I knew that due to various posited issues like pesticides, colony collapse, etc that honeybee populations are way down. But are the same issues affecting honeybees also affecting wasps and hornets?
Yesterday I saw the first yellowjacket I’d seen all year. I live in the Midwest and we didn’t have a cold winter at all this year, so I assumed a banner year for all manner of bugs as there weren’t a lot of hard freezes.
And while I don’t miss wasps and hornets, I am amazed how absent they were this summer. Usually yellowjackets are legion around here in the Summer, pestering every picnic and pop can around. This year, zilch. Why?
Is it the same where you live? Is it just my region?
Not sure what part of the midwest you’re in. In Michigan, I haven’t seen many yellowjackets. Typically a couple of times per summer I have to bomb a few nests underneath our deck railing. Haven’t done it once this year, as I haven’t seen any signs of activity to warrant treatment.
I live in SE Indiana, but more technically the greater Cincinnati area. I live in the confluence of the tri-state: just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, and almost literally across the street from Ohio.
They all came north for summer camp. Seriously, we had unusually warm weather in Southern Quebec and the waspswere out in droves. My parents set up a trap near their pool this summer (suburban Laval, just north of Montreal) and caught 20 a day.
Wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets are thriving right now in my neck of the woods (a little outside of Baltimore). Feel free to come and collect them - and grab some stinkbugs while you’re at it!
I’ve been stung by both wasps and yellow jackets this year, which may be affecting my perspective on the impending doom of these vicious little cretins.
Wow, that is just too weird. I wonder why we haven’t had many here. Both at my house and at both of my car washes every year I am battling lots of nests. This year: not ONE.
I battled both yellow jackets and wasp in early spring here in Southwest Michigan. Decimated the nest around the house (on a daily basis) and they didn’t come back. I find if I keep up the battle until early June when they appear to stop building new nest; they then don’t reappear near the house until fall. Then seem to love a particular pair late blooming bushes that I have near by but they do not seem to be at all aggressive during this time of year. Unless of course you mess with them or freak out on them like my GF does.
In the suburbs of Chicago, we had two nests of yellowjackets setting up shop under the siding of our house, until I called Orkin. Nothing like going into the basement to do laundry and finding a dozen of the little bastards.
So now I am left to wonder why regionally speaking, hornets and wasps seem to be in short supply. Between my two car washes in Cincinnati and my home in Indiana, we’re talking about 50-60 miles in radius. My one store in West Chester really seems to attract the yellowjackets. They love to build nests in my tall window arches, inside the overhangs of the self-serve bays and even under the little stainless steel lip overhangs on the vacuum machines. I must have knocked down/sprayed about 30 or so nests last year, and that’s a pretty typical amount year in and year out. This year there haven’t been any.
I had a VERY light year for wasps here in Central Texas. Usually I have them flying in my shop all day long and use more brake cleaner killing them off than to clean parts with. They would constantly find their way into my shop, even with the door closed, and pestered me outside my shop when I tried to paint.
This year - I saw maybe a half-dozen wasps, when I used to see that many an hour. There was hardly any mud-daubers either. I think our drought got to them, like it did the trees.
Didn’t seem to hurt the population of scorpions, unfortunately.
This year there’s been a HUGE drop in wasps/hornets here in Toronto. Even before I saw this thread, I actually had been wondering why that should be the case. It was not a particularly hot/cold/dry/wet etc summer/early fall. But, that’s the things with wild populations - they can have dramatic ups and downs, but all part of the expected variation.
Interesting. I hadn’t thought of the drought factor, nor the expected variation “cycle”. We experienced drought-like conditions for awhile in the Summer, as did much of the country…but this was on the heels of the rainiest year on record here in this area in 2011. In fact, it rained like crazy throughout the winter as it was such a warm one, and the Spring was typically rainy. But the middle to the end of the growing season we had very little rain, so maybe that has something to do with it, although I was under the impression that insects like hornets aren’t as susceptible to such conditions as other species of insect are.
I also noticed a considerable dropoff in the number of wasps. On the patio outside the cafeteria of my workplace, trying to eat usually becomes pretty unbearable in late August and September. This year I could eat outside in relative peace.
Nothing like going into the basement to do laundry and finding a dozen of the little bastards.