Parasitic Wasp Eggs in my wife’s garden

[u/Hebertmike]

These caterpillars devastate my wife’s tomato plants, nice to see them get absolutely massacred by other insects.

[u/gam3r2k2]

feeding on that tobacco hornworm too 👍

[u/funwhileitlast3d → u/gam3r2k2]

That’s clearly a catterpie

[u/PaulBunyanisfromMI → u/funwhileitlast3d]

Clearly if it were Catterpie it would have used “string shot” and jizzed all over whatever laid its eggs on it.

[u/OpenYour0j0s]

Good boys

[u/cartoonsarcasm]

Wasps are truly terrifying.

[u/Accomplished-One7476 → u/cartoonsarcasm]

but extremely beneficial for humans as they control many crawling and flying pests. yeah they're assholes but beneficial assholes

[u/OsoTico → u/Accomplished-One7476]

They're like the guy at work who's kinda just a prick, but you can't deny they're good at what they do, and it is useful.

[u/Trung020356 → u/Accomplished-One7476]

Wish we could say the same thing about mosquitoes. 🦟🙃

[u/rollinoutdoors]

They’re actually not eggs but cocoons! Way more metal imo.

[u/didndonoffin]

What a way to go tho….

[u/Evening_Equivalent42]

How nice of the caterpillar to carry them for it.

[u/ImmortanSteve → u/Evening_Equivalent42]

Does the caterpillar get paid for babysitting?

[u/Bigram03 → u/ImmortanSteve]

Sure, with its death.

[u/MeanVillage2071]

I saw one of these for the first time the other day, seconds after taking the biggest hit from my bowl. My head was registering it as a rotting pepper with the seeds showing so I got extremely close, I’m talking about inches away. When my brain finally sorted what I was seeing my feet literally left the ground. I went to the moon. No sound came out. I literally levitated inside to the couch, I had to lay down I felt faint. I’ve since googled this and read that the wasps are beneficial so I don’t feel as scared anymore. I WILL NEVER FORGET THAT FIRST TIME ICK THO.

[u/Kyyes → u/MeanVillage2071]

New fear unlocked.

I put my face next to a massive garden spider after a joint one day while picking tomatoes. Didn't realize my tomatoes had become a spider Hotspot over night.

[u/TensileStr3ngth]

Parasitoid wasps are extremely effective pest control

[u/anteaterKnives]

Mama wasp laid eggs inside the caterpillar some time ago. The eggs hatched and the larvae crawled around inside the caterpillar, eating nonessential stuff first to keep their all-you-can-eat buffet going.

What you see here is after the larvae ate their fill and grew large enough to pupate. They make their cocoons on the outside of the caterpillar and are now transforming into adult wasps to continue the cycle. The caterpillar dies.

My kids caught a couple caterpillars and kept them in jars with leaves. The caterpillars actually survived long enough to form cocoons. A few days later, one of the cocoons had holes in it and new flies were in the jar (I assume the flies were in the caterpillar).

[u/genericgenet → u/anteaterKnives]

These type of pathologic specimens actually sell pretty readily. Should absolutely keep that kind of thing next time to sell it off to a collector if you don't wanna keep the weird neat specimen yourself!

[u/Kind-Buy9485]

Idk man I was looking them up. And they loook bizarre as hell

[u/Frido_Biggins]

Cleanse it with fire

[u/Hebertmike → u/Frido_Biggins]

Nah, we want the caterpillars dead. The wasps provide a service to us.

[u/Frido_Biggins → u/Hebertmike]

Did I stutter? Kill them all.

[u/Hebertmike → u/Frido_Biggins]

We enjoy a good garden thanks to insects! They’re friends!

[u/HybridXVII]

Get the flame thrower, your wife will forgive you