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27.08.2024 - 16:56 / southernliving.com / Arricca Elin SanSone
Most ground-nesting wasps aresolitary and mind their own business as they pollinate plants and prey on unwelcome garden pests, such as caterpillars. But social wasps, which live in a colony with a queen, can become a problem when their nests are situated to close to your living areas.
Ground wasps are usually a type known as yellowjackets, with several different species found in the Southeast. “They’re most aggressive when their colony is at its peak population in late summer and early fall,” says Eric Benson, PhD, professor emeritus and extension entomologist withClemson University. “Their numbers can reach the thousands. Unlike honey bees that can sting only once, waspscan sting multiple times and send an alarm pheromone to encourage others to come out and defend the nest.”
The issue often is that you don’t realize a nest is present until it’s disturbed and the workers come pouring out to attack. Vibrations from mowing, string trimming, hedge trimming or even walking by a nest causes the alert. The risk of multiple stings can lead to an allergic reaction, or in rare cases, anaphylactic shock for some people.
How To Keep Bees Away From Your House Identifying Ground WaspsGround wasps, oryellowjackets, are about ½-inch long with alternating black and yellow bands on the abdomen. They don’t carry pollen like honeybees do in pollen baskets on their rear legs.
They nest in the ground, often adjacent to a stone wall or at the base of a tree, sometimes using holes from root systems or animals such asvoles. Within that void in the ground will be a paper nest with multiple layers and cells, says Benson. Occasionally,
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Fungus gnats are a common pest among houseplants. These small flies tend to go unnoticed at first, slowly building their populations by laying eggs on the soil of our container plants. Their larvae feed on fungi and organic matter in our potting soil and nibble on plant roots as well. As much as we'd like, they don't go away on their own. Over time, their numbers grow, and you begin to notice the adults hovering above the soil surface when you water your houseplants.
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Whether you call them woodchucks, whistle pigs, ground pigs, or groundhogs, these large ground squirrels can be a real nuisance in your yard and garden. “Groundhogs eat whatever is available and most nutritious,” says Sheldon Owen, PhD, wildlife extension specialist at West Virginia University. “They consume large quantities of herbaceous vegetation, especially fruits and vegetables. But they’ll also eat clover, bark, and landscape plants.”
Do you have small black flies living in your house plant compost? Or hovering around your house plants? These are fungus gnats, also known as house plant flies and sciarid flies. They’re mostly harmless – adult gnats cause little or no harm to plants, but they can become a nuisance in the home. Their tiny worm-like larvae live in the top 5-8cm of compost, where they feed on algae, fungi and plant roots. Healthy house plants usually tolerate this minor root damage, but the larvae can harm seedlings or weak plants.
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