Paper wasps

I don't remember seeing these things until the last few years- now they are EVERYWHERE! They seem to have a nest or two in every piece of equipment I have. While they are not aggressive, they become so if you start banging around on the equipment they have their nest in. And its often hard to spray them, because they build their little nests in protected locations. And they LOVE machinery with cracks between panels, and holes, that they can go into.

So you have to plan ahead to work on anything- go out the day before, scout out where their nest is, then go out at night with a flashlight and try to eradicate it. A real PITA.

Is it just my imagination that these have only recently become a pest? As said, I don't remember them in the past. I'm in western Washington, BTW.

Possible upside is that I'm seeing far fewer actual yellowjackets and hornets anymore.

Do you guys in the Midwest have these critters?

They are every ware in Ohio, Any place that's under cover they will build a nest. Just be glad you don't have these little black SOBs they are very aggressive and the first thing they go for is your eyes! You wont know there there till its too late then BAM! They got you. Bandit

Ya. Best thing to do is have a can of starting fluid with you when you're going to wander someplace that you think they might be. I've taken them right out of the air with it before when they were flying right at me.

Ever watch them trap a fly underneath them, sting it and then eat the dead fly? Cool to watch them. We have a mountain ash tree that the stinking sapsuckers simply devastate every year. The paper wasps love the sap from that tree also. They had a huge nest built in one of our trees in front of the house. The grandkids would climb into the tree and just sit there watching them go in and out of that nest all summer. The wasps didn't seem to mind the attention as long as the kids didn't disturb them. They are a lot better natured than yellow jackets, that's for sure.

Always had them in SC. Also Yellow jackets. Also big black bees. Also chiggers. I would about as soon get stung by a bee as bit by a chigger.

KEH

Very common in the mid west and have been so all of my life.

Dean

Mike, we've had them here (25 mi NW of Mt Rainier at 790 ft) for as long as I've been here. Probably more paper wasps than mud daubers. I normally find the paper wasps near the peak of overhangs on buildings, but sometimes in doorjambs of cars and trucks that don't get used often.

They're real nasty when you're on a roof tearing off shingles and you rip up a nest. There's no place to run. Or shelling corn in a round wire crib in August and someone digs a corn rake into a nest. A dish detergent squeeze bottle full of gas is handy to have around. Jim

When I had a lot of Honey Bee"s noticed a lot less of the paper wasp. Wish I had my bee"s again

hopped onmy ford 950 to mow a while back. started up, started driving.. then a swarm of paperwasps start exiting under the hood and become quite interested in me.

I quickly just turned the key off on the tractor and dove off the side as it rolled another few feet dieing in gear. ( mower not engaged.. etc. just running in 3rd and idle to get up to the barn to check a few things before mowing ).

a good size swarm stayed around the tractor for 15 minutes. I came back later to investigate. flipped up the hood center section and there was a next about the size of a big honey bun above the rad.. and flipping it open knocked it, and the 300 million wasps on it again took off after me... another 20m to let them settle and then I got them with the pressure washer...

amazingle.. i did not get stung either time.. nor hurt making my emeregency evacuation from the tractor.

last time i got stung was last year, greasing one of the tractgors, i walked in front of it and ducked under the laoder arms to grease the front spindles, and there was a nest in the crux of one of the arms and one dropped down and hit my neck.. burned. didn't know what it was immediately though i had hit something ducking under loader arm. immediately noticed his pals though...

i'm in florida.. and they are all over here. under eves.. etc.. porches and decks.. etc..

Mike,

They are everywhere here in Middle Tennessee.

I buy cans of wasp and hornet spray at Home Depot. It is expensive but it knocks them dead IMMEDIATELY. If you spray one while it's flying, it will fall to the ground and die.

I have cans of it in my mud room porch, in my barn, and in many of my small sheds that I use to store hay.

They're nasty.

Tom in TN

Very common here and don't be fooled. They can be very aggressive and it smarts some when they get you. I always watch them, they raise their wings about half way when they get alarmed. Time to back off. You can spray them but the ones in the nest cells will replace them. Spray and then knock them down. If you can get the nest without spraying the white grubs are popular with some pets...like fish.

Tom: What is the brand name of the wasp/hornet spray that you get at Home Depot? Here in southern Illinois, I can't seem to find a brand that kills them very quickly. Most of what they sell here is the foam which might knock them down, but doesn't seem to kill them for a long while if at all. Some will take back off flying again after being sprayed. I remember years ago, a little gas from a tin can would kill them dead....now it just makes them mad. Thanks!

They just LOVE the tube frame on the disk. That's a surprise when they fly out of there bent for election. I always worry that they have scoped out the tractor and know of a good place to get in the cab in a hurry.

I worked on the mixer grinder the other day and there was a mud dauber nest on every section of flighting on the loading auger. I don't use it every day, but those things must have built all of that FAST. There has been a mud dauber nest between the gas tank and hood on the 8N every year. I tear it out about Thanksgiving and they build another. Another good reason not to touch that tractor until after a good frost.

We have lots of them East of the mountains. I have thought that there were fewer of them the last couple of years, for unknown reasons. I put out wasp traps early to try to capture queens, but of course I never get them all.

They tend to be vicious any time you disturb or get close to an active nest. But when they are really bad is in August and September when it gets dry and they start having trouble finding food sources.

