The Experiment

[Tleilaxu]

I woke up two of my dominulas for a twofold experiment.

First of all I want to see if their hibernation period can be shortened without adverse affects on the wasps.

Secondly I want to test out dominulas invasive nature and adaptability.

The materials I used were

1 abandoned polistes fuscatus nest

2 dominula foundresses

My goal is to see if they take over the old abanded nest and repair it or whether they atart from scratch. So far the wasps are not showing any adverse affects to being woken up so soon. Infact they have already eaten their first meal of honey, always a good sign. And they seem to like being around that nest, time will tell whether they use it or not. I will kepp you updated.

By the way these are captive bred wasps, first generation removed from the wild.

 

[Matt K]

I woke up two of my dominulas for a twofold experiment....

I have to say that captive wasp keeping is VERY intriguing. It will be interesting to see how this pans out!

 

[BugmanPrice]

Do you know of any others out there that keep wasps? I just have never seen anybody keep them captive before (out side of throwing some in a mason jar for a couple of days).

 

[Tleilaxu]

Do you know of any others out there that keep wasps? I just have never seen anybody keep them captive before (out side of throwing some in a mason jar for a couple of days).

I know at least five as of right now,(And another three that MIGHT attempt wasp keeping in the near future) unfortunetly since this aspect of the invert hobby is VERY new we only have a few converts. The stigma with these guys needs to be overcome before more people try to keep them.( I bet people back in the 50s did not think Tarantulas would become excedingly popular and look where we are at now)

 

[BugmanPrice]

So, what's the rational for keeping them? Do you feed them off to something (I wouldn't think so) or just one of those pets you keep for observation. I think it's pretty interesting though, Social hymenopterans exhibit quite an impressive array of behaviors. I think there are a lot of potential insects out there just waiting to be accepted into the mainstream pet hobby.

 

[Tleilaxu]

So, what's the rational for keeping them? Do you feed them off to something (I wouldn't think so) or just one of those pets you keep for observation. I think it's pretty interesting though, Social hymenopterans exhibit quite an impressive array of behaviors. I think there are a lot of potential insects out there just waiting to be accepted into the mainstream pet hobby.

Well the reason I keep them is to learn as much as I can about their requirments in captivity so I can get more people to try and keep them. These animals are what I believe to be the next wave in the invert hobby, after all I dont remember centipedes and roaches being that popular 10 years ago so as you say they have quite the potential. They also have more personality than most inverts do as well, and can actually learn things over time, they are smart for insects. And lastly its fun and rewarding to educate people about them, especially when they find out you can keep them as pets with little chance of them stinging you.

Also the solitary wasps are another great avenue that has yet to be explored, and some like the tarantula hawks are impressive. I will be trying to keep some solitary wasps this year.

On a side note it may b ecoem nessesary for conservationists to keep certain species as they are threatened with habit loss and climate change, and having a basic framework down will greatly assist their efforts.

 

[BugmanPrice]

Interesting! I used to keep various velvet ants that I caught when I was younger and they were pretty cool. So do you have any exotic wasps your keeping? I have to tell you this is really starting to turn me on to wasp care. I guess it is so intriguing to me because I've never even thought of it. Maybe when I can get a place with a little more room for inverts I'll give it a spin, I bet you could make a (great) display of Dolichovespula maculata .

Well the reason I keep them is to learn as much as I can about their requirments in captivity so I can get more people to try and keep them. These animals are what I believe to be the next wave in the invert hobby, after all I dont remember centipedes and roaches being that popular 10 years ago so as you say they have quite the potential. They also have more personality than most inverts do as well, and can actually learn things over time, they are smart for insects. And lastly its fun and rewarding to educate people about them, especially when they find out you can keep them as pets with little chance of them stinging you.Also the solitary wasps are another great avenue that has yet to be explored, and some like the tarantula hawks are impressive. I will be trying to keep some solitary wasps this year.

On a side note it may b ecoem nessesary for conservationists to keep certain species as they are threatened with habit loss and climate change, and having a basic framework down will greatly assist their efforts.

 

[Tleilaxu]

Interesting! I used to keep various velvet ants that I caught when I was younger and they were pretty cool. So do you have any exotic wasps your keeping? I have to tell you this is really starting to turn me on to wasp care. I guess it is so intriguing to me because I've never even thought of it. Maybe when I can get a place with a little more room for inverts I'll give it a spin, I bet you could make a (great) display of Dolichovespula maculata .

