I don't mess with wildlife beyond trying to keep water in a birdbath, not using cides, looking first before optional trimming to check for bird nests, taking pics, that kind of thing. But if a wasp is menacing me @ my front door, I'm not the one who started it. Go live in the woods, not my house. Yes, I know insects aren't capable of thought processes like that, but those who nest too close to people will not be the ones who carry on the species.

Exactly. Any wasp nest I spot won't live to tell the tales of the humans to their next generation. So far I've been swatting loose ones that are nest-site hunting. The water hose (a strong blast, not the soft shower stream) makes for an effective weapon.

I never notice wasps unless I see them making a nest. Anything other than that, they're just doing their thing and not bothering me. Especially if it is the plants I have put in the garden that they are using/visiting.

To be sure, many wasps are quietly helping us, mostly unnoticed.
https://extension.psu.edu/prog....

Absolutely! We have quite a few solitary wasps here, they are totally non-aggressive. And, I think I already said this, even the nesting ones are pretty docile when they're just working on stuff in the garden - no need to go on the offensive against those.

Our wasps are very aggressive, you can tell that when their rears are up in the air. Weedwacker maybe you could send me a few of your wasps. I wish our wasps were as docile as our carpenter bees. I can pet those.

TomatoNut95 said: Our wasps are very aggressive, you can tell that when their rears are up in the air. Weedwacker maybe you could send me a few of your wasps. I wish our wasps were as docile as our carpenter bees. I can pet those.

You are down in Texas where you have fire ants and killer bees, different world where you do not have hard long winters.

Florida has three resident Vespula yellowjacket wasps— the bald-faced "hornet" is actually an aerial yellowjacket— that perform extremely useful garden services. All are social insects that are very protective of their nests, and if you disturb a nest there is no perfume or aroma that will protect you. Florida is also home to several kinds of Polistes paper wasps, also important friends of your garden, also social insects that can sting. Again, the nest is the focus of paper-wasp defenses. "Endless Forms: The secret world of wasps" by Seirian Sumner is a good book on these fascinating animals.

Of my two gardens, the South garden, when I take a beak I rarely am visited by wasp of any sort; once in a while a horn or yellow jacket will check what I am drinking but not often.
Probably as I no longer have the flowers there I once did, near only roses and peonies.

Up North, when go sit at the summer table by the house, I often get visited by every species living in that area.
Probably as numerous flowers are right next to the house and flowers, usually cleome are in the garden ten feet away.
They inspect my plate if I ate some thing, land on my glass or cup, arms , chest and occasionally hover a few inches from my face.
I just tell them to bugger off, wave my arm and they go away, although few come back for a second look.
The hornet style always act like quick Carl from the Marathon Bar Commercial; the paper wasp shaped ones check things slowly and thoroughly and then head out.

One Labor Day week end we got together with friends and had a picnic outside. I piled up the chicken wings scraps intending to chuck them later. Here comes the yellow jacket. He landed and inspected the chicken wings. Then carefully gnawed off a piece and flew away with it. He kept this up until he had made a tiny dent in the chicken flesh. Never saw a wasp do that before although I have seen them eat/chew on wood. I like the mud wasps. Their nests are different colors from the different mud puddles they visit. Always had one in the shed. Last years we had Cicada killers burrowing into the flower beds. They made really deep tunnels. I gave them a wide berth.

Spotted these two today. Nailed one with the flyswatter; don't know where the other went.

I had cicada killer wasps digging between the pavers where my garbage cans sit. And since I have to walk there often, they had to go. It was a constant battle filling up the holes again and again the first year, but I only used dirt, and the next day, they'd tunnel the dirt back out again. Then I started filling them first with water, then tamping the dirt back down really hard and constantly watering them so those dirt gaps eventually harden up. Took a few years but I finally got them to stop using that spot. Plus I like cicadas... it's not summer until I hear them singing nonstop.

I thought the holes might be from garden snakes, and they could stay. Until I saw something huge barely hovering over the cement because it was dragging a cicada bigger than it was.



