this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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The species I'm familiar with, Polistes dominula, is cool: they hang out around noon looking for water sometimes, I splash some and they oblige. Sometimes they hang out where I'm doing stuff and they're calm and move if I gently shove them. They complain a bit when I trim leaves where they happen to be chilling, but fly away. Never stung. They are surprisingly polite and aware of you, plus they eat some pests and polinate stuff. Some other species are assholes, though :/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_paper_wasp
In general, even the most gangster animals don’t want to fight. Peace is enjoyable to every creature.
I’ve had no trouble with stinging insects since I started viewing them as tiny strangers I was just passing on the street. Move predictably, don’t focus my eyes at them too long.
Hell, I bet bugs even learn to read animal facial expressions, just like we can see whether they’re on guard or feeling safe from their movements. A bug can see when an animal’s thinking about eating or killing it.
Incidentally imagine how terrifying an anteater must be, from the perspective of the ant. Imagine a creature towering between the buildings with a long sticky tongue seeking around, sticking as many people as possible to it, then suddenly slurping them up into the sky.
That’s pure horror.