I did look them up and I remember seeing a little youtube short called Lucas that was about one of those (i think they look the same at least) and I remember it being really cute! I've seen someone on tik tok who has a pet jumping spider (i think her name is beatrice???). i can usually watch her videos. but only one if its short.

It gaves me the jeebies a little bit, but I can admire good n cute things when i see them!

I try really hard not to bash spiders but it's like no matter how hard i try i just can't. like, i can't even really look at crabs. their legs get to me to ;a; (doesn't stop me from eating them tho oops)

oh man, i stay away from wasps and avoid them at all possible places. i've been stung once and it was barely. but i think it just startled me more than hurt. my mamma (great grandma) told me to put baking soda on it to help with pain so i did that. and i had just gotten out of the shower so i was all sorts of vulnerable. I was just trying to get dressed without disturbing it ;A;

I'm pretty good with most bees. They do so much for us and for the most part, they don't bother me. Wood bees, however, their stings H U R T so I avoid them and run away. Other than that, I vibe with bees if they are just around. I can't look at their hives with a lot of them or honeycombs in general, but I kinda leave them bee (hehehhee)

I can't justify on why wasps exist except to hurt me so I have chased them out of my house with a spray. Overall, I try not to get them with the spray, I just want them out bc I don't need them in my home ;a;

I think the interesting thing about wasps is that people are more familiar with the social species which are more likely to sting but there's an incredible amount of diversity that's not expected. A lot of wasps are teeny tiny parasitoids of other insects. The smallest winged insects in the world are types of wasps called fairyflies. They're probably more common around us than we'd ever expect but because of their diminutive size they go about unnoticed. Generally speaking, solitary species of wasps and bees are less likely to sting if not incapable of stinging (and males can't sting at all). There's exceptions of course and some can have very painful stings but they're a bit harder to aggravate since there's not a hive to defend.

By wood bees, do you mean carpenter bees? I've heard the females can definitely give quite the sting. The males are generally the most intimidating but also most harmless. I'm not sure how many times I've encountered a male carpenter bee who's defending his territory but the males can't sting at all. Sometimes they'll get into quarrels with other males which involves them bumping into each other up in the air.

While usually they don't do structural harm to a building, there are ways to discourage them from nesting where not wanted. I see some people buy traps for them which makes me sad. They're actually excellent pollinators, one of the few capable of what's called buzz pollination. They help with making greater yields of crops like tomatoes.

Usually though the solitary bees I'm more interested in are the ones that nest in the ground or in pithy stemmed plants. A lot of people aren't familiar with them even though they're far more numerous in species than honey bees. While they don't provide honey, they're important parts of ecosystems and also help with pollination of crops.

Bleh. I think I went on a ramble. If I get talking about bees it gets really hard to stop!

I'll part with a pretty picture of a green metallic sweat bee. Seeing these was what got me into bees to begin with.

Oh wow! I didn't know that about wasps. I just know the ones I always seen around here. Fun fact: had one fly into my eye as a child and I think it just disappeared into it? melted into my eyeball juice. or got out. either way, that sucked. I didnt know there were all kinds like that. And that they typically can't sting. Also a fairyfly???? That's kinda dope. And I looked it up and they look kinda cool. They look like a typical wasp but with an air of elegance.

Yes! Carpenter bees. We always called them wood bees around here. I had one completely chase me around my house when i was little. Like twice. As in I ran cmpletely around the outside of my house twice before it finally left me alone lmao. But I was also a kid, so I probably had soda or something now that I think about it. I think I've seen them fight before. I always thought it was funny looking. From a distance.

For the most part, I've never seen a wild beehive of any kind. I didn't really go looking either. I've seen them at nature places. Hives, I mean. I see bees all over. I've also seen a few hives at my great uncle's. But they're in the boxes because he harvests his own honey. Which is why I probably am more relaxed around bees than most. I've seen them a whole lot.

I wouldn't hurt bees or their nests. I'd definitely call a place to remove the nest in the most humane way possible if I happened to run into the problem. After all, this is their world and I'm just living in it lmao. Who am I to kill them?

