@@suburbanbiologyhey homeslice, If you’re ever in a pinch and need to cut a glass bottle like in the video, you can do it with just a quartz crystal, a propane torch, and a basin of cold water. Just carefully score a circle on the bottle with the quartz, heat the score line with a torch, and dunk in the cold water and it will pop right off :)
A coworker told me he kills buried wasp nests by shoving a banana in the hole. The banana doesn't kill the wasps, it just attracts a raccoon. The raccoon gets lured in by the banana and then finds the nest and digs it up to eat the larvae at night when the wasps are lethargic. I told him this was great but then you'd have a colony of raccoons lol.
@@imwacc0834You might be referring to the actual cicada killers. Those are huge wasps about 1 1/2 to 2 inches and that’s all they do is eat cicadas. Not dangerous to humans or pets but I wouldn’t be trying to love on one 🤭
@@notreal5311likely ground hornets. As long as you find the nests the easy way and avoid them, they are beneficial to have around. When they're in an area I can't avoid, I eliminate them. I prefer to let them live if possible
I’m from New Orleans and we had big problems with wasps. The old folks know that if you paint the ceiling of your porch sky blue, they won’t build a nest there. They perceive it as the actual sky.
Like cats, they were "domesticated" when killing pests, and occasionally sting, or rather scratch, when you pet them.... sometimes..... But sometimes they are very cuddly.
My grandfather use to cut open silk worm tree pods. We'd leave and come back in about an hour. Wasps were absolutely going to town on those worms. He was an old time farmer and hated pesticide when something natural was around.
@@texasgemtree solitary wasps can be quite picky about what feeds their young, but social wasps just want something easy to mash up. At least I guess that's their criteria anyway--will this make a good mushball?
@@StacyRobin-m3w I have lots of wasps, several types. Mahogany, yellow and black paper wasps, mud daubers, ensign wasps that parasitize roach eggs, I even sometimes have the ones that look like small bees but go by the name of yellow jackets and live in a ball nest or in the ground. Yellow jackets and mahogany wasps are extremely aggressive near their nests.
Many people don't know that wasps are essential to make wine. While they fly on top of the mature grapes, they leave some useful yeasts that are essential for the fermentation phases, enriching the flavors of the final product.
@eliascabbio7598 yeast used for making wine and bread is selective bred in labs into isolates and reproduce from that. They don't take it from nature any more.
Nice one, thanks! As I didn't have a CO₂ bottle at hand, I used a 1.5 Liter jar, folded some metal wire mesh to form a second bottom so the wasps wouldn't fall into the mixture below, which was *sodium-bicarbonate (2 table spoons) and white vinegar 5% (5 table spoons)* the gas that is produced (within about 2 minutes) is CO₂, I closed the lid and was ready to go, with some long sleeve rain gear and leather gloves on, and approached them in the corner of that shed, opened the lid and put the jar over the nest. The mesh worked nicely and indeed after about 5 minutes they had all fallen down, properly sedated, brought the nest to its new location and placed its stoned inhabitants nearby; they woke up after about 20 minutes and went straight to their nest as if nothing had happened... 🌈🐝👍🙏
When I saw CO2 I immediately thought there has to be a simple reaction that people can do without the need to buy compressed CO2. Thanks for the sharing your experience, it would be a pretty good experiment to do with kids as well, lots to learn in a fun way.
Huh. Never thought that reaction would have a practical use. If you wanted more control over the reaction you could use a mixture of citric acid and baking soda.
Raccoons took the nest. How would I know? When I was young and single, I lived in a mobile home. After a late night at the bar, and an early workday approaching, I was awakened by a loud metalic banging on my porch. Cursing, I got up and opened my door. I was greeted by two juvenile racoons swinging on a large, ancient, sheet metal bird feeder hanging on one of the porch posts. The feeder had no seed in it, so I had no idea what they were after. Angrilly, I rushed up to the raccoons, who were at eye level, and just inches away, began yelling at them to get off my porch. They seemed to have no fear, and just stared back at me. Then in the darkness, I heard the buzzing...
@@sylvisterling8782 That was precisely my reaction when I pulled the foam faucet cover (for winter) off one of my rarely used outdoor spigots a few weeks ago. The flurry of airborne objects took me completely by surprise. Luckily, I'm still pretty fast on my feet, and a hasty retreat prevented any injury. I don't really use that spigot, so I just left the nest there.
Thanks for the video! When I bought my home there were few plants and no trees....or wasps. Over the next few years, I built a couple gardens, put flower and herb beds all over, planted numerous trees, added a couple of water features. Ive planted almost exclusively native plants and flowers. Soon, I had wasps all over, toads and singing frogs, geckos, praying mantis, lady bugs, rat/ garden/ worm snakes, anole lizards, trees full of birds, squirrels, opossum, raccoons. Eventually a swarm of bees started a hive in an old upside down tree pot- Now, they live in a hive I transferred them to. In the process of transforming my property, I was curious as to what all those "weeds" , "bugs" and "critters" were. Turns out every PLANT and tree support a whole host of LIFE , and every single plant is either edible, medicinal or useful in another way. I have NEVER used a single chemical to control, kill, treat or anything else anything on the property. I leave all the leaves and plant debris well into spring when all the LIFE thats overwintered in it has woken and gotten to work. For 20 years, every year, I get one small paper wasp right over the from door. I started off just taking the nest down, but they always came back. Theyd NEVER bothered us over the years. In beekeeping, old timers would talk to their bees, saying hello, keeping them informed as to whats new...chit chatting. Well, Ive been doing that to all the LIFE on the property. Until a recent really hard late freeze, we had Praying mantis all over our porch plants that we could pick up and carry around. We had names for them all- they all look different. The wasps have let me get some really good close up picture sand videos of them over the years. Cheers!!!
This comment has given me hope for the future. It's hard being a bug-lover and huge environmentalist when the world is so cruel to nature just because it can be a little inconvenient at times. Thank you for working to reconnect and revive it!
There aren't nearly enough people like you. Thank you for all you do for the world and all the critters and for taking the time to get acquainted with the magic and beauty of the life around us
I used to sit by the side of my bee hives and watch them, bring them empty honey jars to clean, and they never stung me in 4 years, except one that became tangled in my hair, but they hated my dad. He had to wear a full bee suit to get a frame of honey. Some people can`t get near bees or wasps. I`ve never had trouble with most stinging insects, even bumble bees, except yellowjackets.
This is a great example of how we should use our knowledge and ingenuity to live with and utilise nature, rather than constantly trying to subvert and supress it.
Yeah the first reaction for most people, myself included, was to immediately look for some hornet spray and go to town on a nest. Now I think I'll just let them be.
@@Harold_Callahan I don't. Wasps here still a huge headache simply because we can't have any dinner outside with friends in late spring-summer-early fall because of them. They want our food, they sting you often even if you don't even move an inch (happened multiple times, i was looking at it, not even a single breath, it just stopped walking on my arm for a second and stung me as i was looking at it, wtf??), not to mention that many of my friends are allergic to their sting... Fk my tomatoes, i would get every single one of them if i could. There are multiple types of wasps, and some of them aren't peaceful at all, some will sting you even as an entertainment, other ones you can even pat.
This summer I found that paper wasps built a large nest above my garage door. In search of how to kill it I found that it's too late to remove nest by myself (too large), but at the same time paper wasps are very timid and will not atack you if there are no threat to their nest. So I decided to experiment and to leave the nest where it was. Every day I was watching them very closely, and they were just busy feeding their babies (larvae). They didn't try to chase me away. And couple days ago I noticed that they finally left. I am so glad that I didn't kill them. Because their nests are from paper they always look to build them in shelter from rain, so houses is often their choice. Wasps are not only predators but also polinators and we, humans, just like to exterminate everything without second thought. Thank you for this video to show that it can be a peaceful way to live with nature.
I was definitely at war with wasps until a couple of years ago. That year I had put out two things: hummingbird feeders (with no bee guard) and a bird bath. By early summer, I noticed two things: (1) there were paper wasps everywhere, drinking nectar from the feeders and water from the bird bath, and (2) most of the usual pests were scarce and, when they did show up, they mysteriously disappeared. The feeders had gone dry after a few weeks, and I didn't refill them (laziness), but I noticed wasps patrolling my garden, flying throughout the foliage and crawling around on the leaves. So I made the connection. This year, same thing. No aphids to speak of, no flea beetles, and no white cabbage moth caterpillars on my kale. That last one is amazing! I still have grasshoppers everywhere, but I don't think there are enough toads on the planet to eat them all, so they're just my burden to bear.
They are definitely ally more than a pest. My one remaining question is how often polistes exclamans attacks bee hives. I hope to have bees soon. Thanks!
Can you have chickens where you're at? We got chickens not long after moving to our 11 acres and we went from having grasshoppers everywhere to not seeing a single one within a year.
@@suburbanbiology In the SF Bay Area, where I live, wasps don't bother my bee hives; but they love to eat dead bees on the ground around the hives, especially in the autumn when drones die off and wasps need protein. I love that you emphasize how beneficial wasps are!
No idea where they're nesting, or if they're aerial/cavity/ground nest yellow jackets, but I'm currently feeding the late August YJs the same sugarwater i make for the hummingbird feeders. I set a large coffee mug with an inch of the syrup among my houseplants' outdoor location, close enough for me to pick up from my porch chair. Keeps the YJs busy, they don't drive away the hummers anymore, and they are more interested in climbing down to sip sugarwater than in whatever i am drinking or eating. Today while I was out on errands, one fell in the syrup and couldn't pull herself out by the time i got home. I helped her out with a leaf and observed her cleaning herself. I even petted her and she made no attempt to sting. Which led me to this video. New subscriber! 😊
Maybe you could put a rock in there? There’s some bumble bees at my house and when it gets real hot we set out a frisbee with rocks and water! They can climb out themselves & don’t drown. It might not be a problem for you since I don’t think an inch of syrup will kill em but if you can’t check on em that often a rock will help them out!
Also: I’ve heard that wasps will remember people! This is mostly used to talk about them holding grudges and stinging people but I’m sure your buddy will remember that you’ve done them a solid! They tell the rest of their friends via pheromones (again, supposedly and this was again said about grudges) so you might now be liked by all of her sisters now too!
There are at least two benefits to this method. It would lower the amount of pesticides people have been spraying near their food (that on its own makes it more than worth the effort). It also allows nature to work in the way that's intended. Too many have been trying to fight against nature when they could be working with nature and end up with a much better result. Sadly that's nearly impossible to do if you live in an apartment or condo.
I agree on both points. I go into way more detail on Patreon. The biggest thing I would change is that hot glue does not work in my hot climate if a colony gets too much sun. The glue melts and the nest sags. Full sun should be avoided in general. I also show how I to keep the colonies safe from big predators. That part has worked well so far. Thanks for commenting and for your support!
This is a really cool video. I just sent it to some folks who might actually do this. I personally have never had a problem with wasps. You leave them alone, they leave you alone.
Great video. When I was 10 yrs old, (50 yrs ago). I would charge 50 cents to remove wasps nests off of peoples porches. I would take the nests home, remove the almost mature wasps from the nest, and clip off their stingers and let them walk on my shirt, sometimes 30 at a time, my mother thought I was nuts. I learned that wasps ate spiders and garden caterpillars but they needed a stinger. Today, I only remove nests off my home in areas close to people. I think this video is brilliant. Nature is a diversity of life that adapted together in a natural balance we need to remember that.
When I was 4 I used to pull legs off spiders (always left them with 2 so they could walk), until my Mum hit me (the only time she did!). Now, (60 years later) I save and relocate spiders all the time. I love those little bright green ones we get in England.
You removed wasp nests, how, without getting stung? And at age ten, how did you know how? I got stung a dozen times today after disturbing a nest in our back yard.
