I still don't agree that males guard the nest, as I see many males displaying this so-called guarding behavior without the presence of a nest
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You may be right but the two sources say otherwise. Though I was around them most of my life, I have no opinion on this. I do know while carpenter bees are to be found around barns and wood structures, I never seen a nest. I might have been under the wrong assumption that the nest were within the bored holes in the wood, made by the bees in the same areas the males hovered. I always assumed that was the reason I never ran across a carpenter bee nest because the nest were not visible within the wood. (bore bee) as we called them back in the day for obvious reasons.
Phillip
You are correct, the nests are in the bored holes. But I have seen males establish territories out in our driveway or in the goat pasture, and there isn't even wood in those locations. I'd be more willing to entertain the prospect of them guarding if your sources were more trustworthy. The two sources you're mentioning are an article that clearly doesn't know what it's talking about and a pest control company. Neither of these sources are reliable for information regarding the life history of native bees.
> The wasp is defending her nest
The wasp space was not encroached upon. Brood here was nothing new, they had been raising brood all Summer. The sidewalk stroll was no different than any other this entire Summer and (Spring). The wasp aggressively invaded MY space. It?s space was not threatened nor crowded any more than any other day of the year nor the present or previous brood. I don?t care how the wasp felt! lol My space was aggressively invaded, not his. It crossed the line and payed the price for its aggressive behavior. lol
I said aggressive and not defensive it came after me not vice versa.
> the bull his herd,
The two mean bulls had no cows to defend;, each had their very own two acre pipe fence paddock. No cows were in or close to these paddocks for the bulls to defend when they were in the paddock area.
There were 6-8 bulls with the same set up. The other bulls NEVER showed signs of aggressive behavior. Non of these were mistreated, each were treated the same since calfs. All were registered stock of highly sought after bloodlines. (Valuable)
It made no difference it they were in paddocks, or on 500 acre pastures. These two were mean. I don?t care how they felt. They showed aggressive, unprovoked, dangerous, not to be tolerated or trusted behavior; until they were culled for their meanness.
> the rooster his hens
Rarely did we have an overly aggressive rooster or man fighter as they were referred too, unlike this aggressive unprovoked mean one. We raised chickens my entire youth. This one was inexcusably aggressive; no excuses! I do not know or care what he thought or felt. He was never mistreated. We eventually separated him from the hens. This changed nothing! He was aggressively mean until the day he met Mr Ax! lol
Phillip
Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned mistreatment of an animal. Obviously I don't think you are mistreating your animals Phillip. And I wasn't really referring to domestic animals. That's a whole other . . . animal.
In the case of domestic animals, like bulls and roosters, who like you said are sometimes "inexcusably aggressive", to me that's a product of the animal's personality simply not being logistically manageable for the people. And in cases like that, freezer camp is the only option, because you simply can't be dealing with an unmanageable animal on a farm. We've done this several times ourselves, and I am absolutely NOT condemning it. We've had several roosters who would attack anyone who went into the chicken run, so like you say, the only answer for that is a date with Mr. Ax.
But I still feel that just because these animals are easily provoked, doesn't mean they are attacking for no reason at all,
from their perspective.
Unlike domestic animals, wild animals have the prerogative to act aggressively. They need to to survive. But it is of no benefit to them in their attempts to survive to attack something or someone without cause. Why get into a fight with something if there is nothing to be gained? So let's just use that wasp that stung you a few days ago. Did you DO anything to actively provoke the wasp? Of course not. You were just walking along. But wasps are naturally very territorial, and perhaps that one more so than her sisters, as you indicated you hadn't been stung by this nest before. Why was she so much more defensive than her sisters? Maybe the wasp or nest was recently attacked by something else, and the wasps were really on the alert at this moment; maybe a color or texture or scent about you alarmed her; maybe it's her individual personality, she is simply more easily alerted than the other wasps about everything that enters the wasps' territory. But either way, she felt that you were a problem, and whether or not you did anything, that was provocation to her.
I may be splitting hairs, since it probably seems obvious to us who have experience with animals that they don't just roam around willy-nilly attacking people. But many people haven't been fortunate to experience nature closely like we have, and as a result they don't understand wild animals, and especially classically aggressive ones like bee and wasps. I'm not just speaking to you, Phillip, I'm speaking to everyone who wanders through Beemaster and reads this thread. Maybe their child was stung by a bumble bee or a carpenter bee, and they are looking for advice. I ALWAYS want to be sure that I'm impressing upon people that insects are not dangerous, even the "dangerous" ones. If there is a wasp nest right next to your front door, should you kill it? Probably. But if there is a wasp nest high up in a tree in a corner of your yard that no one uses and they aren't bothering anyone, then please leave it. If people think that those wasps are inherently aggressive and could attack at any moment, they will kill them, and rob the surrounding area of the biological services those insects are providing. The same goes for bees, ants, assassin bugs, cicada killers, velvet ants, snakes, bears, hawks, weasels, wolverines, what have you. This doesn't mean you don't deal with animals that are problematic, like if there are coyotes attacking your sheep or bears attacking your hives. But when we understand that animals don't do things like that because they are evil and need to be eradicated, but because they are trying to survive, and when we treat the ones that aren't causing problems with a proper, healthy respect, then we have the joy that comes with seeing a healthy, biodiverse, functioning ecosystem thrive.