T wrote:
Hi All,

I noticed that my back yard rafters have about 10 wasps nests
across them.

And, I notice a lot of wasps on my plants too.

They are not aggressive and leave me alone.

as long as you don't go after the nests they
usually will leave you alone.


Are these guy doing me any good? Are they eating pests? Or farming
pests, like aphids? Don't see any aphids.

Question: they are pretty easy to kill. Leave them alone or
exterminate?

Presumably, the amount of nests has to do with close proximity
to a food source. Correct?

i tend to leave things alone as they aren't causing
harm.

wasps eat spiders, some caterpillars (cabbage worms ),
and are pollinators of various plants so they can be helpful
IMO. you will see them on plants searching for eggs and
larvae and spiders.

we have rather large populations here with all the rocks
and the only nests i remove are those that they try to get
going on the eaves of the house and in areas where we're
active. i go around with a long stick and knock them down
in the morning and then i step on the nests (do i have to
say wear good shoes for this? ) when it is cool the wasps
aren't very active. then the raccoons come around and eat
the nests. the raccoons also go around and search under and
behind the larger rocks we have for nests and eat those too.

we have several different kinds of wasps/hornets and in
all cases i don't get stung by them very often because i
keep the nests off the house and away from other places
where we're active.

the canned sprays are probably some of the worst poisons
i would like to never use them at all.


songbird