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Yellow Jackets (Read 1185 times)
Rat Man
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Yellow Jackets
Oct 19th, 2020 at 6:05pm
 
     Those familiar with my posts know that every year around this time I write a rant about what miserable bastards Yellow Jackets are. When the weather starts to cool they eat their young, destroy their nests, and go on a Kamikaze stinging rampage, attacking anything sight.
     This year there are none. I don't recall seeing any at all this Summer and I'm certain I've seen none this Fall. I have no idea what this means but I suspect it isn't good. Has anyone seen any Yellow Jackets this year?
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vetryan15
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Re: Yellow Jackets
Reply #1 - Oct 20th, 2020 at 5:42am
 
We have had em up here this year. I got attacked  about a month ago. But our seasons are a month or 2 ahead of most south of us. But we have Bald face hornets up there. They are wicked. I believe 10x more the yellow jackets
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Rat Man
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Re: Yellow Jackets
Reply #2 - Oct 20th, 2020 at 8:55am
 
   People in other parts of the country have told me that their Yellow Jacket population is fine.  I've communicated with other people in the Delaware Valley on Facebook and they concur.  For whatever reason Yellow Jackets are no where to be seen.  I can't say that I miss them but one has to wonder what happened.
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joe_meadmaker
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Re: Yellow Jackets
Reply #3 - Oct 20th, 2020 at 10:33am
 
Not sure how your summer was Rat Man, but in my area is was very dry this year.  We probably had a two and a half month stretch with almost no rain.  It seemed to me that many insect population numbers were down (or went somewhere else).  I don't know if that could be a factor or not.
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Rat Man
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Re: Yellow Jackets
Reply #4 - Oct 20th, 2020 at 2:35pm
 
We had a wetter than normal somewhat mild summer here.
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vetryan15
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Slinging Rocks!

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Re: Yellow Jackets
Reply #5 - Oct 20th, 2020 at 3:16pm
 
We were very dry up here. We couldn't even do a wild apple harvest this year. Very disappointing. Just like u, i domt miss em
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Bill Skinner
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Re: Yellow Jackets
Reply #6 - Oct 21st, 2020 at 12:24pm
 
Do you have armadillos?  They love to dig the nests up and eat the larvae. I usually find what's left of the nest in the winter time, I'm sure they dig up the nests in the summer but I don't seem to find those. 

Earlier this year, the ticks and horse flies were really bad, I used to slap and kill 10-20 every time i walked my dogs.  And I'd have several ticks on me and there's be some on my dogs, too. 

We've had a dry spell for the last two months or so, both have almost disappeared.  Earlier, it was wet, even for down here.
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Rat Man
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Re: Yellow Jackets
Reply #7 - Oct 21st, 2020 at 3:46pm
 
  No Armadillos here unfortunately.  Many of my friends on Facebook blame Monsanto for killing off the Yellow Jackets.  I have no concrete evidence that they are the culprits but sadly it sort of makes sense.
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« Last Edit: Oct 25th, 2020 at 8:59am by Rat Man »  
 
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IronGoober
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...and now, No. 1, the
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Re: Yellow Jackets
Reply #8 - Oct 21st, 2020 at 10:48pm
 
joe_meadmaker wrote on Oct 20th, 2020 at 10:33am:
We probably had a two and a half month stretch with almost no rain. 


Is that a long time for your area? It seems strange to me now. For the past 9 years in northern CA, we haven't had rain from March to November. I didn't grow up here, but I know that it isn't normal. 5 or 6 month stretches are normal.  Now, things are just way too dry. (we've had 2 wet years in the last 9, 2016 and 2018).
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joe_meadmaker
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Re: Yellow Jackets
Reply #9 - Oct 22nd, 2020 at 10:49am
 
Yeah, we were definitely in a drought this summer.  At least as compared to the last couple.  The last couple summers before this one were very wet and humid.  I can't remember if it was last year or the year before, but during one of them we reached a new record for rainfall in the Pittsburgh area.  I remember also hearing that we didn't have two sequential days of sunshine for the span of a couple months.  It seems like during the summer season, we can't get a happy medium.  It's either soaking wet all the time, or dry as a bone.
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Rat Man
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Re: Yellow Jackets
Reply #10 - Oct 22nd, 2020 at 6:17pm
 
   We probably would have been part of that drought here in the Delaware Valley but five times we got hit with tropical storms.  I can't recall near that many ever.  My little lake has never looked better this time of year.
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