Yellow Jacket

Wasps are highly important to ecosystems. Sawflies consume vegetation and so limit plant growth. Most other wasps are either parasitic or predaceous and therefore play a vital role in limiting the populations of thousands of other insect species.

All wasps are eaten by other species, thereby providing many links in the food web. Many parasitic wasps have been cultured and used in the biological control of agricultural pests. Although a few of the stinging wasps are considered nuisances, they also provide benefits.

Yellow jackets and paper wasps, for example, prey on caterpillars and other larvae that can destroy crops. Wasps feed on flower nectar and play a role in pollination.