paper wasps

hi,
does anyone have a home remedy for getting rid of thease bees without using sprays they are becomming a big issue in my yard there in my grass on my fruit trees on my plants they stung me...... help thanks liz

If you have warps you probably will not have tomato worms. The wasps sting and paralyze various larva and stuff them in the tube of the nest, then lay their eggs on the larva. I have a lot of them under my eves and am never bothered.

I'd reply, but my answer would be to kill the SOBs and I'd probably get into trouble again! :-)

Seriously, I'll be back with some tips. These are BIG TIME problems for us cavity nesting bird lovers!!!!

Why don't we have emoticons here???

Mark

Mark, this is gardening foes. It's my understanding this is where someone comes to get advise on killing the pest, getting them to move on, whatever. If you know of a home remedy, please share it!

terryr,

I did add a smile to that. After the last DG war I was simply trying to add a bit of humor to another subject on non-native, invasive species. Here’s what I can do for the group. It isn’t my own recipe, but it’s made from a flower. I’m trying to fly under the radar and be a good boy. :-)

OK, this is yet another European invader. It isn’t a Bee. The European Paper Wasp doesn’t lay eggs in “tubes”, but does prey on caterpillars AND pest insects. It looks similar to our native Yellow Jacket Wasp, but has a slimmer, elongated abdomen. The native Yellow Jacket lives in ground nests, so they cannot be confused with the nest of the European Paper Wasp. The Paper Wasp builds an umbrella shaped nest, with honeycombed shaped larvae compartments. These are usually built under eves or other sheltered areas, such as Bluebird boxes! I just knocked down a Paper Wasp nest in a Purple Martin house today. You are not going to battle these beasts one at a time and win. You have to find the nests and destroy the queens. I hope that I’m not offending any European Paper Wasp lovers. :-) This is another unending battle that we will have to deal with. As with ALL non-native, invasive species they have the upper hand. We can only fight them, similar to the fight against gorilla terrorists. Reduce their numbers to the point where our native caterpillars and other native prey have a chance to survive.

Lizrainey,

This isn’t a home remedy, but I think that you are looking for something that is as close to organic as I can get for you. This is something that you may, or may not, know about.

“Water-based, biodegradable, natural botanical pyrethrum in a ready to use spray. Use indoors or out on aphids, whiteflies, mealy bugs, spider mites, etc. Approved for use on vegetables, houseplants, flowers and more. Non-aerosol. Pyrethrum is derived from the blossoms of the pyrethrum flower, Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium. Use up to the day of harvest. Two sizes packaged in a convenient ready-to-use trigger sprayer bottle. Contains Pyrethrins, 0.02% Piperonyl Butoxide Technical 0.20%; inert ingredients 99.78%.”

Link:

http://homeharvest.com/insectsprayspyrethrinbased.htm

Some other tips are provided below. Just ignore the references to poisons if you do not use poisons. I avoid poisons of any kind whenever possible.

“Every attempt should be made to limit suitable nest sites. Repair holes in walls, caulk cracks in soffits and eaves, and screen vents and louvers. Nests made early in the season by founding queens are easier to eliminate before workers are produced. During this period it is easy to knock down exposed nests and kill the queen. Nests that have several workers can be treated with a wasp and hornet spray. These sprays produce a stream of insecticides that can shoot up to 20 feet from the nozzle. Treatments should be made at night when all the workers and the queen are on the nest. Those nests located within eaves and soffits can be treated by applying an insecticidal dust to the openings of the voids. Blow the dust into the opening, taking care not to breathe dust that becomes airborne. Select a dust that is labeled for this type of application. Appropriate dusters available include bulb dusters and plunger or pump dusters. Pest control firms also provide services to control paper wasps.”

”This wasp is not attracted to the artificial lures nor will poison baits likely work because paper wasps require live prey. The only control now is to destroy individual nests as you encounter them with a Wasp & Hornet Spray . Be aware, however, that this wasp is an excellent predator of many pest insects.

So while they may be annoying at times they are probably doing your garden and landscape a lot of good! In some areas, however, this wasp may be having a negative impact on rare or endangered butterflies. Eventually, this invader species will be "found" by its own set of predators and parasites and will then begin to decline in numbers.”

