The dark side of nature! Flying assassins!

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(Edited)

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I always show the fabulous side of nature, but there is always the other side of the coin.

Some action around our bird bath today!

This guy above was injecting a bee with venom to paralyze the bee. He is a "Wasp Robber Fly" (Neolophonotus), but he is not an ordinary fly, as this guy is an assassin.
He targets bees in flight and ambushes them.
Come and have a look!

Three little "Midges" were busy blood sucking from the wing veins of the Wasp and the bee. I saw the small Midges flying around the scene while the Wasp was paralyzing the bee.
So, it's a case of everybody dining at the same time!
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"How do robber flies attack bees"?
"The bite injects a digestive saliva into the prey, immobilizing it, and the fly returns to its perch to finish its meal. Robber flies’ audacity is legendary; on the Internet, one can find many stories of robber flies attacking bees, wasps, large grasshoppers, even hummingbirds. Statewide".
Robber Flies Assassin Flies | MDC Discover Nature Source
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Now on to another problem!

A big black Potter Wasp (Delta emarginatum) and a Paper Wasp (Polistes dominula) came flying in to the bird bath in our garden.
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A new one here below as we only discovered today that these swimming guys below are immigrants. They are not South African "Paper Wasps", but arrived recently from Europe.
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The big Potter Wasp landed first and proceeded to have a drink.
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And then the Paper wasp drifted closer, but the Potter wasp didn't seem to mind.
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Finally there was a very happy customer waiting below the birdbath, as look how fat this "Cape Skink" Lizard is. It think that he loves the new Paper wasps 🤣
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There is a call out to report sightings of the Paper Wasps, as the government has a team out to try and control an invasion, but I think that these foreign wasps will be difficult to control. We already have many of these invasive European Paper Wasps (Polistes dominula) over here in our town and I recently posted a nest in the ear of a Wildebeest statue.
So we reported the sightings here!
https://www.capetowninvasives.org.za/wasps

To all of our South African friends, if you see the yellow and black paper wasps, please report your sightings to the link above!

And That's All Friends!

I leave you with this to think about!

“Health is the new wealth. Happiness is the new rich. Inner peace is the new success. Kindness is the new cool.” —Syed Balkhi

Note: All photos are my own and taken with a Canon SX60HS camera.

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The Potter wasp is beautiful :) Do they swim too?

Assassin flies sound like the type who might go after some innocent photographer who is taking a photoshoot of his friends, lol? Can they really kill and drain a hummingbird?

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I knew it looks quite strange for a wasp 😉

We have Robber Flies here too and watching them through a zoom or macro lens shows very well why they have got their name - the ones I have seen looked very strong and dangerous.

Oh, our poor wasps, they only want to go on vacation in your beautiful country and you want to get rid of them 🤣

I can understand that the huge Potter Wasp is not scared of the tiny Paper Wasp 😉

Hope you're feeling better today Zac 🙂

Cheers with !BEER and !WINE
!invest_vote

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Oh yeah, strange looking indeed.
I have gotten some of them before and think that I even posted some.

You might have the bigger ones there that I saw in a site on Hummingbirds.
I couldn't believe that a Robber fly could catch a hummingbird.
Oh, and there is even a Mantis on the site that caught a Hummingbird.

Have a look through the comments and you will see that I posted the hummingbird site link in my reply to a comment.

I think that your Europian Wasps have applied for refugee status here 🤣

Thank you and yes I feel a bit better now that we have discovered that the Statin pills that I take for Cholesterol every day is responsible for most of my health issues.

Cheers and thanks!

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I have never seen such a huge Robber Fly, they must live somewhere else. Ours are 1-2 centimeters long, at least the ones I have seen are well under 1 inch in length.

We also have animals and insects here which don't belong here and which disturb and destroy... but that's the same around the world - our insects are not good for your nature and the invaders which come here are not good for our nature.

You are telling me one more reason why I avoid any medications - they might help against one problem, but cause another.
I hope you will find a better solution for this pills, Zac.

Cheers and !BEER
!invest_vote

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Yeah, surprisingly we also don't have the big ones here and no hummingbirds, so they must be where the hummingbirds are, mostly in the States I think.

Yes invaders are bad news for any country and the hyachinth river flowers from South America is currently choking our rivers and dams. We just cannot seem to get rid of it.

Believe me Hannes, most of my life I wouldn't even take a pain pill and now I am dorced to take a handfull of the rubbish every day.
I really hate pills.

Marian has made an appointment for me to see a new doctor an Monday as someone told her that this old guy can get me off some of the pills, so there is always hope my friend.

Hope that you will have a good day!

Cheers and thanks!

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That's one of the problems caused by easy and fast travelling around the world ... just like the whole world has got the same problem at the moment.

I hope the new doctor can really help you - every pill you don't need to take is a good thing.

Wish you also a wonderful day and weekend, my friend 😀

Cheers and !BEER
!invest_vote

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Exactly, it seems that the faster we go in our search for speed to enhance our comfort, just so fast the diseases become. It jumps between the countries in the blink of an eye.
In the old days one country would struggle with a plague, but it would not affect any of the other countries. Now it is worldwide.

