wasps

We moved here several months ago and found two different types of nests everywhere. Now with the warmer weather hitting, we have wasps literally coming out of the woodwork. It looks like they are nesting in the attic (see them going thru the vents), see them going into the gutters, my back deck is crawling with them. I have a 6 year old child and dogs, one which is allergic to bee stings and I have no idea if that translates to wasps. My DD is terrified to even go outside right now. I'm not exactly sure what these are but here is a picture of one of the wasps and I've taken a picture of both types of nests we've found. One is a paper nest, and one is mud.
What are these? Are they aggressive? What is the best way to convince them to leave now?
Thanks,
Kristen

here is a paper nest we found.

here are the mud nests. These are mostly in the barn which was absolutely covered with them but we've found them on the house also.

The first wasp is a paper wasp and it looks like it is scraping wood from the post to make its nest. They form colonies and are very aggressive, especially when you go near the colony. Although they are considered beneficial because they kill many pest caterpillars to provision their larvae in those nests, because of their aggressiveness (and because I have a butterfly garden, which translates into caterpillars), I destroy them. The mud daubers are another matter. They do not defend their nests, and will only sting if they feel personally threatened. I let them be becasue they take out lots of cut worms and the type, which they paralyze and place in those mud nests. When the eggs hatch, the babies feed on the live food. Beneficial also, and not aggressive, I let them live.

I recognize that nest posted by DevilDogs, I'm relatively confident that is the nest of the Polistes dominulus (European Paper Wasp) which is relatively mild mannered for the most part.

I think you will find this thread of help-
http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=2537413

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

ceejay, I'm thinking you might have a different species. I leave the Mud Daubers alone too. Here's a link to a few in your area-
http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg334.html

I believe the first photo is of the red wasp, I think Polistes exclamans, from what I can see of the thorax, and that is one of our species. We have mud daubers that build the same types of mud nests, too. I think Devil's species are the same as our species, for what it's worth. I, too, leave the mud daubers alone. I don't kill them because they are very beneficial, and not aggressive like the Polistes.
http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insects/common/images/cd-43-c-txt/cimg348.html

I really didn't understand why you said I may have a different species. Different than yours, or different than Devil's? I'm sorry, I am just confused by the statement.

This message was edited Mar 25, 2007 2:24 PM

I didn't enlarge her image of the wasp because I went straight for the nest she found because a lone wasp might no be indicative of what she has there. I did go to the photo of the wasp and it sure does look like Polistes exclamans to me. I'd say you hit that ID on the head. The other thing I missed is that her daughter is terrified to go outside. I'm hyper allergic to some of these critters myself and keep an epi-pen on me because... well, I don't want to die. I've come to learn which ones around here are aggressive and which ones aren't out of necessity but that's not something a little kid would be able to discern. As a parent, I'd have to say they need to go bye bye... all of them.

Convincing them to leave and never come back may be a problem. I see a wood deck in her photo and it was my understanding they like to "harvest" pulp for their nests.

When I enlarged the photo of her nest, it looked an awful lot like the European Paper Wasp nest to me. I destroy as many as I can get my hands on. They're pretty easy to identify around here and so are the occupants but then I've got the benefit of having what I destroy right in front of my face before I nail it.

You mentioned you had the same wasp as her and that they were very aggressive. P. dominulus is not known for being aggressive and neither is exclamans known for being aggressive. Maybe when they are mating or when they are protecting their nest? I was sort of thinking you might have a different species if you are experiencing very aggressive behavior while she was wanting to know if what she had was aggressive.

If I had Polistes exclamans, I'd leave them be but then I am an adult with an epi-pen. They fill a niche.

Both nests I took pictures of are empty from last year. The paper one I picked up from the ground and set on the deck to take the picture. The picture of the actual wasp is what I have zooming all over the place the second you walk outside and I don't know if they are the paper wasp one's or the mud one's. It sounds like everyone is agreeing that these are the Polistes exclamans which I'm going to look up. I prefer not to have them but as I'm also terrified of spiders and know wasps take care of them, I'd personally prefer to leave them. However, my daughter is terrified of them and afraid to go outside right now and I have one dog allergic to stings and 3 others that snap at them. Don't want to walk outside to find a dead or dying dog from a sting to the inside of the throat that swelled up cutting of air. I also really don't like the idea that they are zooming in and out of the vent to the attic and almost afraid to see what is up there. I'm imagining some sci fi horror movie where my attic is one mass of giant wasp nest.
Thank you everyone for the identification!

My plan of attack is to keep a careful watch on the critters preferably sitting in the sun
with a nice glass of wine. Note where the entrance hole is. then get the wasp spray that shoots for quite a distance at least 6 or 6 ft. When twilight come have some more wine 2or 3 glasses recommended more if you need more courage! Watch the
wasps come in fore the night the aim at the hole and spray. This works on nests in the ground paper nests also army worm nests. The wine isn't needed if you are braver than I am.

wine and wasp spray...got it :-)
thank you!

It may be too late, but you might try this 'Waspinator' product from Lee Walley tools. It's basically a cloth bag that looks like a wasp nest. Because wasps are territorial, hanging it in the vicinity of your problem nest might chase them away. I haven't tried it, but it looks like a pretty inexpensive and non-poisonous solution, worth a try! Here's the link: http://www.leevalley.com/home/Search.aspx?c=2&action=n

PS Lee Valley Tools is in Canada and they ship worldwide. Their catalogue will make you drool!

