Laurie Mannino, age 10, of Lansing Michigan for her question:

Are hornets good for anything?

Let’s face it, all living things are good for something, for all of them have their very special places to fill in the great global scheme of nature. True, hornets and several other creatures we could mention seem to do more harm than good, at least from the people point of view. Hornets, as we know, are stingers which can get ill tempered and jab their poison into our flesh.

It’s a pity that the hot tempered hornet has a nasty stinger. Otherwise, we might pay more attention to her better qualities. Young hornets devour pesky flies that contaminate our trash piles. They also gobble up greedy caterpillars that feed on our favorite vegetables. In this way, hornets are our friends and allies in the war against insect pests. Besides, hornets invented paper making and even if we are frightened of them, we just have to admire their clever papery nests