Wasps

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Brucey
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Re: Wasps

Post by Brucey »

In the UK anyway, most bumble bee species are endangered, relatively harmless (they are not aggressive by nature) and furthermore only form small colonies; typically a couple of hundred bees.

The usual recommendation is that (if you possibly can) you may was well leave them be; the colony will only be very active in the height of summer and if there is any significant deterrent they won't build a fresh colony the following year. If you destroy a bumble bee colony then the remnants can rot or you can be troubled by other bees and wasps robbing it out.

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Re: Wasps

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Well taken, but I have a unique situation being in AZ where we literally have warm weather all year round. I came home one afternoon to find my house in an uproar as an 8X10" wall in my family room was solid black with bees. I called the exterminator who explained they had come down the fireplace chimney and were scouts looking for a new place to settle. He squirted the crap out of them with who knows what and 2 hours later they were gone never to return
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Re: Wasps

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I will have to agree with that. Even though we have warm weather all year round in AZ, it is not until the warmer part of spring when the plants start to bloom am I aware of both bee and wasp activity. I actually never gave it a thought until Brucey just brought it up. So even though we don't have cold winters, the little buggers must have some king of internal time clock that tells them when to get started
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Brucey
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Re: Wasps

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If you suddenly find that many bees then ( in most places, AZ may be different *) they would be honey bees. The bees are just doing what comes naturally; for the species to survive one colony has to be able to turn into several (in any one year any given colony might fail and die out so maintaining the status quo is not good enough) and swarming is the method that honey bees use. Wasps generate new colonies by having solitary mated queens overwinter, each of which is then capable of starting a new colony in the spring. Honey bees are different; the queen cannot survive in isolation, she at least needs a retinue of worker bees. So honey bees overwinter as a colony, and they simply divide the colony, typically in late spring/early summer; typically the old queen departs in a swarm with about half the worker bees and half the honey from the hive.

If you keep bees, swarming is bad news, because you lose a good part of your honey crop. The remaining part of the old colony will nearly always have young queen bees that hatch out soon after the swarm has departed, but they fight amongst themselves until there is one left, that remaining queen then takes several weeks to mate and then start laying fresh eggs, so for weeks after a swarm has gone, the colony will be weak and unproductive.

A swarm may contain 20000 or 30000 bees and they do indeed look for a new home; they may spend several days looking for somewhere that suits them, sending scouts out until one comes back with a really strong signal that it has found somewhere nice. When the swarm first emerges the bees are full of honey, are fairly quiescent, and are unlikely to sting. However if the swarm has been out for several days and hasn't yet settled, and/or the weather is bad, the bees can be a bit more fractious, because they are not foraging and they will be getting hungry. In a swarm, the bees emit a strong pheromone that keeps the bees in the swarm docile and wanting to cling together. Unusually this pheromone is so powerful that you can often smell it in a swarm; it smells of peardrops. You can use a synthesised version of the chemical to cause bees to adopt swarming behaviour; this is how folk do the 'beard of bees' trick.

If you find a swarm you can call an exterminator of course but in many places (e.g. most of the UK) there is an alternative; many beekeeping associations offer a (usually free) swarm collection service. If you find a swarm hanging from the branch of a tree then simply placing a container above them (such as an inverted cardboard box, set over a broomhandle or something) will usually be enough to cause the bees to climb upwards instinctively. If the broomhandle is placed vertically within the swarm, the bees will simply use it like a ladder. Often they will just climb into the box of their own accord over a period of twenty minutes or so. If you tap or vibrate the broomhandle this seems to give the bees a bit of a hurry-up. When the bees have climbed inside the box can then be closed and the swarm taken away, where it can be used to bolster an existing colony or start a new one.

(*) Honey bees are having a hard time the world over; they are under pressure from disease, crop pesticides seem to harm them in ways that are not fully understood, and in some places (eg south/central america and the southern parts of the USA) wild bees are hybridising with Africanised, or so -called 'killer bees'. Some nutcase let African bees out into the wild in Brazil several decades ago; they have been spreading northwards ever since, and are able to breed with the normal type of honey bees. It is thought that their northern limit is set by the severity of winter frosts; Africanised bees don't build their colony inside a structure; their habit is to build a single large honeycomb outdoors and this means fully africanised bees can't survive any severe winter weather. These bees are however more agressive than usual honey bees; they need to be to defend their (relatively exposed) colony from attack. So normal honey bees, once riled, may follow you for fifty or a hundred yards or so, and most folk manage to run away before they are very badly stung, but africanised bees may follow for ten or twenty times the distance and this can be fatal.