@@rswow I got a water hose and dish soap. I sprayed the nest with the water while dripping the dish soap into the water stream. Soapy water clogs up the breathing tubes on insects. The wet soggy nest would usually fall, if not I removed it with a rake. If I got lucky and soaked the queen with soap, she died the wasps would not return. Usually the wasps would be confused maybe try to find the nest location and eventually fly off or die from the soap. I learned this by washing my dad’s car. An insect will die in 20 secs in soapy water.
@@rswow The way I removed wasp nests was to use a water hose and dish soap. You spray the wasp nest while dripping the dish soap into water stream. Giving the wasps a soapy bath. Soap suffocates insects, I discovered that while washing my dad’s car. Once the wasps were on the ground the nest usually fell off on its own, sometimes I used a rake. The wasps that survived or were out foraging might return confused, but usually by the next day they were gone. If the queen survived she might try to rebuild, but she would be alone and easy to wash away. I never got stung removing wasps. I have been stung doing yard work.
I once offered afternoon sugar-water snack on the windowsill to a colony right under my office window. Almost everyday for a whole season. They really grew on me and I was sad when they all died with the first frost. Never got stung.
people say wasps as if they were all the same. There are so many varieties. I live a rural forest in eastern europe, and have hundreds of wasps around my well. They are the chillest things on earth. You can sit and move around them, even kill them, they wont hurt you.
then idk where youve been looking lol, wasps are pretty cool and ignoring them keeping plants safe and stuff some types also pollinate which can also further help plants if you dont have bees or other pollinators nearby!
you should check out the hornet king. He has huge wasp nests he keeps around his homie and has even set up glass pans that he got the wasps to build off off so he has a window into the workings of the hives. He's a big lover of wasps, which is ironic considering his main job is as a wasp pest remover and the other part of his content is once he has killed all the wasps in a hive he's removing he'll take the hive nest and tweezer out all the lavae for his chicken to eat.
I was going to say, when he was like "I put the nests on my fence because I can't walk through it and will know to walk around it so I won't get stung 🥰" I'm like this dude's neighbor is going to get the surprise of his fucking lifetime
Likely the wasps will never be a problem for the neighbors unless they were hammering/banging something on the fence, or something like that.. I have lots of experience observing them in the wild, and even raising a couple of paper wasp nests in captivity, so I've gotten to know their typical behaviors very well. These are paper wasps, which are a little different and more docile compared to yellowjackets and hornets.
"I had a fence full of wasps, and not a sting on me." Me at home, hey....Thats a great home defence idea hahaha. I pity the random fool who jumps your fence, accidentally cleans up a large wasp nest on the way over, promptly gets mauled by many nests worth of wasps hahahaha
I love every bit of this video! As an engineer, I instantly had a cheaper solution for this - instead of using a big CO2 bottle, you could use a soda stream cartridge! It is also possible to buy adapters and fittings for those cartridges that let you release gas through a hose. That whole setup should cost $50 at most! And best of all, you can always use that cartridge to chill with some tasty lemonade once the job is done. You can also cheaply refill it.
Well put together video. I don't usually kill wasps, I used to but now I like to observe them and just be careful if I have to walk past them. I never really put thought into the importance of wasps and the positive outcome they can provide for a garden, thanks for filling that part of my brain without being asked. Take it easy, keep doing what you do.
1:10 you said she was going to chew it up and feed it's regurgitated remains to it's sisters... it actually makes a "meat ball" of sorts and they pass that ball around in smaller bits to the larva which in return regurgitates a glucose substance that the full grown wasps then can eat, it's the reason they are so protective of the nest, without larva it is very difficult for them to eat and stay alive. Awesome video, it's good to spread the word that wasps aren't just annoying stinging pests, they help us in more ways than most know...
That is indeed a more accurate description. I found a channel called green wasp removal that actually shows footage of what you describe. Thanks for weighing in!!! The world needs more entomologists.
To it is sisters? its* regurgitated remains To its* sisters. It's = it is or it has. Its = the possessive of it. The contraction wins the apostrophe over the possessive. FYI.
Paper wasps are invasive pests and a threat to native species where I live but still a very interesting video. I admire your problem-solving ability and persistence.
@@dancarter482 I take your point, humans are possibly the worst invasive species on earth but also the only species capable of clearing up the mess we've made.
This made me so happy. Sometimes people have a cavalier attitude toward hating another species, and it never gets questioned. But then one person saying "oh actually, that species has an important role!" will change your mind. You live in a slightly happier world when you can smile instead of frown at another creature.
I was terribly stung by a wasp as a kid when I got too close to a nest and had a lasting fear of them into my teens due to the pain I experienced. Recently I've started finding videos like this that explain the behaviors of these animals, and I'm actually very fond of them now on par with bees. Thank you so much for advocating for these fascinatingly important insects and working to balance the environments we share with them. I will definitely be using this technique if I ever get nests in a bad spot!
Great video! Excellently produced. I grew up in Soutgern California out on the desert (dry) and my dad was a dirt farmer. I’ve always admired wasps, been stung enough to respect them. I appreciate knowing more about them, what they eat, how they live, etc.. they are definitely carnivores. They love a bit of raw beef or chicken! At times I’ve had to get rid of them, because they stung friends, children or passerbys. Just FYI, I mix a one to ten ratio of liquid dish soap with water in a spray bottle and it drops them immediately. Sorry for the morbidity and mean sounding, but it seems like a quick and easy way. Thank you for the vid!
this and alcohol are what ive heard work. i dont think its right to kill them without very good reason, but if they gotta go (which they most certainly do sometimes), i'd rather they go quick.
Back when I worked for a medico-legal attorney service firm, photcopying medical records for use in court cases, one of our field agents had a bit of a wasp problem. He was mowing his lawn one bright summer weekend, when he saw a wasp or two flying up from an area he had just gone over with the mower. it was a subterranean wasp nest. he squatted down to see if he could find the opening... And the opening found HIM! He was wearing loose shorts... "commando" style. About six or seven wasps flew straight UP... and straight IN. Yes. He got stung. There. He used his "planetary" camera (a type of mobile photo copying camera) to... er... document the... damage! And damage there was! Softball sized damage! Actually, if one wants to be precise, TWO softballs. He was off work for several days because he simply was unable to walk upright! Ouch.
I'm deathly allergic to wasp stings. We're talking epi pen and hospital within 20 min. Still, I hold them in great reverence, admiration and respect. I. Not really that afraid of them. A couple years ago, we had a nest of European paper wasps that built a good sized nest right above our patio slider door. We paid no attention to them and they weren't too concerned about our comings and goings. We would sit on the patio with no problem, ever. They would look down on us, but there wasn't a reason not to trust us. It was so cool! They ate all the pests in our vegetable garden too.
You’re an impressive individual for being comfortable and brave enough to coexist on your porch. We did the same for many months but we don’t have allergies that we know of. Well done! 🙏🏼
@suburbanbiology Well, thank you! I just got tired of being freaked out by them. I started studying them deeply, and as I did, I sort of started to love them and their important place in the world. Now, yellow jackets are another story. Still important, but slightly insane and angry at everything!
This is so cool! Thanks for caring enough, not just about wasps, but about problem-solving in a do-no-harm kind of way. Now that I know a method to deal with wasps safely, I am not so afraid of them, and I’m glad nobody at all gets hurt.
I love this. I've had the good fortune to have wasps build nests facing my glass door where I can watch and take video and pictures of them. I am glad you've found a way to handle them without harming them. So many people are afraid, without understanding what they do for the environment and ecology.
I have a great deal of respect for wasps. They have an important role in nature, and I try to cohabit with them whenever possible. I enjoyed this presentation.
Definitely need less modernity (ways of doing things, not so much the technology... they aren't the same) and more getting in touch locally/cohabiting with nature.
I am very allergic to wasp stings but love gardening and have given up on trying to remove all the wasp nests. Knowing they have facial recognition, I introduce myself to the queen and her brood. I tell them they are welcome on my porch and garden. They give me a good long look, and we both work in the garden together after that. I walk right past the nests constantly, and they completely ignore me.
I really appreciate that you have decided to take such a gentle approach to managing wasps. We as humans often like to deny that other species fulfill a purpose if they interfere with our daily lives in any way. To reiterate, it's awesome that you regard their ecology as is and don't go for the obvious preconditioned route.
Ain't that the truth, for reasons I'm unsure (probably a certain yellow pegasus) I have been wishing it was possible to communicate with all animals and make deals with them. Wasps? I didn't even consider the pest control route, I would keep them happy to provide security for my property! Even rats and mice I'd be happy to prove food and shelter on the condition they don't make a mess of my home, imagine an old work (eg renovations) electrician with a rat buddy helping run wire! Honey bees are already relatively easy for people to handle, but imagine if you could actually ask them what they want more of in exchange for their honey! Crows have also been observed bringing shines to people who offer them treats, imagine being able to explain what exactly you want that they might find or what plants you don't want harmed!
Great technology! I have a colony that is 8"x12" growing on a railing backed by a removable glass pane outside a raised deck. There would be no way to secure / contain the wasps inside of any kind of device because of the irregularities. That's why I especially appreciate of the educational piece at the end of the video telling me that by the end of winter there will be almost no one home. It's October already so I'll wait. When I trim the blueberries in Feb I plan to remove the glass panel, wrap the whole thing in a garbage bag in case someone flies out.... and while wearing leather gloves, use a utility knife to cut the frame off the multiple railings. Next summer I'll check more often and act faster.
I am allergic and it is my own fault, when we were kids we played a game where we would attack a LARGE nest of wasps and stand there and fight them with a stick, who ever ran first was the loser, but really no one won. I have a healthy respect for all of gods creatures and only dispatch them now if they are over my front door. I like your moxie and your ethic. I would like to move my nests as well but I cannot take that chance of getting stung and the bills that come after *provided I make it to the kit I have to carry around in time.* Looks like a great way to help with the garden and the bug problem at one time - Kudos to ya...
I wish people would see how beneficial these little guys are to our plants and realize it's better to move them to a safer place than finish them off. 😞 they also perish during the winter season, and only a few survive to start the next cycle in spring. 🥺 they also know when you try to harm them and, of course, sting when trying to defend themselves. Thank you for such an awesome video!
Wasps like to build their nests where predators can't easily get to them. So, fences are a bad idea. Wasps have a tendency to build their nests around windows. I've had a wasp nest in my window air conditioner, so I spray them in the spring when they are beginning to nest. I've heard horror stories of wasps digging through the insulating foam in window units and entering houses. Window units only have a foam barrier between the inside and the outside. It always seemed a bit cheap not to sandwich the foam in plastic or something. Back in the 80s, my brother built a bird house for Boy Scouts. He attached it onto an old swing set. Instead of birds, wasps built their nest in there. He also used to do weird stuff like throw water on a wasp nest, run inside, and watch the wasps land on the sliding glass door as they chased him. I wouldn't suggest doing that. We didn't have good video games or the Internet back then, so kids often did crazy stuff just to pass the time.
I do a little water spraying in the final scene With some slow motion shots. I doesn’t hurt the wasps…..so I couldn’t resist. Thanks for commenting!!!!
My wasps here are pretty dumb then they build their nest in the outside corner of the door frame. And spiders cover it at night and no doubt eat half the wasps at night. The nest doesn't seem to grow but they are always there. And the spiders are getting down right enormous from the extra food.
Had no idea that wasps were beneficial for the garden, I'll never look at them the same again. Enlightened! Thank you for sharing this knowledge openly and freely, I'm 100% building one of these simple wasp relocating devices.
I would advise watching the Patreon follow up video. Yes that means signing up but you could always stop after one month if you want. The takeaway points are (don’t use hot glue, fortify them with chicken wire, put them in shade). Details in that video though. If there is high demand I may summarize it for TH-cam someday. Depends how well this video does. Thanks!!!!
