Yellow Jackets and Bald Faced Hornets

        We're getting close to their "season". I've already run across a couple of nests. They are about as big as a softball right now and are nearing "critical mass" where they will explode in size and population, seemingly almost overnight. I get calls from people saying they have a big "bees" nest and it wasn't there yesterday. It was there, it was just much smaller and easily overlooked.
         Bald Faced (sometimes called White A**ed) hornets typically build nests that hang from tree branches, in shrubbery, or attached to a building (typically at the peak of the roof, on flood light fixtures, or under the soffit).

         On the right, is a picture of a Bald Faced Hornet's nest. Below that is a picture of the hornet.

      Yellow jackets (picture below) will build nests in a variety of places. They will build nests similar to Bald Faced hornet nests in the same type of location (shrubs, trees, and on buildings). They will also build nests in the ground in abandoned rodent burrows, under or in wood piles and brush piles, leaf piles, and under anything laying on the ground. They also have a nasty habit of building nests in the structure of homes and subsequently chewing through ceilings and walls (usually ceilings). If you ever notice what appears to be a wet spot, about the size of a dime, on a ceiling or wall, anytime after mid-July, DO NOT poke your finger or anything else into it, because you will put it right through into the nest and you will quickly have a room full of yellow jackets.
       These two members of the wasp family (they are NOT "bees") can be extremely dangerous and cause most of the allergic "bee stings" that occur every summer. They are extremely aggressive, attack in multiple numbers, and each one can sting multiple times. They do not lose their stinger and, therefore, live to "sting another day". Yellow jackets are the "bees" you see trying to get a bite of your hamburger or a sip of your soda at summer outings and picnics.

Here are a couple of videos of these critters:

 http://youtu.be/TYmc1kLpA_M

 http://youtu.be/wZieAHmWmR4

Upside Down Powder Post Beetles?

Saturday, we went to a customer who was complaining that she had small piles of sawdust on the floor of an out building. We investigated and sure enough, we found about a dozen piles of sawdust that looked like the picture on the right. The sawdust was very fine with the consistency of talcum powder. This is characteristic of powder post beetles, but they are usually in overhead beams and we couldn't fine any holes in the wood on the ceiling, so where was it coming from? I took one of the piles and blew the sawdust away.  As you can see from the next picture, on the floor was a hole (it's right dead center in the picture), the adult beetle had laid eggs in a crevice on the surface of the floor and the larva from the hatched eggs were tunneling into the floor and pushing the sawdust out behind them. Very unusual! They were feeding on the wood and then would emerge at a future date as adult beetles and the cycle would repeat itself. We treated the floor. They have occasionally been reported emerging from newly installed hardwood floors, but this is first time I've ever done this for powder post beetles seemingly just starting into the floor. Powder post beetles and other wood destroying beetles can be as damaging as termites, it just takes them a lot longer to do the same amount of damage.

Barely Keeping His Head above Water - Literally!

Yesterday morning I went to do a carpenter ant job here in Woodbury. I checked in with the customer, told him what I was going to do, and went to the the truck to get my equipment. As I started toward the back of the house, I noticed they had an in ground swimming pool in the back yard. As I got a little closer, I noticed something in the pool. It was a young skunk, probably about 8 weeks old, who apparently had fallen in, on one of his first trips out of the nest with mom and his siblings. The poor little guy appeared to be "skunk" paddling in slow motion. He was going just fast enough to keep his head above water. I have no idea how long he had been in there, but he was obviously extremely exhausted. I went and told the customer what was going on, and asked him if he might have a 2x6 or 2x8 that I could slide into the pool, to give him something to crawl out on. He said he didn't have one, but he had a long handled net that was used to clean stuff out of the pool. So I took that to the pool, extended it almost all the way out (about 15' long), and placed it under the skunk and scooped him gently out of the pool and placed him on the lawn. He stood there for a minute, then made a half hearted attempt to shake himself off, but you could tell he decided he should just rest for a while. I kept my eye on him, and proceeded to close up the net handle. As I was putting it back, I noticed the classic strong skunk smell. I turned around and the little guy was gone, but to show his gratitude at being rescued, he had sprayed in the net while he was being lifted out of the pool. Nobody got sprayed, but the back yard was "stunk" up pretty good for a while. You're welcome, little skunk!

