[NAFEX] Fwd: Yellowjackets, common names.
Ginda Fisher
list at ginda.us
Sun Jul 20 23:19:55 EDT 2008
Hmm, here in eastern Mass, we have
Paper wasps: Brown critters that nest in paper nests hanging behind
shutters, in windows, and other inconvenient places. Unless the nest
is in a very inconvenient place, the critters are fairly harmless.
I've never been stung without stepping on one or something.
White Faced Hornets: Big scary wasps that next much like paper
wasps. Not too common, so I don't have a strong sense of how
dangerous they are.
Honey Bees: Smaller and chubbier than paper wasps, with fur. Nest
in holes in trees and such in big hives. Pretty harmless and getting
rare.
Bumble Bees: Pretty much everything else with fur, usually more
rotund than honey bees, and live in small nests in the ground. You
pretty much have to grab one for it to sting you.
Yellow Jackets: These looks like shiny furless honeybees, with a
slightly more slender waist. They live in large underground nests
and are very aggressive about defending their nests. They consider
"walking near the nest" as an aggressive act, and can be pretty
dangerous.
Ginda
On Jul 20, 2008, at 1:03 PM, Hal Love wrote:
> Having lived in areas where the different types of "yellow jackets"
> can be found, it is clear folks are talking about completely
> different species. I grew up in Arkansas and there a yellow jacket
> was a big, hornet-like, aggressive paper wasp that we feared very
> much. The nest were found just about anywhere that one may find the
> brown paper wasp nests. The underside of the eves of houses was
> probably the most common location.
>
> Here in middle TN, we only seem to have the brown paper wasps, and
> the only yellow jackets are the ground wasps that are much smaller
> and very different looking than the paper wasps. They look more
> like bees and the entrances to the tunnels are about 0.5 inches in
> diameter. If you get too close to the entrance and distrub them,
> they will swarm out and aggressively chase and sting. I was once
> chased 300 feet before they stopped, but usually they will defend
> up to about 100 feet. They don't seem to initiate an attack unless
> you get really close to the entrance and create some sort of
> disturbance (a lawn mower works really well). These things swarm
> all over rotting pears that the squirrels constantly drop to the
> ground, so I would think pear or apple juice would make a great
> bait for a trap.
>
> Hal
>
>
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