“Start off the season with preventive measures such as filling holes and cracks around the house. When sealing hollow voids, especially pipes, plastic fence posts or mailbox posts without end caps, use stainless steel wool as a stuffer to keep critters out. Also, glass wool insulation and plastic mesh scrubbers can be used as inert plugs.

If a wasp nest is spotted, an aerosol spray can be effective. Follow instructions on pesticide labels and try to spray near or after dusk when most of the wasps are in the nest. The European paper wasp is protective of its nest, so spraying at night minimizes the number of wasps outside the nest that could attack.”

STELCO,
Ok, but YOU be the FIRST ONE to go spray with the NON poison, lol

The most effective anti aphid defense I have is paper wasps. The consume (before any lady bugs emerge) many of my aphid leaf borers and other less friendly garden pests. They become fruit and sweet eaters later but in their youth they wipe out my aphid and I love them. I easily can work side by side with the little buzzers and enjoy their mass attack on my first aphid infested plants. I love them and I'm a republican.

skidivur,

I didn't mention that these Wasps are not agressive, at all !!! (well hardly) I've only been stung once by a Paper Wasp and I deserved it. I just reach in and knock off nests with several wasps tending the brood. Today I grabbed a tough weed stem and used it to dislodge a nest in my Purple Martin housing. They didn't like it, I didn't get stung, the larvae will die, the fight goes on. Don't be very afraid of these and get rid of them when you can.

Soferdig,

That would be consistent with the republican way. Don’t worry about what it costs today and deal with the price later.

What’s next, religion? :-)

STELCO,
I was also trying to lighten with humor, but I think I may have been wrong. I must be confusing this type if insect with the ones that make the BIG GRAY PAPER nests.

I just want people to think that not just democrats are earth lovers. The only cost I can see is the control of the pesky aphid being much easier. Lady bugs arrive in Montana too late to get ahead of the already established aphid colonies. After all they are pregnate when born.

While I definitely understand the desire to limit non-native species, I would like to point out that there are more species of paper wasps than the European paper wasp - bug guide lists 12 others in two genera - so not all paper wasps should be considered non-native. My favorite - from when I lived in Florida - was a small species in the Mischocyttarus genus. I used to find them under palmetto fronds, and they would make a big show of buzzing at you, but didn't sting (they were cute when they did this). Though their species name was mexicanus, so I might be wrong and these might not be native - though I suspect that they might be, and that they just migrated up from Mexico perhaps. I'm pretty sure that I have red wasps (Polistes carolina) in my yard, though I'm not sure where they nest as I haven't seen a nest of theirs yet - they just cruise my garden a lot.


While I do agree that the paper wasps can be a pain sometimes - I think they sometimes pick off my swallowtail butterfly caterpillars - they also do a great job of patrolling my garden and lawn for insect pests (as do the yellow jackets when I am lucky enough to have a nest in the yard.) From experience with nests in inconvienient places (bird feeders, right near the door), early is the way to go in knocking down nests.

I will relay though that there might be something getting them at times though - perhaps good news for Stelco. I was observing a nest near a door I didn't use much except at night (I photograph moths) and one night the wasp wasn't there. Soon after, the nest disappeared entirely.

Here's a picture of a red wasp for those who'd like to know what they look like...

As mentioned by Night_Bloom, there are many native species that might easily be confused with the European Paper Wasp. Good news is that there is a lot of information on line about this particular species and many sites include photos as good as the photo Night_Bloom posted of the Red Wasp.

I have this system down pat. No chemicals either. The European Paper Wasp (Polistes dominulus) truly is non aggressive for all practical purposes and the workers really do need to be provoked before they will go for you. Removing their nest may be deemed provocation. I don my rose gloves (they go up to my elbow) and I grab the nest and toss it on the ground and I stomp on it with my foot. You can sometimes even get the Queen this way and I can assure you that anything in there will be dead. If the nest is too big to stomp on (generally they aren't allowed to get that big around here), I grab a tall kitchen garbage bag and toss it in the bag and then stomp on it. Nests that get out of control in hard to reach locations are left until late fall when the air temps are considerably cooler and P. dominulus is considerably less active. Those my husband gets down by using a ladder to get up to our eaves. They get bagged and tossed out with our regular garbage. It's the overwintering Queens you are going to really want to get because they will emerge to start their own colonies the following spring.

