasps , they mean Stenogastrinae , Vespinae and Polistinae. And as for the destruction of nests - it is still not recommended to destroy them yourself, especially underground colonies - in such underground < palaces> by the end of summer there may be several thousand active worker wasps - and a collision with them can easily injure a healthy strong person, not to mention children. You can, however, take some preventive measures - to find in April-May in problem areas (attics, sheds, etc.) small mother nests and knock them down.

22.11.2006 21:32, sealor

"The wasp kills its prey with a blow of its sting or jaws and, after chewing it into a pulp, carries it to the nest and feeds it to the larvae and queen."

I think the uterus, like ordinary wasps, feeds on carbohydrates, unless there can be some analogue of "royal jelly" like bees? After all, the uterus feels the need for protein, as it lays eggs, of course, not like a bee, but still. true, the aspen dies at the end of the season, so maybe it lacks the protein that it gets with carbohydrates?

"If you decide to do it yourself, it is best to carry out the destruction at night, when the insects gather for the night and fall asleep."

I would not advise working with the nest at night, I know from my own experience

that wasps do not sleep at night, but they attack easily, and they also do not see at night, but we can't see anything, so the wasps end up everywhere on clothes. And if you turn on the flashlight... It is better not to include it

In general, here is a way to destroy the nest, I didn't do it, I just came up with it, but I did some of it, namely, to find a nest in the ground where the honeycombs themselves are located, you need to determine by tapping where there is a cavity, if necessary, remove the top layer by 10 cm , wasps do not usually settle deeper, and then stick the needle in the found cavity. Of course, the hole must be properly buried from the very beginning!!! If there is a nest, then the spoke will be wet. But then you can try to pump there with the help of a tube, for example, ordinary gasoline. It will kill all the wasps. Otherwise, they will open the entrance after a while. And if you plug the entrance to the building, it can lead to the most incredible consequences, wasps can start to crawl out almost from the sockets. Something similar happened at my home