I usually get a couple of cans of wasp and flying insect spray. They are set up so you can spray a large stream from 10 or more feet away. If I see a nest developing, I spray it. Spray carb cleaner works good for shorter distances.

I hate it when I open a door to a truck that I haven"t used for a while and find a developed nest in the crack by the hinges. The only way to prevent those nests is to check fairly often and brush them out. Under tractor hoods is the same way. I always check before I start one up in the Summer, because probably there will be wasps somewhere. One of those things you really cannot prevent!

Brown paper wasps They are something, you can be near them and they don't seem, threatened, but jar something, you have to get some distance, or once they tag you, that pheromone will likely mark you as the target. I've toyed with them, and the yellow variety, for the most part, they bumble around close to the nest, then settle down, if disturbed,. Knock the nest down and they will swarm or linger for some time, yellow variety seem more aggressive.

They can be odd, both yellow and brown, I've been bumped by yellow ones and not stung, I've also been stung out of nowhere, I mean literally, for no good reason, both brown and yellow> I've out run brown ones, they seem to go to a certain range and double back, strange, one time it got a slight sting on me, got me but ever so slightly, then returned to the aircraft carrier LOL ! I was messing with them too, most times they won't figure it out, but you will get a smart one sometimes and get nailed. I've never seen so many yellow ones as we have at the horse farm, like you said, they are in everything, and anything that sits or is shelter, I've even seen them just make a huge nest totally exposed on the cedar shake siding, brown ones never do that. Knowing that, you check everything first, and its best to get them at night or when it cools off, if its hot at night, they might be swarmed fanning the nest, have to use care. No harm if they are not disturbed but kill some or a good part of the nest during the day, the remaining ones will swarm for days, just linger and are aggressive, its an all or none affair when people are around, I would leave nests alone, warn or mark them, until such time I could deal with them effectively. Most times int he spring when the nest is small, you can take them out once and thats it, here at home, but at that other place they rebuild more often, they really have geographically orientated traits as i see it. Not sure how beneficial they are, I know one kind of wasp is instrumental in killing cut worms, using them as a host for larvae. If someone is allergic, best to get them all when possible. I still cannot believe the numbers of them, the number of nests and the size of the nests at the horse farm, they have been there for too long, old barn, and have prospered, some of the nests up high in the roof are the size of footballs.

One I avoid at all costs is the black or bald face hornet, they are a completely different animal and if disturbed, check out the link, at the 2:02 mark, they pour out and like he says, bump that nest, they don't stop, you can hear that hard body hit the camera, covered it with pheromone. You can walk up to one of these nests and they will fly right past you, but just bump that sucker, you had best be quick or you are done. I knocked a huge one down at a park after basket ball one time when I was a young fool, tossed that ball from a distance, wow... took refuge in the car as I had planned, glad I was not that basket ball LOL !
White Face Hornet

Got a bumper crop of chiggers in Dallas. Its so bad I have to spray from head to foot or I get chewed just walking across the yard to go to the barn and feed my horses.

Learned the hard way, just spraying feet and legs wasn't good enough.

Get Allegra or any 2% hydro cortisone anti-itch cream. It starts working as soon as you put it on, but takes about an hour to hour & a half to work completely. Great thing is, the itch does not come back. Works better than anything I've ever tried.

Its easy to find. Any pharmacy, Wally World, or even grocery store will have it.

Also found if I wear my tall rubber boots I don't get bit, but can't work in them.

ya, always have had a lot of paper wasps here in the Northeast too.
Nests everywhere and always.
Old machinery always gets a whack when I walk up to it to see where they will come out. Then ether/brake/carb cleaner etc knocks the nest out. And you learn to never reach under an overhang without looking, or use your deck furniture without checking, or...sigh
Like the other poster said, up on their toes, with wings raised means trouble.......or with my personality, means the battle is on!
Much worse here are those little yellow demons that look like a honeybee without the fuzz.
They are good fighters and I will admit to running sometimes when battling them. They will chase you a very long way too.......

I use aqua net hair spray, either to glue their wings together or with a lighter to torch them. I am allergic to the buggers and swell up within 15 minutes then onto benadril.

(quoted from post at 09:41:58 06/25/14) I use aqua net hair spray, either to glue their wings together or with a lighter to torch them. I am allergic to the buggers and swell up within 15 minutes then onto benadril.

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ot sure what built it, but glad they were gone before I found it under a table in the shed.

3 of the 4 grandkids managed to get stung Sunday- 2 from yellowjacket nest in the hay loft, 1 from paper wasp under the hood of the Oliver 550 he was playing on. The one unstung one went back to the tractor with a stick to do battle, but we managed to call him off before he made it 4 for 4.

Could be difficult to neutralize the ones under the Oliver hood- you have to unbolt it, and I don't think they'll stand still for that. . . Maybe spray a bunch of ether under there and hope for the best.

(quoted from post at 23:41:22 06/24/14) Tom: What is the brand name of the wasp/hornet spray that you get at Home Depot? Here in southern Illinois, I can't seem to find a brand that kills them very quickly. Most of what they sell here is the foam which might knock them down, but doesn't seem to kill them for a long while if at all. Some will take back off flying again after being sprayed. I remember years ago, a little gas from a tin can would kill them dead....now it just makes them mad. Thanks!

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nstant death and reaches out 20 feet!
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Raid-14-...osol-Spray-Killer-Case-of-12-617744/202389695