Author Topic: Pet Wasps - This should be fun. (Read 116 times)

Vesp · « **on:** September 04, 2010, 05:35:12 PM »

I have some pet wasps!
I came across this site, and apparently keeping wasps as pet is a hobby of some people. After briefly skimming though the "how to" on the site I decided to rescue a vespiary that would otherwise have perished.

http://www.venomlist.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=19684 <- useful info on keeping wasps as pets.

I have uploaded a picture of my wasps cage, they are getting used too it, are flying around and hopefully soon I will see them drink and eat some of the foods I have provided them.

Not a great picture, I know - its pretty hard too see much anything there - but I have about 7 to 8 wasps - but with more food and building supplies - and warmer temperatures than they'd ever have outside, especially this time of year - they ought to get established and grow fairly well.

If this works out really well, maybe I'll get some others to make a nest in a seporatory funnel!

What do you guys think? To much time on my hands? lol

shroomedalice · « **Reply #1 on:** September 04, 2010, 05:45:40 PM »

just dont drop the flask vesp ;P

Vesp · « **Reply #2 on:** September 04, 2010, 08:36:28 PM »

Yeah no kidding - they're angry little things. One of them hasn't found the nest yet, or is sick? He says right below the nest, since they are dropping things and I assume he can tell his home is near by pheromones or something. I gave him a little bit of honey and he has been eating lots of it. Probably he'll be able to fly and find his home pretty soon.

After a while of being captive, I hear they start to like their owners ... strange strange.

roofies44 · « **Reply #3 on:** September 04, 2010, 08:42:46 PM »

aww that is so cute

shroomedalice · « **Reply #4 on:** September 05, 2010, 02:07:45 AM »

"After a while of being captive, I hear they start to like their owners ... strange strange."

thats DEEP vesp.

we get a lot of wasps here. its the euros that are the worst though.

I dont think im in too much of a hurry to breed them though I think once you get that

nest kicking your going to find your self with more wasps than you know what to do with.

do they slow down reproduction if they are in an enclosed enviroment ?

are you going to mutate the little critters ?

Quantum Dude · « **Reply #5 on:** September 05, 2010, 02:17:57 AM »

Hows the FTP setup going so far ?

shroomedalice · « **Reply #6 on:** September 05, 2010, 02:29:57 AM »

FTP ?

I started a site my self here but got bogged down with WD.

now there is no access at all to even the open ftp.

must have happened on server change.

I must say it makes me very happy that you guys are working together now vesp.

I doubt you will find someone who has given so much to the collective after the hive went

down.

this is why I put my time were I did.

sorry a debt of honor.

I do hope you forgive me guys.

Tsathoggua · « **Reply #7 on:** September 05, 2010, 06:26:22 AM »

Won't a queen be required for propagation? workers are sterile.

I wonder, I bet one could get a good amount of cash for purified venom toxins, ever seen how much research chemical companies charge for purified biotoxins? why damn, even on a well known auction website, 10mg of cytochalasin-A was going for about 2.5K the other day.

There is bound to be an alarm pheromone released when those lil buggers sting, in honeybees it is simply isopentyl acetate, released when one stings, then drives the rest into a maddened rage and sends them gunning for the bugger that threatened the hive.

I'm thinking some cling-film stretched over a wide, shallow container, which could then be sprayed on the surface with isopentyl acetate, if it were bees, as an example, and left near the hive, which of course then gets stung to shit and back.

Come back later, wash with buffer and purify venom fraction via electrophoresis and precipitation with ammonium sulfate for prep scale, and suitable chromatography technique for protein purification.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_purification

Could sell for a good deal if you could come up with a suitable alarm signal to piss your wasps off, of course, without harming them in the process, not to mention the possibility of a sudden, massive and very fatal reaction for anybody who pisses you off intolerably....

shroomedalice · « **Reply #8 on:** September 05, 2010, 01:19:34 PM »

ye I have known guys that did this with snakes and spiders.

they did quite well to be honest great idea.

Vesp · « **Reply #9 on:** September 05, 2010, 08:29:43 PM »

Quote

Won't a queen be required for propagation? workers are sterile.

