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Yellow jackets

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RedThumb

Are yellow jackets good for the garden (I know they're bad for the gardener :mouthonfire:)?

We never had any around here but this morning I saw several flying around my tomatoes. When I took a closer look I found they were riping apart a tomato worm. Talk about camoflage! I never would have seen him if he was right in front of me. It was too disturbing to watch as it's green goo dripped down my plants so I hosed off the wasps, plucked the worm off with a paper towel and threw it in the garbage.

I looked outside later and found a dozen yellow jackets attacking another one! I got rid of that one the same way thinking that now when the yellow jackets come back they'll search all over to find out where it went and maybe find others. Sure enough a dozen of them are scouring the plants for their escaped meal.

My first reaction would be to get rid of the wasps (especially since I have kids) but they only hang around the tomatoes and are doing a great job of killing pests.

Any thoughts?
 
They are nasty little f*ckers. Sorry, I've been attacked by them before and they are not fun. They are quite vicous predators and should not be ecncouraged to hang around especially since you have kids.
 
I dont know what you're calling yellow jackets, also I dont even know the correct names for some of those in the bee family. but I looked up "yellow jackets" in wikpidiea (sp?) & those are not that bad/evil IMO. but then again I work on houses & I come across many wasps,hornets,yellow jackets where it doesnt phase me much to have 5 hornets flying around me granted I'll knock their nest down & try to kill them if I can but I'll also stay working around them, it seems like as soon as you start messing with them or trying to kill them thats when they'll get mad at you & sting you.

so far theres been only 1 hornet or ? that scared me because it was flying around me that I wanted it dead right away. it was the biggest hornet (or ?) I've seen. the sucker was about 1 1/2"-2" long & about the dia. of a pencil with a stinger about 3/4" long :mouthonfire: I killed it :lol:

I'm just glad I'm not allergic to bees.

I wouldnt worry about the bees unless you or a family member is allergic to them, at most just knock down the nest if you see them on your house. but also remember most times they make nests inside your house or something where you wont see them.
 
They can be highly agressive, best thing you can do is find the nest and get a empty soup can fill with gasoline and throw it on the nest (unlit of course). Unless of course you live in Calafornia and its on the endangered species list, in which case the state will confiscate your property, while PETA looks on.
 
why would you want to kill bees!?!?!?!?! arent we hurting the earth enough with trying to ruin the worlds food source by slaughtering an already dwindling species of pollenating farmers?
 
Pepper Belly said:
They can be highly agressive, best thing you can do is find the nest and get a empty soup can fill with gasoline and throw it on the nest (unlit of course). Unless of course you live in Calafornia and its on the endangered species list, in which case the state will confiscate your property, while PETA looks on.
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Are they bees or wasps...because wasps will make a nest & leave...meaning a nest can be burnt & not kill any endangered wasps. Bees, well, don't mess with native bees.

Of course you can be innocently hosing your outside walls clean or anything nearby...flying insects will move their nest away if it gets rained on.
 
koolguymike said:
why would you want to kill bees!?!?!?!?! arent we hurting the earth enough with trying to ruin the worlds food source by slaughtering an already dwindling species of pollenating farmers?
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Yellow Jackets are not bees as there skin is smooth bees have fuzz on there butts, plus they (bees) are not aggresive unless they are afrakanized (aka killer bees) but the wasps litterally get into everything and will attack you if you try to swat them away they will bite with very little provocation, they have pinchers, like ants, only larger. [Correction] wasps have stingrs and are able to strike multiple times were as bees can only stike once and then the die. Yellow Jackets are much larger than bees. And yes you are correct people should be very careful not to harm honey bees, those of us who have gardens know there value for they help in pollination, wasps on the other hand serve no real purpose.
 
koolguymike said:
why would you want to kill bees!?!?!?!?! arent we hurting the earth enough with trying to ruin the worlds food source by slaughtering an already dwindling species of pollenating farmers?
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I'm with you on protecting pollinators, but these guys aren't pollinators, they're predators. Great when they're munching the bugs munching your peppers, bad news when you accidentally mow over a nest.
 
Yes, these aren't bees. Bees are great pollinators and should be encouraged in the garden. Yellow jackets are in the wasp family (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket). Unlike bees who can only sting once and then die, yellow jackets can sting as many times as they want as well as bite with powerful jaws.

Depending on the time of year, they do feed on flower nectar but they also hunt other bugs.

I was just wondering if anyone found that their one good point outweighed their bad ones.
 
forgive me if i get excited. in the past almost everyone i have come in contact with didnt know the difference between bees, wasps, yellow jackets, and full metal jackets LOL. so what i can add maybe to be more clear is
"dont go around killing stuff unless you are VERY educated about what you are doing. funny how many times i have heard of people going crazy to kill this crazy new bug to find out they were LADYBUG LARVA!"

if you lump them all into a catagory i have NEVER had any problem with any of them UNLESS i messed with them first. most of the time you dont know they are there and bump them, thier nest, or there hole and thus problems. but when left alone they are fine.

redthumb thanks for the link. i will say i would try to do something about the 2yr old nest if it was around ppl. stumbling on that could be costly!
 
I'm a hater of yellow jackets!! Our area has a lot of them around but I've never had them in my garden thank goodness. Allthough last month while trimming my hedges I hit a nest of yello wjackets and got nailed a few times on my arms and back. From now on I'm considering trimming the hedges with a flamethrower.:mouthonfire:
 
Yello Jackets... the bane of my gardening existence. Whenever I find a yellow jacket nest I destroy it (also wasps and hornets). Being Deathly allergic to all bees I can take no chances with the yellow menace. I must be subconciously suicidal to garden but its just so fun, especially the pepper and Giant pumpkin harvest.
 
Usally most of these insects will leave you alone if you leave them alone, yellow jackets, however are an extreme exception, they are highly agressive. We have yellow jackets here in Germany but the ones here in Europe are not aggresive.
 
its like russian roulette, sometimes they'll attack you & sometimes they wont. I've ripped out/down on many occasions little hornet/wasp hives w/o being attached but they stay flying around wondering wheres their nest, & only time I move is if they get really close to me & then I just try to swush them away.
would I knock down a football size hive & stay around ? HELL NO! :) thats because there'd be ALOT of them & I'm not that stupid unless I had a couple cans of hornet spray & gear to wear :lol:

I really wish I had a picture of a metallic blue hornet to show you, we have them around here kinda rare but wicked looking things I say. some people here have never seen them & say how much you been drinking but its the truth they're around,even some other people I know have seen them.
 
chilehunter said:
I really wish I had a picture of a metallic blue hornet to show you, we have them around here kinda rare but wicked looking things I say. some people here have never seen them & say how much you been drinking but its the truth they're around,even some other people I know have seen them.
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Yeah we have em bad here where I am in Iowa too. Called a blue mud dauber. Here is a link to a pic of one.
https://flic.kr/p/ixsyw
 
I'm just back from Vermont, and there was some sort of yellow and black wasp hive on the house. I found it by accident when one of the little assholes bit me on the shoulder! Bit, not stung, for which I am duly thankful.
 
gardenkiller - did you catch that blue mud ? after finding out the name of that species, its not a evil bee/agressive bee. which matches my experience with them, they just fly off everytime I've dealt with them but they are rare for my area. but still wicked looking :)
& thanks for showing the picture of them & the correct name of them, now I can prove to others they do exsist :clap:
 
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