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buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 19 9:57 am Post subject:
Make the lawn a no-go area, either by decree, or by barriers! Henry

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46209
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 19 11:14 am Post subject:
seems a fair plan if they are ok with sharing with wasps for a while. much as i like wasps i think i might find that a bit uncomfortable, i'm happy to pick fruit in a cloud of them but we have an understanding that they can forage the yard but they can't take up residence.

buzzy

Joined: 04 Jan 2011
Posts: 3708
Location: In a small wood on the edge of the Huntingdonshire Wolds

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 19 2:04 pm Post subject:

As I understand it, it is very unusual to have two wasp nests adjacent.
Perhaps they are two different species?
Perhaps there are two entrances to one large nest?

Useful as wasps are, it may be that nesticide is the only solution to protect the nine year olds. I'm not a fan of the "They'll soon learn to keep away!" school of thought.

A professional pest controller would be the best person to deal with the situation safely.

It's allegedly possible to relocate a wasp nest by digging one up on a cool night when the wasps are asleep, but you need courage and skill to attempt this - I wouldn't try it.

Henry

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46209
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 19 8:48 pm Post subject:

nor would i.

the kids that live there might be ok with a sensible attitude but one of their chums just won't be able to resist poking it with a stick ( with or without a horses head handle'

)

imho secure it by 15 meters or so in every direction or get rid of it/them

if as buzzy says it might be is one nest/two holes chances are there are quite a lot of them.

a wasp sting per kilo of person body mass is getting dangeroos even if the trespasser is not allergic to them.

by quite a lot i mean a total payload in the ten to twenty kilowasp range of angry wasps if they were in and surprised, even during the day there plenty in the nest doing deliveries and chores and there could be a few hundred near enough to follow the screams/pheromones and target the invader fairly quickly.

i have had two near misses, gardening and building, when i have damaged a nest in daytime in summer, both were far too exciting and if i had not reacted well and got away very rapidly it could have gone badly either time.

much as i like them as visitors the colony ones can be a bit hard to live with.

for avoiding them getting too familiar in the woods we popped a bag of sugar in a plastic bag, made a couple of holes and hung it up 150 m away, wasp hotels are ace to keep them off a bbq, picnic or living areas in a waspy forest.

iirc it only took 2 bags a year to cover an acre or so, slightly different problem for your family though

if "lawn " means near the house etc etc i vote lynch.
it upsets me to go for a brutal solution but not to could be far more upsetting if things went badly.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15966

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 19 6:28 am Post subject:

Are they the common wasp as they more usually nest in hollow trees, buildings or somewhere above ground? Is there any possibility they could be solitary wasps/bees, or even bumble bees? Underground does seem unusual for common wasps.

If the lawn is not in a general route to other parts of the garden, if possible, I would put up barriers as we need wasps. They are getting a bit rarer, and as you say Gz, we need them to keep down other insects.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46209
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 19 9:58 am Post subject:

good point, is it established beyond dought what they are?

re wasps underground, if they can find a dry "cave " under a stone, roots or an old manhole or whatever they do sometimes use it as a nest site.

when i was a kid one of my school chums stepped through some grassy stuff into an underground wasp nest which might have been in an old rabbit hole ( mixie had recently got rid of the bunnies ) he was lucky to only get a few stings

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8918
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Fri Aug 09, 19 2:56 pm Post subject:
Thanks all...I'll find out more....

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2571
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Fri Aug 30, 19 6:03 pm Post subject: Wasp Related But Different

As the subject line states, this is wasp related but different from up-thread comments.

Back story - the book I requested that I want to review next month on my web site is an excellent Mexican cookbook. There's an interesting sounding recipe for squash blossom soup that I want to try for an addendum to the review. Since I cultivate friends rather than a vegetable garden I asked the appropriate friend with the exemplary vegetable garden if I might come and pick some male squash flowers. But of course I was welcome to come and pick.

When I got there my friend said that there was a parasitized tomato hornworm I might want to photograph (along with everything else I'll no doubt end up photographing.) You betcha!

Those white dots on the caterpillar are the eggs of a braconid wasp. They will hatch and eat the hornworm from the inside. That's good, because hornworms really destructively chew tomato plants to bare stems. It is also sad, because the hormworm matures to a beautiful hawk moth.

Got the picture, other pictures, squash blossoms too. And sent home with more cantaloupes (she had like a dozen on the kitchen counter, how could I refuse to help . . . ) plus tomatoes and cucumbers.

Now I'm off to make corn cob stock to work into the squash blossom soup. That will be my variation for the recipe's rather generic "stock."

That's what's happening over here across the pond in the Garden State of New Jersey.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46209
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Aug 30, 19 10:03 pm Post subject:
wow , that is pretty and ugly. i wonder how my unfortunate beetle is getting on ?

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15966

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 19 7:41 am Post subject:

I know it is nature, but rather horrible as well.

Let us know how your recipe turns out. It seems an interesting one. I get squash flowers, but they are not very big as all I seem to be able to grow are pattypan squashes. I have tried butternut, but don't seem to have any luck with them. Apart from anything else, I don't seem to get them to germinate as at the correct time, our house is rather cool, and I don't have a propagator, nor do I really want one.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2571
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 19 8:21 pm Post subject:

How many squash plants do you want to grow? One year, back in Connecticut when I had a plot in the community garden (ran it too) I got a few gallon size plastic milk jugs, translucent rather than clear. Cut off the bottom. Sowed a few tomato seeds, 3 if I am remembering correctly, then set a milk jug over each little site. Shoved in a stake next to the jug. Taped around the jug and the stake to keep things from blowing around. Left the cap off. This was done about 4 weeks early, before the usual planting out time in the second half of May.

Each jug acted as a mini-cold frame. Tomatoes were never transplanted, just snipped off the 2 weaker ones (not that there was much difference between them.) Removed "hot caps" at traditional planting out time. Best tomato plants I ever grew.

Should also work well for squash.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2571
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 19 10:27 pm Post subject:
Soup tastes nice but probably is no where near recipe. Why? Recipe calls for 2 pounds of squash blossoms and the 40 that I picked weighed in at 3.2 ounces. Unless it is a typo I cannot imagine where I would get 400 squash blossoms.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46209
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 19 11:23 pm Post subject:

2 pounds of most things is a lot of soup

typo might be the problem , 2 ounces seems sensible for the flavouring in a domestic recipe

2 pounds might be ok for a few portions if the only ingredient is flowers but would that be a nice soup?

400 flowers that are not required to do the flower thing on the plant is rather more thinning than a domestic veg patch might have on soup day , if it is 2 lb where did the recipe come from?
squash farm?

my money is on typo especially as the soup was nice

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15966

Posted: Mon Sep 02, 19 9:13 am Post subject:

Thanks for the suggestion on the milk containers Jam Lady. I already use them for quite a lot of things, like melting beeswax, taking water to the woods in them and templates for spoons. The main problem I have is germination, as the house is just too cold. I think that they need something like 20C and at that time of year our house is usually nearer 15C.

As the others say, getting that weight of squash blossoms would be a job except at a squash farm.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2571
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Mon Sep 02, 19 1:48 pm Post subject:
I am certainly drifting away from wasps. This might be better in recipes. However - the cookbook is Mexican, and apparently bunches of squash blossoms are sold in the market in Mexico. In which case another problem could occur. The blossoms are very fragile and begin to wilt very quickly. Even when wrapped in paper towel place in plastic bag and put into the refrigerator.

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