Now it shouldn't have mistakes in it. Friends, I have just not got a clue. Hoping for the best!
A blogging friend, CountryDew, just did a post about a wasp nest, with pictures.
This reminded me that we had had Western Yellow Jackets build inside the wall by a side slider years ago - they found a tiny hole in the stucco and up under the eave.
We let them live there for the season, and when they all cleared out we sealed the hole up. They were funny. At night, if we tapped on the wall, they sent out a little crew to Warriors to assess the threat. These brave little fellows lined the whole tiny entry with their heads and antenni all arrayed in a row.
Sort of like this but much more intense!
A few individuals got lost in the wall and worked their way through the opening of an exposed beam and into our Great Room. Those we handled very gingerly! After all, we didn't know what they would "tell" the others, while they lay dying, if we swatted them. Would they be able to give their "army" detailed instructions of how to find the same pathway in for a "defense of the nest"?
As a child, I was stung several times by bees and by hornets, black bodied and slender, not chubby like the YJs. It was the price of living on a farm with fruit trees and flowers. One year mother went to pick peaches from someone's trees; with this produce she brought home a creature that we knew as a Black Jacket. My first clue that it was there, was when it started biting away at my underarm. OUCH!
I still think the busy little Yellow Jackets are cute, as they go about their business of eating garden pests and sometimes fallen fruit, but especially when they land on a piece of lunch meat and start cutting perfectly round discs out of it to carry off to the nest. When they aren't cute is when they land on the hole at the top of your Soda can, peering in. This is especially BAD when you do not notice your "visitor" and pick up the drink and take a swig. This encounter can leave you both breathless and speechless for a time.
A blogging friend, CountryDew, just did a post about a wasp nest, with pictures.
This reminded me that we had had Western Yellow Jackets build inside the wall by a side slider years ago - they found a tiny hole in the stucco and up under the eave.
We let them live there for the season, and when they all cleared out we sealed the hole up. They were funny. At night, if we tapped on the wall, they sent out a little crew to Warriors to assess the threat. These brave little fellows lined the whole tiny entry with their heads and antenni all arrayed in a row.
Sort of like this but much more intense!
A few individuals got lost in the wall and worked their way through the opening of an exposed beam and into our Great Room. Those we handled very gingerly! After all, we didn't know what they would "tell" the others, while they lay dying, if we swatted them. Would they be able to give their "army" detailed instructions of how to find the same pathway in for a "defense of the nest"?
As a child, I was stung several times by bees and by hornets, black bodied and slender, not chubby like the YJs. It was the price of living on a farm with fruit trees and flowers. One year mother went to pick peaches from someone's trees; with this produce she brought home a creature that we knew as a Black Jacket. My first clue that it was there, was when it started biting away at my underarm. OUCH!
I still think the busy little Yellow Jackets are cute, as they go about their business of eating garden pests and sometimes fallen fruit, but especially when they land on a piece of lunch meat and start cutting perfectly round discs out of it to carry off to the nest. When they aren't cute is when they land on the hole at the top of your Soda can, peering in. This is especially BAD when you do not notice your "visitor" and pick up the drink and take a swig. This encounter can leave you both breathless and speechless for a time.
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| Think of them this way. They are important creatures who have a job to do. Just don't get between them and their food. That makes them sort of like a lion, only not so deadly. |
Great post. They can be annoying, but they are indeed very useful. Haven't seen many this year.
ReplyDeleteAs for hornets, we had a nest under the roof a few years ago and spent the summer watching them fly in and out, without anyone getting hurt. In Germany, hornets are protected by law and fiddling with or destroying a nest can be punishable up to a fine of 50,000 €. We should probably do the same for the YJs and the bees.