Yellow Jackets & Bald faced Hornets

General Discussion of Diary Posts and Questions on Beekeeping Matters
Post Reply
User avatar
Charlie
Forum Regular
Posts: 160
Joined: February 26th, 2014, 3:49 pm
Location: Calgary Alberta.

Yellow Jackets & Bald faced Hornets

Unread post by Charlie »

I now have every yellow jacket (Couple hundred plus) and bald-faced hornet (two or three dozen) within 3 miles in my backyard robbing an empty hive. I believe that when the empty hive is truly empty they will start robbing my active hives. Considering the size of the Hornets in the number of yellow jackets I'm not sure a strong hive could defend itself. Would anybody have any solutions or suggestions.

I should also mention the bald-faced hornets appear to be miserable creatures, far worse than any yellow jacket or wasp. I've watched them attacked each other just for where the eating honey. I am fair to middling sure that while I'm not overly concerned about being stung by honeybees and only mildly concerned about being stung by a yellow jacket or a WASP I am very sure that I do not want to be stung by one of these hornets, they are probably four times bigger than a typical honeybee.

I did build a screen cone in it 2 quart jar and hung a piece of fresh salmon in it and so far everything has ignored it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Allen Dick
Site Admin
Posts: 1824
Joined: February 25th, 2003, 10:09 pm
Location: Swalwell, Alberta
Contact:

Re: Yellow Jackets & Bald faced Hornets

Unread post by Allen Dick »

I never worry about the hornets and wasps we have around here, or robbing for that matter.

I regard these things as natures way of dealing with the weak, but then, I have enough hives that any losses are negligible in the larger scheme of things. I might worry more if I only had a few and they were weak.

I do see wasps and hornets at hive entrances, especially at the end of the season when their nests are dying off and the adults no longer receive the sweet material their brood gives off. (I am repeating what I have heard and there are many varieties of wasps and hornets. Frankly, I know very little about them, so this may or may not be true.)

I have never seen anything that amounted to more than opportunistic robbing by either critter and never seen a colony destroyed by them although I hear in some regions, hornets can be deadly to colonies.

Not here AFAIK.
Allen Dick, RR#1 Swalwell, Alberta, Canada T0M 1Y0
51° 33'39.64"N 113°18'52.45"W
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/Allen%27s%20Beehives.kmz
Forum owner/janitor
---
Customise your experience at Honeybeeworld Forum at your User control Panel
Change the appearance and layout with your Board Preferences
Please upload your own avatar picture at Edit Avatar. It's easy!
Return to main diary page
Post Reply