THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9408190083
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT STIFFLER, Gardening columnist
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
AUGUST IS A MONTH of hot weather, picnics and yellow jackets. Although yellow jackets and some wasps eat a few of the ``bad bugs,'' they worry most people, especially those allergic to their stings.
Yellow jackets are highly aggressive when you approach their nest. If they swarm around you every time you go to a certain spot in your yard or garden, chances are their nest is close by. Nesting places you may have overlooked but they didn't, include the soil in large planter boxes or underneath roof rafters or wooden decking.
Victoria Jahn, writing in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden newsletter, says yellow jackets are very sensitive to vibrations. If their nest is under a deck where you regularly walk, they will buzz you to try to drive you away. As the colony grows in size from a few in the spring to hundreds by now, they become even more aggressive.
Don't immediately run for the Sevin or malathion. Without locating their nest, spraying can be a waste of time and money, Jahn says. You may kill a few, but the rest of the colony will be alive to return another day.
The good news is that yellow jacket nests are deserted each fall and are never reused the following spring. But often their new nest goes up near the old one.
In late winter, remove the old nest, so it no longer provides a familiar landmark to the yellow jackets next spring. Remove or repair and paint old, unpainted wooden porches, houses, fences and decks. They are favorite nesting sites because young female yellow jackets chew crumbly old wood into a paste to make their nests.
Yellow jackets love picnic food, especially meat, soft drinks and fruit. So make sure all picnic areas are clean and garbage can lids secure. Keep all insect populations to a minimum. Yellow jackets eat grubs, aphids and caterpillars, so why provide them such food in your garden?
When you see yellow jackets hovering over flowers, it's an insect meal they're after, not the nectar of the flower. But bees are not such a nuisance in a garden. They're less aggressive than yellow jackets. They eat nectar and pollen and do not hunt other insects. Since they don't eat meat, they're usually not pests at a picnic. And they're less likely to nest in houses or outside of buildings.
If you're allergic to bee stings and want fewer of them in your garden, Jahn recommends planting small or showy double flowers that provide bees with poor access to nectar or pollen. Bees don't like the very double or pompon varieties of marigolds, chrysanthemums, petunias, geraniums and roses. They're also not attracted to grass or impatiens. Bees prefer daisylike flowers, tubular flowers, most herbs and especially salvia. If you can't live without some of the flowers bees like, plant only a few of each kind. Bees are more attracted to large masses of a single kind of good nectar or pollen flower.
More bees are needed for pollination purposes, so do all you can to encourage bees, even if you're allergic to them. But discourage pesky yellow jackets by following the suggestions above. by CNB