Understanding Howies ongoing conflict with squirrels, I wanted to share my battle with the invasive, aggressive and environmetally damaging feral European Wasps.
They displace bees and local Wasps here in Australia which interferes with pollination. They attack beehives and the absence of bees in the area has environmental consequences. They also compete with the local Wasps which hunt bugs and spiders. I'll tell you about the Spider Wasps later.
Last spring I eliminated nearly 50 nests leading into summer. As quickly as a nest was destroyed another would replace it, but I stayed the course. (The tally so far this spring is 12). The result is that the bees returned and the garden came alive! Our fruit trees and other plants have thrived. It's great to have the bees back, but I will need to stay vigilant to protect them. These import wasps are aggressive and pets and children are vulnerable. If you have seen documentaries showing how many bees a single EU Wasp can take on in a fight you will appreciate the environmental hazard they are in a place where they shouldn't exist.
Eliminating them is tricky and care must be taken to avoid ending up in ER, but I have a good system.
The local Wasps are more benign, generally smaller and go about their business. They're not as brightly coloured and drab in comparison. However there is a larger and strange variety called the Spider Wasp that appears to have relatives in other parts of the world. It's long and lean, copper coloured, often 1 1/2 inches in length with half to 1 inch long hind legs to carry a payload. It's the Skycrane of the insect world. It's payload, spiders.
My first encounter with one was when I saw a large Huntsman spider as large as your hand floating through the air (wtf, gotta lay off the sauce)! Their payload is incredible. These Wasps paralyse spiders and take them home to lay their young in them which grow and eat their way out of the living spider ala Alien! A spiders worst nightmare.
Anyway, the bees are happy, the local Wasps are eating bugs off plants, the garden is thriving and the Spider Wasps make my wife feel like the world is a better place.
Mate, great endeavour the battle against the 'orrible & invasive Euro wasp. I fear you're fighting the unwinable war but your localised results sound pretty impressive [thumbsup]
Visitors to Australia often have something to say about the diligence of border control's bio security measures.... but keeping non-indigenous critters out is vital to maintaining Australia's unique bio diversity.
Do we know how the Euro wasp made it's way into Aus??
Probably via shipping containers or the ships themselves I would guess.
Local result is good but I fear you're right about it being a losing battle. I'm really pleased with how it has made our garden grow but also disturbed by how fragile the system is.
Hope you're well mate.
Oh my! Much worse than my squirrel problem. Congrats on winning your battle. Yay bees!
Our last undesirable undocumented immigrant is the spotted lantern fly. One problem is they do eat our crops, but the bigger problem is one spotted lantern fly lays 30-50 eggs on the side of a tree. The larvae then feed on the tree. Ironically, their favorite tree is the Tree of Heaven, also an invasive species from the same part of the world. They were out of control, I was killing quite a few every day. This year just a few over the whole season. It seems some critters now find them tasty treats.
That's interesting mate. I'm glad the local critters are eating them. Where do they originate from? Sounds like you got on top of them.
Hope you're well.