12 replies to this topic

[dermy]

So this year seems like a great year for wasp nests, so I thought I'd start a journal on them, don't how successful i'll be, usually it's not very good

 

 

Here is the first wasp nest that I found this year:

https://www.youtube....h?v=qM0UHCWdTDU

 

Here is the weirdly close together nests:

 

https://youtu.be/v9qxqU6Zy5s

 

and a third nest, this queen is a fun queen, as soon as she see's me now she's flying right at my face

 

 

https://www.youtube....eature=youtu.be

Edited by dermy, May 23 2016 - 8:33 AM.

[Kingjay]

How do you find a queen wasp.Also do they make honey and do you need to feed them plants and animals

[dermy]

How do you find a queen wasp.Also do they make honey and do you need to feed them plants and animals

Well for starters I didn't find the queens, I found their nests, and yes they eat bugs and stuff, but most people "Free-Range" them so you don't have to worry about their appetites.

 

I wouldn't recommend trying to "start" a nest yourself with a queen, esp. not one that's collecting wood or something [means she already has a nest] as this is just way too hard and I've only heard of one person doing it, with not too great of results. Relocation is what I'm planning on doing, which is really hard, but hopefully later on I can explain it better

[Mads]

Early in the spring I find queen wasps flying around quite often as they seek out places to make a nest. The vast majority in our area are yellow jackets, but all wasps do the same thing. They overwinter and then come out when it warms up looking for nesting spots. They are a bit larger than workers, basically the same difference as a queen honey bee and her workers. 

 

Mads

[Kingjay]

Ok how do I get there nest "safely" without hurting the wasps and me at the same time.
I also have another question how do you know a queen bee from a worker.Also do queen bee's have nuptial flights like ants or do they just go to flower to flower pollinating them when the don't have a nest

[Mads]

Queen bees are slightly larger, or more correctly, have a longer abdomen than the workers. If you google it, you will find lots of pictures showing the difference. Bees do have mating flights, but many commercial honey bees are now artifically inseminated in a lab. Wasps, being more closely related to ants than bees, are very similar in many respects to ants, except they retain their ability to fly after mating, unlike ants, which remove their wings once mated.

 

Mads

[Kingjay]

Ok thank you I will keep an eye out for bees,wasp and ant

[Crystals]

Most wasps seen in Canada at the moment are queens.  I have not yet seen workers overwinter through our winters.

 

I tend to knock down the nests this early in the year, so they build elsewhere.  By the time fall hits, those nests are huge and in our small yard it is too dangerous to have them that close.  They do rebuild, we occasionally see the queen elsewhere rebuilding.

[noebl1]

Most wasps seen in Canada at the moment are queens.  I have not yet seen workers overwinter through our winters.

 

I tend to knock down the nests this early in the year, so they build elsewhere.  By the time fall hits, those nests are huge and in our small yard it is too dangerous to have them that close.  They do rebuild, we occasionally see the queen elsewhere rebuilding.

 

Not sure about yours... but they build SUPER fast by me as well, especially the hornets.  First year I moved into our  current house, got stung 3 times that Spring by hornets building starter nests under the deck railing, often seemed like over night.

[dermy]

Ok how do I get there nest "safely" without hurting the wasps and me at the same time.
 

That is kind of hard, to be honest with you, if your allergic/think you are allergic/don't know don't keep wasps. You will get stung it's just part of the experience

[dermy]

 

Most wasps seen in Canada at the moment are queens.  I have not yet seen workers overwinter through our winters.

 

I tend to knock down the nests this early in the year, so they build elsewhere.  By the time fall hits, those nests are huge and in our small yard it is too dangerous to have them that close.  They do rebuild, we occasionally see the queen elsewhere rebuilding.

 

Not sure about yours... but they build SUPER fast by me as well, especially the hornets.  First year I moved into our  current house, got stung 3 times that Spring by hornets building starter nests under the deck railing, often seemed like over night.

 

For me there is this time period where it'll go from a queen and 3 workers to like 15+ workers in about a week it's a crazy growth phase, that's when most people start noticing wasp nests.

Edited by dermy, May 26 2016 - 10:42 AM.

[dermy]

Here's a failed attempt that I tried to relocate, sadly the Queen died July 16/2016

 

 

It was fun while it lasted though

[SamKeepsAnts]

i thought there was multiple colonies?