Wasps

Does anyone know of an organic method of ridding your property of wasps? I have been trying to attract butterflies and caterpillars to my backyard. I thought that the birds were eating the cats but it was suggested to me that it might be the wasps. There are a lot of them around. They nest in the eaves of the house.

Thanks,

Chuck

Here is an interesting link.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG3732.html

Make a trap.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Wasp-Trap

Personally I'd suspect birds over wasps if something's eating your cats. Even though wasps can eat cats along with other insects, birds will for sure eat a lot more of them--an entire wasp family could get by on one small caterpillar, but one hungry bird could probably polish off several larger ones all on their own.

ecrane3, I am pretty sure that you are right. I have heard the sparrows chirping loudly around the big passionvine. Also, I saw a Black Phoebe bird catch one of the few Gulf Fritillary butterflies that were left in the garden. Then it fed it to the other one (I don't know if this was a juvenile or its mate).

Well, at least the flowers are pretty again...LOL.

Thanks for responding,

Chuck

I really think it has to be the birds...even if the wasps do eat the occasional caterpillar, there's no way they could make a major dent in the population unless you had hardly any cats to begin with. But get a few hungry birds in there and they could make quick work of a whole lot of caterpillars!

Hoo boy, do I have to disagree. I am into beneficial insects big time, but I maintain a war with the social wasps. (Solitary wasps are OK, and I let them live.) The paper wasps will decimate a butterfly garden. One day I counted 32 monarch caterpillars on my butterfly weed (Asclepias) and the next day there were none. The wasps had fed them to their larvae . The next time I covered the plant with netting to keep them out, and they still managed to get inside and kill the caterpillars. I finally pulled out my butterfly weed since it appeared to be a death trap for the caterpillars, benefiting only the wasps.

Dear ceejaytown,

How do you distinguish the difference between solitary wasps and social wasps. Do they differ in the way that they nest? I don't think I have ever seen a social wasp. Are they found in So California?

Thanks,

Chuck

Paper wasps are the social wasps. There is a whole bunch of them in one nesting site - all sisters, BTW. Hornets, yellow jackets, red wasps, german wasps - all called social wasps because they live for the nest - like honeybees do. Because they live for the nest you are likely to get stung if they feel you threaten the nest.
Solitary wasps are the mud daubers, potter wasps, etc. They build their nests of mud and once they are finished, they leave it to itself. They are not defensive like the social wasps, and unless they feel like their own life is threatened, they will not react to your presence and sting you.

I'm pretty sure that they are found everywhere. The species might differ from place to place, but they are there. You're so lucky if you haven't encountered any - I've been stung twice so far this year - first time cleaning out my La iris, the second time cleaning out my daylilies. It hurts!!! And the swelling and itching afterwards is just awful. But most of all I don't like them taking my butterfly cats. They feed the caterpillars to their babies in the nest, and they don't distinguish between good and bad caterpillars.

Found this from California: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7450.html

We've got plenty of social wasps in Northern CA so I suspect you have them too. I know I've seen yellow jackets in San Diego so at the very least you have those and chances are you've got some of the other ones too.

I should add that you can tell them apart easily. The solitary wasps have very narrow, sometimes thread-like "waists". Usually dark blue or black and solid colored. They look mean but they're not.

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/600-699/nb680.htm for more information.
Here's a picture of a common solitary wasp. Read about it's neat trick to get spiders.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/48554

ceejaytown,
Thanks for all the info on the wasps. I too have a war with them and I'd never heard about the difference! Thanks again!!

Adrienne

You're most welcome!

SOS (Save Our Solitaries!)