Dry Earth Is Ideal For Ground- Nesting Hornets

By Nancy K. Crevier

The extended summer, full of warm, sunny days and cloudless skies, has meant more picnic time, more time to garden, more time to just plain enjoy the great outdoors. The cloudless days and starry nights have also meant an extended period of little rain. The ground is hard and parched; lawns are thirsty; and trees are tossing off their leaves before they have even had time to burst into color.

The other thing the long, dry, late summer and early fall days has provided, according to the UConn Home and Garden Education Center, is a great opportunity for ground-nesting wasps and hornets to generate nesting areas in the ground. So along with the extra outdoor fun provided by the extra days of sun, extra winged, stinging guests are also plentiful this fall.

Don Spencer, a garden center employee at Lexington Gardens, said that the garden shop is indeed hearing complaints this fall from customers pestered by yellow jackets. Attracted to the sweet and savory smells of outdoor cookouts and treats set out upon the picnic table, yellow jackets are making their unwelcome presence known at the final barbeques of the season.

Unless disturbed, wasps tend to go about their own business, much of which is beneficial to homes and gardens. Wasps, which include hornets and yellow jackets, destroy many garden pests, but when the nest is located near a home or recreation area, the disadvantages rapidly outweigh those benefits. Wasps do not discern between inadvertent or purposeful destruction of their nest. They will sting, and because the stinger is not barbed, as is a bee’s, a wasp can withdraw its stinger and sting over and over and over again. Multiply that by the thousands of wasps in a colony, and it can bring a screeching halt to outdoor fun.

“This extended fine weather may be keeping more hornets and wasps around longer this season,” Mr Spencer said. “People are looking for traps or ways to get rid of them.”

What Mr Spencer recommends are pyrethrum-based sprays or cartridges that can be inserted into the nest at dusk or after dark, when the winged warriors are all inside and in a less aggressive mood. He suggested looking for activity on the ground during the day to locate the nest, but warned: “You can get some serious stings from yellow jackets, so be cautious.”

At Hollandia Nursery in Bethel, owner Hans Reelick said that customer complaints concerning wasps and bees this fall is very much on the increase. “Especially we hear about the white-faced hornets. They are plentiful this year,” he reported.

Look up into the trees to find the huge paper nests created by white-faced hornets, but Mr Reelick said that unless the hornets pose a danger to children or pets, there is no need to destroy the colony.

“It’s fascinating to see the hornets make this incredible structure,” said Mr Reelick. “These little insects can make a beautiful and complex construction.”

If a colony of hornets makes their residence too close to a homeowner’s active area, it is best to apply a spray into the nest in the evening, he said. “It may take more than one application, though,” said Mr Reelick.

Margaret and Bertrand Ouellette were able to appreciate the diligence of the white-faced hornet this summer. The hornets chose to erect their paper nest around the floodlights under the eaves of their porch deck. From late June to September, the Ouellettes watched as the striated orb grew from golf ball sized to a nest larger than a basketball that nearly engulfed the entire floodlight.

“We would eat out on the deck and they never bothered us,” Ms Ouellette said. Even at night, when they would turn on the deck lights, the hornets remained relatively docile.

“The kids were nervous about us leaving the nest there, though,” said Ms Ouellette, so in September they finally sprayed the nest one evening to destroy the colony.

“It really was incredible watching it grow,” said Ms Ouellette.

Stepping on a ground nest while mowing or bumping into a low-hanging nest while doing yard work is not unheard of, and that is something of which Ground Crew landscape contractor James Higinbotham is acutely aware.

“There have been more bees and wasps than normal this fall,” said Mr Higinbotham, “and I think I’ve been stung more often than other years.” It is when he and his crew are removing trees and shrubs that wasps whose nests have been disturbed often surprise them. He carries pest spray in his truck and uses it to subdue furious flying insects. “It usually works enough that I am able to finish the job,” said Mr Higinbotham.

Although he has never had a severe reaction to a sting, Mr Higinbotham has noticed that the stings this year seemed more painful and the pain lasted longer, so he is considering carrying a bee-sting kit.

The UConn Home and Garden Education Center offers advice for those who venture too close and bear the brunt of angry wasps. “Immediately apply table salt moistened to a pastelike consistency directly to the sting site and leave it in place for about 30 minutes. This will draw some of the venom out of the wound.” Meat tenderizer or over-the-counter preparations for bee stings are also suggested as methods of breaking down the venom pumped into the victim by the stinger.

People with a history of allergies should immediately contact their physician, as allergic reactions to stings can be very serious.

So, until the first frost leaves only the queen bees in a colony to overwinter, a word to the wise: “Bee” careful.