Yah, I know, but I couldn't resist the pun. I grew up in commercial beekeeping so I also can't help wanting you to know that technically, wasps don't swarm either. That's a bee thing as well. For wasps a single wasp will start a nest on her own with no helpers. At least the ones that make the little paper nests. If you remove it though, they will come back and try to make another nest but it's not really swarming as they are ALL mature female wasps. Bees have three variants. The queen, the worker (immature stunted female) and the drone which is a haploid in that it doesn't have the male genetics but simply has half the normal set of chromosomes. So domestic bees do actual swarming when a hive will divide when half the hive mutinies and flies off with a young queen.
Reason I hate wasps so much (especially the ones that make the little paper nests under your eves) is that being a mature female they can sting over and over if you piss them off and for me they hurt much worse than a bee sting. Bees on the other hand can only sting you once. Yellow jackets that make those huge paper nests are another horror I'd rather not encounter but fortunately I've never seen them. Mud daubers are ok other than the little nests they build that mess up the stucco or paint.
Those paper wasps with the long ass I hate with a passion. Even if you leave them alone they tense up and stair at you as you walk by.
BTW, if you want a non toxic way to kill them it's super easy. Just get a garden sprayer, fill it with water and add liquid laundry detergent. Make it good and soapy and then spray all of them after dark.
The detergent instantly wets their wings and they can't fly, fall to the ground and suffocate because the wetting agent of the detergent allows water to infiltrate their lungs rather than bead off. You're welcome!
You must know this channel then:
Hahaha! No but thanks for the rush I got watching that. Outside of domestic bees I'm quite ignorant so I can't tell the difference between hornets and wasps other than I think wasps are the ones with the long butt thing and hornets have the normal short butt. I don't care for either even if they have their place in nature. So, they should stay in nature and away from houses.
I did see the one where a guy went to war with his yellow jackets infesting his house. He did one where he used a similar (though much less dangerous) contraption with a small grid and a hotdog inside that he drew a little man face on.
His next attempt to wipe them out was using a weed wacker next to the entrance to their nest on the side of his house. That was amazing. He left it on for hours and the spinning wacker filament slaughtered them until hardly any were flying and there was a pile of mangled bodies on the ground. It was amazingly effective as it turned their natural defense against threats against them so they became enraged and attacked the spinning filament.
With bees many suppliers to pharmaceutical labs use a less than lethal charge on a grid with a cloth under it to elicit a sting response. It pulses on and off so the bees get released after stinging. The material is such that it doesn't catch the stinger and rip it out as it would on skin so the bee stings and then walks up into the hive. The collected venom is used to make anti-venom for people who are allergic to stings.
Worth knowing is that wasp and bee venom have different components so the anti-venom derived from bee venom is not that effective for people allergic to wasp stings. Also worth knowing, if you are allergic to bee stings you might not be allergic to wasp stings and vice versa. Wasp venom is more painful and lasts longer. Also worth knowing: localized swelling from a bee sting is not indicative of allergic reaction. An allergic reaction would be general hives all over the body and or swelling and itchiness all over the body and possibly difficulty breathing and general weakness or reactions with the heart. The breathing and heart reactions are symptoms that can be deadly for those with allergies. If you notice those symptoms you should seek medical help.
His next attempt to wipe them out was using a weed wacker next to the entrance to their nest on the side of his house. That was amazing. He left it on for hours and the spinning wacker filament slaughtered them until hardly any were flying and there was a pile of mangled bodies on the ground.
Haha, saw that one.
There's another one where some guy uses a hard-disk motor with a wire, same result. The fuckers are getting mad at it trying to sting it ending up sliced into pieces.
Why are the wasps attracted to that?
Because it’s right over their underground nest.
Those red hornets are the worse. Those have to die.
I think we're discussing basically the same type wasp, just a different variant. The nest is a flat pancake like affair attached by a single stem to the underside of the eaves.
As I stated earlier, the best method to kill them is to use a garden sprayer with liquid laundry detergent and water and spray after sunset when they are all there. Adjust the nozzle to a stream rather than spray and target the nest. The wasps will drop off and fall to the ground where they die in about one minute. Writhing in agony of course which is appropriate considering what they do to us.
The scariest wasp we have in California is the red winged tarantula hawk. It's the largest wasp I have ever seen with that same distinctive long wasp waist that can pivot around to sting you if you happen to be brave or foolish enough to try to pin one down with your fingers. As a curious kid I did try to capture one this way and gave up an instant later.
They are solitary so far as I know and spend their time hunting for tarantulas in the hills so ordinarily, they are non threatening. They only try to sting you if you try to handle them.
The stinger is huge in comparison to a bee or other stinging insect. It's used mostly to sting a tarantula into submission and feed to it's young.
My dad related to me how he was riding on the hood of a pickup as a teenager out in the countryside with his buddies and one hit him on the nose and stung him inside a nostril. He said it hurt so bad he fell off the truck and was writhing on the ground in agony.
You'll recognize this wasp by it's large size, distinctive red wings and dark black body. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/237353842844388765/
That’s a big son of a bitch!
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