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Do wasps pollinate anything?

PollinationReviewed 2026-08-03

Short answerTrueEstablished evidence

Yes, though far less than bees. Wasps visit flowers for nectar and pollinate incidentally, and one group — fig wasps — is the sole pollinator of around 900 fig species. Their larger ecological contribution is predation: social wasps remove enormous numbers of caterpillars and aphids.

Where the belief comes from

Wasps have a reputation as the useless, aggressive counterpart to bees, sustained by late-summer encounters at picnics — which is exactly when a colony's brood has finished and the workers switch from hunting protein to seeking sugar. The behaviour people find intolerable occupies about three weeks of the year.

Why wasps are worse pollinators than bees

Bees are hairy and wasps are largely smooth. Pollen sticks to a furry bee and slides off a shining wasp, which is the single biggest reason for the difference. Bees also actively collect pollen to feed their larvae; wasps feed their larvae on insects and visit flowers only for their own fuel.

Wasps do pollinate incidentally, and for a small number of plants they are the principal or only pollinator.

The fig wasps

Around 900 species of fig are pollinated by fig wasps, and the relationship is obligate on both sides — most figs are pollinated by one wasp species and that wasp breeds nowhere else. The female enters the fig through a narrow opening, losing her wings and antennae doing so, pollinates the flowers inside, lays her eggs and dies there.

What wasps actually do for a garden

  • Predation. A single social wasp nest removes many thousands of caterpillars, aphids and flies over a season.
  • Parasitoid wasps — a vastly larger and mostly tiny group — are among the most important agents of natural pest control there is.
  • Incidental pollination of ivy, hogweed, figwort and other open-flowered plants.
  • Scavenging. Wasps clear carrion and waste.

Figwort is worth singling out: its small dull red flowers are worked almost exclusively by wasps, and it is one of the few plants in a European garden that is genuinely a wasp plant.

What to do about them

A nest more than a few metres from where people pass generally needs nothing. The colony dies in autumn, the nest is never reused, and its removal costs the garden a season of pest control. If a nest is in a doorway or a wall in use, that is a different question.

Late-summer nuisance is manageable: keep sugary drinks covered, do not swat, and move slowly. A wasp near food is looking for sugar and is not defending anything.

The claims behind this answer

Established evidence

Supported by systematic reviews, meta-analyses or clinical/regulatory guidance. The claim would survive a careful reader checking it.

Established evidence

Around 900 fig species depend on fig wasps for pollination, in an obligate mutualism.

The fig and fig wasp relationship is among the most studied obligate mutualisms in biology. Most fig species are pollinated by a single specific agaonid wasp species which reproduces only inside that fig. Neither partner can reproduce without the other, and the relationship is estimated to be around 75 million years old.

What this does not claim: This does not claim wasps are significant pollinators generally. Outside the fig system their pollination contribution is modest, and their larger ecological role is predation.

  • Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production — Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) (2016) · Systematic review Link
  • The Bees of the World — Johns Hopkins University Press (2007) · Textbook

Sources

  • Assessment Report on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production — Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) (2016) · Systematic review Link
  • Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide

How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.

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