Since I live in a fairly rural area, most nests built in the open don't survive after the first frost, because the raccoons wait for that moment and tear open a nest to eat any larva or grubs inside it. This past summer we had terrible issues with hornets and yellow jackets (ground nesting hornets), I think maybe due to the drought. A few years ago I spotted this nest, constructed on an electrical wire along a roadway.
New England, USA
Metacomet soil with hints of Woodbridge and Pillsbury
Some friends have a wasps' nest in their loft and I advised them to just leave it as the wasps aren't near human activity. They are concerned that the wasps will eat the wood in the loft. I wouldn't imagine that damage would be significant enough to worry about. Is there any evidence or reports on this? Thanks
@SalixGold I didn’t notice any damage to the timbers in the loft. But my loft is very difficult to access - it very low and there’s no light so I can’t say I had a thorough look.
There would have to be something very wrong with the loft timber for them to do any harm. Or they'd need to be a new strain of huge, mutant wasps from another planet
As @Dovefromabove says - the amount they remove from any piece of wood is tiny.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Earlier this year, when we had sunshine (what?!) I enjoyed watching the wasps on the garden furniture. Each one worked away so hard, but when they finished you could hardly see where they had been. Nevertheless, by the time the nest building was over the greyed horizontal surfaces were stripped back to clean wood in a random striped effect. Sounds bad? If you ran a finger over the area it was so shallow that it was barely possible to feel any difference. Not a threat
I built a 'box' to hide my compost bins earlier this year. I used some old trellis etc to make it more attractive, which had been painted. When I was putting some more material in the bins, there was a noticeable, lightly worn bit along part of the trellis. I thought 'that's odd, just in that bit', but wondered if it had just been the weather. Then I remembered that the wasps had set up home in the nearby hedgehog house.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Posts
I ♥ my garden.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I ♥ my garden.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Or they'd need to be a new strain of huge, mutant wasps from another planet
As @Dovefromabove says - the amount they remove from any piece of wood is tiny.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Then I remembered that the wasps had set up home in the nearby hedgehog house.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...