I gotta start carrying some sugar cubes or a little tiny bottle of honey or something.
We were having tea outside and a yellow jacket came over and starting buzzing all over us. Since we had some honey, I put a little drop to one side and she just instantly chiller out. She did some little zoomies around the drop then settled in to have some, and popped by a few more times to grab more. Left my wife and I completely alone. I have never seen an insect go from investigation buzzing and circling to fully cool like that.
100% recommend this, don't forget bugs are friends.
I did not get pictures because when I peaked in on her she was startled and went buzzing in circles a minute so we let her in peace.
This does make me wonder, however, if you're just training them to return to the same spot for food - and what might happen if you don't have it.
As someone else mentioned in the notes and I've seen written up elsewhere, some hornets can learn to recognize individuals, so if we had been home and I were to bring out treats regularly it would potentially start seeing me as relatively safe to be around. Anecdotally, the upshot of this is less "harassed for treats" and more "left alone instead of constantly buzzed for investigation."
Also anecdotal, some people have reported this "non-threatening status" as passed down generationally for some wasps - potentially you could form a long term relationship with a wasp family something like can be done with corvids, the major difference being your benefit is not "friend who brings you presents and expresses empathy and concern for your specific well being" and more like funky little guys who control pest insects and aren't agitated when you are outside. Kind of like house centipedes except afik there's no hack for getting house centipedes to register you as non-threatening, some just seem to be chill around people.
But there are hundreds of breeds of wasps and such so you can't 100% generalize, even to types common across the USA. I tried the same thing with some kind of hornet nesting in our attic and had zero success. The good news is most of them usually just want to check you out and maybe have a sniff like very small, very startling dogs, and then fuck off to something more food oriented. The bad news is the fuckers still make me flich and freak out when they go NYOOOM past my head, and I'm constantly worried about them landing in my hair so this isn't me being some super chill wasp whisperer. I love em but they scare the crap outta me every time.
I forgot what I was saying. Anyway they probably won't come back just because one person fed them honey one time at one place.
Just a warning though: this might make them look to you as a gauge for who is a threat:
I had several wasp nests around the house this summer and gave them snacks/left them to their business. They never bothered me and would move out of my way if they were on the hand railings. They also left my spouse alone.
Then the neighbours had to have a tree removed. The wasps were chill as could be... until the workers fucked something up and I had to go tell them to fix their shit. The moment I walked out of that door in anger, the wasps hated that work crew. They went from annoyed, but tolerant to defensive and stingy in an instant.
So, yeah... you can make friends with wasps. Just, uh, be careful with that power. XD
