Six months after he published “On the Origins of Species,” Charles Darwin wrote a letter to his friend Asa Gray. He was troubled by Iknemonidae, a family of parasites that placed their eggs on the bodies of other insects, such as caterpillars. When young hatching, they devour the host. “I cannot convince myself that the Merciful and Almighty God would have designed and created Ichnemonidae,” he wrote. The creature is cited as one of the factors that led him to question God’s creation.
Hate towards wasps dates back thousands of years. Aristotle slandered them for “lacking the extraordinary features” that bees possessed. However, Saylian Sumner, a professor of behavioral ecology at University College London (UCL), wants to show that there is more to hornets than is eye-opening. She has dedicated her career as a zoologist to study insects. She writes books on them, and even her Instagram handle is “waspprof.”
She attended the recently opened WASPS OF WASPS exhibition at the UCL Grant Zoological Museum in London. Speaking to CNN from the exhibition, Sumner gave her a reason why we all have to love wasps, just as she did.
“Hornets are natural pest control companies. A hornet-free world means that they tend to use more chemicals to control other insects and creepy raw populations.
“The bees become stingy, but we accept that because we know what they are doing. We understand that they are important in the ecosystem as pollinators. Hornets are just as important.
“Like bees, they visit flowers to get nectar. They hunt, but their prey is for offspring, not for the adults themselves.
“Some (hornet wasps) venoms could potentially be cancer treatments. (In fact, one study shows that Brazilian hornets can kill cancer cells without damaging the healthy surrounding cells.)
Hornets also have many antibiotics in their bodies, as well as venoms that are used to keep toxic diseases free. We should start exploiting the microbial defenses that wasps have. ”
“Hornets are a source of nutrition for humans around the world. In Asia, especially, people love to eat wasps. They either boil the larvae or dry the freeze and mix in a bit of chili peppers.
“They are the best paper makers and there is an idea that they got the idea of how to make paper by looking at wasps.
“Most people have seen hornets collect a bit of bark from tree stumps and fence posts. They mix it with saliva and smooth it down into that beautiful thin paper before using it to build these huge soccer-sized societies that they live inside.
The paper in these nests is truly remarkable. There are three different types. On the outside, they have this envelope that is quick and dirty to build. Inside there is a strong but light comb, like the layers inside a high-rise building. The comb is then surrounded by a third type of paper. If you try to pull it apart with your hand, you simply can’t do it. All of that is in one wasp nest. ”
“(Polyst paper hornets) are like a version of insects. Unlike yellow-jacket hornets and honeybees, they promise (individuals) will become queens and workers during development.
“They can become queens, they can become workers, they can start their lives as workers and switch to queens. It’s like a meerkat society where you have breeders, then you have non-breeders looking for predators or foraging. Everyone is helping together.
“They help us understand the evolution of altruism. We should give up the opportunity for individuals to replicate it to help others recreate it. These wasps were really important in understanding why animals gather and live in groups.”
The WASPS OF WASPS exhibition held at the UCL Grant Zoological Museum in London will be held until January 24th, 2026.
