A confession – with all the rain we had in July and August, the lawn in the back yard got away from me (not that I’m all that great about it when it’s not pouring). Finally some sun and dry weather – the low spot where the Siberian Iris live doesn’t have a quarter inch of standing water – I gotta mow! Way out back I discover a subterranean Yellow Jacket nest the quick and easy way; I mow over the entrance then get stung as I walk behind the mower into the stream of very pissed-off exiting hymenoptera. The good thing about letting the lawn go? The clippings were so thick that the wasps had trouble surging out – I only got stung once. The nest was in an out of the way place – I figured I’d leave it well enough alone unless/until there was another run-in. Last night someone solved the problem for me – dug up the nest and, I assume, ate the occupants (certainly ate the larva).
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I learned something new! I’d always assumed that burrowing wasps just constructed dirt chambers, like an ant nest. After seeing the paper strewn around, I looked it up:
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I also googled around a bit to see what might have caused the carnage.
Raccoons, skunks and other animals play a role in the demise of yellow jackets as summer wanes.Ā These foraging mammals will dig down into yellow jacket nests at night and devour the whole colony.Ā You might see the remains of such a repast, with bits of paper nest chambers strewn about. *
Sounds about right.
Subterranean hornets nest dug up == skunk.
I’ve noticed a hornets nest in the yard for 3 weeks and have been hoping that the skunk(s) looking for Japanese Beetle larvae (they’re all beetles now!) would run into it.
No such luck. So I made the run out tonight at about 11PM and squirted it with the streaming bug killer and then put a rock on the entrance.
Hopefully that takes care of it.
Glad you only got stung once – that could’ve been bad news.
s
Luckily, I’m not too sensitive to stings, but I try to avoid ’em anyway š .
I just confirmed that my hole in the ground appears dead now.
I’m not moving the rock to find out for sure. š
I hate using chemicals in the yard (in general this is true – but twice as much so as I live on water), but I gave the skunks 3 weeks!
s
Skunks are the usual yellow jacket nest terminators for sure, but I have also seen where raccoons, grey foxes, and black bears have dug them up as well. What used to be a cheap way to rid yourself of a colony, but is now one of the more expensive(!), is to wait till dark(when all the jackets are at home), and pour GAS into the entrance hole–guaranteed to kill them all dead quickly, and perhaps slightly better than pesticides….The funniest way I ever heard of a yellow jacket nest being dispensed with was from my Cherokee language teacher Robert Bushyhead, many years ago–we students were having trouble mixing up two words in class–tshka-i’ and tshkv-i’–which are “tree” and “yellow jacket”, respectively. Professor Bushyhead would often tell us a story to help us remember something(he was a GREAT teacher!), and this time he told about finding a yellow jacket nest in his front yard one day. His wife was vaccuming in the house at that moment, and he got an inspiration. He borrowed the vaccum, put the nozzle against the wasps’ entrance hole, and turned it on! Sucked up the whole colony! He had a fire going nearby burning some brush, and he just tossed the vaccum bag into the fire! Said it burned up the whole batch! And thirty years later, I STILL know how to say yellow jacket in Cherokee!
I’ve done that lawn-mowing wasp dance too. Yay raccoons! Or skunks (if you must).