Dont even try wasps within the genuses vespula and Dolichovespula until you have kept polistes wasps first. Bald faced hornets and other hornets do not adapt well to cages and generally die with in days. Vespa crabo is the one exception that I know.

As for exotics none right now, though I am hoping I can get some species from FLA or Texas and wasps from latin America are moving up through those regions. I highly recommend you give wasp keeping a try.

 

[BugmanPrice]

Once it warms up here I'll have to give it a go.

Dont even try wasps within the genuses vespula and Dolichovespula until you have kept polistes wasps first. Bald faced hornets and other hornets do not adapt well to cages and generally die with in days. Vespa crabo is the one exception that I know.As for exotics none right now, though I am hoping I can get some species from FLA or Texas and wasps from latin America are moving up through those regions. I highly recommend you give wasp keeping a try.

 

[BugmanPrice]

The Only info I could find on rearing wasps (except for a short article on jewel's) was your posts on arachnoboards. I couldn't see the pictures though, where's a good place to go for information?

 

[Tleilaxu]

Update, they are very lethagrgic at this time and dont bother trying to feed them selves as far as I know, so I have been hand feeding them, which they seem to appriciate. Then after that they perk up. It could also be they are burning through the last of their fat reserves before wantring to eat on their own as well. I will try crix next week.

 

[Keith]

I see PLENTY of those here each Summer, they literally are everywhere and I come across 3-5 nests in my yard alone!

Once in early Winter I found one wandering in the grass, and I brought it inside and fed it various types of sweets.

I dipped a q-tip in the food, and hand fed her, she would not eat on her own for the most part. She enjoyed maple syrup mixed with water, sugar water, and coke or pepsi.

She lived till early March so when the weather started warming up I let it go.

It was probably a queen cause there was a nest the same place I let her go.

 

[Tleilaxu]

Update, I added crix, and a few days later I found one with its head bitten off and partially chewed, though I dont know if the culprit is another cricket or perhaps one of the wasps, they are starting to get more active as well.

The crix have their own food and water BTW.

 

[Keith]

The wasps feed chewed up insects to their larvae.

 

[Tleilaxu]

The wasps feed chewed up insects to their larvae.

I am excedingly well aware of how wasps raise their young ones, there are no larva at this time, but sometimes they eat insects to jump start ovary development. Still I cant help but think that perhaps another cricket is to blame...

 

[Tleilaxu]

I found the culprit... somewhat anyway. My theory is that a cricket got killed or died and was partially eaten by another cricket and the wasp stumbled upon its lifeless body and feasted. She took a prekilled cricket from my hand and "ate" for about five minutes. She also got defensive and "chased" me off her "kill" LOL There is no way she can kill a cric at this time as she is still too slow, though she tried to catch one that was pestering her, but it was like she was moving in slowmo

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[Keith]

You could offer one of those dead can-o-crickets, they are preserved in juices, she may like 1 per week. You can get them at any pet store. I've witnessed them also take pieces of deli turkey, the plain type not with any spices.

 

[Tleilaxu]

You could offer one of those dead can-o-crickets, they are preserved in juices, she may like 1 per week. You can get them at any pet store. I've witnessed them also take pieces of deli turkey, the plain type not with any spices.

That may actually be a cool thing to try out! I know for a fact they will take freshly prekilled insects. The only concern is that they just chew it up and then discard it somewhere,(Without feeding it to the larva) like my friends wasps did with moist catfood.

 

[Peter Clausen]

Just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying this unusual thread. It is very interesting to read about the seldom visited corners of the hobby like wasp-keeping. Looking forward to additional updates.

Not much of a story, but in the fall of 2006 I caught a large hornet in my living room (white and black). I put it in a jar with some paper towel that was previously inhabited by a live rhino beetle, just for observation's sake. The towel was soaked with juice from an apple, but had dried. I left it in my garage through the winter. Occasionally, I happened to pick up the container and was always surprised to see that the wasp was still alive. I recall spraying the towel with a bit of water, once or twice. I saw it alive again in the spring, but it died thereafter (probably starved, I'm sad to say).

I have a friend who keeps bees in his classroom. He runs a tube through the wall to the outside. Always hard to walk away from observing all the activity going on in the colony.

Peter