Wasp Flies Up to Shake Off Ants

Occurred on July 22, 2022 / Dohr, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

Info from Licensor: "During the summer months of the last few years, I have been intensively involved in observing, photographing, and filming eusocial wasps. Many of these photographs and videos, including this one, were taken in our garden in Dohr (located in the Eifel region) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Through specific support measures, such as a near-natural garden with many food sources and hiding places, but also the installation of artificial caves as nest sites, I was able to promote the settlement of social wrinkled wasps and so in this summer 2022 4 hornet colonies and 2 wasp nests are resident here and the animals are constantly present and available for filming.

For many shots I have to lure the animals to a specific spot where cameras and light sources are already positioned and where spectacular behaviors can then be captured. Patience, luck and the right technical realization are of course always part of it. At a feeding place I could observe now that also ants are very interested in this tasty liquid. This in turn did not suit the hornets at all. I could also observe that ants at the feeding site constantly harass and bite wasps. The wasps do not find this funny at all. Sometimes the ants bite so hard on the wasps' legs that they are pulled up into the air and fall to the ground again. This can be seen well here in slow motion. I really wanted to film this and I experimented for a long time until I got these extraordinary shots. Only in slow motion, here maximum slowed down playback with a maximum of 250 fps, can we really grasp these very fast processes."