Our friendly, not-so-little colonies of yellow jackets met a sudden and unexpected demise the other night. Much to our surprise, something ate all of them. Something went to each hole, dug it open, and violently ripped out a whole season of community effort. Days and days of carefully constructed honeycombs, each filled with a new life, a new servant of the colony or even a yet-to-be crowned queen, were ripped out and torn open. And for what purpose? A snack? A tasty treat? The little eggs and larvae were munched away like jelly beans on Easter morning. It was as if mother nature didn't even care. Now, we can proudly say we practice natural pest control.
Here's hole number one, the first and largest. The cavern inside had a volume I would estimate to be around two gallons. Fragments of the paper hive lay all around. There were a few distraught workers still buzzing around. Perhaps the Queen is still safe in her secret underground shelter.
Hole number two, with Quinn's hand for a perspective on size (if you have any idea how big Quinn's hand is).
And number three. Inside the hole were some larger pieces of the exterior of the hive.
The invader dug this hole and others, too, and even left a DNA sample. A raccoon, perhaps? I wonder how many times its nose was stung.
Hmm... The raccoon dung I've seen is, in size and shape, much more like the jelly beans described in your opening paragraph, although lacking the variety of color. It's not particularly slimy, but clean firm pellets.
ReplyDeleteWhatever it was, it seems to be more expeditious than my traps, assuming it got the queen.
Speaking, though, of raccoons, last week E and I were camping at Salt Creek Recreation Area right on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We were both at the fire ring with our backs to the picnic table, not more than 10 feet behind us. We heard a rustle of plastic bag and turned to see a raccoon running away with a whole bag of grapes. Regarding the plastic bag, does that mean we littered, or the raccoon?
Just guessing about the raccoon. We have quite a few wood chucks around right now, but I don't know if they have a fondness for yellow jackets. Skunks and opossums are also quite common.
ReplyDeleteAnother thought about that calling card. It's said that burglars, perhaps relatively new ones, often are so afraid of their impending deed that they scare the you-know-what right out of themselves. Maybe a very hungry skunk or opossum or whatever did the same thing knowing the punishment it would face chowing down on yellow jackets.
ReplyDeleteCurious indeed. I searched a little about predators of yellow jackets--I see mentions of raccoons and skunks, but not woodchucks (perhaps they're vegetarians). I saw this article on biological pest control suggesting pouring honey on the nest to entice a raccoon or skunk to dig it up for you. That might be fun to watch (from the safety of the house) with night vision binoculars or some kind of camera. http://greenmethods.com/site/weblog/2007/10/trapping-yellow-jackets-with-fall-sweets/
ReplyDeleteI also saw a mention of badgers eating yellowjackets, but when I tried to find more on that I got mainly articles about Wisconsin defeating Georgia Tech.