Yes, I believe that there is one present - I can't tell for sure, so I am going to try to get one or two other nests going as well - in the same cage (hopefully that works out) and than if there is a queen in either of them, she'll lay queens and drones, eventually.

Quote

I wonder, I bet one could get a good amount of cash for purified venom toxins, ever seen how much research chemical companies charge for purified biotoxins? why damn, even on a well known auction website, 10mg of cytochalasin-A was going for about 2.5K the other day.

Very interesting idea! I'll have to keep that in mind if I end up with several thousand. I'm sure something like a thin parafilm cover with an alarm pheromone would get them all to sting it a few times - if that could be done a few times a day - might get a decent amount. Though, sure be tricky.

Quote

There is bound to be an alarm pheromone released when those lil buggers sting, in honeybees it is simply isopentyl acetate, released when one stings, then drives the rest into a maddened rage and sends them gunning for the bugger that threatened the hive.

They also release an alarm - so you may only need to get them to sting it once, and than all the other ones would do so - no need for the chemical.

Quote

I'm thinking some cling-film stretched over a wide, shallow container, which could then be sprayed on the surface with isopentyl acetate, if it were bees, as an example, and left near the hive, which of course then gets stung to shit and back.

Yeah, I am sure that would work - it is one of the ways they feed mosquitoes and they have a much weaker stinger/blood sucker than does a wasp. They use parafilm for that.

Quote

Come back later, wash with buffer and purify venom fraction via electrophoresis and precipitation with ammonium sulfate for prep scale, and suitable chromatography technique for protein purification.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_purification

interesting interesting... Sounds like a big project I'm not going to take on lol

Tsathoggua · « **Reply #10 on:** September 05, 2010, 09:21:31 PM »

Yeah, but if you could bag gram quantities of toxin protein fractions...damn that could be a lot of cash, just remember who gave you the idea when your stinking rich:D

IIRC a bee sting contains 0.1mg ish of venom, not a lot, but with several thousand stings, repeated daily, it adds up...

Vesp · « **Reply #11 on:** September 05, 2010, 09:31:55 PM »

Quote

10mg of cytochalasin-A was going for about 2.5K the other day.

looks like it is actually selling for $250.00 USD.

What protien/vemon is in wasp stings? I was thinking it would be something simple at first, like formic acid.

Tsathoggua · « **Reply #12 on:** September 06, 2010, 04:24:31 AM »

Species dependent....

Mandaratoxin in asian giant hornets for instance, some neat polyamine toxins that block glutamate receptors in other solitary wasps (Philanthus, philanthotoxins), some cockroach hunting wasps pack a toxin that blocks octopamine receptors (insect specific probably since we lack specific receptors for octopamine as far as I know)

Unsure which species of wasp you have so I cannot answer specifically what the venom is made up of.

I think once I finally manage to get my research ligand company actually off the ground, I will go out of my way to supply a line of insect/reptile/cnidarian etc venoms.
Should be a nice moneyspinner, look at the research that led to the omega-conotoxin painkiller Prialt, few thousand times as powerful a painkiller as morphine, acts on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, granted it has to injected intrathecally, but it proves the point, there is much research going on into that sort of thing, what starts out as deadly toxin, may well end up as medicine, it has happened with cone snail venom, the venom of Russel's viper, leech anticoagulant, etc.

Vesp · « **Reply #13 on:** September 20, 2010, 09:04:18 PM »

Update: So far so good. They haven't added to the nest, but they eat honey and one ripped a part a catepillar that I tossed in the cage after realizing I scooped it up with my opium lettuce (well, Lactuca serriola) seeds I collected.

It couldn't bring it up to the nest though, but it took a little chunk and sucked up some of the juices.

They've also started to fly around more often.

Author Topic: Pet Wasps - This should be fun. (Read 116 times)

Vesp

Pet Wasps - This should be fun.

shroomedalice

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Vesp

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roofies44

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shroomedalice

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Quantum Dude

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shroomedalice

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Tsathoggua

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shroomedalice

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Vesp

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Tsathoggua

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Vesp

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Tsathoggua

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Vesp

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