Wasps

[Steveruch]

This tree was removed from our property by the electric company. Several days ago we noticed a bunch of wasps seem to have possibly taken up residence in the stump.

 

[MaxStout]

They look like yellowjackets. Hopefully they won't start a colony. They might be there only to sample the tasty sap.

 

[Steveruch]

They do look like yellow jackets. The stump was poisened with copper sulfate. I assumed that there wouldn't be anything good left for them to feed on.

 

[MaxStout]

They do look like yellow jackets. The stump was poisened with copper sulfate. I assumed that there wouldn't be anything good left for them to feed on.

That would probably kill them if they ate it. Hard to tell from the pic, but they may be grabbing bits of bark or sawdust to make their nest material. We get lots of paper wasps on our wooden fence, scrounging wood fiber. Maybe yellowjackets do the same.

Keep an eye on it (from a safe distance), in case they form a nest. My neighbor got 15-20 stings when she mowed her lawn last week. There was an underground nest and when she passed over it the whole damn colony came after her. Luckily, she's not allergic, but she still went to the ER as a precaution.

I like paper wasps--they are not aggressive and are beneficial. Yellowjackets, OTOH, suck.

 

[Dland]

Looks to me they are feeding, have seen them in sap wounds before. Even yellow jackets will usually not attack while feeding, but they are one of the most aggressive defending their nests.

Almost all of the insects in that order are beneficial, unless nest is too close to where people walk. Have seen yellow jackets defend up tp 10 foot perimeter, in contrast, white faced hornets (technically wasps also) usually defend about a 5 foot perimeter, and will usually not attack occasional passer by even closer.

Most other wasps are even less aggressive, although the European brown wasps have surprised me a few times. Got to watch for them around here' as they will build nests in un used vehicles and machinery pretty rapidly.

 

[passedpawn]

Yellow jackets. Been stung by lots of them. They will make a nest in the ground and, when disturbed, unleash holy hell on anything that moves. I dump gas down their holes, that does it.

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

Yellow jackets are flying ********! Been stung by them more times than I care to remember.

 

[passedpawn]

We have a lot of mud daubers around my house - got a little creek that runs along the long eastern edge of my yard. They are one of those wasps with the very skinny abdomen. They are always around but never touch me when I'm working back there.

(they get their name because the go into the creek, grab a bit of mud, then make little mud homes on walls and soffits, etc).

 

[csantoni]

I refill the bait in this yellowjacket trap every couple of weeks from May to October. Fortunately, these little a**holes like to eat their own dead.

 

[MaxStout]

In the case of my neighbor (I mentioned above), we found the entrance hole and put a funnel in it. Then poured insecticide, filling the funnel, and came back the next day. No more wasps.

CSB:
Several years ago we came home from vacation to find that a colony of bald-faced hornets had built a football-sized nest under the eave near our patio. I bought a couple cans of hornet spray and waited till sunset, when they'd all be back in the nest. I went out there with a flashlight, sprayed the stuff all over the nest and fled. No stings.

Next morning I went out and saw no activity, and lots of dead sentries on the ground below. I sprayed it with the hose to knock it down and soon discovered that the nest has several concentric layers inside, with lots of living hornets untouched by the spray.

They were not happy to see me.

The nest looked like the Death Star after it was blown up. With thousands of buzzing hornets. I got away without a single sting and waited till sunset again. I came back, emptied the first can, AND the entire second can onto the busted nest. Next day: no surviving hornets and no stings on me.

I was lucky. Next time I find one of those I'll call the Orkin guy.
/CSB

 

[Sunfire96]

Was cleaning under the deck with my dad as a kid and we got to a huge stack of paper/cardboard garden trays. He pulled a big section up and unearthed a massive yellow jacket nest we ran up and down the yard and eventually jumped into the swimming pool to get away from those f*ckers

 

[InspectorJon]

I'm a home inspector. I saw yellow jackets flying in and out of a small hole in an exterior wall of a bedroom one time. I went inside and tapped on the drywall to see what would happen. There was nothing left of the drywall except the paper facing. The end of my flashlight went right through the paper and I was left standing there with my flashlight plugging the hole with hell waiting for me to pull it out.

