Once upon a time on usenet wrote:
On Fri, 24 Jun 2016 09:00:14 -0400, Frank "frank wrote:

On 6/24/2016 8:38 AM, songbird wrote:
i plugged them up in the garden shed for the
past four days with no access to water or the
outside and sucked up all the returning foragers
in the vaccume... Ma had to get in there for
something and said they're still in there.

i think some type of mason bee. can sting
more than once. bugger got me before i got
her once in the heel and once on the end of
the index finger of all places. luckily the
sting wore off in a few hours. not allergic.

ok today will be a busy day. hope everyone
is doing well?


songbird

I've had trouble with yellow jackets. They are not pollinators and
have no reason to live.

In past years, I was not allergic but last couple of stings caused
swelling and one on the finger sent me to the doctor for prednisone
as whole hand swelled up.

Benadryl and maybe one of those sting pens are a good idea.

I have to disagree with part of your first statement.
While yellow jackets do little in the way of pollination, they do have
a reason to live as they are a valuable asset in one's garden. They
are great garden pest eliminators who use the spoils of their
victories as food for their young.
If you're a gardener, here's an article that may change your view of
the yellow jackets.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organ...z1303zkin.aspx
or http://tinyurl.com/gl97lho

Pseudo-science gobbledy-gook.

"The food demands of growing yellow jacket colonies are so great that it has
been estimated that more than 2 pounds of insects may be removed from a
2,000-square-foot garden by yellow jackets."

That sounds impressive huh? Two pounds of insects!!!

However it doesn't say over what time period, what type of garden, what size
colony is needed to acieve that and it doesn't mention that a large
percentage of those insects eaten will be (other?) beneficial insects such
as aphid eaters. Oh, wait ... It says "it has been estimated"! By whom? With
what data?

It's bullshit.

It also doesn't mention the fact that yellowjackets can bypass caterpillars
chemical protection so that they'll always go for the easy-to-see
caterpillars such as monarch butterfly larvae. I grow plants specifically to
nurture several species of ornamental butterflies and the wasps always take
their larvae but never seem to find the well-camoflaged larvae of 'pest
species' such as cabbage white butterfly.

Wasps will completely eradicate a large population of monarch butterfly
larvae while my vegetable crops get eaten to the ground by hornworms and the
like which the wasps never touch.
--
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long way when religious belief has a cozy
little classification in the DSM*."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)