Wasps are fascinating eusocial insects with a queen and many infertile female workers. I think they are the tigers of the air. Some people consider wasps a pest because they eat the fruit and drink their beer whereas others consider them a welcome garden natural pest control.
As the season comes to an end, they prepare by producing Virgin Queens to carry the genes in to the next generation.
Instead of only producing workers to tend the nest, the workers of colony decide to feed some the larva with protein to produce Queens. They want meat. Prey can be caterpillars, or insects, some they rade from spiders webs. They chop the caterpillars into manageable pieces and fly back to the nest where they are chewed up and fed to the larger queen larva. It’s only the larvae that can eat meat, Wasps can’t. The larvae regurgitate a sugary meal in return for being fed by the adult wasps.
Wasps are very useful as natural garden pest control because they eat a large number of garden pests such as caterpillars, aphids, queen ants.
Wasp nest in lawn can be dangerous to humans and pets Wasps excavating a mouse hole in lawn
Wasps excavating a mouse hole in a lawn
Wasps will often make their nests in our loft space, where it is dry and out of the way of danger or under tree roots and sometimes they will excave underground mouse holes. These can be more of a problem because if they are disturbed by people walking on the lawn near the nest or disturbed by the vibrations from a lawn mower, they are more likely to go and defend their nest and sting whatever they consider a danger.
A powder can be sprayed in to the nest – best to do this at night when it’s dark and all the wasps are inside the nest and less able to come out in defence of the nest. If the colony is causing no danger to humans or pets then best to leave them alone.
In the northern hemisphere only the Queens survive the winter by hibernating and emerge the following spring to start a new colony. All the workers and drones will die.
In New Zealand however, the weather allows the wasp colony to survive all year round and our European or German wasps are causing havoc to their native wildlife.
Photography Neil Bromhall. rightplants4me.co.uk
4 Comments | 
Garden Pests and Diseases, Home Gardening | Tagged: eusocial insects, garden pests, natural garden pest control, virgin, virgin queen, wasp, wasp nests | 
Permalink
Posted by Neil Bromhall
There are natural predators that can help control your garden pests such as slugs, snails, aphids and weevils and because they’re non-toxic are safe for users, their children and pets plus wildlife such as birds or hedgehogs.
The most commonly know garden eco pest control are birds, hedgehogs, frogs and toads 
though there are millions of other smaller creatures living in our gardens, some so small that you can only see them under the microscope.
Ladybirds have a voracious appetite for aphids and can each eat several hundred a day. The larvae which look a bit like black maggots with stubby legs are equally voracious aphid killers.
Hoverfly larvae which look even more like maggots grab the greenfly and suck out their juices before discarding the inedible skin. The larvae can consume about 100 aphids a day. The adult insects although resembling bees and wasps are sting less and totally harmless as its name suggests, hover in the air and are useful plant pollinators.
Lacewing larvae have two hollow pincers that grab and puncture the aphid and then suck out the juices before discarding the inedible skin. 
The adult insect has large lace-like wings and brilliant green eyes. The females lay their eggs on the end of delicate stalks which they attached to the underside of leaves and branches where the aphids are feeding.
Wasps are the tigers in the air and although maybe considered a pest eat a large number of aphids and caterpillars.
Ground beetles come in various sizes and colour ranging from black to greens to violet. They are very useful predators of slugs, snails, chafer grubs, leatherjacket larvae, weevil larvae and caterpillars.
Smaller still are the parasitic wasps that parasitize aphids and caterpillars.
They lay their eggs in the host body. The grubs then consume the prey from the inside and emerge later in the year to repeat they cycle
Even smaller still are the tiny nematode worms.
These live in the soil and are so minute you can only see them under a microscope. These tiny microscopic worms seek out slugs and kill them. 
This happens when the slugs are underground. They enter the slug’s body through a hole behind their heads. Once inside they release a bacteria which stops the slug eating. The nematodes then start to reproduce inside the slug. The nematodes continue to reproduce as the body breaks down. This new population enters the soil and searches out new slugs to attack. Although it’s not very nice for the slugs it means that if a bird or hedgehog were to eat an infected slug it won’t kill them or their young as might happen if they ate a slug that was dying after eating slug pellets.
I’ve made a website with pest and diseases plus beneficial garden wildlife. Please see www.rightplants4me.co.uk
2 Comments | Garden Pests and Diseases, gardening ideas, Home Gardening, Time-lapse of plants and flowers growing | Tagged: aphid control, beneficial garden insects, eco pest control, natural garden pest control, natural pest control, nematode worms, slug control | Permalink
Posted by Neil Bromhall
Garden advice