Seeing the doctor at 2:30 this afternoon and holding thumbs that he can help my friend.

Cheers and thanks!

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I hold my thumbs that you can get rid of a few tablets and still feel better and healthy, Zac 😊

Cheers and !BEER
!invest_vote

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Nope, as I replied somewhere else Hannes, only changed 2 tablets.
If we can get the Iron levels right, then I can drop 2 tablets.
Funny how they work in two's.

Cheers and thanks.

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The second one is against the side effects of the first I guess 😉

Cheers and !BEER
!invest_vote

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Hahaha, oh yes, you are 100% correct, not all people have the same systems and I am in the unfortunate position of having a finely tuned system. So any tinkering with it normally brings on adverse effects. That's why I am so worried about the Covid vaccination, as I don't know what it's going to do to my health.

At school they vaccinated all of the children many years ago and my vaccination didn't work. So the clowns vaccinated me again and I got sick with the vaccination still not working.

But I bet that you are not the same, as mountain goats have strong systems 🤣

Cheers and thanks!

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I think they are going to ask you what medications you take and tell you what might be the side effects of the vaccine - I hope they do.

As children we got the usual vaccines all children have got, and our kids have got the usual vaccines too. Fortunately, they haven't had any problems - we are all strong mountain goats, I believe 😉

Cheers and !BEER
!invest_vote

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Now that is one thing that is never done here Hannes.
Nobody ever mentions the side effects and we have to Google the side effects to find out what matches with any new conditions that I might have, like the swelling of my ankles.
So, a tip here, make sure that you know about the side effects one day when you have to take some pills. I hope never.

1 percent of children were immune to the child vaccinations and I fell into that 1 %
The good thing is that I also didn't get the sickness that they were vaccinating against.
Just my luck Hannes.

Cheers and thanks!

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I understand, but you shouldn't believe everything that Google says either. There are too many people around who think they know and even more conspiracy theories.

So, it was good that you were immune - maybe if the vaccines worked you might have gone sick. You were lucky, just as you said 😊

Cheers and !BEER
!invest_vote

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Now you have to give us some accreditation here Hannes 🤣
After studying for degrees, we surely know how to do accredited research and we only visit established medical sites. For instance, regarding pill side affects, one can look at the manufacturer's licensing submission to manufature the pills. They have to list all of the side effects after the trails prior to release 😜

Exactly what my mother used to say. After their second vaccination attempt I got sick and they decided to abandon it.

Cheers and thanks!

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Well, while I was writing that I already thought that you would reply something like that, but I thought I should write it anyway 😉

Cheers and !BEER
!invest_vote

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I like the one-legged hang from the leaf above :D

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Ah, you reminded me that I have done a post about one of these a long time ago that discusses the power of that one anchoring leg.

There's a question here in the comments, where I replied with a link to a site that shows that the bigger Robber flies can even catch Hummingbirds.

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Invasive species seem to be a problem everywhere with the rapid movement of people and goods contributing to it. We have US crayfish taking over our rivers.

Wasps are pretty amazing and very varied. People tend not to like them, but they control other species. There are wars going on all around us.

Stay well.

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Absolutely correct Sir Steve.

On that "invasives" site, they show us the severe damages that are caused by invasive fish to the health of our rivers.
Invasive "Borer" beetles are destroying our old oak trees and many other invasives are in action. They arrive in ships from South America, Europe and China.

You also take care my friend!

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We appreciate your work and your post has been manually curated by @nelinoeva on behalf of Amazing Nature Community. Keep up the good work!

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Every coin has another side, and your photography in this post has captured that reality so dramatically.

Gosh, you take such wonderful pictures.

When finding a blog that kindles my interest, I love clicking on the links included in a post to learn more about the subject, thanks for the info.

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Thank you kindly my friend and it was just fortunate that I chose to focus on the bird bath in the shade that I spotted this Robber fly. Our sun is fiercely hot now and the UV ray count is in the danger zone, so we are all advised to stay out of the sun.

I like to show with links what I am talking about, as I know that there are a few real readers (very few) on Hive and you are one of them. Glad that you liked them.

Cheers and !BEER

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Now that truly is #amazingnature. You photos are incredible. I read about the hummingbirds as prey for the wasps, hard to believe. We feed the hummingbirds all season long and just love to observe them. In fact, we often name them, silly names like fatso, or the mob boss, because we watch them chase each other away from the feeder. It's great, we always look forward to Spring when they return from their winter holiday in the south.
Nice post.

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I have the habit to answer every comment that I receive, but have now discovered a few lost ones due to our internet signal problem.
So please accept my apology.

I also couldn't believe that Robber flies and Mantids could catch something the size of Hummingbirds and it was indeed an eye opener.
All of our wild residents also have names, but one has to be very careful not to insult the squirrels by calling them the wrong name, as they all look identical 🤣
They do however have small differences and one gets used to them.

So great in Spring when the old friends arrive and yours should be a few months away.

Blessings and !WINE

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