# Did I imagine seeing this wasp behavior?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-seeing-this-wasp-behavior/511960
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 29, 2009, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-seeing-this-wasp-behavior/511960 "2009-09-29T09:00:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2009, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-seeing-this-wasp-behavior/511960/1 "2009-09-29T09:00:34Z")
Or perhaps mistake it?
I was looking out my apartment window, trying to find the source of the dead wasps I’ve been finding inside of late. I traced them to a crevice in the wall of my back porch. While watching this crack to confirm my theory, I could’ve sworn I saw a wasp drag an unmoving fellow wasp out of the crack, fly out over the porch railing into the grass expanse beyond, and drop it.
I have no idea how to search this, so I ask y’all: do wasps actually do what I thought I saw it do? If so, do other insects do that?
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### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2009, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-seeing-this-wasp-behavior/511960/2 "2009-09-29T11:22:16Z")
Ants do this. There was recently an article online in NewScientist (I think) about them finding the chemical that tells other ants that an ant is dead. They described putting a drop on a live ant, and other ants dragging it out of the nest.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2009, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-seeing-this-wasp-behavior/511960/3 "2009-09-29T11:22:53Z")
Entirely possible you saw that. Bees that live in hives do the same thing. Dragging the dead out of the nest helps keep the nest nice and tidy, avoids having decaying crap near the babies, and may help mitigate disease. All important things when living in dense clusters.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-seeing-this-wasp-behavior/511960/4 "2009-09-29T12:35:07Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#):
>
> Ants do this. There was recently an article online in NewScientist (I think) about them finding the chemical that tells other ants that an ant is dead. They described putting a drop on a live ant, and other ants dragging it out of the nest.
Ayup. I read that article too, and the amusing thing was that they kept dragging the ant out to dispose of him repeatedly, and of course he kept coming back in, only to get dragged out to the trash heap over and over again.
Man: Here’s one-
Cart-master: Ninepence.
Old Man: (feebly) I’m not dead!
Cart-master: (suprised) What?
Man: Nothing! Here’s your ninepence…
Old Man: I’m not dead!
Cart-master: 'Ere! 'E says 'e’s not dead!
Man: Yes he is.
Old Man: I’m not!
Cart-master: 'E isn’t?
Man: Well… he will be soon-- he’s very ill…
Old Man: I’m getting better!
Man: No you’re not, you’ll be stone dead in a moment.
Cart-master: I can’t take 'im like that! It’s against regulations!
Old Man: I don’t want to go on the cart…
Man: Oh, don’t be such a baby.
Cart-master: I can’t take 'im…
Old Man: I feel fine!
Man: Well, do us a favor…
Cart-master: I can’t!
Man: Can you hang around a couple of minutes? He won’t be long…
Cart-master: No, gotta get to Robinson’s, they lost nine today.
Man: Well, when’s your next round?
Cart-master: Thursday.
Old Man: I think I’ll go for a walk…
Man: You’re not fooling anyone, you know–
(to Cart-master) Look, isn’t there something you can do…?
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### Author:  [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-seeing-this-wasp-behavior/511960/5 "2009-09-29T17:07:08Z")
Ants not only remove their dead, they bury them. Everybody should have an ant farm at least once in their life.
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### Author:  [@Never\_Say\_Dice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Say_Dice)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2009, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-seeing-this-wasp-behavior/511960/6 "2009-09-30T14:18:33Z")
Mine all died. I never considered that it might be mass murder suicide like Jonestown,
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### Author:  [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2009, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-seeing-this-wasp-behavior/511960/7 "2009-09-30T14:33:20Z")
> [@Leaper](#):
>
> Or perhaps mistake it?
>
> I was looking out my apartment window, trying to find the source of the dead wasps I’ve been finding inside of late. I traced them to a crevice in the wall of my back porch. While watching this crack to confirm my theory, I could’ve sworn I saw a wasp drag an unmoving fellow wasp out of the crack, fly out over the porch railing into the grass expanse beyond, and drop it.
>
> I have no idea how to search this, so I ask y’all: do wasps actually do what I thought I saw it do? If so, do other insects do that?
Most highly social animals that live in tight quarters have evolved some method of dealing with the corpses of their fellow neighbors.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to keep living in such close quarters, millenia after millenia. Disease and decay, not to mention scavengers, would take over.