Finding and eliminating any nearby nests is the best way to deal with wasp issues, but if you are unable to do so, pay attention to the effects they are having on your birds. It’s possible that these nasty creatures are preventing your bird from accessing its food bowl, which would explain any weight loss. If so, you need to make sure your bird can continue to get food.
I have taken to tying a bucket to my back fence and putting fruit inside to draw in wasps on those really bad days when they are all over everything. At least this seems to attract/focus them in one area. This has the added advantage of enabling me to use my electrified racket to cover the bucket’s entrance and exit, which will reduce their numbers. In a similar vein, some of my friends have tried comparable commercially available traps but haven’t had great luck. Killing worker wasps just doesnt solve the issue.
Ok, so who cares? Its a wasp not a bird. If I were talking about just one or two birds, I would agree that their feathers shouldn’t really affect them. However, in this specific case, I’m talking about tens of thousands of them regularly entering my yard, and based on what I’ve recently observed in Victoria, I’m not the only person in my state who is currently dealing with this. This kind of problem can arise anywhere in the world if there is a wasp colony nearby, or (as was the case with me) if you live in an area where the wasp population is plague-like (i.e., the nest isn’t necessarily close).
The European winter actually kills off these wasps. When the weather warms up, only the queen lives to reignite things. That isnt the case here in Australia. Because the worker wasps can survive our milder winters here, the nest doesn’t start with a single wasp every year. A nest may begin with thousands of workers and a new queen. The absence of natural predators and parasites presents an additional issue; all of a sudden, nests capable of supporting 100,000 worker wasps can be found here. Finding and eliminating the nest is therefore the most effective method of getting rid of them. That isnt always possible though.
I’ve looked for a nest on my property but haven’t been successful. Nests are most commonly a hole in the ground. Research indicates that wasps usually return to their nest in a straight line after feeding, so you should be able to follow them. In my experience, wasps fly like drunks after being fed, which isn’t surprising given that I’ve been observing them after they’ve consumed fermented, rotting fruit. The wasps around here don’t seem to know what a straight line is. Instead, I’ve searched every square inch of the area surrounding my home, and I haven’t found any nests.
Numerous bird species have been found by researchers to nest close to wasps’ nests. The wasps’ aggressiveness in protecting their colonies may help the birds, according to Bruno Barbosa, an ecologist at Brazil’s Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora who was not involved in the research. When one species of bird attacks another, it could agitate the insects, which would lead the wasps to attack everything nearby to protect their colony. And that may indirectly defend the birds.
Although it’s common knowledge that birds prey on wasps, Thiago Moretti, a forensic entomologist in Campinas, Brazil, who was not involved in the research, notes that the opposite can also occur. Wasps are known to visit bird nests in order to feed on the parasites that live on the birds, such as fleas or mites, which are high in protein. The insects also scavenge carrion. But they rarely attack living vertebrates, he says (SN: 6/21/19). With a vulnerable bird, it is a matter of opportunity. .
While filming nests to examine lined seedeater (Sporophila lineola) parental behavior, researchers happened to catch the killing. Wageningen University zoologist Sjoerd Frankhuizen says, “It was totally unexpected.” Since the body was left behind, Frankhuizen and his team suspected a reptile, larger bird, or possibly ants after discovering the injured nestling. He claims, “We really had no idea that it would be a wasp.” A nestling that had been mortally wounded was discovered by researchers researching the parenting style of lined seedeaters in Brazil. Since the body was left behind, they suspected that the culprit might be an ant colony, a larger bird, or some kind of reptile. The assailant was identified on camera as a wasp, which can be seen repeatedly biting the baby bird’s head.
A. You wouldn’t expect a pallipes to destroy a nestling on its own because they live in large colonies, according to Frankhuizen. However, over the course of the approximately one hour and forty minutes of video, the lone attacker made 17 visits, possibly making several trips to deliver pieces of the bird to its own nest, he claims.
A wasps bites may be as bad as its sting. A paper wasp (Agelaia pallipes) has been caught on camera attacking and killing a baby bird in its nest, researchers report July 13 in Ethology.
FAQ
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