Wasps

Some say 2022 is ‘The Year of the Wasp’. Is that a bad thing or a good thing?

 

Words

• If something is annoying it makes you feel angry and impatient.
• Friend or foe? A person or animal that is friendly or one that is dangerous?
• Pesticides are chemicals that farmers use to kill harmful insects.
• Pollen is the very fine, usually yellow dust in the centre of a plant. It is carried to other plants of the same kind usually by wind or insects so that the plants can produce seeds
• Orchids are plants with brightly coloured, unusually shaped flowers. See here https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=orchids&iax=images&ia=images
• A fig is a soft sweet fruit that grows on a fig tree. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=figs&t=ffab&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images
• If a person or animal is in the last throes of their life, their life is almost over. They are dying.
• Pests are insects or small animals which damage crops (gewassen) or food supplies.
• Food insecurity is when there is not enough food for people. Global food insecurity is when there is not enough food all over the world.

 

Assignment

1. What is true about wasps? Select all the correct answers.
   a      They are the reason that the bee population went down.
   b      They can be trained to detect explosives and illegal drugs.
   c       They can recognise each other’s faces.
   d      They catch huge amounts of insects every year.
   e      They have a very bad effect on the ecosystem.
   f        They live for only two weeks to a month.
   g       They protect plant life, crops, and other creatures.

 

2. How many species of wasps are there?
   a      About thirty different species.
   b      One hundred different species.
   c       Thousands of species.
   d      Fourteen million species.

 

3. What would happen if all wasps in the world just disappeared?
   a      Nothing: It would not make a difference.
   b      We would have more pests and less biodiversity.
   c       We would have more plants like figs and orchids.
   d      We would not be able to detect explosives and illegal drugs.