THANK YOU for this! I am a believer that ALL living things are not just valuable, but precious and sacred. I realize that existing without at least inadvertantly harming and killing other life is impossible, but absolutely any time I can avoid harm, I do so. I deal with this situation frequently, even yesterday. I have a wasp nest right above the door to my garden shed, and I generally just ignore it, but sometimes they get a bit aggressive from my coming in and out quickly or moving the lawn mower out, etc. I have been wanting to move them for a couple months now, and just haven't had the time to research it. Your video came up in my feed today, and I hadn't even searched for anything like it! I wanted you to know that it really matters that you care about these things, and it helps others and promotes kindness and compassion. I believe that if we practice honoring life on every level, be kind and consider ways to help other living things as we tend to our own needs, and be compassionate and consider that all living things suffer when harmed, even the smallest, then it can only make a better world for everyone, inlcluding ourselves. Thank you again, and I will buy anything that I need for this from your links 🙏👍
I am moved to hear that this video helped you on your journey. You speak wise words. Best of luck if you use this method. Pointers: don’t use hot glue if it’s hot where you live. Use epoxy or super glue. Protect the nest with chicken wire and put all nests in shade. I go into more detail on my Patreon follow up but those are the failure points I learned. Take care!!
samesies. every living thing has its place, and being annoying to us is no justification to kill any living thing imo. being dangerous, yes, that's justified, but i absolutely detest how people jump to killing anything that bothers or scares them, regardless of how valuable they are to the ecosystem. they are all just trying to survive. existing near humanity shouldn't be a death sentence, and the fact that it usually is is why our planet is suffering so much from our presence. our priorities are only ever ourselves, and never the bigger ecological picture nor empathy with fellow living creatures. i cant stand it. more people need to open their hearts to the value of nature and the sanctity of life or else
Knew about the CO2. We have a 10th floor roof top garden in downtown Brooklyn for the past 30 years. We have non-aggression pacts with 100s of carpenter beers, cutter bees, honey bees, mud daubers, rare resin wasps, and several varieties of paper wasps. Never been stung. The only wasp we kill are yellow jackets which rarely nest up here - had one in large planter which we had to deal with. One hornet nest in our grill one early spring which we dispatched. The wasps love our cedar deck for their paper supply.
Was hiking in the Superstition Mountains (Az) years ago and followed a stream up to a clearing with a small abandoned (for what looked like a very long time) house. I started walking to investigate and realized - too late (?) that the masses of wall-to-wall, chest high, flowering brittlebush I was walking thru were COVERED with yellow jackets - CO-VERED. We’re talking horror movie style. The next thing I realized was they could’ve cared less about me. I figured it was because I wasn’t threatening them or disturbing their nests. I’ve applied that philosophy since and have had no stings and LOTS of help in my gardens all these years later. Bees are just as chill. Great video. Thanks!
I didn’t know until recently that wasps almost exclusively consume sugary stuff. Like flower nectar or a sweet substance that their larvae produce. I’ve seen them on plants for years but never realized they were eating much like bees do. Thanks for commenting. I’m glad you weren’t stung!!!
11:57 Yeah man. Nature is really smart. I bet you this points to a reason why the wasps wouldn't choose that place for a nest otherwise. Very neat project.
Glad to know there are other people out there who would rather not eliminate anything and everything that could be perceived as a pest. I'm passionate about the same things as you, my friend. Keep up the good work. Your example is inspiring.
I'm all about supporting the natural lifecycle of my local ecological system. The work you've done here, does just that. I spent a few years battling the problem of green horn worms on my tomatoes and the various parasitoid wasps helped me do just that. This past season, I planted a particular strain of monarda, a naturally occurring wild perennial. It attracted a fair amount of hummingbird moths, which I had never seen before and I was pleased. As it turns out, the problematic green horn worm caterpillar is the larval form of the hummingbird moth, I thought my tomato plants were done for. For whatever reason, I didn't have a single one. So while there may have been some paper wasps somewhere that went a bit hungry, I'm intrigued enough to see if I found a natural method of ridding myself of green horm worms without the risk of a high population of wasp nests on my property.
I'm from Germany, my mother sung the goodnight song that was playing around minute 8:00 to me and my brother when we were children every evening, but he understood "Morgen früh wenn Gott will, wirst du wieder gewürgt" instead of "Morgen früh wenn Gott will, wirst du wieder geweckt" which translates to: " If it's gods will, you will be choked tomorrow morning" instead of "If its gods will, you will wake up tomorrow morning" which is pretty fucked up aswell.
5 years ago, I moved a yellow jacket nest from my back door to my apple tree. My apple tree was infested with caterpillars and nothing was working. Long story short yellow jackets saved my apple tree. I do not mind a few stings if I can find a solution where we live in peace.
I like your sense of humor. Very entertaining AND informative. I never thought of wasps as anything but pests, but I now see they can do some good. Thank you. I subscribed a while back, but haven't seen you in a while due to YT being big giant butts and not telling me you've done something even though I have bell notifications on.
Years ago, we learned to grow food in our urban garden. I remember reading that wasps will sting lightly or strongly depending on the perceived threat. This changed my perspective on them...Thanks to your efforts and video, I now know how to move them safely. Thank you!
My brother and I found a way to put them to sleep for free. For less noble reasons. Cup the nest with a jar and knock it loose. Cap the jar with a sheet of paper and screw the lid on. Skip the paper if you dig an adrenaline rush. Put the jar in the freezer for 15-20 minutes and they'll go dormant for up to 10 minutes. Remove the nest and poke it with a stick or relocate it if that's what you're into. Reintroducing the wasps should work the same(?). NOTE: Collecting a dozen nests in the same jar DOES NOT make for a spectacular bug war. No matter how many times you try. This free method might make for another great video plus more people might become wasp whisperers if there were no initial investment.
Except for the freezing part, that's the way I've been catching them for years, even if it's just a lone one in the house. You have to be careful & slide the paper (or thin cardboard like from a tissue box) in beteen the jar & the surface with as little space opened up as possible so they don't get loose. Great idea to freeze if you're going to transport. I started to advocate for others not to kill them when I found out they were also pollinators & the bees were getting fewer. Sometimes though I kind of wonder if they are too numerous do they harm other beneficial species. A fine balance is needed but in this sinful world sometimes the balance gets out of whack I think.
@@brendaann727 Nice. But when you grow up in a trailer park there's nothing but your sister to pollinate so wasps are just enemies of metal sided/skirted dwellers. We invented a sport. The uniform was a pair of shorts. You could wear flip-flops if you were a wus or a shirt if you were a girl. You get one fly swatter each, short straw had to provoke a nest. Last kid standing and still swatting was the winner. We couldn't afford cable.
@@TerrySlaven-zd3um - You did what you had to do. That is why I said sometimes things can get out of balance. We live in wide open areas in a very cold place & they usually do not get to be a problem because the populations stay low. Except in the months where there's alot of rotting fruit from trees people haven't harvested. There can be aggressive ones that will bomb you in this situation, probably due to fruit gluttony. But a much greater threat around here with rotting fruit is bears.
I used to do this as a teen at parties... Catch a big fly and put it in the freezer, then sneak it onto a window-sill, and _pretend_ to find it infront of a bunch of people. You can then cup you hands around the "dead" fly for a few seconds, and bring it back to life like some kind of insect Jesus...blows people's minds :)
Intelligent and compassionate video that easily persuades a person to act in interest of the planet. We need all the pollenators we can get. This video was plenty hilarious in many places. Great entertainment.
Love this video, glad someone else realizes wasps aren't pests and can easily be made to help out and not be in the way, I moved a massive wasp nest myself by just getting a bucket, cutting a small slot in the lid the size of the branch that the nest was on and very slowly moving the bucket up around nest and sliding the lid on so the branch was in the slot, then cut branch and took it home 😆 it was at a friends house, who obviously didn't want it, if you are very carful you can pat wasps without getting stung, (some at least) 😂 you can tell how agitated they are the way they move their wings and legs.
Thank you very much for making this video. In truth, I love the wasps in my yard and every summer I get a huge mass of them because of my large Fig Tree. It self pollinates so the wasps only eat them and don't ever go inside. Anyway. The point is they are a wonderful sight and have never once stung me, even when I accidentally touch them picking figs! There is much hate for these creatures but I am happy to see some appreciation, thanks!
They get used to you being around, and if you don't act like a threat, they will leave you alone. I just move slowly & don't make loud noises near them. Seems like once you make them mad, even accidentally, they don't forget for a while until they are convinced you don't mean them any harm.
So happy to see this! One of my favorite jobs I’ve ever had was the live removal and relocation of flying and stinging insects- we did not put them to sleep, we used a vacuum with a collection chamber at the end of the vacuum hose. Super cool to see it done this way!
@@suburbanbiology We had hornets here last year - never harmed anyone but one of them got mangled one evening (indoors) and within minutes two angry fighter planes appeared having squeezed in through a tiny gap and were out for revenge!
if you paint the outside of your home in Gloss or Semi Gloss the Mud Daubers and Paper Wasps & even Spiders, have a tougher time attaching to the shiny surface, ALSO - if you paint your homes exterior with Latex paint, you can add up to 20% Rid-A-Bug or other water based bug killers to the paint and thin it down a bit and NOTHING will build on it for a cpl years till the stuff loses it's effectiveness
There is pretty much no animal in the world that don’t have a purpose beneficial for nature or us. Except maybe mosquitos i study biology but to this day I have no clue what the purpose of a mosquito could be except maybe population control by transmitting diseases
There is a line between genius and insanity, and you are sitting on it. Not so much for chilling for wasps - 'cause they are pretty chill when you leave them alone. But the the level of dedication on the move project. I'm impressed. I subscribed.
The worst lie I heard in my life is, "if you leave the wasp alone it will not sting you". (Do not mistake with bees! They actually do not sting without reason). Wasps are my personal enemies!
That’s interesting. I’ve never been stung by a wasp unprovoked. I do know that honeybees react hostilely to dark colors, though, and wasps might have things that they react to that you might not recognize as triggers.
The same happened to me. I was sitting on a porch when an unprovoked wasp smacked me hard and stung me. That was the day I learned I was allergic to the little demons.
depends on the wasp species. in my area theres only one species whos actually ahgressive. the others ones can be poked and annoyed but they will just fly around a bit and calm down again
Honestly never earned a sting i didnt deserve from a wasp lol. But yellow jackets are little fucks that can burn lol. I was plucking leaves off a hydrangea trying to fix the my neighbors splotches dead hydrangea and a wasp was under one and stung me. Fair play. A yellow jacket? I was in said neighbors sunroom cleaning it for them, and a yellow jacket, completely unprovoked randomly came in, crawled under my shirt without me knowing and stinged my ribcage. Lmfao
If you wear lotion or fragrance you can be mistaken as a threat, Just look at reasons why Wasps sting. I never get stung and I basically hang out with my wasps every day
Same here, I know the benefits out weigh the risks in keeping them around and like most creatures on Earth are just doing there thing and leave us alone if we leave them alone. Great effort in opening minds to new ideas in a world saturated with poisonous solutions for every problem being advertised without second thought to the real cost of spraying poisons everywhere around the home. And people wonder why cancer is multiplying in the population? Natural Law number 6, cause and effect. Poison the world, it will kill you for trying.
I let spiders in my house live, if I find them in a spot that won't inconvenience me. Like the spiders that live on the step down to my garage, I leave them alone, because they catch all the bugs that are trying to get into my house from the garage. I don't have a garden to protect, and I have little ones running around that are prone to getting stung, so wasps won't be making any nests around my domain. But I do understand the potential benefits of coexisting with some bugs.
Thank you so much! My dad is a cabinet maker. They have a lot of wasps. They have attacked the grandkids and some of them are allergic. My mom and I couldn't understand why they had so many wasps. I just shared your video. It was very helpful. Hopefully we can lessen the numbers by understanding them better.
Superb video. Until now, I had only seen people zapping wasps without understanding that they are an integral part of our ecosystem. Thanks for this video.
i hear they arent fond of glue, chemicals, and disturbed nests. maybe a shell for them to nest in, but i'm not sure they'd really appreciate a plastic home
A friend's parents live in an area with a LOT of yellow jackets. Gorgeous view from the porch, but can't enjoy breakfast without the wasps trying to get your food. Until... the mom made a peace treaty. She cooks up a few extra pieces of bacon, and leaves it on a plate at the far end of the porch. The wasps *love* it, and happily go there and leave the humans alone to enjoy their meal. She says it works every time. Btw, they live in a pretty rural area, so no obvious nests to move, just lots of wasps out hunting.