In my area, the only species that the European Paper Wasp could be confused with would be our native Yellowjackets and the Eastern Yellowjacket (Vespula maculifrons) is in this area and possibly our native Northern Paper Wasp (Polistes fuscatus) or the Common Paper Wasp (Polistes vulgaris) which is also in this area. They do have similar coloring to our Yellowjackets but their nests are very different and it's the nest you will be going for anyway. Same deal with our Common Paper Wasp as pertains to the nest. It's nest is very different in that they look like big footballs. As mentioned by stelco, the nests of the European Paper Wasp are very much like an umbrella or inverted mushroom cap.

If you have a digital camera and if you provide nest boxes for native species and if you come across any European Paper Wasp nests in your nest boxes, would you please take a moment to contact Dr. Eugene S. Morton at this e-mail address-
emorton@crc.si.edu

That being said, I suspect there will be research on this species surfacing left and right if there isn't already. The introduction of a voracious new paper-wasp (Polistes dominulus) that appears to seek out sheltered nest sites in densely populated areas doesn't look good at all for anyone out there attempting to create habitat for butterflies and moths or anyone out there trying to create habitat for native cavity nesters such as Bluebirds. For what it's worth, our native species of Polistes prey only on caterpillars and there is a precarious balance that is now being threatened as the introduced species of Polistes is documented preying on considerably more than just caterpillars.

In consideration of how this species has begun to dominate the landscape in just the past 20 years and in consideration of how most of their nests contain multiple Queens, I truly believe we might want to learn how to identify and destroy as many of their nests as is possible when we come across them. For me, I find them in my mailbox, up under the eaves to my home and my garage, in the kids' Little Tykes Playhouse, Bluebird nesting boxes, and even up in some of my outdoor lighting fixtures. They don't limit themselves to horizontal surfaces.

I did a little poking around on the Internet and came up with these sites for anyone interested-

http://www.livingwithbugs.com/epw.html

Very Interesting, I had already suspected this was occurring-
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug98/WaspQueen.bpf.html

http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/index.html#http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/EuPaperWasp.html

Great photos here-
http://triffophoto3.tripod.com/tpo/id26.html

Great link to nests here-
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05525.html

Great overview here-
http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~news/story.php?id=2918

hello all,
thank you for all the informative information you have all been a great help


thanks again liz

I just found a nest underneath a recessed area under the lip of an above ground 150 gallon stock tank that I use to heel in plants before I stick them in the ground. I knocked it out from underneath the lip.

stelco, here's what I used to take care of them after I stuck the other end of a fly swatter up there to dislodge the nest-

I have watched a nest in a clear light fixture out side my house and watched the queens busily making the nest and placing the eggs. Every time I walk up to the fixture and look closely they all pivot in the direction of my face and follow my face as I closely inspect the nest. They rapidly go back to work when I walk away. I have never seen any workers or queens leaving the nest to attack even though it is right next to our front door. We probably have over 50 nests under the eaves of our house. I see the paper wasps hard at work at the native bushes I keep to attract the aphid vs my chosen plants. I just look for wasps to find aphids.

They want you sofer! They need you sofer! They look to you as their leader. Can I interest you in my left stomping boot?

No you have to understand they were bored with laying eggs and needed a break to watch something more eventfull. Well I was the movie of the week. They followed my motion and studied my intentions. Quite facinating. No boot for any of the unwanted, weary, or down trodden paper wasps at my home. Me Casa Wasp Casa.

Too funny. Enjoy your faithful followers!

Can I send some Emerald Ash Borers your way? They are friendly, too.

Thanks for your picture, Equilibrium. It makes me pretty sure now that I don't have any of the European variety of paper wasp at my home. If I had waited for the bug guide page to fully load, I might've come to the same conclusion, but I wasn't that patient (I have dial-up.) I never realized how similar they do look to yellow jackets.

