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Living with wasps

Published: 21 Aug. 2025, 00:08

Oh Kyung-ah

The author is a garden designer and the CEO of OhGardens.

A few days ago, I was stung on the arm by a wasp. It wasn’t even a particularly large one, yet the pain has lingered for days. In summer, the garden fills with countless insects, but none feels more threatening than the wasp.

There are about 20,000 species of bees on Earth. They first appeared roughly 74 million years ago, and after plants evolved to flower, some predatory wasps gave up hunting and transformed into herbivorous honeybees, living on nectar and sap. Today, however, reports from scientists around the world suggest that while honeybee populations are collapsing, wasps are on the rise. One explanation is the combination of warmer winters and drier springs.

A yellow-legged hornet flies toward a beehive, preying on honeybees. [JOONGANG ILBO]

The wasp problem is even more serious in my husband’s woodworking shop than in my garden. Because the doors are always open, wasps frequently build nests in the corners of the workshop. Anyone who has been stung knows how powerful and frightening they are — in severe cases, even deadly — so nests are often removed on sight. Yet from an ecological perspective, the picture changes. Wasps are apex predators, comparable to the lions of the grasslands, preying on invasive pests such as lanternflies that damage crops. If wasps were to vanish, the explosion of harmful insects would be inevitable, with consequences rippling through ecosystems worldwide.

A honeybee collects nectar in a field of cosmos flowers. [NEWS1]

For that reason, experts often recommend avoidance over extermination. Dark clothing, for instance, should be avoided not because wasps are drawn to color, but because they may mistake a dark figure for a bear or skunk and attack. When picnicking in a field, placing a sweet drink at some distance can divert their attention. Preventing them from nesting on buildings is also key. Before a colony settles in, one or two scouts will search for a site — and this is the moment to intervene, before the nest grows.

Nature does not operate on a simple axis of good versus evil. There are no creatures that are wholly unnecessary, nor are there any entirely benevolent. Existence itself is interdependence. Wasps, honeybees, humans — all of us live not in opposition, but in coexistence.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.