The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: The_Hawthorne_Pack on August 21, 2015, 09:53:00 am

Title: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: The_Hawthorne_Pack on August 21, 2015, 09:53:00 am

Usually at this time of year I have to be very careful picking up my fallen apples because they most often contain one or more drunk and surly wasps who resent their cosy retreats being picked up and dumped in a bucket.  This year I have seen ONE solitary wasp hopefully hovering round my evening glass of wine.  My apple trees are not humming with stripey marauders just waiting for me to attempt to pick the ripe fruit.  Is anyone else missing their vespidian seasonal visitors?  :tree:

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Fleecewife on August 21, 2015, 10:28:46 am

They are around here, but not bothersome yet.  Usually in September they start to be a plague.

The rest are in my SiL's garden  :roflanim:

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Somewhere_by_the_river on August 21, 2015, 10:37:24 am

...They are in one spot in our lawn and another in the middle of the potato patch that I need to harvest! I can work round the first, but the second... well, I guess I'll just count my blessings that the potato plant that seemed to sicken was down to a wasps nest and not blight  ::)

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Buffy the eggs layer on August 21, 2015, 12:47:13 pm

By the state of my OH who came in covered in wasp sting while trying to burn fallen branches this week I would guess that they are all at my place! :rant:

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: devonlady on August 21, 2015, 05:39:19 pm

I've seen two so far, both indoors.

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Bobs wife Morag on August 21, 2015, 06:01:13 pm

In an old pile of hay I shoved, in my infinate wisdom, in an old haylage net earlier this year! "doh"

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: bloomer on August 21, 2015, 06:25:48 pm

Who cares there malicious evil wee barstewards...

I have no love of the wasp...

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Daisys Mum on August 21, 2015, 06:32:11 pm

Here stealing the honey from one of our hives  :rant:

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Possum on August 21, 2015, 06:54:31 pm

Come to think of it, I haven't seen any this summer. Perhaps it is the lack of sunshine?????

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: JEP on August 21, 2015, 07:56:02 pm

we have had swarms of wasps killed a hive of bees
in the hay shed on the apples
making hay found 2 big nests mower took tops of
and yesterday just went down to about 20

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Greenerlife on August 21, 2015, 08:18:09 pm

It is a plague of them here in Surrey.  My pest controller friends are busier than they have ever been - and I have had four nests just in my garden, let alone what they are doing to my poor bees!  I stand outside my hives every morning and kill as many as I can to give my bees a helping hand, but they have already robbed considerable amounts.  I hate them.

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Cosmore on August 22, 2015, 10:21:47 am

Not seen many here.....yet, more will no doubt appear around the fallen apples in September. Did see an enourmous Queen hornet in the spring, looking for a suitable nest site - I 'encouraged' it to depart over the road into the woodland.
A couple of years back we had a hornets nest in the chimney, only found out when the sweep came - I've never seen a sweep move so fast, lol!

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Bionic on August 22, 2015, 10:36:30 am

We have had loads. Traps have been placed in front of the hives and I think I need to put a trap in the stable yard too  :(

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: MAK on August 22, 2015, 12:56:03 pm

Different type ! The high number of early wasps has been a talking point here in the Central France.  We have had many small nests of a wasp that seems to have long dangly bits to its rear. I have been stung a couple of times so far. Their sting Hurts less than the " normal" wasp but the swelling seems a lot worse.
We had a drought and high temperatures for a couple of months so maybe that explains the early but different wasps. The hornets are out and about early too.

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Lesley Silvester on August 23, 2015, 12:40:02 am

I've only seen a couple this year but I don't miss them in the slightest.

Title: Re: Where have all the wasps gone?
Post by: Sudanpan on August 25, 2015, 06:00:45 pm

The wasps seem to be very busy robbing from bee colonies this year - lots of stories of colonies being robbed out. Our little apple tree started with about 18 apples starting to swell and ripen - but the wasps got all of them :(