I eventually had to pull it out. When I did, I ran and slammed the bedroom door behind me on the way out. I got a couple of stings on the back of my neck. When I went back a couple hours later to check on the situation there were thousands of dead yellow jackets on the floor and furniture. I'm not sure what caused them all to die. I was glad they did.

 

[dwhite60]

I got called out to work on an air compressor one time. Middle of summer, hot, sticky. Companies used to like to keep their compressors outside enclosed in just enough plywood to keep most of the rain off.

Anyway, I meet their maintenance guys. We walk around the building and they point me in the direction . I got kind of curious about why they stayed behind watching me. I cracked the door on their little shed and there were probably 5000 yellow jackets in there. One compressor was running so with the noise I must not have gotten their attention.

I closed the door, went to my truck and wrote a ticket for the time and mileage. Told them to get the wasps out and call me back. They weren't happy with the bill but I told them I was a mechanic, not an exterminator.

Jerks.

 

[matt_m]

My rule is if they aren’t bees, kill them.

 

[MaxStout]

My rule is if they aren’t bees, kill them.

With fire.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

I dump gas down their holes, that does it.

Same here. I figure they must be diesel powered, because they definitely don't like petrol.

 

[Steveruch]

If they leave us alone, we'll leave them alone. The winter freeze will kill off all but the queen who will relocate to another nesting site in the spring: problem solved.

 

[seatazzz]

There's been a few sightings of the murder hornets up here. Few weeks ago when we were cleaning out the garage, something HUGE that might have been one of them flew into the garage. Both the husband and I fled screaming like little girls. It finally flew away but that thing was monstrous. Few years ago we had a hornet nest hanging from the fascia board in the backyard; we sprayed the hell out of it with wasp killer and ran. They went away.

Husband hates spiders, but I absolutely refuse to kill them if they're outside; best bug killers in the world. If I catch one in the house, it gets caught and released outside without hurting it if possible. And I always apologize when I blast through one of their webs, when a new one sets up house and doesn't yet know where we go through to get to the cars in the driveway. They do learn eventually. We had one several years back that lasted at least 2 years (might have been subsequent generations, but they/it looked the same to me) and occasionally had several flies/stinging things wrapped up for later consumption.

 

[Brooothru]

There's been a few sightings of the murder hornets up here. Few weeks ago when we were cleaning out the garage, something HUGE that might have been one of them flew into the garage. Both the husband and I fled screaming like little girls. It finally flew away but that thing was monstrous. Few years ago we had a hornet nest hanging from the fascia board in the backyard; we sprayed the hell out of it with wasp killer and ran. They went away.

Husband hates spiders, but I absolutely refuse to kill them if they're outside; best bug killers in the world. If I catch one in the house, it gets caught and released outside without hurting it if possible. And I always apologize when I blast through one of their webs, when a new one sets up house and doesn't yet know where we go through to get to the cars in the driveway. They do learn eventually. We had one several years back that lasted at least 2 years (might have been subsequent generations, but they/it looked the same to me) and occasionally had several flies/stinging things wrapped up for later consumption.

SWMBO and I were camping in the Blue Ridge mountains last week. The last night there she went inside the camper van after something, followed by a shriek and quick exit, saying she'd been stung twice by something huge that attacked her and was wildly flying around. I went in armed with a fly swatter and luckily got him before he got me.

Now I've been bitten and stung by the best of them, but I couldn't immediately identify what it was. It was about the size of a bumble bee but shaped more like a wasp. Whatever it was, my wife was sporting a large welt on her face and one on her hand. So I treated with normal first aid and monitored for anaphylaxis. By bedtime she was in moderate pain and the sting site was warm and swelling a bit. She took a benadryl which brought some relief and allowed her to sleep, but I kept waking up and checking on her.

The next morning it occurred to me that it might have been a cicada killer, even though the Brood X is mostly gone into hiding for another 17 years (lots of annual cicadas in the woods however). I googled a picture and it did look like a cicada killer, but it also looked like a Murder Hornet.

