Youtor
Yard Wasps
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=QHy2GnQ7ebc
Joanna visits with Ric Bessin, University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Entomologist, to talk about the various types of yard wasps. • Kentucky is home to a variety of yard wasps. This is the time of the year when the colonies of the social wasps are at their peak. A few of the more common ones being seen are Scolia dubia, cicada killers, and yellowjackets. The Scolia dubia doesn’t have a common name but ‘grub hunter’ would describe its role. Female Scolia dubia patrol over lawns to dig into the soil in search of white grubs. She paralyzes the white grub with a sting and lays a single egg on it. She then makes a small underground chamber for the egg and grub. When the wasp larva hatches, it feeds on the white grub. These wasps can be very numerous where white grubs are abundant. Grub hunters pose little threat to us. Cicada killers are soliatary wasps that choose sites with specific characteristics: well-drained, light-textured soils in full sunlight that are near trees harboring cicadas. Females have significant stingers which they plunge into cicadas to inject venom that paralyzes them. Males lack stingers but are territorial. They will approach anything that enters “their area”, including walkers, people mowing or using weed-eaters, or riding tractors. Control may be desirable in situations where physical damage is occurring or the presence of the insects is causing significant distress. Yellowjackets are often considered the most dangerous stinging insects in the United States. They tend to be unpredictable and usually will sting if the nest is disturbed. These stocky yellow and black insects build underground paper nests, often using abandoned burrows of chipmunks or mice or holes in loose soil around shrubbery or landscape timbers. Nests may contain several hundred workers by late summer, making control attempts dangerous. • For more information contact and follow us on social media. • Warren County Cooperative Extension Service • https://www.warrencountyextension.com • / warrencountyag • https://warrencountyagriculture.com • / warrencoag
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