So with the caveat that in some places they just might be Africanised bees, it is usually not only possible but also preferable to get a swarm removed rather than exterminated. It is thought that honey bees help to pollinate a good portion of the world's food crops and from this POV helping to keep a healthy bee population can only be a good thing.

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Re: Wasps

Post by Pod »

The horror has started again ☹️

Hopefully it’ll raise a laugh in these difficult times 😁

Why is it than when you’re in the bathroom, butt naked, they tend to appear? Last year I was in the bath, which is bad enough. Yesterday morning I was sitting on the can when one decided to make its appearance. I guess timing is everything .............😱

Luckily I was able to whack it with a book I was reading, then flatten it before I got stung!

One less potential nest!

2020 Score: Pod 1 - Queen Wasps 0
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Re: Wasps

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Especially frightening to me. I'm allergic!

They seem to seek me out no matter where I am. I was sitting in a church full of people and one came directly to me, stung me on the back of my thumb (still have the scar!) I had to get out to take meds before I reacted. My dad said God was trying to tell me something. I was a bit of a wild man back then.
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Re: Wasps

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I was in Russia and this nasty little black one kept buzzing me. I kept swatting and It disappeared. It was drizzling out and I put my hand on my umbrella handle and felt a sting 5 minutes later I was in massive massive pain throughout my whole arm. I have a high pain tolerance and this was beyond it. We were in the boonies on a river cruise in some hick town and I didn't know what to do. Luckily it subsided in 20 minutes. It scared the shit out of me. I keep think it was a communist breed of bee.
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Re: Wasps

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bpoliakoff wrote: Thu Apr 09, 2020 11:43 pm I was in Russia and this nasty little black one kept buzzing me. I kept swatting and It disappeared. It was drizzling out and I put my hand on my umbrella handle and felt a sting 5 minutes later I was in massive massive pain throughout my whole arm. I have a high pain tolerance and this was beyond it. We were in the boonies on a river cruise in some hick town and I didn't know what to do. Luckily it subsided in 20 minutes. It scared the shit out of me. I keep think it was a communist breed of bee.
You have to watch Russkies with umbrellas. There was one famous instance a few years ago in London where a Russian defector was poked with an umbrella with a poisonous tip, by a KGB man.

Killed him.

So I'm pleased your Russian assailant only caused you 20 minutes of pain, Bert :wink:
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Re: Wasps

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My Dad was born in Russia to a wealthy family. Fuckers ran them out during the Bolshevik Revolution without anything but their umbrellas(bumbershoots to you) and no bees. I guess that's better than nothing. He was umbrella safe. In fact I don''t remember ever seeing him with an umbrella
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Pod
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Re: Wasps

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I've started my regular patrols with a torch peering up into the corners and rafters searching for newly-started nests. Always best to get them before they get established :wink:

I saw just one golf ball sized creation hanging from the ceiling, so went to get the wasp killer spray. Couldn't find it anywhere. I then remembered that I had read somewhere that WD-40 was a good alternative. I did a Google search and was pleased to find that it is indeed recommended as it blocks their breathing tubes, causing them to die. Great!

I quickly returned to the garage with a large can of the aforesaid WD-40 and proceeded to assault the bugger with a large amount of spray. This battle went around the garage with the queen wasp hiding behind the fluorescent tubes and then flying out towards me with, I presume, the intention of carrying out a Kamikaze attack on my unprotected head, only to be met with determined defensive sprays from yours truly. In the end, it buzzed off out of reach to (I presumed) die.

I marked this down as a "probable kill", but decided not to destroy the nest until I had seen that building work had definitely ceased. Yesterday I was very surprised to see that the nest had grown somewhat with a small cluster of new cells hanging down from inside the "golfball". Bad news as I had no idea how long it takes for new wasps to hatch! Anyway, I decided not to bother with the WD-40 again and was lucky enough to find a brand new can of wasp nest destroyer.

