Not too early. A yellowjacket queen starts her nest in early spring and it grows in size and number of individuals throughout the summer. As the queen lays eggs, more workers are produced to search out insects and feed developing larvae. A successful late season yellowjacket nest can have up to 4,000 wasps. See How
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We’re starting to see some straggler carpenter bees emerging from last season’s galleries with thoughts of making some galleries of their own. Carpenter bees are big and the male bee can be loud and even aggressive (but he can’t sting). These bees are shiny black with a fuzzy, yellow thorax and look similar to bumble
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Now that warmer weather is finally approaching, customers are asking about various strange insects that have started appearing inside their homes. In most cases, these are plant-feeding pests that have chosen to spend the winter in the shelter of an attic or tucked away in a wall void. In spring, insects like lady beetles, western
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Why have yellowjackets gotten so bad lately ? Do they all of a sudden move into a new area because I didn’t notice any around our house earlier this summer? L. O., New Castle, NH Maybe you haven’t spent much time outside lately, but I can assure you that the yellowjackets have been around. Colonies
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Cicadas have burrowed out of the ground and are singing in the trees. That means that cicada killer wasps are also out and are probably leaving impressive holes in yards. Maybe it’s because they have the word “killer” in their name, that these large wasps get a bad rap that they don’t deserve. Since we
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We have yellowjackets building a nest under an overhang near the back door of our house. Is this normal behavior for yellowjackets? We’ve only seen them come out of the ground before. We knocked the nest down once but I guess they rebuilt it. What should we do? W. G., Raymond, NH I suspect that
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We have a couple of bumble bees that seem to be burrowing into the teak table on our back deck. Whenever we get near, they dive bomb us. I’m worried that the kids are going to be stung. I don’t want to get rid of the table, is there anything we can do? L. C.,
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At this time of year, we get calls from homeowners who are suddenly seeing wasps inside their homes, sometimes with snow still on the ground! How could there already be a nest inside, they ask? These wasps don’t have a nest yet, but that’s what they’re planning on. What these folks are seeing are paper
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We get this question a lot. Actually, the question is just as often worded, “How can I keep bees off of my hummingbird feeders.” Folks, these feeder freeloaders are yellowjackets, rarely would you have trouble with honey bees at hummingbird feeders. Unlike yellowjackets, bees know how to work for a living! I wish I knew
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