Friends in the Garden #1: The Paper Wasp
Most homeowners find the paper wasp to be a nuisance. It loves to build its nests on eaves, porches, decks, and any other surface of your house that is high and sheltered from rain and wind. People usually think of small parasitic wasps as the only beneficial ones, but these paper wasps are actually great predators. As you can see in the photo above, they love munching on cabbage worms and other caterpillars. They don't actually eat them, they chew them up and feed the green juicy caterpillar slop to their young. I'm always finding their remains, especially on my cabbages and broccoli.
Although these fuckers have stung me once (they don't swarm and usually give you a warning to cease and desist by ramming their heads into you, scary but harmless), they are generally pretty friendly. They won't sting away from their nest. If you do spot them building a nest where there is a lot of foot traffic, make sure to catch it early spring before any of the young mature. The queen will leave in the morning to find food and gather materials. At this point, you can safely knock the nest down. As the season progresses, the colony forms and there are always guards protecting the nest that are ready to sting if they feel threatened. When their wings pop up and spread, they are on high alert, it's their first warning.
These guys took up residence in an empty bird feeder. It's a great way to keep them around without having them on your house :D
Despite being stung once, I love these guys. They are always buzzing around our garden, pollinating and eating pests. They do try to nest on our decks, doors, and eaves, but we're working on solutions. I had to put on a bee suit this last year and knock down about 3 mature nests that were too close to our entryways. This year I'll be sure to catch them sooner and give the queens time to nest in a better location where we each can feel safe and maintain a healthy friendship on mutual grounds.
That is brilliant, placing a bird feeder for them to nest in. Wonder what I could put in the feeder to attract them to the feeder to nest.
No idea, probably some sugar or honey would do it. Keep it where it gets shade from the sun. I'm going to try to add a few more, see what happens.
Hi @theferalone. Definitely paper wasp are a great help in the garden. Plants from the umbelliferae family will attrackt them succesfully amongst other insects, so they are a great guild plant.
And about the bird feeder: What a great incident... Looks almost scientific how one can watch them build their nest! Is this happening now? How about a few updates on this in the coming weeks. I would e very interested.
Unfortunately, I live in the north, so everything is frozen over right now. I'll see if they make residence in these again this coming season. Hopefully so, it was really cool. I got my right up to the nest, but they didn't feel threatened because it is very protected. They have plenty of exits, it was a perfect nest for them :D
I remember, how I was once cleaning the perimeter of our property for fencing and while using the motor sythe in the deep vegetation on rocky soil, I felt a hot sting on my thigh, thinking it was a little stone that hit me, but after a second burning hit I looked closer and saw, that I was standing in the middle of a whildly buzzing swarm of wasps. Man, I threw the mashine to the gound and ran for my life.... screaming! HAHAHA. I was so afraight. Took me some time to calm down and build up courage to go back an fetch my motor sythe. Later i found out, that I sythed right over the entrance of a wasp earth nest and of course these guys where very unhappy!
Ground nests are the worst. I stepped into one by my wood pile a few years back. Same experience. The first sting just felt like maybe a branch or something poked me, but then it got worse and I witnessed about 10 hornets swarming my leg. I ran like a mad man into the house. It's not fun stepping into nests. I actually had a colony form in one my hugel beds this past year. I'll need to figure out a solution come spring. Good thing I have a bee suit :D
Those bee suits can sure come in handy! I think mud daubers are the calmest of the hornets and wasps. Then the paper wasps. The worst are the yellow jackets that nest in the ground. It sure does pay to watch close in the spring and early summer. They are so much more manageable then. Enjoy your wasps and all their good deeds! :D
Hey @theferalone: I found myself going back to this article (https://steemit.com/steemiteducation/@theferalone/field-guid-to-steemit-how-it-works-and-how-to-survive-your-first-30-days) for some days to recheck the details hidden here. Thanks again for this hlep.
A question that came up was not related to the content, but to the graphics you provide there. Are you also a creative that migrated from full on city life with freelance job to rural Permculture with occasional freelance jobs?
Becaue thats what my story looks like..
Just curious...
I actually still work full time as a web developer/designer. Our overhead is still really high. I find as long as we don’t keep animals there’s plenty of time to earn an income and grow a garden, collect firewood, plant trees, and process and store food.
My goal when we moved here from the city was not to homestead, and I knew nothing of permaculture, that came after. We just wanted space, fresh air, nature and privacy and stumbled our way into all of this 😁
Nice. Here same. 2 freelancers with day to day jobs, but also 2 kids. Veg-growing will come on top of that , but chickens are wanted as well... We really need to time-manage soon :)
Helping teach people to live together with nature is great for a #healthy-home tomorrow!
Thank you!