-I hope the eggs and larvae were fine for those hours the wasps couldn't care for them (because wasps were asleep, had to be reaquainted, or couldn't leave the sock filter to get more food/supplies). I'm sure they did fine, it's just the little things I think about. Also, it was a nice touch that you included the butterfly/moth being released at the end. -Even though I couldn't understand the lyrics, the tune was recognizable as a lullaby. That is definitely a nice touch! -My son sent me this video because he knows I like neat things like this. But, I wasn't expecting to find myself laughing. I like that you went the extra mile to make sure your videos are interesting by being goofball with your wording. Thank you for making learning fun!
Impressive! I also have moved wasps this year to modified bird houses. I really like your method!!! I might suggest adding some short sides to your new nest holder. The nest won’t do well with sun or rain, but you may already be aware of these things. I look forward to watching more of your videos.
This is amazing idea I'd rather see a video of them going to sleep instead of dying I see them in my garden all the time every living thing has a purpose, Thank you😂
i loved this video. a few years ago we had a wasps nest under our roof outhang. it was up high and when i did research it said that wasps only use the nest for one season, so we let them bee🐝 we live in Denmark so we'd have plenty of winter to remove the nest without ruining their productive part of the year. we live in a green area and have a big yard full of flowering plants and trees and we never once got stung. they really aren't as agressive as they're hyped up to be. at least not danish wasps. i've also found that when one gets in our house, if i open a window near it it'll find it's way out within 5 minuttes. they must be able to feel the breeze 😊
I've been gardening for years, but only last year did I stop using chemicals for pests and fertilizers and started using compost only. My garden went well but the bugs were quite an issue. This year I made lots of nesting areas for wasps and wild bees and planted all sorts of flowers in and around my garden. Aside from a slight infestation of squash beetles, most of my plants were healthy and happy all year. It's amazing what the bees and wasps accomplished.
I'm so glad someone brings attention to the importance of wasps in the ecosystem. But there's more to what you tell and I just wanted to highlight the for me most significant fact (besides taking care of other pests like you show) in the hopes of you reading it and spreading awareness :) They are one of the if not the most diversely eaten *food* for other animals like ants, birds, and many more - because all the workers of a colony start to aimlessly wandering about and die off in the winter (everyone should be familiar with that image). It's so obvious if you know it and so important, it really hurts to see so many people celebrating their death in the channels on youtube that are basically all about that rage. Always trying to comment some info back if I come across those.
I love the hornets and wasps in my garden. They are the work horses and deserve that respect. They pollinate and consume caterpillars. I watched one take a cabbage looper worm and rip it apart and roll it into a meatball and fly away. Since then, I change the birdbath water and take care of my work horses. Thanks for posting this video!
I do like wasps and generally let them nest anywhere as long as it isn't directly in my way. A few summers back a big nest of bald face hornets was right next to the garage door! Never got stung once, even going in and out with power tools running. On one hand I'd love to take the time to move bigger or longer lived wasp nests so they can keep going and eating the pest caterpillers. On another, I so rarely run into wasps in problematic spaces, and when I do the wasps are so difficult to get at that it wouldn't be worth the money. I do think encouraging them to nest in and around where you do want them is a great idea though! I'm going to try making little metal/wooden overhangs in my garden to encourage them to live there over the summer instead of in the goat's manger.
I went into a lot more detail about how to make the awnings work on the Patreon follow up video. They need more protection and hot glue melts in full sun. Happy this video could help!
Great video! Thanks. 2 suggestions for a followup video (if you are inclined). - consider location and exposure properties of new sites. Eg. South vs North, sun exposure etc (which will vary depending on your climate) - try a budget building using a used sofa siphon. The cartridges are CO2, cheap and readily available. Keep up the great work!
Good ideas on both. Maybe a co2 bike tire inflator? From what I see they are even cheaper. I cover the shade topic some in the Patreon follow up video I made but I didn’t think of using the tiny co2 cartridge. Thanks!
Have you ever thought that maybe the reason the wasps pick to be so close to you is precisely because they don't want their nests to be eaten by raccoons? A raccoon is far less likely to approach a human dwelling and then attempt to climb a smooth wall of the house than climb a wooden fence somewhere on the periphery. Kudos for the idea (I wonder if Nitrogen hypoxia would work the same way), but I sometimes wonder if they could simply be left alone. I had two of these nests (pretty large ones too) on my balcony last summer and I never got stung. It was my favorite spot to vape, right under the wasp nest, but not one wasp attacked me. A few of them even landed on me checking me out, but I think in the end they got used to me being there and treated me like a part of their scenery. In my experience people are stung far more often when they try to remove the nest or do damage to it preemptively out of fear they will be stung if they don't remove the nest. Which creates this vicious cycle. And I'm not some hippie who won't bother anything living. I've killed pigeons who attempted to nest on my balcony (I hate these f*&^s) but made exception for a barn owl (as they don't have a habit of crapping all over my balcony). But now I hear these beautiful hooting calls that sound eerie in evenings. Maybe you could make friends with your wasps somehow ))
So cool. I love it. I had a little nest inside my third floor bathroom skylight. They didnt care about me too much and it would be fun to see them on the edge of the bathroom mirror at night. They DID come back for a second summer.
Bruh...you're my hero. I HATE killing wasps for all the reasons mentioned, plus they are just very interesting creatures. I was terrified of them as a kid. Then one year I had been coming and going from my house without noticing a nest being built directly above the door in the eave of the porch. When I finally noticed it I freaked out but luckily my logic kicked in and I realized that if they hadn't attacked me yet, they were unlikely to suddenly do so. Every time I cam and went, my anxiety level would spike but I would look at them and they would look at me and life carried on for all of us. I'm guessing that some species are probably more aggressive but these looking identical to the ones you were dealing with, so fairly non reactive to a respectful distance. Definitely going to try your technique to enjoy the benefits of wasps in the garden but positioned where I prefer them.
if/when you do this, i highly recommend you do it at night to avoid any girls that are out for the day hunting/foraging coming back and being confused + theyre generally sleepy and less willing to fight you at night. we need more people willing to set aside their fear, paper wasps are genuinely such sweethearts if you respect their boundaries. bonus points if you set out water/honey/meat scraps for them and other critters, god knows how hot these summers are getting also, something the video didnt touch on, the nests are delicate so handle with care, wasps often abandon disturbed nests so don't feel too hurt if they abandon it, and certain fumey chemicals like hot clue bother them so i'd opt for maybe a tack or something instead. good luck!!
thank you for opening my mind to other non-lethal options. I have always been an avid hater as I've held a grudge since childhood after being chased for no apparent reason. you changed my mind about how these warrior girlies should be handled lol you definitely saved the wasp-nest on my greenhouse glad there are people like you around man
Through your trial and error I learned a lot. I also realized that the wasps preferred building their nest on your house because the varmints can’t get to them there as opposed to your fence. I figured out a solution to your dilemma that resembles old street lamps.
Currently there is a paper wasp nest right outside my downstairs door, making it slightly dangerous to use it (this summer I've been stung twice!). The nest is underneath a deck floor making it impossible to reach without lifting up one or two deck boards (which will surely aggravate these wasps). I bought a can of poison, but haven't used it. Since they don't reuse nests, and likely will decrease in activity soon, I'm just going to wait to remove it (maybe I'll try in November). This video changed my mind about using the poison. Cheers!
I love my wasp and they can become quite tolerant.
Me too! What I did is like literal child’s play compared to your work! Thanks for commenting!!!
@@suburbanbiologyhey homeslice, If you’re ever in a pinch and need to cut a glass bottle like in the video, you can do it with just a quartz crystal, a propane torch, and a basin of cold water. Just carefully score a circle on the bottle with the quartz, heat the score line with a torch, and dunk in the cold water and it will pop right off :)
Thank you for being so decent and kind towards these great creatures. You are so cool .
Try knocking a nest loose in a jar and popping it in the freezer for a few minutes. They go dormant for 10-15 minutes. And its free.
You might want to visit a doctor-for that mental malady...
A coworker told me he kills buried wasp nests by shoving a banana in the hole. The banana doesn't kill the wasps, it just attracts a raccoon. The raccoon gets lured in by the banana and then finds the nest and digs it up to eat the larvae at night when the wasps are lethargic.
I told him this was great but then you'd have a colony of raccoons lol.
Feels like there is a mongoose down the road in that plan 😉 thanks for commenting!
Most ground wasps eat cicadas. They're also good neighbors, not aggressive at all. Assuming you're talking about the real big wasps.
@imwacc0834 whatever type comes out and aggressively stings you when you accidentally run over their nest in a riding lawn mower :V
@@imwacc0834You might be referring to the actual cicada killers. Those are huge wasps about 1 1/2 to 2 inches and that’s all they do is eat cicadas. Not dangerous to humans or pets but I wouldn’t be trying to love on one 🤭
@@notreal5311likely ground hornets. As long as you find the nests the easy way and avoid them, they are beneficial to have around.
When they're in an area I can't avoid, I eliminate them. I prefer to let them live if possible
I’m from New Orleans and we had big problems with wasps. The old folks know that if you paint the ceiling of your porch sky blue, they won’t build a nest there. They perceive it as the actual sky.
Cool idea!
Thanks for sharing
I painted the inside walls and ceiling of my outhouse sky blue . No wasps. This trick works. However it isn't usable in all structures.
I heard the same idea, except you paint the ceiling rainbow. It's a known fact that wasps hate gay people
Yup I am from Florida and tell people this all the time and they dont believe me lol or I guess buying expensive poison is easier I dunno.
**CONGRATULATIONS**
You have taken humanity on its first tentative step in the domestication of the wasp
* tries to pet wasps, still gets stung
best comment I've seen in a while
Like cats, they were "domesticated" when killing pests, and occasionally sting, or rather scratch, when you pet them.... sometimes..... But sometimes they are very cuddly.
@@jordanalexander615Don't try to cuddle them!!! Wait a few thousand years for your progeny to try that.
@@jordanalexander615 In the wasps’ defense, similar things still happen with house cats.
My grandfather use to cut open silk worm tree pods. We'd leave and come back in about an hour. Wasps were absolutely going to town on those worms. He was an old time farmer and hated pesticide when something natural was around.
Cool!
Oh, wow! Thank you for sharing! I was going to go hunt down what type of wasps ate them. Now I know. ANYone that can get to them.
@@texasgemtree solitary wasps can be quite picky about what feeds their young, but social wasps just want something easy to mash up. At least I guess that's their criteria anyway--will this make a good mushball?
@@StacyRobin-m3w I have lots of wasps, several types. Mahogany, yellow and black paper wasps, mud daubers, ensign wasps that parasitize roach eggs, I even sometimes have the ones that look like small bees but go by the name of yellow jackets and live in a ball nest or in the ground. Yellow jackets and mahogany wasps are extremely aggressive near their nests.
Many people don't know that wasps are essential to make wine.
While they fly on top of the mature grapes, they leave some useful yeasts that are essential for the fermentation phases, enriching the flavors of the final product.
Cool!!! I dont think I knew that. Thanks for sharing!!!!
@@suburbanbiology you're welcome!
@eliascabbio7598 yeast used for making wine and bread is selective bred in labs into isolates and reproduce from that. They don't take it from nature any more.
Really interesting, I didn't know this!
Ano, to je pravda. Yes, that is true .
