Wasps Wikipedia and the Web – Learning With Your Kids On-Line
The web has always been a great resource for my family when we are curious about the world around us. When the kids have a question about something it is where we turn, often mid discussion, to help answer the question. A recent experience was no different.
Over the last few days we had some mud nests developing on our front porch light. At first we were not sure what they were, the nests were fascinating though and intricately made – new long mud tubes would show up each morning. After we saw a few of them show up stacked on top of each other it was time to figure out what was going on so I hopped on line and googled mud nest – searching under images. I quickly found images that looked like what we had – they were built by wasps, mud dauber wasps. I hate wasps. I then hopped on Wikipedia and search mud-dauber wasp and leaned more. I also read information about them on other web sites. The more I read the more fascinated I was with these wasps; my kids and wife included. We learned that they are not quite like the paper nest building wasps – not as aggressive and more related to honey bees. We also leaned that they keep the spider population down as they collect spiders to put into their nests as food for their larva. Each tube that was being built was for one larva.
This morning we went out in the morning and caught our wasp at its nest on video. We are still not sure what to do with it. We like that the wasp is helping keep the spider population down, its nest is quite the work of art too, and we’re not afraid of it stinging us but it is right on our porch light. For now it’s saying – decision pending since we have become fond of our wasp.
So, the next time you or your kids have a question about the world around you, hop on line and see what you can learn – it may surprise you and it may change your perspective.
Nester Dad out…
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