While out of town on Monday and most of Tuesday I asked my wife to kindly pick whatever cucumbers were ready. She got to the 4th one and got hit, not once, but 3 times by a nest of yellow jackets that decided to set up house in my vines.
I felt bad for her because I had already decided to take the vines out when I got home since they are on the tail end of their season and I have 18 new plants I started a few weeks ago ready to go in. I did that this morning and I found not 1 but 3 wasp nests hidden among the foliage. How I have not gotten stung all these weeks of picking I'll never know. I did manage to pick 11 more cucumbers and that area of the garden was dry enough to turn over by shovel and get the new plants in.
I also see where my Japanese Yard Long Beans are starting to come in. I'll likely pick a couple dozen beans by tomorrow and at their size, that is more than enough for a nice side dish.
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gixxerific
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Sorry to hear that.
Maybe that is what is going on with my Swiss Chard up front. Every time I go out there, every time. There are wasp not yellowjackets though. Crawling all over my Chard. I can't seem to find the bugs they may be after. But they are always there. I cant' hardly go in to trim it up without them getting all mad.
Its rather odd.
Maybe that is what is going on with my Swiss Chard up front. Every time I go out there, every time. There are wasp not yellowjackets though. Crawling all over my Chard. I can't seem to find the bugs they may be after. But they are always there. I cant' hardly go in to trim it up without them getting all mad.
Its rather odd.
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engineeredgarden
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They're everywhere! Bees wanted to set up house on my basil sitting next to my cukes, but the nest hadn't been fully established, so I just sprayed it off with a hose so they can move out somewhere else. They do come over to pollinate my cuke flowers every now and then so they must not be too mad at me 
I can't remember ever seeing a yellow jacket nest that wasn't attached to a solid structure. I've never had a nest in my garden. I just remembered, I did try to flush a yellow jacket nest out of a rose bush once with a water hose. That was a bad experience. I do have a lot of bumble bees and wasps in my garden, but haven't been stung except when I got to close to a bumble bee nest a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't in the garden though. The yellow jackets will sting my wife but they don't seem to bother me. I sometimes let them climb on my hand when they get into the house and carry them out. If my wife tried it, she would get stung. I wonder if they can smell fear.
Ted
Ted
kgall wrote:Around here a nest that close to the ground means a winter with not too much snow.
Yahoo, New Orleans won't get too much snow this year. So, you're saying the plan for a winter garden is safe?????
We do occasionally get some snow here. It averages something like once every 8-10 years and I can only remember it remaining on the ground for more than a few hours 3 times in my 57 years living here.
[quote="tedln"]I can't remember ever seeing a yellow jacket nest that wasn't attached to a solid structure. The yellow jackets will sting my wife but they don't seem to bother me.
Two of the three nests were built connected directly to the foliage near the top of the trellis where it was the heaviest and the third was attached to a 2x4 cross member I have in there for support about chest high.
Your wife and I seem to share something in common when it comes to insects. I am a mosquito magnet. I've seen times when there were 10 or more folks at my house sitting on the back porch and I'd be the only one being attacked by mosquitoes. It is just downright freaky when that happens. It's not nice to be a mosquito magnet living in New Orleans.
Oh, and a trick to keep bee and wasp nests from being built on your porch is to paint the ceiling a light blue. That is a tried and true practice in New Orleans since many homes have porches. I live in an older home and my eaves are not closed in so you can see my rafter tails and the roof sheathing. That part is painted a light brown and wasps have built several nests in the eaves that I use my pressure washer to knock down. They have never built a nest in the blue porch area in the 18 yrs. I've lived here.
Two of the three nests were built connected directly to the foliage near the top of the trellis where it was the heaviest and the third was attached to a 2x4 cross member I have in there for support about chest high.
Your wife and I seem to share something in common when it comes to insects. I am a mosquito magnet. I've seen times when there were 10 or more folks at my house sitting on the back porch and I'd be the only one being attacked by mosquitoes. It is just downright freaky when that happens. It's not nice to be a mosquito magnet living in New Orleans.
Oh, and a trick to keep bee and wasp nests from being built on your porch is to paint the ceiling a light blue. That is a tried and true practice in New Orleans since many homes have porches. I live in an older home and my eaves are not closed in so you can see my rafter tails and the roof sheathing. That part is painted a light brown and wasps have built several nests in the eaves that I use my pressure washer to knock down. They have never built a nest in the blue porch area in the 18 yrs. I've lived here.
Does the blue paint make the insect think it is the sky or something? That is very interesting!gumbo2176 wrote: Oh, and a trick to keep bee and wasp nests from being built on your porch is to paint the ceiling a light blue. That is a tried and true practice in New Orleans since many homes have porches. I live in an older home and my eaves are not closed in so you can see my rafter tails and the roof sheathing. That part is painted a light brown and wasps have built several nests in the eaves that I use my pressure washer to knock down. They have never built a nest in the blue porch area in the 18 yrs. I've lived here.
Two of them were up about 7 ft. in the dense floiage near the top of the trellis and the 3rd was built under a 2x4 used for support of the hog wire I use for a trellis and was about mid-chest high.garden5 wrote:Sorry to hear that about the bee nests. I think the bees won't setup in my garden since I'm always puttering and stomping and hoeing around in it. Were your nests in the ground or up high?
I bought a couple of inexpensive bird houses last spring and mounted them in my cucumber trellis. Both bird houses produced young birds this year. I don't know if the birds kept the wasps away or not. I do know I wasn't finding as many insects on my cucumbers this year.gumbo2176 wrote:Two of them were up about 7 ft. in the dense floiage near the top of the trellis and the 3rd was built under a 2x4 used for support of the hog wire I use for a trellis and was about mid-chest high.garden5 wrote:Sorry to hear that about the bee nests. I think the bees won't setup in my garden since I'm always puttering and stomping and hoeing around in it. Were your nests in the ground or up high?
Ted