Nice one, thanks! As I didn't have a CO₂ bottle at hand, I used a 1.5 Liter jar, folded some metal wire mesh to form a second bottom so the wasps wouldn't fall into the mixture below, which was *sodium-bicarbonate (2 table spoons) and white vinegar 5% (5 table spoons)* the gas that is produced (within about 2 minutes) is CO₂, I closed the lid and was ready to go, with some long sleeve rain gear and leather gloves on, and approached them in the corner of that shed, opened the lid and put the jar over the nest. The mesh worked nicely and indeed after about 5 minutes they had all fallen down, properly sedated, brought the nest to its new location and placed its stoned inhabitants nearby; they woke up after about 20 minutes and went straight to their nest as if nothing had happened... 🌈🐝👍🙏
Wow. Cool. Thanks for sharing!
that's clever
When I saw CO2 I immediately thought there has to be a simple reaction that people can do without the need to buy compressed CO2. Thanks for the sharing your experience, it would be a pretty good experiment to do with kids as well, lots to learn in a fun way.
Huh. Never thought that reaction would have a practical use. If you wanted more control over the reaction you could use a mixture of citric acid and baking soda.
@@Kadum122the oldest reaction known - vinegar and baking soda 😁
Raccoons took the nest. How would I know? When I was young and single, I lived in a mobile home. After a late night at the bar, and an early workday approaching, I was awakened by a loud metalic banging on my porch. Cursing, I got up and opened my door. I was greeted by two juvenile racoons swinging on a large, ancient, sheet metal bird feeder hanging on one of the porch posts. The feeder had no seed in it, so I had no idea what they were after. Angrilly, I rushed up to the raccoons, who were at eye level, and just inches away, began yelling at them to get off my porch. They seemed to have no fear, and just stared back at me. Then in the darkness, I heard the buzzing...
That sounds like the intro of a slasher movie...
That would be what my dear old Dad used to call "an O.S. Moment". You hear the buzzing, and think "Ohhhhh sh----"
Lady, we were doing you a favor, and this is how you repay us? You deal with stingy parts then... hhmph
HAHAHA that was SCARY!! LOL
@@sylvisterling8782 That was precisely my reaction when I pulled the foam faucet cover (for winter) off one of my rarely used outdoor spigots a few weeks ago. The flurry of airborne objects took me completely by surprise. Luckily, I'm still pretty fast on my feet, and a hasty retreat prevented any injury. I don't really use that spigot, so I just left the nest there.
Thanks for the video! When I bought my home there were few plants and no trees....or wasps.
Over the next few years, I built a couple gardens, put flower and herb beds all over, planted numerous trees, added a couple of water features. Ive planted almost exclusively native plants and flowers.
Soon, I had wasps all over, toads and singing frogs, geckos, praying mantis, lady bugs, rat/ garden/ worm snakes, anole lizards, trees full of birds, squirrels, opossum, raccoons. Eventually a swarm of bees started a hive in an old upside down tree pot- Now, they live in a hive I transferred them to.
In the process of transforming my property, I was curious as to what all those "weeds" , "bugs" and "critters" were. Turns out every PLANT and tree support a whole host of LIFE , and every single plant is either edible, medicinal or useful in another way.
I have NEVER used a single chemical to control, kill, treat or anything else anything on the property. I leave all the leaves and plant debris well into spring when all the LIFE thats overwintered in it has woken and gotten to work.
For 20 years, every year, I get one small paper wasp right over the from door. I started off just taking the nest down, but they always came back. Theyd NEVER bothered us over the years. In beekeeping, old timers would talk to their bees, saying hello, keeping them informed as to whats new...chit chatting.
Well, Ive been doing that to all the LIFE on the property. Until a recent really hard late freeze, we had Praying mantis all over our porch plants that we could pick up and carry around. We had names for them all- they all look different. The wasps have let me get some really good close up picture sand videos of them over the years.
Cheers!!!
You have described my 20 year goal. I’m about 15 years into it, in a pretty dry climate but I’m getting there. Thanks for commenting!!!
Happens when you rejuvenate the environment.
This comment has given me hope for the future. It's hard being a bug-lover and huge environmentalist when the world is so cruel to nature just because it can be a little inconvenient at times. Thank you for working to reconnect and revive it!
There aren't nearly enough people like you. Thank you for all you do for the world and all the critters and for taking the time to get acquainted with the magic and beauty of the life around us
I used to sit by the side of my bee hives and watch them, bring them empty honey jars to clean, and they never stung me in 4 years, except one that became tangled in my hair, but they hated my dad. He had to wear a full bee suit to get a frame of honey. Some people can`t get near bees or wasps. I`ve never had trouble with most stinging insects, even bumble bees, except yellowjackets.
This is a great example of how we should use our knowledge and ingenuity to live with and utilise nature, rather than constantly trying to subvert and supress it.
Absolutely!
Yeah the first reaction for most people, myself included, was to immediately look for some hornet spray and go to town on a nest. Now I think I'll just let them be.
I think a lot of times people forget we're animals too
@@Harold_Callahan I don't. Wasps here still a huge headache simply because we can't have any dinner outside with friends in late spring-summer-early fall because of them. They want our food, they sting you often even if you don't even move an inch (happened multiple times, i was looking at it, not even a single breath, it just stopped walking on my arm for a second and stung me as i was looking at it, wtf??), not to mention that many of my friends are allergic to their sting...
Fk my tomatoes, i would get every single one of them if i could.
There are multiple types of wasps, and some of them aren't peaceful at all, some will sting you even as an entertainment, other ones you can even pat.
This summer I found that paper wasps built a large nest above my garage door. In search of how to kill it I found that it's too late to remove nest by myself (too large), but at the same time paper wasps are very timid and will not atack you if there are no threat to their nest. So I decided to experiment and to leave the nest where it was. Every day I was watching them very closely, and they were just busy feeding their babies (larvae). They didn't try to chase me away. And couple days ago I noticed that they finally left. I am so glad that I didn't kill them. Because their nests are from paper they always look to build them in shelter from rain, so houses is often their choice. Wasps are not only predators but also polinators and we, humans, just like to exterminate everything without second thought.
Thank you for this video to show that it can be a peaceful way to live with nature.
We had some by our mailbox for a few years. They never did much, lol.
Move empty nest somewhere else so new colony can move in
@@realdragon You can also sell them for quite a lot I think
Same, inside a shed door just above my head by inches. Nest was quite large before I even noticed. (Too busy looking down for snakes).
I was definitely at war with wasps until a couple of years ago. That year I had put out two things: hummingbird feeders (with no bee guard) and a bird bath. By early summer, I noticed two things: (1) there were paper wasps everywhere, drinking nectar from the feeders and water from the bird bath, and (2) most of the usual pests were scarce and, when they did show up, they mysteriously disappeared. The feeders had gone dry after a few weeks, and I didn't refill them (laziness), but I noticed wasps patrolling my garden, flying throughout the foliage and crawling around on the leaves. So I made the connection. This year, same thing. No aphids to speak of, no flea beetles, and no white cabbage moth caterpillars on my kale. That last one is amazing! I still have grasshoppers everywhere, but I don't think there are enough toads on the planet to eat them all, so they're just my burden to bear.
They are definitely ally more than a pest. My one remaining question is how often polistes exclamans attacks bee hives. I hope to have bees soon. Thanks!
Can you have chickens where you're at?
We got chickens not long after moving to our 11 acres and we went from having grasshoppers everywhere to not seeing a single one within a year.
@@wanderingcalamity360 Good idea, but that particular option has been vetoed in my house. 🙂
@@ColoradoTodd Well yeah Todd, generally you want to keep the chickens outside of the house.
@@suburbanbiology In the SF Bay Area, where I live, wasps don't bother my bee hives; but they love to eat dead bees on the ground around the hives, especially in the autumn when drones die off and wasps need protein. I love that you emphasize how beneficial wasps are!
No idea where they're nesting, or if they're aerial/cavity/ground nest yellow jackets, but I'm currently feeding the late August YJs the same sugarwater i make for the hummingbird feeders. I set a large coffee mug with an inch of the syrup among my houseplants' outdoor location, close enough for me to pick up from my porch chair. Keeps the YJs busy, they don't drive away the hummers anymore, and they are more interested in climbing down to sip sugarwater than in whatever i am drinking or eating. Today while I was out on errands, one fell in the syrup and couldn't pull herself out by the time i got home. I helped her out with a leaf and observed her cleaning herself. I even petted her and she made no attempt to sting. Which led me to this video. New subscriber! 😊
Maybe you could put a rock in there? There’s some bumble bees at my house and when it gets real hot we set out a frisbee with rocks and water! They can climb out themselves & don’t drown. It might not be a problem for you since I don’t think an inch of syrup will kill em but if you can’t check on em that often a rock will help them out!
Also: I’ve heard that wasps will remember people! This is mostly used to talk about them holding grudges and stinging people but I’m sure your buddy will remember that you’ve done them a solid! They tell the rest of their friends via pheromones (again, supposedly and this was again said about grudges) so you might now be liked by all of her sisters now too!
There are at least two benefits to this method. It would lower the amount of pesticides people have been spraying near their food (that on its own makes it more than worth the effort). It also allows nature to work in the way that's intended. Too many have been trying to fight against nature when they could be working with nature and end up with a much better result. Sadly that's nearly impossible to do if you live in an apartment or condo.
I agree on both points. I go into way more detail on Patreon. The biggest thing I would change is that hot glue does not work in my hot climate if a colony gets too much sun. The glue melts and the nest sags. Full sun should be avoided in general. I also show how I to keep the colonies safe from big predators. That part has worked well so far. Thanks for commenting and for your support!
This has to be some of the best home defense methods I've ever seen! I pitty the fool that tries to jump your fence!
If you're having to spray wasp spray anywhere near your friggin food, wasps are the very least of your concerns.
You don't need pesticides. You just need soap water.
You are missing the benefit of stinging anyone trying to climb over your fence.
This is a really cool video. I just sent it to some folks who might actually do this. I personally have never had a problem with wasps. You leave them alone, they leave you alone.
Thanks for sharing it around!
The nozzle-nose child-park pesticide-sprayers are a MUCH bigger problem.
Great video. When I was 10 yrs old, (50 yrs ago). I would charge 50 cents to remove wasps nests off of peoples porches. I would take the nests home, remove the almost mature wasps from the nest, and clip off their stingers and let them walk on my shirt, sometimes 30 at a time, my mother thought I was nuts. I learned that wasps ate spiders and garden caterpillars but they needed a stinger. Today, I only remove nests off my home in areas close to people. I think this video is brilliant. Nature is a diversity of life that adapted together in a natural balance we need to remember that.
When I was 4 I used to pull legs off spiders (always left them with 2 so they could walk), until my Mum hit me (the only time she did!). Now, (60 years later) I save and relocate spiders all the time. I love those little bright green ones we get in England.
You removed wasp nests, how, without getting stung? And at age ten, how did you know how? I got stung a dozen times today after disturbing a nest in our back yard.
@@rswow I got a water hose and dish soap. I sprayed the nest with the water while dripping the dish soap into the water stream. Soapy water clogs up the breathing tubes on insects. The wet soggy nest would usually fall, if not I removed it with a rake. If I got lucky and soaked the queen with soap, she died the wasps would not return. Usually the wasps would be confused maybe try to find the nest location and eventually fly off or die from the soap. I learned this by washing my dad’s car. An insect will die in 20 secs in soapy water.
@@rswow The way I removed wasp nests was to use a water hose and dish soap. You spray the wasp nest while dripping the dish soap into water stream. Giving the wasps a soapy bath. Soap suffocates insects, I discovered that while washing my dad’s car. Once the wasps were on the ground the nest usually fell off on its own, sometimes I used a rake. The wasps that survived or were out foraging might return confused, but usually by the next day they were gone. If the queen survived she might try to rebuild, but she would be alone and easy to wash away. I never got stung removing wasps. I have been stung doing yard work.
Wait your 60
I love the lullaby music while they gently fall off the nest and fall asleep. Neat idea.
You're the first person I've ever seen who likes wasps.