It seems that the only species I have seen are all some variation of red or brown. Here's the main one at my house that builds umbrella nests (see picture below). I was thinking that it was different from the red one I posted earlier, but it may not be - or it could be a similar species (it seems that both P. metricus and P. perplexus are similarly colored, though P. perplexus seems to prefer nesting in trees.)

The only black and yellow guys I've seen are my yellow jackets - I miss that colony I had near the fence last year. They were very entertaining to watch.

Here is the other umbrella nest building spcies that I have seen, Polistes dorsalis. It's also a variation on the red/brown coloration.

One more picture, because I couldn't resist. (Sorry) She's hard at work here, even if she did take over a butterfly box of my neighbor's (we share a small fish pond where the box hangs). The house stealing isn't much of a problem anyway; due to drought, we have very few butterflies here this year, and no Fritilaries at all.

I'm pretty sure that this one is a Polistes metricus, because her abdomen has the bumpy spot underneath that is described on bug guide for this species, bt she's a lot darker than my red wasp above.

After I took this picture, she fit herself into one of the slits (not this one, because she didn't like having her picture taken) and managed to fit her food for her babies in too.

Night_Bloom! Your photographs are awesome! I leave the native Yellowjackets alone too. They don't bother me at all.

Shoot!!! I have had to get rid of two of the yellow jacket nests in the past few years because they put their nests right where we are working. You should see mine bee nest removing outfit!!! Almost as good as my "copperhead looking for" outfit. ( My son's blue jeans over my shorts, high boots, long sleeve jacket zipped up all the way and baseball cap -and add the axe for the copperheads. My friends love it--I look so stupid-and hot!) I read that yellow jackets like white/light colors so thats what i wear for that outfit. They get excited and sometimes aggressive with dark colors -and also when you are attacking their nest, so black is a no no when going after the nest-white all the way!! Fortunately, all this is done before Labor Day!

Change can be good and in our global world we will be introducing many others. Those who can feed, breed, dominate, and overcome will be the ones who eventually rule. Or better yet will cross with the natives to make a meat eating machine to eliminate the aphid. We must think of the glass as half full. Man can not change what nature prefers. Well at least in the insect world.
Oh as far as the emerald ash borer they would starve to death in Montana. Though the bark beetle is active and I loose a few neighbor trees every year. They make good fire wood. Ponderosa has a good ability to pitch out the little buggers when the tree is not stressed with drought. Hence irrigation.

This message was edited Jul 24, 2006 10:40 AM

Who said we aren't thinking of the glass as half full sofer? Now, do you have any ideas of how Tigger can get out of that ridiculous get-up she described complete with boots and baseball cap to get rid of her "Garden Foes" ;) Chivalry isn't dead, help out the little lady there with any pearls of wisdom you may have.

Well, I have a bug pond in my garden. I watch the paper wasp land onto of the water, get a big gulp, and fly away.
I've watched them for the last few years. I have never seen a nest. But they are in my garden hunting all day. If they are not getting water, they are searching for their food on top and underneath all leaves.

I watched one pick up a grasshopper and fly away with it. That's when I decided that they were going to be my buddies. He could barely lift off. the grasshopper was 3x's his size.

Of course, I don't have a nest close by!! ...that I know of.
They usually fly to the woods (same path 100 times a day) from the bug pond to the woods.

I have my head in my plants all day long right with the bees, wasp, and all. My opinion they are not whatsoever aggressive to people, unless you swat at them.

I forgot to mention, I am highly allergic to bee and wasp stings. (hospitalization allergic) and I trust them.

