Welcome to the Jandt Social Insect Lab

What's the Buzz?

Check back periodically for the latest bee, wasp, and ant news. There are a few fun links on my Wasp Love page, and you can follow me on Twitter @TheWaspLady. Bees, wasps, and ants might be known for their sting and for being a nuisance, but they can do a number of really cool things too.

• A Citizen Science Wasp Survey in the UK. Dr. Seirian Sumner and Dr. Adam Hart are collecting data collected by citizens throughout the U.K. in order to map the distribution of social wasps throughout the counry. Check out this article that discusses the ecological role of wasps, and read more about The Big Wasp Survey.
• Yes - there is evidence that wasp venom can combat cancer cells. A recent study showed that venom from a tropical paper wasp (Polyba paulista) will attack cancer cells, but leave normal cells alone, because they are attacking specific properties of the cancer cell membrane. Read more about the study here, and check out a useful video posted to Facebook on the topic here.
• Wasps are the reason we have figs. This article in the New Yorker describes how fig wasps and figs have co-evolved an obligate plant-pollinator relationship, and how figs could be considered a keystone species.
• We should celebrate wasps! Seirian Sumner (@WaspWoman) and Ryan Brock wrote a great article in defense of wasps, where they discuss a variety of ways in which wasps can be beneficial to people. #wasplove

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