I once offered afternoon sugar-water snack on the windowsill to a colony right under my office window. Almost everyday for a whole season. They really grew on me and I was sad when they all died with the first frost. Never got stung.
people say wasps as if they were all the same. There are so many varieties. I live a rural forest in eastern europe, and have hundreds of wasps around my well. They are the chillest things on earth. You can sit and move around them, even kill them, they wont hurt you.
then idk where youve been looking lol, wasps are pretty cool and ignoring them keeping plants safe and stuff some types also pollinate which can also further help plants if you dont have bees or other pollinators nearby!
you should check out the hornet king. He has huge wasp nests he keeps around his homie and has even set up glass pans that he got the wasps to build off off so he has a window into the workings of the hives. He's a big lover of wasps, which is ironic considering his main job is as a wasp pest remover and the other part of his content is once he has killed all the wasps in a hive he's removing he'll take the hive nest and tweezer out all the lavae for his chicken to eat.
I like them too
How to be a menace to your neighbours 101
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🎉
😂😂😂👍👍👍
I was going to say, when he was like "I put the nests on my fence because I can't walk through it and will know to walk around it so I won't get stung 🥰" I'm like this dude's neighbor is going to get the surprise of his fucking lifetime
Yeah dude I saw him putting those nests on the fence, and saw the roof right by the fence and was like “seriously?”
Likely the wasps will never be a problem for the neighbors unless they were hammering/banging something on the fence, or something like that.. I have lots of experience observing them in the wild, and even raising a couple of paper wasp nests in captivity, so I've gotten to know their typical behaviors very well. These are paper wasps, which are a little different and more docile compared to yellowjackets and hornets.
"I had a fence full of wasps, and not a sting on me."
Me at home, hey....Thats a great home defence idea hahaha.
I pity the random fool who jumps your fence, accidentally cleans up a large wasp nest on the way over, promptly gets mauled by many nests worth of wasps hahahaha
Natural defense systems 😂
Now that's what I'd call the sting of defeat! :0
Iwas thinking the same thing😏
That's exactly what I thought it was when I saw the image and info for the video. That's why I clicked on it! lol
I've thought this defense system since I was 11, lol.
I love every bit of this video! As an engineer, I instantly had a cheaper solution for this - instead of using a big CO2 bottle, you could use a soda stream cartridge! It is also possible to buy adapters and fittings for those cartridges that let you release gas through a hose. That whole setup should cost $50 at most! And best of all, you can always use that cartridge to chill with some tasty lemonade once the job is done. You can also cheaply refill it.
Not a bad idea. I think a bike tire inflator is even cheaper!
@@suburbanbiology or that! But those usually run off of small cartridges and I'd be worried the gas might run out before the insects are knocked out
Well put together video. I don't usually kill wasps, I used to but now I like to observe them and just be careful if I have to walk past them. I never really put thought into the importance of wasps and the positive outcome they can provide for a garden, thanks for filling that part of my brain without being asked. Take it easy, keep doing what you do.
Thank YOU for taking the time to watch. I appreciate your support!
1:10 you said she was going to chew it up and feed it's regurgitated remains to it's sisters... it actually makes a "meat ball" of sorts and they pass that ball around in smaller bits to the larva which in return regurgitates a glucose substance that the full grown wasps then can eat, it's the reason they are so protective of the nest, without larva it is very difficult for them to eat and stay alive. Awesome video, it's good to spread the word that wasps aren't just annoying stinging pests, they help us in more ways than most know...
That is indeed a more accurate description. I found a channel called green wasp removal that actually shows footage of what you describe. Thanks for weighing in!!! The world needs more entomologists.
@@suburbanbiology I watch that channel too!! Just want to make sure you know, I really enjoyed your video and channel.
To it is sisters?
its* regurgitated remains
To its* sisters.
It's = it is or it has. Its = the possessive of it. The contraction wins the apostrophe over the possessive. FYI.
@@zavatone Thanks, I always miss that when auto correct changes it, but admittedly, I sometimes do type the wrong one...
Paper wasps are invasive pests and a threat to native species where I live but still a very interesting video. I admire your problem-solving ability and persistence.
depends on where you are I suppose, the internet might just be larger than where you are from
@@ArmageddonAfterparty I think they meant to say _Humans_ !
@@dancarter482 I like to keep invasive humans away from my home also.
@@dancarter482 I take your point, humans are possibly the worst invasive species on earth but also the only species capable of clearing up the mess we've made.
@armageddonafterparty that's precisely the point they made.
This made me so happy. Sometimes people have a cavalier attitude toward hating another species, and it never gets questioned. But then one person saying "oh actually, that species has an important role!" will change your mind. You live in a slightly happier world when you can smile instead of frown at another creature.
Wise words. 🙏🏼 Thanks for commenting!
I was terribly stung by a wasp as a kid when I got too close to a nest and had a lasting fear of them into my teens due to the pain I experienced. Recently I've started finding videos like this that explain the behaviors of these animals, and I'm actually very fond of them now on par with bees. Thank you so much for advocating for these fascinatingly important insects and working to balance the environments we share with them. I will definitely be using this technique if I ever get nests in a bad spot!
Thank YOU for taking the time to watch 🙏🏼
While wasps look terrifying it's hornets that are truly evil. Still, wasps just look scary but fuck hornets.
Great video! Excellently produced. I grew up in Soutgern California out on the desert (dry) and my dad was a dirt farmer. I’ve always admired wasps, been stung enough to respect them. I appreciate knowing more about them, what they eat, how they live, etc.. they are definitely carnivores. They love a bit of raw beef or chicken! At times I’ve had to get rid of them, because they stung friends, children or passerbys. Just FYI, I mix a one to ten ratio of liquid dish soap with water in a spray bottle and it drops them immediately. Sorry for the morbidity and mean sounding, but it seems like a quick and easy way. Thank you for the vid!
this and alcohol are what ive heard work. i dont think its right to kill them without very good reason, but if they gotta go (which they most certainly do sometimes), i'd rather they go quick.
Back when I worked for a medico-legal attorney service firm, photcopying medical records for use in court cases, one of our field agents had a bit of a wasp problem. He was mowing his lawn one bright summer weekend, when he saw a wasp or two flying up from an area he had just gone over with the mower. it was a subterranean wasp nest. he squatted down to see if he could find the opening...
And the opening found HIM! He was wearing loose shorts... "commando" style. About six or seven wasps flew straight UP... and straight IN. Yes. He got stung. There.
He used his "planetary" camera (a type of mobile photo copying camera) to... er... document the... damage! And damage there was!
Softball sized damage! Actually, if one wants to be precise, TWO softballs. He was off work for several days because he simply was unable to walk upright! Ouch.
😂 ouch
OMG 😵😵... I use to have a pair of them myself until I read this post; now I can't seem to find them.
Ouch that's really sad that must've been terrifying and painfull
OMG my parts are in pain now just from reading this. That had to be so painful!
dont even have balls and my balls hurt reading this
I'm deathly allergic to wasp stings. We're talking epi pen and hospital within 20 min. Still, I hold them in great reverence, admiration and respect. I. Not really that afraid of them. A couple years ago, we had a nest of European paper wasps that built a good sized nest right above our patio slider door. We paid no attention to them and they weren't too concerned about our comings and goings. We would sit on the patio with no problem, ever. They would look down on us, but there wasn't a reason not to trust us. It was so cool! They ate all the pests in our vegetable garden too.
You’re an impressive individual for being comfortable and brave enough to coexist on your porch. We did the same for many months but we don’t have allergies that we know of. Well done! 🙏🏼
@suburbanbiology Well, thank you! I just got tired of being freaked out by them. I started studying them deeply, and as I did, I sort of started to love them and their important place in the world. Now, yellow jackets are another story. Still important, but slightly insane and angry at everything!
This is so cool! Thanks for caring enough, not just about wasps, but about problem-solving in a do-no-harm kind of way. Now that I know a method to deal with wasps safely, I am not so afraid of them, and I’m glad nobody at all gets hurt.
Glad it was helpful! That was my aim. Thanks for watching!!!
I love this. I've had the good fortune to have wasps build nests facing my glass door where I can watch and take video and pictures of them. I am glad you've found a way to handle them without harming them. So many people are afraid, without understanding what they do for the environment and ecology.
I have a great deal of respect for wasps. They have an important role in nature, and I try to cohabit with them whenever possible. I enjoyed this presentation.
I’m honored that you enjoyed it! And I appreciate your respect for them. Spread the word!!! 🐝
Definitely need less modernity (ways of doing things, not so much the technology... they aren't the same) and more getting in touch locally/cohabiting with nature.
I am very allergic to wasp stings but love gardening and have given up on trying to remove all the wasp nests. Knowing they have facial recognition, I introduce myself to the queen and her brood. I tell them they are welcome on my porch and garden. They give me a good long look, and we both work in the garden together after that. I walk right past the nests constantly, and they completely ignore me.
That has been my experience as well. Thanks for commenting!!!
I really appreciate that you have decided to take such a gentle approach to managing wasps. We as humans often like to deny that other species fulfill a purpose if they interfere with our daily lives in any way. To reiterate, it's awesome that you regard their ecology as is and don't go for the obvious preconditioned route.
Oh good lord
@@Youpeeipay ?
Ain't that the truth, for reasons I'm unsure (probably a certain yellow pegasus) I have been wishing it was possible to communicate with all animals and make deals with them.
Wasps? I didn't even consider the pest control route, I would keep them happy to provide security for my property!
Even rats and mice I'd be happy to prove food and shelter on the condition they don't make a mess of my home, imagine an old work (eg renovations) electrician with a rat buddy helping run wire!
Honey bees are already relatively easy for people to handle, but imagine if you could actually ask them what they want more of in exchange for their honey!
Crows have also been observed bringing shines to people who offer them treats, imagine being able to explain what exactly you want that they might find or what plants you don't want harmed!
Great technology! I have a colony that is 8"x12" growing on a railing backed by a removable glass pane outside a raised deck. There would be no way to secure / contain the wasps inside of any kind of device because of the irregularities. That's why I especially appreciate of the educational piece at the end of the video telling me that by the end of winter there will be almost no one home. It's October already so I'll wait. When I trim the blueberries in Feb I plan to remove the glass panel, wrap the whole thing in a garbage bag in case someone flies out.... and while wearing leather gloves, use a utility knife to cut the frame off the multiple railings. Next summer I'll check more often and act faster.
I am allergic and it is my own fault, when we were kids we played a game where we would attack a LARGE nest of wasps and stand there and fight them with a stick, who ever ran first was the loser, but really no one won. I have a healthy respect for all of gods creatures and only dispatch them now if they are over my front door. I like your moxie and your ethic. I would like to move my nests as well but I cannot take that chance of getting stung and the bills that come after *provided I make it to the kit I have to carry around in time.* Looks like a great way to help with the garden and the bug problem at one time - Kudos to ya...
I wish people would see how beneficial these little guys are to our plants and realize it's better to move them to a safer place than finish them off. 😞 they also perish during the winter season, and only a few survive to start the next cycle in spring. 🥺 they also know when you try to harm them and, of course, sting when trying to defend themselves. Thank you for such an awesome video!
Thanks for your thoughtful comments and for watching!
Wasps like to build their nests where predators can't easily get to them. So, fences are a bad idea. Wasps have a tendency to build their nests around windows. I've had a wasp nest in my window air conditioner, so I spray them in the spring when they are beginning to nest. I've heard horror stories of wasps digging through the insulating foam in window units and entering houses. Window units only have a foam barrier between the inside and the outside. It always seemed a bit cheap not to sandwich the foam in plastic or something.
Back in the 80s, my brother built a bird house for Boy Scouts. He attached it onto an old swing set. Instead of birds, wasps built their nest in there. He also used to do weird stuff like throw water on a wasp nest, run inside, and watch the wasps land on the sliding glass door as they chased him. I wouldn't suggest doing that. We didn't have good video games or the Internet back then, so kids often did crazy stuff just to pass the time.
I do a little water spraying in the final scene
With some slow motion shots. I doesn’t hurt the wasps…..so I couldn’t resist. Thanks for commenting!!!!
My wasps here are pretty dumb then they build their nest in the outside corner of the door frame. And spiders cover it at night and no doubt eat half the wasps at night. The nest doesn't seem to grow but they are always there. And the spiders are getting down right enormous from the extra food.