Interesting concept. I wish somebody would try this. If you go to his site, you have to enter the word wasp in their search engine to get to a product called the waspinator. This looks really neat. I've never seen anything like it before.

Re the waspinator.. At the fredericton city market I have seen the meat vendors make
a similiar bag from an ordinary paper bag that they hung over their booth.they said it kept houseflies away.The flies thought it was wasp nest.

my mom uses plastic bags (grocery store bags turned inside out so any print is on inside) filled with water in her yard to keep flys and bees away. They think it's a wasp nest so they stay away and it works. Had no clue it would work on wasps too. Was sitting in the doorway to the barn today, getting hay out of my boots, when two wasps hit the ground next to me and it looked like they were fighting. Was the first time I really thought about them being territorial. I'm going to try this first since it's free.
Thank you for the suggestion!! I'll let you all know if it works!

So I put my plastic bag up early this morning. Just go outside and there are no wasps. Zero. I'm thinking "WOW, that really worked!" Then I realize there is the biggest bumble bee looking thing I've ever seen flying stationary right in the middle of the deck and as I'm watching it, it takes off chasing away a wasp. Watch it some more and realize it's chasing off everything...moths, butterflys, flys, wasps, bees, anything with wings. It just sits there hovering and turning this way and that looking around until it sees something then takes off after it chasing it away. So, 20 wasps at any given time or one giant bumble bee thingy. I'll take the bumble bee thingy....I think. Will try to get a picture of him.

I LOVE Bumblebees. I can't say as I've noticed that behavior with mine. Mine seem to do their thing oblivious to everything around them.

Was it all black or is it black and yellow like a bumblebee? I had these giant black bees (I think it was a male carpenter bee) that used to hang out around my patio, they were huge and buzzed a lot and were very scary but I don't think they sting.

Devildog,
I spray my hummingbird feeders with cooking Pam and it keeps the bees off of it...wonder if it would work on wasps also ?

It was black and yellow like a bumblebee but much larger than what I remember a bumblebee to look like. Very big body. DH said it's a bumblebee tho. We watched one exhibit the exact same behavior yesterday outside the barn door. When I went back out on the patio a couple hours later, the bee was gone and there was only one wasp way over on the side. I'll look up the carpenter bees and see if that was it. Betterbloom, I'd have to buy a lot of Pam in order to cover my deck. It's huge, especially moving here from Cali. I think my deck is about as big as my entire house was in Orange County, CA. Here's a side shot of it but it wraps around to the other side of the house that's hidden in this picture. If the wasps are taking wood fibers for their nests, they have plenty to choose from! I'll keep the Pam trick in mind tho when I finally get my hummingbird feeder up. Does it work for the ants too?

If it was black and yellow it's not a carpenter bee, they were all black.

It's those yellow flower decorations and "bee guards" in the hummingbird feeders that attract the bees and wasps. Remove those and you'll have less problems. I use Best-1 hummingbird feeders and I have no bees or wasps.

Devildogs: Don't know if it works on arts yet, they are just starting to come out now. I just bought new hummingbird feeders a week ago, next time I'll check out the Best-1, but taking the yellow floweres off didn't help me one bit.

Have you tried the ant traps? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150105829022&category=42349&rd=1

Here's some good information on feeder pests: http://www.hummingbirdsociety.org/hottopics/feederpests.asp

I swear: No ants, no bees or wasps. I have been using them for around 10 years now....

My ants laughed at that ant trap. I think they threw parties in it and played poker in it and I swear they had a tiny stereo system set up in it that if you listened very carefully you could almost hear. Of course, that was back in Orange County which was built on an ant hill and my feeder was hung from my orange tree which was ant (and rat) haven so I probably didn't stand a chance no matter what I tried. New feeder is on my list of to get items as I think I finally threw that one away in frustration one day during one of their block parties.

Did you put water or oil in it? I just use water and it works fine. I don't understand how we could have such opposite results!

CJ, I can't recall exactly what went into it...this was several years ago that I gave up on it and just let the ants have at it. I'll try them again tho when I get a new one and let you know how it works for me here.

* We had the yellow/black paper wasps (same looking nests as the first pic, but about 5x that size) all over the house. My 4 year old son was in the backyard and one flew in his shirt, he said "ouch ouch " really loud - I looked at him and saw if fly out from his collar - got him inside to put on benadryl cream - there were 4 stings from the one paper wasp!!!

Ours were soooo very aggressive I had to have someone come out and treat our house - there were at least 20 nests under the eaves of our house - and most are higher than the spray will reach. It really worked, and was only $100, he knocked the nests down, too. I'll do it again this year if we have alot, they are terrible and the kids can't even play outside late in the day if they're swarming around.

You got a bargain! I keep the ones I can see knocked down, after using the wasp spray. I get nailed when I'm working in the garden, and they've made a nest in an African iris or a shrub or the Muhly grass, etc....where I can't see it.

You know, one of the nests that got knocked down didn't get picked up... a couple days later I saw a paper wasp on the nest - looked like he was eating the eggs in the nest? eww, I definitely got rid of it then !

She was probably feeding the larvae that were still alive in the cells with chewed up caterpillars.