OK Equil I personally like to work in my garden in a chiffon fabric that flows wavily in the wind from weed to weed as I pull the tender ones out. I think the wasps are afraid to sting me cause of what they might contract. When I was a child I was trapped in a log nest of yellow jackets and stung by them until I passed out. Now the stings don't ever bother me. So I never respond to buzzing except when they fly up my nose and then I just sneeze them out. We chiffon men are tough. You need to love the creatures of the wild so they never detect the fear that so many display. You know I am a WASP. White anglo-saxon prodestant
I know how aggressive the yellow jacket can be cause I pulled a hornet nest under my dads deck. I had to crawl on my hands and knees to reach them. I had a bee hat on and watched them hatefully probeing the netting over my eyes with repeated strikes. I just sat there and watch the anger at which they regarded me. After the experience I felt their loss and placed the nest in my dad's fishing nest and hung it in the back of the barn so they could continue their life purpose. I bonded with them. It was just after my divorce I could relate. LOL

Thanks for the visual of a manly man out tending his garden to start my day,

Didn't know you were a WASP, I'll be more careful discussing your brethren in the future ;)

I never feel the anger people have at the church. I can understand some of them. Anyway I saw an opera, Turandot and now I want silk floral, what do you call it, robe. LOL Hey is chiffon a fabric or a color? I have always wondered.
Bees and wasps have never bothered me so I can watch them when they are having life and it is facinating how they land on every green spot on a leaf and look at it. They must sense with eyes, not smell or touch. Picture a viewpoint of a wasp every time it goes past a human and sees the frantic windmill like motion. They must think we are a strange creature.

Er uh sofer... chiffon is a fabric. It's used to make a lot of wedding gowns, scarves, and camisoles. It is very sheer and drapes very well. It comes in every color of the rainbow and then some. I don't think I've ever seen a manly man like you wearing chiffon but I figure anything goes these days. I thought you knew it was a fabric frequently used by the garment industry. Does your wife know you wear chiffon out in the garden? I swear I need to send you both of my pink boots to complete your gardening ensemble.

My wife has seen me mostly in jeans. I thought that chiffon was a sensitive garment so I was just expressing my left brain...-....that all men have. Back to my Madame Butterfly.

I have quilt lined Carhartt Duck Coveralls! I'm stylin sofer! When I wear them I feel rugged or something. Must be my left brain kicking in but at least they are warm. I wonder if wearing chiffon in the summer would help keep the skeeters off of us. You might be onto something there. I hate wearing those microfiber skeeter suits because they don't breathe all that well and they are about the equivalent of wearing a Buzzing Bee costume on a 100F day at the County Fair.

I would think a wavy flowing garment would function like a horses tail wisping away any of the little buggers. If not they would give up trying to suck blood out of chiffon. I'm going to break into my DW closet and take a look for my bee/misquito garment. I remember my first Wagner Ring Cycle when the Valkires flew around above the stage in their chiffon capes making them appear to be flying. Ahh Valkires. (I wish I had a spell checker)

Chiffon moo moos (sp?) for all of us then! I'm so sick of getting bitten by mosquitoes it isn't even funny any more. I think I have bites on top of bites.

Are you referring to that ancient Nordic Corpse Goddess Valkyrie? Is there a circus show out there featuring an act in which Valkyries fly around in chiffon capes? I'm lost on this one, I've never seen the Wagner Ring Cycle. We only have Ringling Bros and Shriners Circuses around here. I did see Cirque du Soleil as well as the Siegfried and Roy shows and they were neat but I've never seen anything with flying Valkyries. Sounds cool to me.

Wagner wrote an Opera of four sets called Des Rings de Neublens or something like that which is 19 hours of Opera for the entire story to be told. It is held over 4 nights with a couple of nights off for meditation. It is the place where the saying "It aint over until the fat lady sings" where Brunehilda sings a lamentation for the death of Sigfried. Any way the Valkires are maidens of the heavens who sing a familar song as they catch our breath by their beauty by flying back and forth above the stage in chiffon. Quite the show at Seattle in 95 when I saw it. I was quite impressed. Because of the Opera my baseball buddy insisted that I get cleaned out by real music and I went to ACDC 4 nights later. What a week of music! Wagner and Angus Young! I have soared ever since.

Opera was never my thing unless you count Phantom of the Opera or others that are shorter (over in a few hours on the same night). I don't think I would have been able to sit through 19 hours for the whole story to be told but then I was never into tv soap operas either. Thanks for explaining it to poor uncultured me.