Beneficial Wasp?

[babice]

Around noon today, I noticed a wasp just hanging out on a leaf of a tomato plant. I had also noticed one doing this yesterday afternoon on a leaf of a plant out front. They were on leaves in a shady spot of the plant but I can't imagine they were just sitting there trying to get relief from the sun? I left them alone and they paid me no mind. Are these what are called "beneficial wasps"? I'm wondering if they're one of the reasons I haven't seen any tomato hornworms yet (knock on a huge block of wood). I don't believe I've seen wasps just hanging out like that before. I've always seen the ones that make the paper nests in the eaves under overhangs of my house. I saw one the other day that was just milling about the roof of my front porch. Wasn't doing anything in particular like building a nest or anything. Didn't show any aggression toward me. Just seemed to be checking out the roof in an up and down motion...kinda looked like it was looking for nectar but it couldn't have been doing that of course.

[Cole_Robbie]

I think all wasps are beneficial. They eat caterpillars. Mud daubers like to eat black widow spiders.

[RayR]

Wasps of all kinds have been plentiful this year, the small wasps hanging around the tomato plants are most likely female parasitic wasps looking for hornworms, other species of parasitic wasps look for aphids. They've been the most noticeably effective beneficials in my garden this year. I haven't needed to use any pesticides at all this year in the garden outside of a couple applications of BT, that might not have been even necessary because I haven't seen a horn worm that wasn't more than 2" long and loaded with wasp cocoons.

[tjg911]

i agree all wasps are beneficial. i think the ones that lay the eggs on the thw are tiny vs the large ones we see around the house.

tom

[bower]

If the wasp is the typical "Vespula" type wasp, there is a reason why they are found hanging around on leaves after their season's business is done. It's the males that have already mated that are found hanging around on leaves, very docile. They are not very active feeders, since biologically they have completed their task and are not destined to live through the winter. The females who have mated are the opposite: super aggressive, and avid feeders, while looking for a site where they will overwinter and then raise the new brood. At least that is the common pattern for them where seasons exist.

Parasitoid wasps are very distinctive looking, I have a lot of pictures of them but unfortunately they aren't digitized so can't share em. They don't look at all like the ordinary 'wasp', that's the social wasps in the Vespula group, they don't have the bulbous stripey abdomen, are typically thinner, and sometimes have a long ovipositor. They also do hang around on leaves, though. They really like shrubs and such places.

[tjg911]

https://www.google.com/search?q=para...w=1183&bih=692


google images for parasitic wasps search

[PA_Julia]

Well here is a nice family of WASP's that could possibly assist you.

[shelleybean]

Wasps have been helping the ladybugs with the bean aphids in my garden.

[babice]

Well, I do definitely think it was a parasitic wasp I saw on my tomato leaves and it might have been put pupae on some hornworms. Found one yesterday in the white cocoon looking thing. Has a horn sticking out of it. Ick! But yay for the wasp.

[Elizabeth]

Wasps of all sorts are extremely populous around here this year (they just love this warmer than normal weather). The upside is we have almost no aphids or tomato worms. The downside is I'm allergic to the buggers and I'm nervous the whole time I'm in the garden. LOL