Carpenter Bees

      While carpenter bee (these are the huge "bumblebee" looking critters you might see flying around your roof line) season is almost over. At least as far a active drilling goes, there is only about another week to go and they will be done for the season. In the past, we have done treatments that were designed to kill them, but since over the past few years it has become evident that a lot of the good pollinators (carpenter bees, bumble bees, and honeybees) are in serious trouble and are declining, we have changed our "method of attack". Now what we do, if at all possible, is attempt to physically exclude them, rather than kill them. We make it impossible for them to access the area they want to be, so they will move to a different location where they can successfully reproduce.
       Carpenter bees don't do any serious structural damage. The damage they do is mostly cosmetic, and that is mainly due to their droppings stain on the side of the house. They are very gentle creatures and while capable of stinging, they will never do it, They are big and loud with their buzzing, but are totally harmless.
      While the "kill them" treatment can only be done during their reproductive season (about the last week of April thru the first week in June), the exclusion can be done at any time. If you had them this year, and you don't want them back next year, the exclusion (if appropriate for your house) can be done anytime before next winter sets in.

Below is the link to the Carpenter bee page on our web site.

http://www.nfpestcont.com/Carpenter_Bees.html

Carpenter Ants

       Once the weather broke this spring the carpenter ants became real active. These are the big black ants that can be seen crawling around inside or outside. If you have them inside, more than likely you have a nest of them somewhere in the structure of your home. These ants do damage because while they don't eat wood for food the way termites do, they tunnel out an area for their nest. When they start tunneling out the area for their nest they throw out the wood chips they have removed. This will sometimes be thrown out right into an area where it can be seen, resulting in a big pile of sawdust similar in consistency to what you might find under a table saw. If you have a sawdust pile like that, it is a guarantee that you have carpenter ants and the nest is right above the sawdust pile.
       Depending on where the nest is they can do very little damage or a significant amount of it. They can be treated, but "over the counter" type products that put a barrier around your home can act as a repellent and if the nest is inside it can make the situation worse because if the ants are inside, now there is a barrier preventing them from getting outside where they prefer to forage. All of the ants will now have to forage inside making the problem that much worse. They also don't respond well to "over the counter" ant baits.
     Because of the damage carpenter ants are capable of, it is best to hire a professional company to get rid of them. This is one of those "don't try this at home" things.
       Below is the link to the carpenter ant page of our web site which shows some of the incredible damage they are capable of.

http://www.nfpestcont.com/Carpenter_ants.html

Things Are Starting to Move

      At the middle of March, we mailed out fliers, with return post cards, to existing customers offering flea, wasp, and carpenter ant prevention treatments. We have gotten a lot of them back, and are doing those treatments now.
      We're starting to get calls for ants of all varieties, carpenter ants and the small household ants people typically call sugar or grease ants. Small household ants do no damage. They are just a nuisance. Carpenter ants however, can do serious damage depending on the location of their nest, because, while they don't eat wood for food, they tunnel it out for an area for their nest. If it is in the weight bearing structure of the house they can cause thousands of dollars of damage. If you ever run across a pile of sawdust somewhere in your house, this is normally indicative of a carpenter ant nest right above the sawdust, however, most people just see ants crawling around inside the house and never see any sawdust.
       Squirrels are becoming active in attics, but at this time of the year there may be young present. Never close up a hole where squirrels are entering, unless you are absolutely sure the squirrels are not inside, because they will chew a new hole to get out, and that hole might be in the ceiling, with the squirrel winding up in your lap.
       As soon as we get a couple of consecutive days with temperatures around 70 degrees, the phone will start ringing off the hook for people with wasps. If they are yellow and black, they are not yellow jackets, but Mediterranean wasps. True yellow jackets don't usually become a problem until late July.