
A Parasitic Vine That Slowly Sucks the Life Out of Wasps - sohkamyung
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/08/parasite-vine-wasp-tumor/567823/?single_page=true
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ToFab123
A simple trick to get rid of Wasps. Get a brown paper bag (like the ones you
get at McDonalds), fill it with air, seal it, and stick in our you wall. The
wasp thinks it is another wasp nest and go somewhere else. Works like a charm

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trumped
I get many wasp nests around my home every year... I think that I will give
that a try but my current solution [1] works very well also (it instantly
neutralize the whole nest).

1\. [https://www.amazon.com/Spectracide-Hornet-Killer-
Aerosol-20-...](https://www.amazon.com/Spectracide-Hornet-Killer-
Aerosol-20-oz/dp/B0050D0XZ4)

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catbird
Bravo to The Atlantic for actually linking to the source journal article.

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cryptonector
Hear hear! [https://www.cell.com/current-
biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)...](https://www.cell.com/current-
biology/fulltext/S0960-9822\(18\)30815-7?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982218308157%3Fshowall%3Dtrue)

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knicholes
The vine juking out the wasp's juke reminded me of the word I stumbled across
whilst reading a dictionary. fossicking: Mining. to undermine another's
digging;

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nereye
OT/FWIW, the Wikipedia entry for fossicking is more expansive and does not
mention the adversarial/negative meaning above:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossicking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossicking)

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meowface
Interesting, it seems like a nearly contradictory definition.

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jimbo1qaz
Fixed title: "A Parasitic Vine That Slowly Sucks the Life Out of Wasp Galls"

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yters
How does this sort of thing evolve? Especially the variant where the gall
secretes a sweet nectar to enlist ants to defend the wasp embryo from another
wasp species.

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majos
Not an answer to your question, but there are other examples of this sort of
thing. Lycaenid butterflies secrete nectar as caterpillars in exchange for
protection by ants [1]. Indeed, ants have symbiotic relationships with a bunch
of organisms, including fungus [2], aphids [3], and over 100 species of plants
[4].

[1] [https://australianmuseum.net.au/lycaenid-butterflies-and-
ant...](https://australianmuseum.net.au/lycaenid-butterflies-and-ants)

[2]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%E2%80%93fungus_mutualism](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%E2%80%93fungus_mutualism)

[3]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid#Ant_mutualism](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid#Ant_mutualism)

[4]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecophyte](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecophyte)

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r00fus
I had to chortle at this clever line. The article writer simply couldn't
resist :)

> There is a elegance to this system. _Galls_ are, as _Stone_ puts it, “a lump
> of yumminess.”

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gaius
I’m OK with this. Wasps as far as I can tell serve no useful place in the
ecosystem. They are not bees after all. They just sting people and that’s it.
Good riddance!

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fipple
What is “useful”? Are humans useful?

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emodendroket
Personally I'd accept an anthropocentric view that takes humanity's importance
as an unexamined premise and rates other species as "useful" to the extent
that they positively affect humans (whether directly or indirectly). I imagine
the OP has a similar idea, although for the reasons others have pointed out I
don't think it necessarily comes together here.

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modells
FYI: Steve Jobs' widow, alum of Merrill Lynch and Goldman, plans to own the
majority of The Atlantic c. 2020-2021.

~~~
gt2
Why is that relevant here?

