Billy Carroll Brown, Age 9, Of Haynesville., La., for his question:

What do wasps eat?

A squadron of yellow jackets may join you on a picnic. These big wasps devour your jam and sip your sweet soda. Do not argue with these uninvited guests, for they are armed with fierce stingers and are always eager to attack. The best move is to pack up quietly and find a more friendly spot for your picnic.

There are thousands of different wasps in the world.. And almost every kind of wasp has a diet of his own. But most of them need their special food only when they are young. The grownup wasps have wings to fly around, and all of them enjoy fruit juices, syrups and other sweet liquids.

A wasp develops in four stages. It starts life as an egg which hatches into a grubby larva. The larva becomes a sleepy pupa while it changes into a winged grownup wasp. Many of the wasps live in nests somewhat like their cousins., the bees, we call them the social wasps, because they live in family colonies. Other wasps live alone. These lonely insects are called the solitary wasps.

The cicada killer is a solitary wasp who lays her eggs in a small burrow, she uses her sting to paralyze a few cicada insects and drags them underground. When the eggs hatch into grubs, they find a pantry full of their favorite food. The mud dauber wasp makes a clay nest, and places her eggs in several cells. Then she stings and paralyzes a few spiders and puts them with the eggs. She also provides her children with beetle grubs and caterpillars. The potter wasp builds a small cup on a twig and places several cankerworms in it. A wasp egg is hung by a thread from the lid of the cup. When the hungry grub hatches from the egg., he can reach down and dine on his favorite caterpillar.

Gall wasps lay their eggs in oak twigs., rose roots and other woody plants, the plants swell up and grow bumpy galls around the eggs. When the larvae hatch,, they dine on plant food. Other wasp larvae feed on the leaves and twigs of their favorite plants.

The insects we call velvet ants are actually wasps. Many of them wear furry coats of vivid red and black, and the females have no wings. They raid the nests of bees and other wasps and devour their larvae. The fiercest velvet ant is called the cow killer but its sting is not quite powerful enough to kill a cow. The winged cow killer cannot sting at all., for only the .wingless female velvet ants have stingers.