Where Have the Wasps gone?

[skent]

For decades we have had the company of wasps living in our outbuildings, hog pen, barns, and in the eves of the house. Putting hay up or cleaning rain gutters always let to at least a sting or two. Usually the doors to the hay loft had several of the nests hanging from them. We usually co existed without much problem. But this year, I've not seen ANY of the funnel shaped paper wasp nests anywhere. Where did the wasps go? Does anyone else notice ? I also noticed more bumble bees (the big ones) around in late spring, but even their numbers have dropped.

 

[schweizer]

Plenty of wasps here on the West Coast all summer long. The traps were full and we found nests everywhere -- under eves, in the doghouse, under deck, barn, etc. Maybe it's regional. Maybe you're blessed.

 

[deerseeker001]

we have plenty of bees and just yesterday the Japanese beetles moved in they are all over.looking to find a place to crawl into for winter.

 

[/pine]

Most likely a typical natural cycle...

Want to read more about natural cycles and how little we know about them Google something like "ruffed grouse natural cycle"...

FWIW...last year my humming bird feeders were plagued with the big "asian" yellow-jackets...I probably killed 60 of them last year and this year I killed the only two I've seen...!

 

[wngsprd]

Skent, I think your wasps flew down here. We have plenty of them and their nests.

 

[dave1949]

They are all at my house. :laughing:

Paper wasps have been real busy around here in this late warm and dry weather. I think they are hunting spiders or something to stuff in the egg compartments.

 

[Rayster]

I've attempted to thin them out, we will try to send them back your way.

 

[TSO]

The only wasps that I've seen hanging around my house are the blue mud daubers, but I don't mind them so much since they hunt spiders and specifically black widows.

We've had lots of honey bees and bumble bees in our flower gardens, and in my Pumpkin field...

But the Hornets are really starting to get annoying. They always seem to get more aggressive, and more of them for that matter, this time of year. I guess it has something to do with they mate this time of year. Now that all of the apples are falling, the Hornets are all over the place. Very annoying.

We did see some cicada killer wasps this year. .. Very cool. They're huge! Look the up on wiki to, they're not aggressive, but man do they make a scary sounds & sight when they fly near you.

Found this one dead in the garage:

 

[user.69169]

I don't know about Maryland, but I went and murdered a bunch last week here in NY, both paper wasps and ground wasps.

Sure wish I'd known you were looking for some cause I could have shipped you the nest without much effort. I figure I could cool em down good with some Co2, bag the nest up and stick it in one of them Priority mail one price boxes and they'd be at your place in a day or two.

Only thing is some of the frozen ones might wake up on the trip, or some might hatch and they just might chew their way out the postoffice box. Not sure how thePost Office would take to that, but I figure you got time to get your story together. What the heck, the Post Office ships live honey bees.

I figure I'll use a fake name and address for the return address, and wear gloves when I box them up so there won't be any of my fingerprints. Might be best if you PM me your shipping address so some Internet wiseguy don't send you something strange or get some credit cards with your name, I hear there is a bunch of that going on.

 

[PhysAssist]

We had less than usual here too, though the hornets/ground bees have more than made up for their absence. We also saw some predatory single wasps hunting our main pests, the carpenter bees. They were all over for the first time we've ever seen them, crawling into the bees' holes (in my log house), presumably to lay eggs in the bees or whatever. They are medium sized for wasps, and are starkly black except for 2 bright pure white stripes across the abdomens.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of the burrows next spring.

Thomas