They react to movement, colours, smells (chems).
There are over 60 wasp species (vespinae). 15 of that can be met in Germany, of which around one half are seen as peaceful, the other half as more aggressive. I am very certain that there are more than just one or two wasp species in the Americas, too. So: "wasp" is not he same like "wasp".
I find state-bulding insects quite interesting, especially bees, ants, hornets, wasps. Termites i find - well, they do not interest me.
But there are some bees and hornets I would not deal with, at least not without taking extraordinary precautionary measures, namely so called "killer bees". We do not have these in Germany, however. Maybe they will move into Europe, with warming climate, I dont know.
Bees and bumblebees, as I see and meet them in the nature here, are never aggressive, always friendly. Wasps - I have an eye on them, but they are n ot really lustful attackers, but one has to know that they search for food more and more determined with summer passing by.
I also have quite big "giant house spiders" (Winkelspinnen:
Eratigena atrica) in my flat, two of them. I tolerate them, becasue they make a real difference over summer regarding the mosquito population at night, the beasts fly aroudn at night, and when I chase them (I HATE mosquitos and have supersensitive acoustic sensors for them), they tend to flee into dark corners. And there are the webs of the spiders. I clean them once per year, after the warm season and autumn, when all mosquitos are already gone anyway. A bit respect for these spiders is due, I think: they can turn 5 years old. Not one bit aggressive, they could bite through human skin, but it would be harmless, and again: they are absolutely avoiding humans, absolutely. Never heard or read that anyone was ever bitten, despite their impressively long fangs.
Curious fact: the sound of a flying mosquito, even at the other end of my flat, can pull me out of a deep sleep in a fraction of a second and catapult me out of bed like a spring, even before I'm really awake: I wake up inlfight. I've already sprained my ankle and banged myself badly on occasions. For a moment, my body actually reacts in a fit of instinctive panic. I find mosquitoes extremely impossible to tolerate, I almost go crazy. When bees or wasps crawl on my arms, our native spiders - no problem. But with mosquitoes, some deep, dark instinct from ancient times immediately takes control. My ears are really hypersensitive to the sound of mosquitoes, I can hear the critters even in the city with car traffic around me, at two, three meters distance, its incredible. I hope it goes away with higher age, when ears become more "deaf". It's terrible, it's not a gift, it's a curse. When I used to travel in the Middle East, I soemtimes almost freaked out. Some switch in my head flips over. Only dead mosquitoes are tolerable mosquitoes.
Must sound funny in your ears, but it isn't, its really a problem at times.
A Japanese "murder hornet" (giant hornet) queen on the hand of a Buddhist monk. Not as bad as a mosquito on my leather glove.
And this is an ordinary drone of the Japanese Giant Hornet.
