Small MN wasps

[Orchidcraze01]

Hi all. I live in MN and have my orchids outside in the summer. I noticed there are a lot of little black wasps (1/4" long) flying on and off my Dend. nobile orchids. They seem to hang out longer under the leaves than elsewhere, crawling around. They don't seem to be hurting the plants or doing much. Anyone have any ideas what they are or what they're doing?

[Paul]

if it is a wasp and not a bee, then it is most likely hunting for prey with which to stock the nursery larder.

[Orchidcraze01]

Thanks Paul. You're probably right. I'm almost certain they are wasps. Just hope this doesn't mean I have undesirables crawling on my orchids. There doesn't seem to be any.

[wintergirl]

Wasps do feed on nectar, so it could be looking for it around your plants.

[Orchitty]

Aha! So I posted these pictures 3 years ago. A few days ago, just happened to watch a youtube video on interesting insects and found the answer to this post I believe these are tiny parasitic wasps. They certainly look similar. Just in case anyone had been wondering all these years along with me

[Orchid Whisperer]

Most certainly they are parasitic wasps, feeding on other insects.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

Most certainly they are parasitic wasps, feeding on other insects.

Not quite. Wasps fall into 2 broad categories: predatory (ex: social wasps such as yellow jackets) and parasitoid, which is a bit similar to parasitic, but not quite. Parasites live off/in a host or several hosts for their entire life cycle. Parasitoids on the other hand are parasitic in the immature stages but are free-living as adults. That is the case for most of these tiny wasps.

Adults lay their eggs inside another insect, and the larvae eat it from the inside out. Some species kill the host right away and mummify the host (aphid parasitoids are an example), others have larvae which feed on the fatty tissue, sparing the vital organs so that the host (often caterpillars) continues to develop, until the larvae emerge through the skin like little aliens. What's especially awesome is that when the mother parasitoid of some species injects her eggs, she also injects a mind manipulating virus which takes control of the caterpillar and it will defend the larvae once they emerge (and then die).

Other parasitoids are even cooler, and lay their eggs inside the eggs of another parasitoid, which are already inside a caterpillar. Some are capable of measuring the size of the host with their antennae, to be able to decide how many eggs they can lay inside (Many species which parasitize insect eggs).

[Orchitty]

Thanks for the info Camille. Either you're quite the insect enthusiast or an entomologist. I also find it fascinating and was really surprised to realize they exist in my back yard. Interesting what goes on underneath our noses when we're not aware. One of the cooler things I saw last year was a hummingbird moth coming to visit my orchids. I had seen them in SE Asia but did not realize they also lived in the Midwest US. Sadly it did not feed from my orchids.

[Dollythehun]

They're coming here.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Orchitty

Thanks for the info Camille. Either you're quite the insect enthusiast or an entomologist. I also find it fascinating and was really surprised to realize they exist in my back yard. Interesting what goes on underneath our noses when we're not aware. One of the cooler things I saw last year was a hummingbird moth coming to visit my orchids. I had seen them in SE Asia but did not realize they also lived in the Midwest US. Sadly it did not feed from my orchids.

Good guess! :-) I did a PhD in Entomology on how parasitoid wasps use odors from plants to find insects to parasitize (when plants are attacked by something their odor changes, and wasps use these odors to find them).