The space isn't even a full inch wide, yet every year they were back in this spot.

They tore up my beds last summer. The ladies are bigger than the males and they have the stinger, the males do not. I watched a video of the cicada killer taking a paralyzed cicada to her nest and that was really interesting. She was rocking back and forth with the cicada under her rear legs. It looked like she was trying to get momentum going. All of a sudden she sprinted up the tree trunk dragging the cicada with her. They'll bury the cicada in the tunnel and lay their egg in it. When the larvae hatches it eats the cicada. They dug so many tunnels in between my rock wall I thought the wall would collapse. Dirt and mounds everywhere. Early in the spring it was the carpenter bees swarming on the porch chewing up my pine planter box. It got so bad I removed the box and put it out back so they could chew to their hearts content.

I keep other wasps away by spraying with a mixture of water and peppermint oil, they don't like the smell. I had wasps building nests in the outer crevices of the garbage bins, in the rolled edges at the top. I couldn't figure out why I was getting swarmed every time I took out the garbage, swatting one away I managed to push it towards me and got its stinger in my jaw. I finally found the nest and removed it, but they kept coming back and starting again until I remembered my trusty peppermint oil. Now I spray those crevices every spring with the peppermint/water mix to keep them out and that works. Also makes my trash bins smell nice!

I have carpenter bees, but they've never eaten anything, they stay on the flowers. You might try the peppermint oil spray on the boxes and see if that keeps them away. A lot of insects and small animals don't like the smell.

Thanks! I'll use that in the spring to divert the bees from chewing my planter box. I know mice do no like that smell. My friend used it in his garage to deter the mice from chewing the interior of his car.

I use it twice a year under the hood of my car to keep squirrels from nesting under the hood. I had it happen once, parked on a typical well-lit Chicago city street. My car overheated and we found a nest, removed it, and thankfully only a few wires near it were chewed a bit. But they kept coming back daily and rebuilding for a few weeks. I found out most any strong scents will keep them out, and that's what I finally did. I originally used a Bounce Dryer Bar and the first night it kept them out and since then.

Now I have magnetic cans with air slots where I put straight peppermint oil on cotton pads under the hood. I've read of people with $5k damage done to their cars just from chewed wires, so it was a fight I was determined to win.

Nancy, where did you get the "magnetic cans with air slots" ? We have a lot of trouble with mice getting into our vehicles and filling up the air filters with their nests

I got mine from Amazon 6 years ago, they're called "Guardfather Natural Mouse Repellent". It was 2 cans for $30 at the time, and while I thought it was too expensive, I figured they should last forever and I wouldn't be scrounging around each year trying to come up with a better way to keep the scent there. I used to duct tape old short nylons along the sides that I'd fill with scented dryer beads after Bounce so rudely quit making the dryer bar.

I did find them listed at Amazon in India to give you an idea of what they look like:
https://www.amazon.in/Guardfat...

For about a week after I put fresh peppermint oil in them, I can smell it a bit inside the car, I use straight oil on cotton pads for that use. I used to have chipmunks taking seeds and apparently eating them under the hood. When I changed my air filter on my car, I found a mess of seed shells in the molded area that holds the filter. So I do it twice a year now, not just spring, and I've had no shells even since then.

Thank you! The smell of the peppermint oil would certainly be preferable to that of mouse pee in the glove compartment!!

(apologies for the diversion from the original topic of the thread)

You could use these cans, they're the same size, punch numerous holes in the lid and glue some earth magnets to the bottom. The regular round cotton pads you see everywhere fit inside nicely. Not sure why it's not sold in the US anymore, but I'm glad I found them when I did. They stay in my car year round, I just put new oil in them twice a year.

You could try placing something strongly scented in the glove box if that's the only place they seem to like in your car. Take a dryer sheet, dump a bunch of the strongly scented dryer beads they now sell, tie it up at the top so they don't spill all over and toss it in the glove box.