Giant nests perplex experts

The Associated Press ^ | August 24, 2006 | Garry Mitchell

[Sopater]

Yikes, I hate Yellow Jackets...

[Arm_Bears]

Not something you want to hit with the lawnmower.

[Leg Olam]

"space where queens can't get at each other"

The final frontier for gay yellow jackets?

[dhuffman@awod.com]

There have been many reports of very large wasps' nests in the past. That these exspurts aren't aware doesn't make their reports more credible.

There are current reports of fire ants building colonies with multiple queens and extensive nest systems.

[theDentist]

Seems to me a fire solves many of them, but the underground ones... How about a huge container of pressurized FREON and a large hose?

[pageonetoo]

[Graymatter]

It's that incest, I tell ya! They can't smell a stranger anymore, so they don't keep the hive to a natural size.

[mewzilla]

Was Rodan an insectivore?

[Balding_Eagle]

Nature has a way of evening things out:

"The icecap may not be the only thing shrinking in the Arctic. The genitals of polar bears in east Greenland are apparently dwindling in size due to industrial pollutants. "

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1689212/posts

[Condor51]

We've got a Yellow Jacket nest the size of basketball in our crawl space - between the floor joists. But its an old 'dead' nest built by the critters before the new siding and insulation went up.

Every winter I vow to get rid of it but keep forgetting. Then when nice weather comes, I don't want to get near it - even though it's 'dead'.

[ClearCase_guy]

"I say we take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

[from occupied ga]

"I'm kind of afraid for the grandkids. I had to sneak down there at dark and get my tractor out of the barn," Coker said. "It's been a disruption."

He never heard of diazinon or malathion or seven or temik or parathion?

[bert]

......They can't smell a stranger anymore.....

My thought was that there is a colonial condophenomenon. The huge nests are actually condos where multiple colonies share some common walls.

They have been watching too much H&G

[mewzilla]

He never heard of diazinon or malathion or seven or temik or parathion?

Depending on the regs down there, he tries to use any of that stuff and the authorities may end up being bigger pests than the yellow jackets...

[magslinger]

Some wasp and hornet spray down the hole, and then block the entrance seemed to work well.

You might want to do something about their food supplies, as well. Our neighbors haven't been putting up the humming bird feeder, and we haven't had as big a problem this year.

[reagan_fanatic]

"I say we take off and nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

LOL - that was my first thought too - it looks like something from Alien.

[Rate_Determining_Step]

Just killed a Yellow Jacket nest a couple of days ago. In the ground. They got into a hole that started as a removed weed. Got all but three. They must've been out on patrol.

[Red Badger]

I'd rather bee stung by a yellow-jacket than a red wasp anyday!...........

[from occupied ga]

It's a farm - you can use just about anything on a farm.

[Tokra]