Wasps: WTF...? Did i dream this up? I don't remember building our colony here...
😂
Had no idea that wasps were beneficial for the garden, I'll never look at them the same again. Enlightened! Thank you for sharing this knowledge openly and freely, I'm 100% building one of these simple wasp relocating devices.
I would advise watching the Patreon follow up video. Yes that means signing up but you could always stop after one month if you want. The takeaway points are (don’t use hot glue, fortify them with chicken wire, put them in shade). Details in that video though. If there is high demand I may summarize it for TH-cam someday. Depends how well this video does. Thanks!!!!
THANK YOU for this! I am a believer that ALL living things are not just valuable, but precious and sacred. I realize that existing without at least inadvertantly harming and killing other life is impossible, but absolutely any time I can avoid harm, I do so. I deal with this situation frequently, even yesterday. I have a wasp nest right above the door to my garden shed, and I generally just ignore it, but sometimes they get a bit aggressive from my coming in and out quickly or moving the lawn mower out, etc. I have been wanting to move them for a couple months now, and just haven't had the time to research it. Your video came up in my feed today, and I hadn't even searched for anything like it! I wanted you to know that it really matters that you care about these things, and it helps others and promotes kindness and compassion. I believe that if we practice honoring life on every level, be kind and consider ways to help other living things as we tend to our own needs, and be compassionate and consider that all living things suffer when harmed, even the smallest, then it can only make a better world for everyone, inlcluding ourselves. Thank you again, and I will buy anything that I need for this from your links 🙏👍
I am moved to hear that this video helped you on your journey. You speak wise words. Best of luck if you use this method. Pointers: don’t use hot glue if it’s hot where you live. Use epoxy or super glue. Protect the nest with chicken wire and put all nests in shade. I go into more detail on my Patreon follow up but those are the failure points I learned. Take care!!
samesies. every living thing has its place, and being annoying to us is no justification to kill any living thing imo. being dangerous, yes, that's justified, but i absolutely detest how people jump to killing anything that bothers or scares them, regardless of how valuable they are to the ecosystem. they are all just trying to survive. existing near humanity shouldn't be a death sentence, and the fact that it usually is is why our planet is suffering so much from our presence. our priorities are only ever ourselves, and never the bigger ecological picture nor empathy with fellow living creatures. i cant stand it. more people need to open their hearts to the value of nature and the sanctity of life or else
Knew about the CO2. We have a 10th floor roof top garden in downtown Brooklyn for the past 30 years. We have non-aggression pacts with 100s of carpenter beers, cutter bees, honey bees, mud daubers, rare resin wasps, and several varieties of paper wasps. Never been stung. The only wasp we kill are yellow jackets which rarely nest up here - had one in large planter which we had to deal with. One hornet nest in our grill one early spring which we dispatched. The wasps love our cedar deck for their paper supply.
I know it's a typo, but the image of 100s of Brooklyn carpenter beers gets a giggle. 🔨🍻🐝
I love the creaky sound of the wasps chewing on the wood.
Was hiking in the Superstition Mountains (Az) years ago and followed a stream up to a clearing with a small abandoned (for what looked like a very long time) house. I started walking to investigate and realized - too late (?) that the masses of wall-to-wall, chest high, flowering brittlebush I was walking thru were COVERED with yellow jackets - CO-VERED. We’re talking horror movie style. The next thing I realized was they could’ve cared less about me. I figured it was because I wasn’t threatening them or disturbing their nests. I’ve applied that philosophy since and have had no stings and LOTS of help in my gardens all these years later. Bees are just as chill. Great video. Thanks!
I didn’t know until recently that wasps almost exclusively consume sugary stuff. Like flower nectar or a sweet substance that their larvae produce. I’ve seen them on plants for years but never realized they were eating much like bees do. Thanks for commenting. I’m glad you weren’t stung!!!
11:57 Yeah man. Nature is really smart. I bet you this points to a reason why the wasps wouldn't choose that place for a nest otherwise. Very neat project.
Glad to know there are other people out there who would rather not eliminate anything and everything that could be perceived as a pest. I'm passionate about the same things as you, my friend. Keep up the good work. Your example is inspiring.
I'm all about supporting the natural lifecycle of my local ecological system. The work you've done here, does just that. I spent a few years battling the problem of green horn worms on my tomatoes and the various parasitoid wasps helped me do just that. This past season, I planted a particular strain of monarda, a naturally occurring wild perennial. It attracted a fair amount of hummingbird moths, which I had never seen before and I was pleased. As it turns out, the problematic green horn worm caterpillar is the larval form of the hummingbird moth, I thought my tomato plants were done for. For whatever reason, I didn't have a single one. So while there may have been some paper wasps somewhere that went a bit hungry, I'm intrigued enough to see if I found a natural method of ridding myself of green horm worms without the risk of a high population of wasp nests on my property.
I'm from Germany, my mother sung the goodnight song that was playing around minute 8:00 to me and my brother when we were children every evening, but he understood "Morgen früh wenn Gott will, wirst du wieder gewürgt" instead of "Morgen früh wenn Gott will, wirst du wieder geweckt" which translates to: " If it's gods will, you will be choked tomorrow morning" instead of "If its gods will, you will wake up tomorrow morning" which is pretty fucked up aswell.
😂 that’s dark but funny. Many folks from America hear “Morgan Freeman” 😂
5 years ago, I moved a yellow jacket nest from my back door to my apple tree. My apple tree was infested with caterpillars and nothing was working. Long story short yellow jackets saved my apple tree. I do not mind a few stings if I can find a solution where we live in peace.
Brilliant idea
I like your sense of humor. Very entertaining AND informative. I never thought of wasps as anything but pests, but I now see they can do some good. Thank you. I subscribed a while back, but haven't seen you in a while due to YT being big giant butts and not telling me you've done something even though I have bell notifications on.
I’m sorry they didn’t notify. But I’m glad you found it all the same 🙏🏼
Years ago, we learned to grow food in our urban garden. I remember reading that wasps will sting lightly or strongly depending on the perceived threat. This changed my perspective on them...Thanks to your efforts and video, I now know how to move them safely. Thank you!
I absolutely love it! not only do they protect the garden but they also protect the perimeter of your house!
My brother and I found a way to put them to sleep for free. For less noble reasons. Cup the nest with a jar and knock it loose. Cap the jar with a sheet of paper and screw the lid on. Skip the paper if you dig an adrenaline rush. Put the jar in the freezer for 15-20 minutes and they'll go dormant for up to 10 minutes. Remove the nest and poke it with a stick or relocate it if that's what you're into. Reintroducing the wasps should work the same(?). NOTE: Collecting a dozen nests in the same jar DOES NOT make for a spectacular bug war. No matter how many times you try. This free method might make for another great video plus more people might become wasp whisperers if there were no initial investment.
Except for the freezing part, that's the way I've been catching them for years, even if it's just a lone one in the house. You have to be careful & slide the paper (or thin cardboard like from a tissue box) in beteen the jar & the surface with as little space opened up as possible so they don't get loose. Great idea to freeze if you're going to transport. I started to advocate for others not to kill them when I found out they were also pollinators & the bees were getting fewer. Sometimes though I kind of wonder if they are too numerous do they harm other beneficial species. A fine balance is needed but in this sinful world sometimes the balance gets out of whack I think.
@@brendaann727 Nice. But when you grow up in a trailer park there's nothing but your sister to pollinate so wasps are just enemies of metal sided/skirted dwellers. We invented a sport. The uniform was a pair of shorts. You could wear flip-flops if you were a wus or a shirt if you were a girl. You get one fly swatter each, short straw had to provoke a nest. Last kid standing and still swatting was the winner. We couldn't afford cable.
@@TerrySlaven-zd3um - You did what you had to do. That is why I said sometimes things can get out of balance. We live in wide open areas in a very cold place & they usually do not get to be a problem because the populations stay low. Except in the months where there's alot of rotting fruit from trees people haven't harvested. There can be aggressive ones that will bomb you in this situation, probably due to fruit gluttony. But a much greater threat around here with rotting fruit is bears.
@@brendaann727 Try never to get short straw if you're gonna play wasp swatting with bears.
I used to do this as a teen at parties...
Catch a big fly and put it in the freezer, then sneak it onto a window-sill, and _pretend_ to find it infront of a bunch of people. You can then cup you hands around the "dead" fly for a few seconds, and bring it back to life like some kind of insect Jesus...blows people's minds :)
12:45 you forgot to mention the cost of garden pesticides and subsequent associated illnesses
Touché
Yes, definite dangers to people & other living creatures.
Intelligent and compassionate video that easily persuades a person to act in interest of the planet. We need all the pollenators we can get.
This video was plenty hilarious in many places. Great entertainment.
Love this video, glad someone else realizes wasps aren't pests and can easily be made to help out and not be in the way, I moved a massive wasp nest myself by just getting a bucket, cutting a small slot in the lid the size of the branch that the nest was on and very slowly moving the bucket up around nest and sliding the lid on so the branch was in the slot, then cut branch and took it home 😆 it was at a friends house, who obviously didn't want it, if you are very carful you can pat wasps without getting stung, (some at least) 😂 you can tell how agitated they are the way they move their wings and legs.
What you have done (and shown) here is RIGHT on so many levels!!!!
That tomato bite 😂😂
Glad it landed for someone out there 😉
“And why should your songs be unfit for my halls? Come, sing me a song.”
Paper wasps are crazy about scorching heat, thus the love for the I'll ventilated steel cans
And place the new home in the shade. I’ve already made that mistake. Poor wasps 😢
Thank you very much for making this video. In truth, I love the wasps in my yard and every summer I get a huge mass of them because of my large Fig Tree. It self pollinates so the wasps only eat them and don't ever go inside. Anyway. The point is they are a wonderful sight and have never once stung me, even when I accidentally touch them picking figs! There is much hate for these creatures but I am happy to see some appreciation, thanks!
They get used to you being around, and if you don't act like a threat, they will leave you alone. I just move slowly & don't make loud noises near them. Seems like once you make them mad, even accidentally, they don't forget for a while until they are convinced you don't mean them any harm.
So happy to see this! One of my favorite jobs I’ve ever had was the live removal and relocation of flying and stinging insects- we did not put them to sleep, we used a vacuum with a collection chamber at the end of the vacuum hose. Super cool to see it done this way!
Glad you enjoyed. Thanks for commenting!
So with all the effort of moving the nests, did they stop showing up in your house? My experience is that there are plenty more to replace them
Only a few came back. I expand on that in the Patreon follow up. Thanks for commenting!
@@suburbanbiology We had hornets here last year - never harmed anyone but one of them got mangled one evening (indoors) and within minutes two angry fighter planes appeared having squeezed in through a tiny gap and were out for revenge!
if you paint the outside of your home in Gloss or Semi Gloss the Mud Daubers and Paper Wasps & even Spiders, have a tougher time attaching to the shiny surface, ALSO - if you paint your homes exterior with Latex paint, you can add up to 20% Rid-A-Bug or other water based bug killers to the paint and thin it down a bit and NOTHING will build on it for a cpl years till the stuff loses it's effectiveness
@@Mad-Duk_Machine_Werkesthe goal is not to damage them.. rid a bug..
I had no idea wasps were beneficial,TIL.
Thank you for watching. Glad you were able to get something from the video 🙏🏼 spread the word!!!! 🐝
There is pretty much no animal in the world that don’t have a purpose beneficial for nature or us. Except maybe mosquitos i study biology but to this day I have no clue what the purpose of a mosquito could be except maybe population control by transmitting diseases
0:17 There is something moving in the nest lol
One of the larvae was knitting a silk cap.
Little man
@@suburbanbiologycool! I thought it was a pupa eclosing
Genius. I had the same problem the other day, and didn't get stung, but had lingering questions. This video answers them and others.
Glad it helped!
There is a line between genius and insanity, and you are sitting on it. Not so much for chilling for wasps - 'cause they are pretty chill when you leave them alone. But the the level of dedication on the move project. I'm impressed. I subscribed.
