Category Archives: BEES & WASPS

Nature Notes (#466)~ Being Safe Around Social Wasps like Yellow Jackets.

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Join Nature Notes from Mondays at 11:00 pm EST  to Friday at 11:00 pm EST.

More information can be found at the top of the blog on a separate page, but it really is easy. What are you or have you seen and enjoyed in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike, or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? Do you garden? Have you read a good book on nature? 

Write a blog post with a photo, a story, a poem, anything goes because I love to see what Mother Nature is up to in your area. Please submit one blog post per week and link it back to Nature Notes in some way.

Below is last week’s Nature Notes’ blogger thumbnail photos in a collage. If your photos are protected and/or you don’t want me to use them, please let me know. Also listed are all the links to last week’s Nature Notes blog posts if you missed any.

1. Nature Footstep 7. Margi 13. GATE
2. Sallie (Full Time- Life) 8. Sunrise 14. TOADSTOOL
3. Pictografio 9. orchid( Japan) 15. PARADOXICAL BLOSSOM
4. Raquel 10. Lisa | Handmade in Israel 16. A Quiet Corner
5. Karen, Pixel Posts 11. Vilt og vakkert
6. Pat — Colorado 12. PARKLANDS SUNRISE

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I don’t think I did a good job last week talking about wasps. I was trying to say that wasps like mud daubers and other “solitary” wasps are not aggressive and in some cases have no stingers and don’t defend their solitary nests. Now “social wasps are another matter. These are yellow jackets, hornets and paper wasps who live in a colony. I never noticed a bald-faced hornet nest, nor was I bothered by them even though in the fall there was a huge nest in our tree. I have only been stung by yellow jackets when I stumbled into a ground nest.

Here is how to stay safe…

The mob mentality of social wasps can create a furious swarm when even just a single insect is aggravated, here’s the reason and why it matters.-Treehugger

There is nothing like a mad swarm of irked hornets or yellow jackets hot on your tail. It’s scary and potentially painful and for those with allergies, life-threatening. There are some who prescribe to the school of search and destroy – that eliminating wasp nests at all costs is the best approach. And obviously, if they present a clear danger, that’s understandable. But what many people don’t realize is that these weaponized insects happen to do a lot of good, despite their ability to inflict a bit of agony now and then.
There are many thousands of identified species of wasps, and although we are most familiar with the ones with whom we do battle with at picnics, there are many that do not sting. Wasps come in two styles, social and solitary – and in fact, most varieties are solitary and non-stinging. Colony-building social wasps, like hornets and yellow jackets, make up around 1,000 species.

But the remarkable thing about wasps, as National Geographic points out, is this: Nearly every pest insect on the planet is preyed upon by a wasp species, either for food or as a host for its parasitic larvae. Wasps are so adept at controlling pest populations that the agriculture industry now regularly deploys them to protect crops.

From flies to beetle larvae to every kind of garden pest that vexes, it’s likely that their numbers are controlled by wasps. Plus, wasps offer some pollinating services as well. While not as effective at getting pollen from one place to another as bees, wasps still do their best. And some species are rock stars when it comes to pollinating – fig wasps, for example, are responsible for pollinating almost 1,000 species of figs.

It behooves us to do our best to get along with wasps, and part of that is better understanding their behavior. Social wasps in distress send out a pheromone that is like a 911 call to the nearby colony; the result is a swarm of pissed-off wasps in an aggressive frenzy. (See more about that in the video below.)

So the best thing to do is to avoid angering even a single wasp. The UC Davis Integrated Pest Management program offers these tips to avoid bees and wasps, noting that unless a person collides with or swats one, they are unlikely to sting (and/or get mad and send out a call to the troops).

How to avoid wasps

  • Bees and wasps can be attracted to, or may react to, odors in the environment. It is best not to use perfume, cologne, or scented soaps if you are going into an area of bee and/or wasp activity.
  • Avoid going barefoot in vegetation, especially clover and blooming ground covers.
  • Also avoid wearing brightly colored or patterned clothing.
  • If you remain calm when a bee or wasp lands on your skin to inspect a smell or to get water if you are sweating heavily, the insect eventually will leave of its own accord. If you don’t want to wait for it to leave, gently and slowly brush it away with a piece of paper.
  • When swimming in pools, watch out for bees or wasps trapped on the surface of the water. If you find bees or wasps in the water, it’s best to remove them to avoid being stung.
  • Stinging incidents often occur when nesting areas of social insects are disturbed. Be observant of the area around you. If you see insects flying to and from a particular place, avoid it.

And while not provoking wasps is good, for bees it may be even more important – wasps can sting over and over, but a bee stings once and then it dies.

And bee populations need all the help they can get. So respect the bees and wasps and they’ll continue playing their important roles in the ecosystem … and you may have a few less stings to agonize over.

Learn More About Social Wasps.

Social Wasps-family Vespidae.