Supposedly the Murder Hornets are only being found in your 'neck of the woods' and haven't yet migrated to the East Coast. I did retrieve the carcass from the trash and am trying to find some entomologist to get a positive ID on the thing. It was very aggressive (more so than even yellow jackets) and attacked unprovoked. The swelling and discomfort my wife felt took about three days to subside.

Whatever it was, that sucker was nasty.

 

[MaxStout]

Coyote Peterson vs Murder Hornet.
(FF to about 11:20 if you want to cut to the sting scene)

 

[oakbarn]

cicada killers are huge

 

[passedpawn]

Coyote Peterson vs Murder Hornet.
(FF to about 11:20 if you want to cut to the sting scene)

Pfft. I've been stung and bit by everything, I'll have to chalk that video up to clickbait (until I get bit/stung by a murder hornet, then I'll check back). Even if it's much worse than stings I've experienced before, I've done some pretty bad things to my body and didn't act like that guy. I'm not a tough guy, but I don't make a bunch of noise about it. (well, I curse a bit ).

 

[Snark_Wolf_Brewing]

With fire.

Lots and lots of fire...

 

[Brooothru]

cicada killers are huge

Yeah, after watching that video, I'm pretty sure whatever stung my wife was NOT a Murder Hornet since she didn't whine like a .... well, little girl like Cameron did. Also the face and head weren't that bright Burnt Umber color and it didn't have as prominent a mandible. It was pretty large however.

 

[Kent88]

Well, I managed to make it over 33 years unstung.

On a bike ride with the family I suddenly felt a nasty pain above my left knee. It all happened pretty fast so I have no idea what kind of little stripy witch got me. I didn't find a stinger in my leg so I assume it was a wasp or a yellowjacket.

I iced it for a while and that seems to work, but now I'd like to go to sleep, and in anticipation of that I put away the icepack because I can't keep that on my leg and fall asleep I'm still getting random shooting pain that is going to make it difficult to fall asleep.

 

[madscientist451]

If they leave us alone, we'll leave them alone. The winter freeze will kill off all but the queen who will relocate to another nesting site in the spring: problem solved.

This is OK of you just stay in your house. The late summer and fall is when they are most active. My whole arm will swell up if I get a sting on my hand, so if I spot any yellowjackets, they have to die.

 

[Brooothru]

This is OK of you just stay in your house. The late summer and fall is when they are most active. My whole arm will swell up if I get a sting on my hand, so if I spot any yellowjackets, they have to die.

Better them than you. I had a coworker years ago who was mowing a field on his tractor when he passed over a nest of some stinging, ground nesting thing. He was stung a hundred or more times and was likely dead before he hit the ground. Severe reaction and anafalactic shock.

 

[Rob2010SS]

We had a problem with yellow jackets last summer. Somehow, they were either getting in our house or had a nest in our house. In one Saturday, killed 33 of them b*stards! They'd show up in our living room 1 by 1 and I'd have to kill them. Called our pest control guy and he could not find a nest in the house or find where they were getting in. After a while, they stopped showing up and never did figure out where they were coming from.

 

[Steveruch]

This is OK of you just stay in your house. The late summer and fall is when they are most active. My whole arm will swell up if I get a sting on my hand, so if I spot any yellowjackets, they have to die.

The last couple of times I looked I didn't see any more yellow jackets, but did see one regular wasp. It looks like they were just gathering up sawdust to build a nest somewhere else.

 

[squibload]

Brake cleaner kills 'em dead.

Think mine are paper wasps but they look like yellowjackets.
I made a couple pop bottle wasp traps (see yootoob), cut the top off a plastic bottle, invert, stick it in the bottom part. Looks like a funnel.
Add water, a little vinegar, sugar maybe, raisins, whatever.
Poke holes & hang it up with string. Catches a bunch.

The big red wasps back in Texas are so tough you can cock your finger against your thumb, stick it next to 'em, they'll turn around and look at it.
Then you flick 'em in the face. Good party trick.