Yellowjackets -- the wasp/hornet

I heard if you sauté them, they are pretty tasty

 

They probably don't taste like chicken......

Most of the bugs I've tasted were fairly bitter, but to be fair they were not cooked when I ingested them.

 

you need that special french sauce, or mickies secret sauce

 

Try seemingly ranch sauce, which is 'swiftly' entering production.

 

The article I read sounded as if they've been selling "Kranch" sauce for some time; the "ketchup and seemingly ranch" being just a quick relabel to catch a passing publicity breeze.

 

They make good soup...

 

In other news, i read a CBS News story about a 400-pound stingray recently encountered in Long Island Sound.

The story describes the stingray as "nearly the length of Travis Kelce".

Where interpretation may have been called for, I went with overall height.

 

They must also be eradicated from British Columbia before anyone can even think of a success. The WA-BC border is highly pervious to these "northern giant hornets".

Though I haven't heard of any recent sightings in BC either.

 

Ah.
NOW they think borders are important.....

 

The only important border here is the Pacific coastline.

 

That's what they thought in the 1940's too....

 

Earlier in the season I went to get some tools out of a small shed in my backyard that I hadn't opened in a while, and after swinging the door open and rummaging for a bit, I noticed there was a small paper wasp nest up in the corner. One inhabitant had come out and was watching me warily.

I finished my rummaging (a little more carefully) and closed the doors again, and didn't do anything about it, until this morning I had to go out and rummage for a shovel, and as I unlocked the doors I was thinking "I wonder how big that nest is now?".

I opened the door carefully and looked up in that corner and saw about six very lethargic wasps just hanging out on the surface wondering what was going on, and no sign of a nest. None at all. Here I was thinking they would have been building on to the nest all summer, but instead it seemed to have been completely dismantled and made to go away without a trace.

I have no clue how that happened.

 

My shed only has three walls, so many beings come and go. (Best: An adorable kitten who was swiftly adopted by a family member. Worst, a rabid raccoon) I have seen paper and mud nests grow, shrink and disappear altogether along its rear wall. I've never worked out their pattern, mostly just leave them to do their thing.

Now the little b*****d yellowjackets that nested in my patio firepit... that setup has become a bit dangerous despite application of insecticide. I think the morning after the first proper freeze I'll bomb it with some hot coals and take it all to ashes.

Meanwhile I've had a tree die and fall in the yard, partially damming the creek. Fortunately dry weather for a bit because I'm stuck in the PNW working a gig, learned about it all from the pictures my wife sent.

 

I had loads of picnic bee nests in our house had to pay an expert to get rid of them, he blasted nest with some chemical and the queen flew out crazy with hundreds of them you can still make out the queen

 

Job security for 'insexperts'.....

Perhaps the little darlings will find a home where they can live in peace without being forcibly relocated once more.

 

@Stevewoods

Help me out a bit with your trap design. I've run into a problem with 2 nests. The first one, I noticed about a month ago. I have a storage area/patio at ground level at the back of the house which also has a mud room. One of the mud-room walls has an electrical outlet that must have pulled out of the wall at some point when an extension cord or something was removed (BIL has been living on the bottom floor for 4 years, so I don't get down there often). I walked by it and noticed yellow jackets frequently flying in and out of outlet opening. I made a trap similar to some youtube videos but it hasn't worked very well. Maybe I'm using the wrong bait. I gave up after a couple days and just sprayed the heck out of it, but noticed they're back again. I'd like to duplicate the trap/bait you used. Can you give some details?

The second nest, I discovered over the weekend when inspecting my heat pumps. I had the unit for our main floor stop working Sunday morning and when I went to check it out, I was there for about a minute when I had a dozen YJs buzzing around me. The condenser is about 18 inches from a house wall (brick) and I saw many YJs entering and exiting some dried up leaves right where the wall meets the ground. I'd rather not try to remove the leaves to get a clear shot at the nest entry hole. I soaked the entire area with wasp spray (from 15 ft away!), waited about an hour and was able to install a new capacitor to get the unit running again. I need to eliminate that nest because we're scheduled to have our upstairs heat pump unit replaced next week and its condenser is only ~4 feet from the nest. There'll be a lot of work going on at that area for removal, demo and replacement of the cement base, replacing the lineset and power cables and installing the new unit. Last thing I need is people getting swarmed.

Therefore.....I want to kill the hell out of them. Once they figure they're not welcome, maybe they'll move somewhere else on the acreage!! Plenty of wooded area available!

 

... do what you like. But, not (NOT!) in my (MY!) house(!). Much less, on it.

Termites, ants, recluse and black widow, rattlesnake, roaches and hornets, another thing, entirely, I'm generally okay with hummingbirds, butterflies, dragonflies, bees 'n bumblebees, wasps, yellow jackets, ladybugs. Just so long as they're not attaching themselves, to my house!

Dearest Mother Nature has the audacity, to reach out and touch, my house? I push the button! I go nuclear! Shoot from the hip, ask questions later, out comes the Talstar, out comes the malathion, out come the fumigation bombs, she gets a chemical dose of az-whole human guy retribution!

"Fee-fi-foe-fum," everything within a 6 foot radius of my parameter, but me, dies. But, not our democrat friends. They come knocking at my door, telling me how they think I ought to be living my life? They just get the hose -


- Samuel, '04 Ruthiemobile