Social wasps such as the hornets, yellowjackets and paper wasps live in colonies in a fashion similar to the honey bees and ants. Most of the wasps in a colony are workers; i.e., the nest queen’s nonreproductive daughters that build the nest, gather food and care for the queen’s offspring.

paper wasp nest

Hornets build the familiar large nests of a paper-like material made from chewed wood mixed with saliva. Nests contain many tiers of cells covered by the outer shell with a single opening at the bottom. Hornet nests are usually located in wooded areas, attached to a tree branch, but may be attached to shrubs, utility poles or house siding. Each nest has only a few hundred workers that are about an inch long and dark with white, light yellow or cream colored markings on the abdomen, thorax, and face. Hornets can be aroused to sting in great numbers, but only when the nest is disturbed or threatened.

yellow jacket

Yellowjackets are honey bee size (about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long) and black with bright yellow markings. (Honey bees are golden or brown.) Yellowjackets build paper nests similar to hornets but either in the ground, a log or landscape timber or building wall or attic. Yellowjackets are commonly observed hovering back and forth at the small nest opening or around garbage cans and other areas where they forage for food. Nests may contain up to 5,000 workers, most of which never travel more than a few hundred yards from the nest while looking for food. Yellowjacket stings are quite painful, but the wasps are usually not aggressive except when disturbed at the nest.

yellow jacket nest

Paper wasps build the familiar umbrella shaped nests found hanging by a short stalk on the undersides of building eaves. Only a single tier of cells is constructed and there is no external covering over the nest. Each colony normally contains fewer than 25 wasps, but late in the season, the number may swell to over 100. Paper wasps are slightly longer and more slender than yellowjackets, and color is variable among the many species.

bald-faced hornet

A social wasp colony lasts only 1 year. Paper wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets build a new nest from scratch each year and do not reuse the previous year’s nest. The only wasps to overwinter are the fertilized queens. All the workers from a colony die with the first frosts.

bald faced hornet nest

 

What are you seeing in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? What do you find interesting in nature? Take a photo, write a post, a story, a poem, anything goes because I love to see what Mother Nature is up to in your area. PS..please check back and visit bloggers who post later in the week!——-

Have a wonderful week from Michelle

Nature Notes (#465)~ Mud Dauber Wasps Are Beneficial and Don’t Sting…

nature notes logo

Join Nature Notes from Mondays at 11:00 pm EST  to Friday at 11:00 pm EST.

More information can be found at the top of the blog on a separate page, but it really is easy. What are you or have you seen and enjoyed in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike, or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? Do you garden? Have you read a good book on nature? 

Write a blog post with a photo, a story, a poem, anything goes because I love to see what Mother Nature is up to in your area. Please submit one blog post per week and link it back to Nature Notes in some way.

Below is last week’s Nature Notes’ blogger thumbnail photos in a collage. If your photos are protected and/or you don’t want me to use them, please let me know. Also listed are all the links to last week’s Nature Notes blog posts if you missed any.

1. Pictografio 5. Karen, Pixel Posts 9. craftygreenpoet
2. Australia 6. Margi 10. RAINY DAY
3. betty – NZ 7. orchid( Japan) 11. MYSTERIOUS
4. Raquel 8. A spirit of simplicity

Solitary Wasps……Unlike Yellow Jackets and others who have a large community nest or social wasps.

mud dauber wasp nest

Up in the corner of the front porch, I found a mud-dauber nest and as I watched, she came back to work on it. Mud daubers do not defend the nest and are not aggressive even though they can sting and are solitary wasp species. The single female will construct the nest using mud and make individual chambers where a single egg is laid with food, many times a spider. The cells are then sealed up and abandoned.

black and yellow mud dauber, Sceliphron caementarium 

BLUE-MUD DAUBER WASP

I was able to watch a  blue mud dauber, (Chalybion californicum) make her nest. These wasps are metallic blue, blue-green or blackish in color with very short narrow waists.  During the summer, female blue mud daubers build nests by bringing water to abandoned mud nests made by other species of mud dauber wasps.  They form new mud chambers, stock them with paralyzed spiders and a single egg, then seal the chambers with more mud.  Their offspring stay in the chamber, feeding on the spiders, and then pupate in a thin silk cocoon.  They spend the winter in the nest, emerging the following spring as adults.

Below- You can see the lighter colors of mud where the wasp has opened the old black and yellow mud dauber’s nest cells and softened the mud to reuse it for her eggs.

Blue Mud Dauber Wasp

ORGAN PIPE or PIPE ORGAN WASP

Pipe Organ wasps are very “laid back” and rarely offer to sting anyone. They are quite large, and they are not intimidated by your presence, so, if they fly around you, they might be a bit frightening. However, there is nothing to fear….unless you want to try to hold them in your hand. They just “look you over,” then go about their business of building and provisioning their nests.

old organ pipe mud dauber nest

These creatures are also known for the architecture of their nests, which are tubular in style, and remind folks of organ pipes, hence another name. They make these nests of mud, which gives us a third name for them. Actually, they prefer high-quality clay, and have been known to lead people to clay deposits for use by potters.

Left- Pipe Organ Nest-Right-Mud Dauber Nest

Above these nests look very large but they aren’t at all. The one on the right has been reused for 4 years now by a blue mud dauber wasp who has taken the old nest. The lighter colors are holes with new mud. The nest on the left was made by an organ pipe mud dauber this week in one day. One day? I mean and the workmanship of these insects is amazing…

Something I learned in my research is that wasps are pollinators. According to my friend Dr. Beatriz Moisset

Wasps are very important pollinators. Wasps are insects, in the same Order, Hymenoptera, as bees and ants. Most familiar wasps belong to a group called the Aculeata. The word “Aculeata” refers to the defining feature of the group, the modification of their ovipositors into stingers, however not all members of Aculeata sting. In some members, the ovipositor is modified for a different function, such as laying eggs, or was entirely lost. This group is largely predatory or parasitic.

Wasps look like bees, but are generally not covered with fuzzy hairs. As a result, they are much less efficient in pollinating flowers, because pollen is less likely to stick to their bodies and to be moved from flower to flower.

So if these nests are not hurting you, these wasps are great at controlling spiders even dangerous one as they sting, paralyze and leave them for their offspring to eat…

What are you seeing in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? What do you find interesting in nature? Take a photo, write a post, a story, a poem, anything goes because I love to see what Mother Nature is up to in your area. PS..please check back and visit bloggers who post later in the week!——-

Have a wonderful week from Michelle