So this is where my tale gets complicated. Early evening I sprayed the nest with the aerosol can which actually knocked it off the ceiling. I then saw the queen which was still on the ceiling next to the adjacent roof joist, an inch or so away from where the nest had been hanging. A quick spray and it dropped down into a pile of dismantled car parts, so I could not see it. The strange thing is, just before I got it, I noticed how large it was. Significantly bigger than I remembered from my previous "battle" with the WD-40. Now, was I hallucinating (no beers consumed prior to my attack) or was it a totally different wasp? This begs the question as to whether a queen wasp will take over the constrution of an abandoned nest. I wouldn't have thought so............................
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Re: Wasps

Post by Pod »

A bit late starting off this year.....

Last week, I checked my buildings for new nests and all clear. Three days later and I see that a new nest is under construction, already the size of a tennis ball. This queen wasn't hanging around!

I zapped the nest with one of those "long distance" aerosol destroyers which promptly knocked the nest off the ceiling and into a great pile of E24 interior parts which I cannot easily access :( . Now, is the nest destroyed - or will the queen continue to build it 'in situ' ?

Watch this space......
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Re: Wasps

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It's done. They won't attempt to restart construction on that nest. They may try creating a new one close to that same spot.
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Post by Jlc »

GazM3 wrote: Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:13 am I enjoy a good wasp removal story.

Wasps don't really add much value to society. Are they food for anything.?
They actually are important pollinators, some plants only pollinate via wasps. Some also prey on insects and spiders.

http://blog.umd.edu/agronomynews/2020/0 ... llinators/
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Re: Wasps

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hornhospital wrote: Fri May 28, 2021 2:12 am It's done. They won't attempt to restart construction on that nest. They may try creating a new one close to that same spot.
So far, so good. I've been checking every couple of days and no new construction. Last year I bought one of those blue light "zappers" they use in the catering industry which I've been leaving on for a few hours each day. The problem is, I have two buildiings, so can only utilise it in one place as its a hassle to move.

Potential new problem is what I'm pretty sure is a very large Hornet I've seen a couple of times at the end of my back garden. I'm hoping she's not buuilding a nest up there [-o<
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Re: Wasps

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20210601_143128.jpg
20210601_143128.jpg (205.93 KiB) Viewed 7704 times
Not a "murder hornet" I hope! :shock: [-o< [-X
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Re: Wasps

Post by Pod »

Latest chapter.........................

I had a palm tree in a raised bed in my garden which died, fell down having broken off at ground level and then sprouted several new "babies" before I had the chance to dig out the old roots. So I left them. These have been growing happily for about 5-6 years. This Spring, I saw some flying creatures going into the general area between the new trunks and had a good look at them. Definitely small, dark bees, no doubt about it. So I left them alone as I am well aware how important these pollinators are for us all!

After a few weeks, the frequency of their comings and goings seemed to increase somewhat and it was becoming difficult to walk past the location without these little "bees" flying into me, often around head height (I bet you know where this is going!!!). Eventually I had to rush past waving my hands in front of me to avoid being struck in the face. This continued for a few weeks, when one particularly sunny day I looked out of the window and noted that the "bees" looked quite yellow as they gained altitude out of the nest to fly over my neighbour's wall. They also appeared larger than I remembered. Wasps? Couldn't be! (I had carefully checked a couple of months before, hadn't I?) Anyway, I unearthed my Heath Robinson wasp-vacuum equipment and set it up to catch a few of the critters. The next day, my worst fears were realised. The tub contained a fair number of very small wasps. I had been unable to get the end of the tube right up to the nest and obviously only the weaker, newly hatched wasps were getting caught and not the larger, stronger individuals which could fly past the nozzle.

So far I have used two cans of foaming nest destroyer and most of a powder squirter, which have reduced the numbers, but not killed them all off. It is not possible to get close enough to the location without risking getting a swarm of angry wasps in my face! I am concerned, of course, that all the new queens will leave the nest soon and over-winter, causing me grief next Spring :(

Additionally, I have noticed a hornet upon a couple of occasions in the vacinity of the nest (but the nest is certainly a wasps nest) and also, most surprisingly, honey bees and bumble bees visiting flowers right next to the wasps nest with, apparently, impunity!

So what do you guys think? Is it possible for wasps to 'take over' a bees nest? As matters stand, it has become rather too risky to pass near to the nest at any time. I have gone out pre-dawn and at dusk to attack with the foam, but there are always wasps flying around and I consider myself fortunate not to have been stung yet. Probably only a matter of time....................................... :-"
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