Sunday, September 05, 1999
Wasps feeling feisty, not festive
End of summer builds aggression
BY LEW MOORES
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The days grow cooler, and shorter, and these wasps sense the twilight of their lives.
Even as humankind prepares for the last traditional outdoor fling of summer — a Labor Day weekend of picnics and barbecues — a yellow jacket shows up in the ointment.
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OUTWIT THE BUGGERS
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While there is little people can do to stage a yellow-jacket-free picnic, there are some steps to minimize confrontations. Or try, at least.
• Keep garbage containers away from the picnic area. Yellow jackets would just as soon dine in peace and not have to duel with you for food.
• Keep food covered while on picnic tables. Be especially mindful of open metal cans of soda pop, where you can't see what may have flown inside. Keep them covered as well.
• Don't swat at yellow jackets, since “quick movements often provoke attack and painful stings,” advises an Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet on the wasps. Instead, move slowly away from them.
• Avoid wearing heavy colognes, hair spray, after-shave or suntan lotion when picnicking.
• Unless a nest poses a hazard, leave it alone; by first solid freeze, it will be without live wasps and will not be reused.
• If a nest needs to be removed, wait until nightfall or have a professional do it.
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Scores of them. Aggressive, persistent, beyond nuisance, a literal pain. Spoilers of picnics.
“They know their time is up,” said Bery Pannkuk, technical director for ScherZinger, a pest-control company. “They don't have as much time during the day to forage; they're running out of energy. They know they've got this entire population to keep feeding.”
Yellow jacket populations are up this year compared to last because of a relatively mild winter that was kind to overwintering yellow jacket queens — more surviving queens mean more colonies begun in March.
Regardless of the annoyance, entomologists will quickly point out that these are beneficial insects, predators and scavengers that prey on insect pests and clean up the organic mess of both the natural and man-made worlds.
Yellow jackets will feed on caterpillars and sawflies, scavenge fruit that falls and rots beneath trees, or alight on an animal carcass and feast.
But as Randy Morgan, associate curator of entomology at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, points out, they also will identify your hot dog for what it really is — dead meat.
“That's just like a carcass,” says Mr. Morgan. “Their job is to clean that stuff up.”
That's the rub. They scavenge so efficiently — so ravenously — that they tend to spoil picnics this time of year, or any semi-idle gathering that occurs outside with food and drinks present.
“At this time of year an average colony is probably 1,500 to 2,000 insects,” said Mr. Pannkuk. “I've seen colonies that probably contain up to 6,000, 7,000 insects.”
t In early spring and summer populations are small, with a queen having survived the winter and starting a new colony by laying eggs. But then the colony grows and grows.
“At this point they have more mouths to feed, their population is growing, there's a maximum amount of brood or immature stages coming along, so the need for food is at a maximum,” said Mr. Morgan. “They're competing with other insects ... so they get fairly aggressive.”
Dr. Michael Sayre, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, said yellow jacket stings are a common problem at Riverfest downtown during the weekend.
“Typically over the Labor Day weekend at Riverfest we see plenty of yellow jacket stings,” said Dr. Sayre.
He said people who are stung are told to put ice on the area affected, which may swell, and to take ibuprofen or aspirin to relive the pain.
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