Author Topic: Non honey bee removal (Read 7709 times)

hardwood · « **on:** November 10, 2010, 07:02:50 pm »

I didn't film the actual removal but I thought ya'll might like to see the end result!

yellow jacket_0001.wmv

Scott

Robo · « **Reply #1 on:** November 10, 2010, 07:13:14 pm »

Scott,

We know honeybee queens won't sting you. Can you verify that a yellow jacket queen does or doesn't :-P

Kathyp · « **Reply #2 on:** November 10, 2010, 07:20:34 pm »

kill her. no mercy for the queen of pain!

hardwood · « **Reply #3 on:** November 10, 2010, 07:48:32 pm »

Robo, one of the most fierce stings I've ever gotten was from a queen honey bee. I guess I really angry her off by holding her wings and she lifted her abdomen around to catch the end of my thumb...doesn't happen often, but can happen.

I didn't play with the YJ queen enough to find out about her sting, but I looked really close and couldn't see a stinger...doesn't mean she doesn't have one.

Kathy, don't worry, she won't be getting out of that bottle anytime soon but she really is a beautiful thing. Was thinking of casting her in resin??

Scott

JP · « **Reply #4 on:** November 10, 2010, 08:22:50 pm »

Its amazing how much larger a yellow jacket queen is than their workers. I would say nearly 4 times larger and yes, they do sting!

...JP

Kathyp · « **Reply #5 on:** November 10, 2010, 08:28:00 pm »

hey guys, why are the queens out in the spring? do they have to mate every year, or are they just looking for a new nest? i kill them when i see them in spring.

David McLeod · « **Reply #6 on:** November 10, 2010, 08:47:26 pm »

Under normal conditions the yellow jacket colony does not over winter. The annual goal of any surviving colony is to build in size enough to produce as many FOUNDRESSES (virgin queens) and males in the final brood. Note; once the queen begins laying the eggs for these males and foundresses the workers will destroy all other larvae so that the males and foundreses recieve all the colony's resources. Upon emergence the foundresses will be bred by the males (which die just like the honeybee drones) and the newly mated foundresses will seek shelter for the winter and will be the sole survivors of their parent colony and will establish a new colony the following spring.
Down here in the south though mild winters can allow yellow jackets colonies to survive and they can become huge and very dangerous. I have personally observed one of these multi year nest that totally encompassed a sofa.

hardwood · « **Reply #7 on:** November 10, 2010, 08:57:12 pm »

Kathy, I got this info from a pest control operator and is second hand so please take it with a grain of salt.

Although I haven't researched it at all it's my understanding that YJ queens need to fend for themselves in spring to start the "nest". They will feed themselves (forage) until strong enough to start a nest to begin laying a work force. Once they have workers they get down to doing their queenly duties to expand the colony and in the fall will set up the next years queens. I was told that the majority of YJ colonies don't survive even mild winters. This may be why you see (supposedly young) queens in spring.

Although I understand that this applies to bumble bees, I haven't bothered looking into the life cycle of the YJ. I suppose because I just flat-out hate the buggers.

Once again this is all hearsay.

Scott

hardwood · « **Reply #8 on:** November 10, 2010, 09:00:45 pm »

David. we posted at the same time...hope I didn't step on your reply...fascinating!

Scott

Kathyp · « **Reply #9 on:** November 10, 2010, 09:10:00 pm »

i knew they didn't overwinter here. always wondered about the queen. i know i will never mow my fields again in late summer early fall. they can just go wild until we have a couple of good freezes or spring comes! :-)

thanks to you both for the info.

AllenF · « **Reply #10 on:** November 10, 2010, 09:12:04 pm »

Feed the girl a little and see how long she can live in that bottle. Then find something cool to do with her. Don't let her go to waste. Caste her in amber and make a walking stick or something out of her. Did you get a video of you doing the removal?

AllenF · « **Reply #11 on:** November 10, 2010, 09:18:42 pm »

And on the jackets dying during the cold, last year after the frost had killed out the tomatoes, me and the then 3 year old were pulling up the baskets and rolling up the hog wire for the cucumbers and beans. We park them every year under an old oak tree by the garden. Well I noticed we messed up a nest of jackets under the tree. I do not know the time of the year, it was cold and all the summer plants were dead so I am sure we had some freezing nights. We got the tractor and with the forks dug them up. It was almost dark when we dug them up and we put coat hoods over our heads just in case so I know it was cold outside, but they did not fly very high.

hardwood · « **Reply #12 on:** November 10, 2010, 09:23:14 pm »

Now there's a new thread..."what to feed to a YJ queen"!

Scott

AllenF · « **Reply #13 on:** November 10, 2010, 09:25:53 pm »

Tuna, honey, sprite, and maybe dead honey bees. Anything.

David McLeod · « **Reply #14 on:** November 10, 2010, 11:19:14 pm »

This reminds me of an incident a few years back when I had techs working for me (I was a manager for another outfit back then). I "discovered" that yj have visual acuity similar to honeybees at least when returning to their nest. This one was the european yellow jacket aka aerial yellow jacket, alike in all ways to the ground nesting eastern save for their affinity for nesting above ground in structures. My tech had been out a couple times to one of my accounts to treat a yellow jacket nest in the wall of a third floor condo. Now once there he could not locate the nest for love nor money. Other than a singe yj or two he was at a total loss. If memory serves he made three seperate trips and each time the tenant complained of yj entering around a certain window. Well long to short he called me in out of desperation. I really didn't know what I could do as this was the best I had ever trained and he was a fully qualified PCO before I ever got my hands on him to turn him to the light of nuisance wildlife. Well we did all the usual searches plus hanging out the window by our heels to inspect the casing, no nest or holes found. We were puzzled to say the least. So we commenced a ground search of the building the see if the nest could be some thirty feet below.
While standing in the yard below and gazing up at the window above it dawned on me. The window and the ell it was in was identical to the window and ell in all the units along the back of the buildling, just like a row of hives all painted the same and the same height. I turned to my tech and told him to go the the third floor unit one down from the one we had found no nest in and tell the occupant that he was there to treat the yellow jacket nest in her sun room. By God, I was right!

hardwood · « **Reply #15 on:** November 11, 2010, 12:31:03 am »

That's interesting David. Until this year I had never seen a YJ nest above ground. I've had "honey bee" calls twice in the last month that turned out to be YJs that had above ground nests, this one which was in a roll of carpet padding in a shed and another that was on the side of a palm tree concealed by ferns. Are these "European or aerial" YJs a new invasive specie?

Scott

David McLeod · « **Reply #16 on:** November 11, 2010, 06:34:45 am »

Not new nor particularly invasive but definitely common. Did I tell you that they will eat through sheetrock to make room for nest expansion. A nice lady returned from vacation to find this.

They were entering through the small hole in the brick to the right of the of the window.

AllenF · « **Reply #17 on:** November 11, 2010, 06:52:47 pm »

Cool pic. Eating through sheetrock should not be to much different from eating through hard Georgia red clay to make a nest.

rdy-b · « **Reply #18 on:** November 11, 2010, 07:21:47 pm »

I got a call from a lady who was cleaning her house-she saw a spot on the celling -while she was vacuuming-when she used the tube attachment to try and remove the spot -all the face paper on the sheet rock pulled away-and she
was run out of her house by angry yellow jackets-yes they eat sheet rock-yellow jacket invasion are easy money -reason being thers litel mess to clean up not like a over head sofit filled with honey raining down on you 8-) RDY-B

David McLeod · « **Reply #19 on:** November 11, 2010, 07:41:29 pm »

More than one of the calls I've gotten have been the result of poking the funny looking spot. Better them than me I say.