Surprises in the Viburnum

[urbpan]

While trimming some of the viburnum shrubs in the zoo, one of our horticulture department staff found these two large nests. The top one is belongs to aerial yellowjackets (probably Dolichovespula arenaria) and was discovered right above a pathway through the Children's Zoo. When I took it down I noticed that they had already started producing next year's queens.

The second one belongs to bald faced hornets Dolichovespula maculata, which are also yellowjackets (notice they are in the same genus) but are black and white instead of black and yellow. They are also much larger than most species of yellowjacket. I generally leave them alone since they are not as aggressive as some other species, and are beneficial predators of other insects. Some sources say they'll even prey on other yellowjacket species. Unfortunately this nest was discovered right over a picnic/special event area, so I took it down.

Comments

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

i just had to do a whole bunch of this.

needed to do work on the roof, and found a variety of stinging things within a 25x25 area. all apparently living together ...

basically, everything but bumble bees.

and yes, turns out i had honey bees living in a soffit hole.

i like that remote can sprayer. i like that a lot.

got the head net and hat (WIDE brim), clothes and scarf, but sometimes they tag me too. good thing it's just annoying for me.

the tree pruners are wonderful.

good "on contact bug be dead" that's even electrically rated. works pretty well, but they need to make bigger cans. i've not seen the kind you're using before. i used to have a case of something from an electrical contractor. that was like magic. 40 foot spray, instant death. had to clean out a barn that was infested. that was amazing.

the sticky trap looks awesome though. is it the color? or is it attractive to them in some way?

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[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Dunno why the sticky trap works! It's sold for flies but it works great for wasps as long as you put it in the right place. You can also bait it with a food lure--I use sweet and sour sauce for yellow jackets--and hang it near trash to help with those issues.

I'd be interested in seeing the bigger aerosol cans--sucks to blast out 8 bucks worth of juice for every nest but not a lot of choice. I was using a botanical (mint) spray that worked just as well but cost a bit more, for PR reasons, but it's no longer available. Wasp Freeze seems to be standard issues with the pros.