Wasps

Johnny39 · Post by **Johnny39** » Fri 14 Sep, 2012 4:16 pm

A couple of months ago my wife was out in the garden and noticed a lot of wasp activity, comings and goings, into the eaves of the adjoining bungalow. I mentioned it to my neighbour and between us, spraying copious amounts of ant powder (yes ant powder), we managed to avert the building of a wasps' nest. There does appear to be a shortage of the pesky black and yellow devils now though. We have an orchard just over the back garden fence and normally at this time of year we would expect to be pestered with the little drunken pests but not this year. My wife bought a wasp-catcher from Morrison's but it only seems to be attracting bluebottles by the score. Earlier in the year, during the beautiful weather in March/April, there were millions of ladybirds but they seem to have done a bunk too.

Jogon · Post by **Jogon** » Fri 14 Sep, 2012 4:17 pm

stutterdog wrote: Jogon wrote: stutterdogHate them.Love bees. Hi Jogon,I hate wasps too. Once got stung... My wife didn't volunteer to suck out the poison that day! At times like that, you find who your friends are It was the least she could've done..

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Fri 14 Sep, 2012 7:14 pm

Hi Johnny39.In your post at 15:16:27 you state "Earlier in the year, during the beautiful weather in March/April, there were millions of ladybirds but they seem to have done a bunk too". That is very interesting, as I have seen very few ladybirds in recent years. Clearly insect populations do vary a lot around (you seem to be in the Scarborough area and I'm in Leeds). Numbers of any insects will rise when there is plenty of food but their then high population leads to a dramatic fall as there is then not enough food source. For such as ladybirds it can take several years to recover and there is also now the threat of the invasive Harlequin ladybirds pushing our red ladybirds out.

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Fri 14 Sep, 2012 8:04 pm

Jogon wrote: stutterdog wrote: Jogon wrote: stutterdogHate them.Love bees. Hi Jogon,I hate wasps too. Once got stung... My wife didn't volunteer to suck out the poison that day! At times like that, you find who your friends are It was the least she could've done.. Yes Jogon, we've been married 47 yrs but we're not as friendly as we used to be! LOL

Johnny39 · Post by **Johnny39** » Fri 14 Sep, 2012 8:08 pm

Leodian wrote: Hi Johnny39.In your post at 15:16:27 you state "Earlier in the year, during the beautiful weather in March/April, there were millions of ladybirds but they seem to have done a bunk too". That is very interesting, as I have seen very few ladybirds in recent years. Clearly insect populations do vary a lot around (you seem to be in the Scarborough area and I'm in Leeds). Numbers of any insects will rise when there is plenty of food but their then high population leads to a dramatic fall as there is then not enough food source. For such as ladybirds it can take several years to recover and there is also now the threat of the invasive Harlequin ladybirds pushing our red ladybirds out. Hi Leodian - yes we did have plenty of ladybirds in the spring but I haven't seen any lately, consequently the tips of the roses and rose buds are absolutely covered in greenfly. I can't say there has been a lack of ladybirds over here in recent years, on the contrary they seem to be in abundance, it's just in recent months they seem to have gone AWOL. I haven't come across the Harlequin, I will have to look on the web for info. about that one. There are plenty of butterflies about at the moment, mostly coloured ones as opposed to the old cabbage whites. Crane-flies (Jimmy Long Legs) are in short supply as are the humble bumble bees.

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Fri 14 Sep, 2012 8:10 pm

Leodian wrote: Hi Johnny39.In your post at 15:16:27 you state "Earlier in the year, during the beautiful weather in March/April, there were millions of ladybirds but they seem to have done a bunk too". That is very interesting, as I have seen very few ladybirds in recent years. Clearly insect populations do vary a lot around (you seem to be in the Scarborough area and I'm in Leeds). Numbers of any insects will rise when there is plenty of food but their then high population leads to a dramatic fall as there is then not enough food source. For such as ladybirds it can take several years to recover and there is also now the threat of the invasive Harlequin ladybirds pushing our red ladybirds out. Hi leodian,I remember earlier in the year seeing lots of Ladybirds in the garden too. I planted up 3 hanging baskets with Surfinias ,1 white 1 red and 1 purple. The purple one was devastated by greenfly the others virtually greenfly free! But not a ladybird lavae to consume them in sight! What happened to them? Must have been the cold and wet weather we had in June and early July?

book · Post by **book** » Fri 14 Sep, 2012 8:24 pm

I reckon the monsoon type weather that helped to fill the reservoirs in those few days we had the torrential down pour flushed most of the ladybirds away.

somme1916 · Post by **somme1916** » Fri 14 Sep, 2012 10:09 pm

Hi S L'ers.....see the thread I posted recently on insects....really weird,the differences betwixt coast/inland.Wasps are a rarity....(thankfully),bees too(unfortunately),butterflies also inland(sadly)...been a really strange summer all round.

Jogon · Post by **Jogon** » Tue 02 Jul, 2013 3:26 pm

2013 no wasps really.

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Tue 02 Jul, 2013 4:14 pm

I saw a report recently which warned that with the trend to less cold weather it is forecast that a vicious strain of large European hornets will soon be found in this country, as they have already reached parts of France from where they should be able to readily reach here. The venom from those hornets is said to be much worse than our native hornets and that they attack with little (if any) provocation. They also attack wasps and bees. Southern England will get them first but it may not take long before they get up North if the warmer weather trend continues.