Thank you! Welcome aboard!!!
The worst lie I heard in my life is, "if you leave the wasp alone it will not sting you". (Do not mistake with bees! They actually do not sting without reason). Wasps are my personal enemies!
That’s interesting. I’ve never been stung by a wasp unprovoked. I do know that honeybees react hostilely to dark colors, though, and wasps might have things that they react to that you might not recognize as triggers.
The same happened to me. I was sitting on a porch when an unprovoked wasp smacked me hard and stung me. That was the day I learned I was allergic to the little demons.
depends on the wasp species. in my area theres only one species whos actually ahgressive. the others ones can be poked and annoyed but they will just fly around a bit and calm down again
Honestly never earned a sting i didnt deserve from a wasp lol. But yellow jackets are little fucks that can burn lol. I was plucking leaves off a hydrangea trying to fix the my neighbors splotches dead hydrangea and a wasp was under one and stung me. Fair play.
A yellow jacket? I was in said neighbors sunroom cleaning it for them, and a yellow jacket, completely unprovoked randomly came in, crawled under my shirt without me knowing and stinged my ribcage. Lmfao
If you wear lotion or fragrance you can be mistaken as a threat, Just look at reasons why Wasps sting. I never get stung and I basically hang out with my wasps every day
got shitloads of nests everywhere, I tend to work around them and they don't sting me often so no need for relocation
Same here, I know the benefits out weigh the risks in keeping them around and like most creatures on Earth are just doing there thing and leave us alone if we leave them alone. Great effort in opening minds to new ideas in a world saturated with poisonous solutions for every problem being advertised without second thought to the real cost of spraying poisons everywhere around the home. And people wonder why cancer is multiplying in the population? Natural Law number 6, cause and effect. Poison the world, it will kill you for trying.
I let spiders in my house live, if I find them in a spot that won't inconvenience me. Like the spiders that live on the step down to my garage, I leave them alone, because they catch all the bugs that are trying to get into my house from the garage. I don't have a garden to protect, and I have little ones running around that are prone to getting stung, so wasps won't be making any nests around my domain. But I do understand the potential benefits of coexisting with some bugs.
Thank you so much! My dad is a cabinet maker. They have a lot of wasps. They have attacked the grandkids and some of them are allergic. My mom and I couldn't understand why they had so many wasps. I just shared your video. It was very helpful. Hopefully we can lessen the numbers by understanding them better.
Superb video. Until now, I had only seen people zapping wasps without understanding that they are an integral part of our ecosystem. Thanks for this video.
02:30. The glass is too slippery.
maybe you can 3d print some nests so they can use them forever
Maybe 🤔
i hear they arent fond of glue, chemicals, and disturbed nests. maybe a shell for them to nest in, but i'm not sure they'd really appreciate a plastic home
NO PEACE - THERE IS ONLY WAR
A friend's parents live in an area with a LOT of yellow jackets. Gorgeous view from the porch, but can't enjoy breakfast without the wasps trying to get your food. Until... the mom made a peace treaty. She cooks up a few extra pieces of bacon, and leaves it on a plate at the far end of the porch. The wasps *love* it, and happily go there and leave the humans alone to enjoy their meal. She says it works every time.
Btw, they live in a pretty rural area, so no obvious nests to move, just lots of wasps out hunting.
-I hope the eggs and larvae were fine for those hours the wasps couldn't care for them (because wasps were asleep, had to be reaquainted, or couldn't leave the sock filter to get more food/supplies). I'm sure they did fine, it's just the little things I think about. Also, it was a nice touch that you included the butterfly/moth being released at the end.
-Even though I couldn't understand the lyrics, the tune was recognizable as a lullaby. That is definitely a nice touch!
-My son sent me this video because he knows I like neat things like this. But, I wasn't expecting to find myself laughing. I like that you went the extra mile to make sure your videos are interesting by being goofball with your wording. Thank you for making learning fun!
I’m honored that you found it entertaining and educational. Thanks for appreciating the details and for commenting!
Impressive! I also have moved wasps this year to modified bird houses. I really like your method!!! I might suggest adding some short sides to your new nest holder. The nest won’t do well with sun or rain, but you may already be aware of these things. I look forward to watching more of your videos.
Hey man cool video. Also wasps are pollinators.
Indeed that are. Thank you for your generous support!!!
Thank you for making a video about being nice to wasps! I've held wasps a few times. They're nice once they get to know you.
This is amazing idea I'd rather see a video of them going to sleep instead of dying I see them in my garden all the time every living thing has a purpose, Thank you😂
i loved this video. a few years ago we had a wasps nest under our roof outhang. it was up high and when i did research it said that wasps only use the nest for one season, so we let them bee🐝 we live in Denmark so we'd have plenty of winter to remove the nest without ruining their productive part of the year. we live in a green area and have a big yard full of flowering plants and trees and we never once got stung. they really aren't as agressive as they're hyped up to be. at least not danish wasps.
i've also found that when one gets in our house, if i open a window near it it'll find it's way out within 5 minuttes. they must be able to feel the breeze 😊
I've been gardening for years, but only last year did I stop using chemicals for pests and fertilizers and started using compost only. My garden went well but the bugs were quite an issue. This year I made lots of nesting areas for wasps and wild bees and planted all sorts of flowers in and around my garden. Aside from a slight infestation of squash beetles, most of my plants were healthy and happy all year. It's amazing what the bees and wasps accomplished.
Imagine being the burglar jumping over this guy's fence just to get swarmed by a quadrillion wasps
😂
I'm so glad someone brings attention to the importance of wasps in the ecosystem. But there's more to what you tell and I just wanted to highlight the for me most significant fact (besides taking care of other pests like you show) in the hopes of you reading it and spreading awareness :)
They are one of the if not the most diversely eaten *food* for other animals like ants, birds, and many more - because all the workers of a colony start to aimlessly wandering about and die off in the winter (everyone should be familiar with that image). It's so obvious if you know it and so important, it really hurts to see so many people celebrating their death in the channels on youtube that are basically all about that rage. Always trying to comment some info back if I come across those.
I love the hornets and wasps in my garden. They are the work horses and deserve that respect. They pollinate and consume caterpillars. I watched one take a cabbage looper worm and rip it apart and roll it into a meatball and fly away. Since then, I change the birdbath water and take care of my work horses. Thanks for posting this video!
Thanks for the tip! I've been using this method to safely relocate the wasps in my garden to my neighbor's porch.
I do like wasps and generally let them nest anywhere as long as it isn't directly in my way. A few summers back a big nest of bald face hornets was right next to the garage door! Never got stung once, even going in and out with power tools running. On one hand I'd love to take the time to move bigger or longer lived wasp nests so they can keep going and eating the pest caterpillers. On another, I so rarely run into wasps in problematic spaces, and when I do the wasps are so difficult to get at that it wouldn't be worth the money. I do think encouraging them to nest in and around where you do want them is a great idea though! I'm going to try making little metal/wooden overhangs in my garden to encourage them to live there over the summer instead of in the goat's manger.
One of the best bio weapons, imagine a wall covered in wasp nests
I have clients who ask me to remove wasp nests. I would rather not kill them. I am so happy this is possible! Thank you!!! ❤❤❤
I went into a lot more detail about how to make the awnings work on the Patreon follow up video. They need more protection and hot glue melts in full sun. Happy this video could help!
Great video! Thanks. 2 suggestions for a followup video (if you are inclined).
- consider location and exposure properties of new sites. Eg. South vs North, sun exposure etc (which will vary depending on your climate)
- try a budget building using a used sofa siphon. The cartridges are CO2, cheap and readily available.
Keep up the great work!
Good ideas on both. Maybe a co2 bike tire inflator? From what I see they are even cheaper. I cover the shade topic some in the Patreon follow up video I made but I didn’t think of using the tiny co2 cartridge. Thanks!
Have you ever thought that maybe the reason the wasps pick to be so close to you is precisely because they don't want their nests to be eaten by raccoons? A raccoon is far less likely to approach a human dwelling and then attempt to climb a smooth wall of the house than climb a wooden fence somewhere on the periphery. Kudos for the idea (I wonder if Nitrogen hypoxia would work the same way), but I sometimes wonder if they could simply be left alone. I had two of these nests (pretty large ones too) on my balcony last summer and I never got stung. It was my favorite spot to vape, right under the wasp nest, but not one wasp attacked me. A few of them even landed on me checking me out, but I think in the end they got used to me being there and treated me like a part of their scenery. In my experience people are stung far more often when they try to remove the nest or do damage to it preemptively out of fear they will be stung if they don't remove the nest. Which creates this vicious cycle. And I'm not some hippie who won't bother anything living. I've killed pigeons who attempted to nest on my balcony (I hate these f*&^s) but made exception for a barn owl (as they don't have a habit of crapping all over my balcony). But now I hear these beautiful hooting calls that sound eerie in evenings. Maybe you could make friends with your wasps somehow ))
So cool. I love it. I had a little nest inside my third floor bathroom skylight. They didnt care about me too much and it would be fun to see them on the edge of the bathroom mirror at night. They DID come back for a second summer.
Bruh...you're my hero. I HATE killing wasps for all the reasons mentioned, plus they are just very interesting creatures. I was terrified of them as a kid. Then one year I had been coming and going from my house without noticing a nest being built directly above the door in the eave of the porch. When I finally noticed it I freaked out but luckily my logic kicked in and I realized that if they hadn't attacked me yet, they were unlikely to suddenly do so. Every time I cam and went, my anxiety level would spike but I would look at them and they would look at me and life carried on for all of us. I'm guessing that some species are probably more aggressive but these looking identical to the ones you were dealing with, so fairly non reactive to a respectful distance. Definitely going to try your technique to enjoy the benefits of wasps in the garden but positioned where I prefer them.
Thanks for watching and for weighing in. I appreciate your support! Leaving wasps where they are is my typical default. Thanks!
if/when you do this, i highly recommend you do it at night to avoid any girls that are out for the day hunting/foraging coming back and being confused + theyre generally sleepy and less willing to fight you at night. we need more people willing to set aside their fear, paper wasps are genuinely such sweethearts if you respect their boundaries. bonus points if you set out water/honey/meat scraps for them and other critters, god knows how hot these summers are getting
also, something the video didnt touch on, the nests are delicate so handle with care, wasps often abandon disturbed nests so don't feel too hurt if they abandon it, and certain fumey chemicals like hot clue bother them so i'd opt for maybe a tack or something instead. good luck!!
thank you for opening my mind to other non-lethal options. I have always been an avid hater as I've held a grudge since childhood after being chased for no apparent reason. you changed my mind about how these warrior girlies should be handled lol
you definitely saved the wasp-nest on my greenhouse
glad there are people like you around man
I am honored that I was able to change your mind a bit. That was the primary aim of this video. Warrior girlies 😂 I love it!!!
You have improved all wasp and bee removal services. Great insight and if possible saving natures creatures.
Great video. Great ideas and it’s wonderful to see.
@@NewEnglandReptile here from your other comment!
Through your trial and error I learned a lot. I also realized that the wasps preferred building their nest on your house because the varmints can’t get to them there as opposed to your fence. I figured out a solution to your dilemma that resembles old street lamps.
Thank you for educating people about wasps and the important role they play in the ecosystem, and that they have more benefits than drawbacks.
Thank YOU for appreciating it 🙏🏼
this is the information ive been looking for for ages oh my god. thank you for your sacrifices o7
Currently there is a paper wasp nest right outside my downstairs door, making it slightly dangerous to use it (this summer I've been stung twice!). The nest is underneath a deck floor making it impossible to reach without lifting up one or two deck boards (which will surely aggravate these wasps). I bought a can of poison, but haven't used it. Since they don't reuse nests, and likely will decrease in activity soon, I'm just going to wait to remove it (maybe I'll try in November). This video changed my mind about using the poison. Cheers!
Thanks for the video. This is either the most brilliant or the most dangerous thing to do.
I will try it next time I have a wasp problem!