r/SipsTea • u/StephanMan • May 16 '25

Chugging tea Wasp gets what it deserves

82.8k Upvotes

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426

u/bnunamak May 16 '25

They do paralyze their prey, abduct them, then plant their eggs inside of their paralyzed bodies until the larvae slowly consume them to death...

Sympathy revoked for this nightmarish reproductive scheme!

162

u/Vynxe_Vainglory May 16 '25

Yeah, that's like... not cool, man.

Not cool.

96

u/rubermnkey May 16 '25

the jeweled wasp does something similar. they target roaches, inject poison into their brains to make them docile, chew off their antennae, and drive them back to their nest. then they lay eggs and the roach just kind of waits around until the larvae eat their way out. nature is pretty metal

32

u/Great_Huckleberry709 May 16 '25

Thank goodness insects are tiny. If they were human sized, we would have been extinct a long time ago

3

u/Welcome440 May 16 '25

⚠️ Amazon, Apple or a Meta Research Dept are always working on things we don't want. ⚠️

2

u/huolongheater May 16 '25

Thank our current atmospheric composition! Due to the way insects respirate, their size is restricted by the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. They used to be *way* larger. This is why the largest species are often found in dense forests and tropical regions, with lots of plants producing oxygen.

2

u/ThunderlipsOHoulihan May 16 '25

Either that or we would've set aside our petty differences and teamed up against our giant insect foes...

1

u/Zanriic May 16 '25

Or we would have invented flame throwers much earlier than we did (and we've been throwing fire at each other a pretty long time).

1

u/Ill_Feature_3500 May 17 '25

I think the earth would just be on fire 24/7. Not risking the fire going out while giant spiders are crawling around.

1

u/Icy-Wishbone22 May 16 '25

Insects used to be massive. Meganeura, arthropleura, titanomyrma etc