Nah, you're good! I like learning about stuff. I don't mind learning about bugs n stuff. It's just sometimes the way they look can get to me. Bad brain n all that jazz lmao. If there's anything I learned form the Bee Movie - it's how important they really are. They just work hard and do their jobs. Just gotta leave them alone and let them do their thing.

I've heard of sweat bees. My grandparents live in Missouri and they're pretty common there! They are really pretty!!

If you ever wanna talk bees, I'm always down. ;u;

Did the carpenter bee that chased you also sting you? If it didn't sting, I wonder if it was a male carpenter bee bluffing you. They're essentially tiny flying angry bumper cars. With at least one of the species in North America, the male will have a pale spot on it's face but if a bee suddenly charges at you it might be a bit hard to think to look at it's face. lol.

So like honeybees in North America are a complicated subject. They are indeed important for our agriculture and for production of honey but they're also not native. Large numbers of honeybees can be harmful to native bees which they can out-compete. So it's interesting how a balance needs to be struck. There's a lot of people who want to help "save the bees" and in those cases it's better to build habitat for the native species. Just a lot of people aren't really aware about the various bee species and that honey bees aren't native. Also, for those who want to buy bee houses for native species from stores which are becoming trendy, I'd be wary of those, too. They need proper cleaning and sometimes the bamboo tubes aren't long enough. It's often better to go with what nature provides.

Of course there's legitimate concerns about the health of honey bees when it comes to colony collapse. There's multiple things that can cause harm such as mites and pesticides. These can cause a lot of trouble for bee keepers. On the other hand, there's currently more honey bees than what has ever existed before on the planet. Another concern is that if there's too many honey bees in an area that there can be a spillover of disease from honey bees to native bee species as well.

It all makes a complicated puzzle of what's best to do. Of course there's things that a lot of people can do to help. Try not to use herbicides/fungicides/pesticides if it can be helped. Providing native plants for pollen sources. Even reducing light pollution can help bees. This is also super important for moths which probably do a lot more pollination with their often furry bodies than anyone realizes.

Xerces is an insect conservation group that has a lot of great info online with even more information on ways to protect pollinators. (Also fireflies if you like them as well.)

https://xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/about-pollinators

Edit: Changed the link to one more informative.

Luckily for me, it never caught up with me for me to find out if it would sting or not lmao. I was luckily enough to have never been stung by one. Just heard it from my parents how bad it hurt. I usually just ran away from them or avoided them. I wasn't about to get stung, that's for sure lmao.

I didn't realize most of them weren't native! I'm not sure what my uncle did. I know he's had them forever. He stopped doing it as attentively a few years back and always kind of just let them do their thing. I think he's had them about 35 years? Maybe 40? I know that when my cousin was around he'd help take care of them too, but for the most part I think they were mostly there to just vibe \o/ I just remember seeing the white boxes and tons and tons of bees.

I know that there's a bunch of bees that have made a home in the church a few blocks away. They frequently travel over a lot and hang out by my flowers. I'll have to try to look into what kind they are and see what they like to help them thrive even more.

That many honey bees? They make it seem like honey bees are disappearing at an alarming rate. Seems like it's the native bees that really need saving. I'm going to start looking into this more for sure. I'd like to figure out how to help them!

I know that my town used to do a lot of spraying in the summer, but they stopped doing that a decade or so ago. And I've always been a HUGE advocate for reducing light pollution. I didn't even know it could help the bees! I just know that nights would be more beautiful and we'd save a lot of energy. We just WASTE and just drives me insane.

Oo, I'm definitely going to keep that page saved in my goods. And I love fireflies! We call them lightning bugs lmao at least in my family.

Something I just realized looking at the site you provided! I think my uncle took care of bumble bees a lot too. Those are the ones I remember seeing the most. I also asked my dad about my uncle and he said he didn't actually make honey. I think my brain just associated the two. So I'm thinking it may have just been bumblebees.

And my grandparents had a shed that had these screens in the back of them for bees/wasps to nest and stuff. I didn't realize how much my family helped out with stuff like that until just now. Cause I'm actually thinking about it instead of just accepting that they're there.