Earthen wasps are an exclusively popular name: such insects are not known to entomologists. In the scientific classification, there are, for example, road, sand, burrowing wasps, but there are no earthen ones.
The fact is that among the people "earth wasps" they call absolutely any wasps that simply arrange their nests in the ground. Most often, earthen people refer to ordinary paper wasps, who have chosen not the roof of a barn for the location of their dwelling, but an abandoned underground anthill or a rodent hole.
It is interesting
Paper wasps are the most common and familiar to everyone since childhood slender yellow insects with black stripes. It is they who flock to the smell of fish or watermelons in markets or country picnics, and it is from them that they so diligently try to get rid of in summer cottages and apiaries. They called paper wasps because they build their nest from chewed bark, which, mixed with their saliva, forms a parchment-like mass.
Moreover, sometimes trying to get rid of the so-called earthen wasps, the owners of a suburban area are actually struggling with hornets, which also sometimes equip their nest in the ground. The common hornet in its coloring is quite similar to a wasp, only noticeably larger.
Few people think about what kind of insect settled in the garden, because the main thing here is to get rid of unwanted "earthly" inhabitants as soon as possible, which are quite capable of swarming and seriously biting.
Review
“We had to deal with earthen wasps last year. They made a nest right under a rock on an alpine hill. There was a special drainage there so that the water would not stagnate, and they settled in this drainage system. The main problem was that the nest could not be burned or poisoned with kerosene, because a lot of elite plants grew on the hill. I had to buy Aktara and do everything in a few steps. I came to the lawn at night, sprayed the entrance to the nest with diluted Actara and, in addition, sprinkled Chlorpyrifos there nearby. Wasps became smaller very quickly, but they did not stop flying. So I poisoned them every three or four days in the evenings, and after three weeks they completely stopped flying out of the hole. I don’t know if they hatched or not, because I don’t want to dig the whole hill just for this.
Pavel, Dnepropetrovsk
A little about the biology of earthen wasps
The bites of earth wasps are absolutely no different from the bites of fellows living in a nest under the roof of a barn or on a tree branch. And this is logical, because the location of the wasp's dwelling does not affect its biology in any way.
Paper wasps usually settle in the ground for two reasons: either because of the lack of suitable places for attaching a hanging nest, or simply because of the presence of a burrow or shelter underground that is too attractive. The choice of the future habitat is entirely carried out by the uterus - it is she who in the spring looks for the most suitable conditions for building a nest.
In the photo - an earthen wasp at the entrance to the hole:
At the beginning of the warm season, the wasps build a nest in the ground, collectively carry food there for growing larvae, and by the end of summer, young females and males ready for breeding appear in the underground dwelling. After mating, fertilized females go to winter, and the next year they start the cycle again.
It is worth noting that wasps usually do not use the same nest located in an earthen hole twice, therefore, if insects have started up in the garden this year, then with a high probability it can be argued that next year they will no longer be here.
However, in addition to the usual paper ones, there is another group of earthen wasps that lead a completely different lifestyle. These are solitary hunters whose females catch other insects, paralyze them with their poison, and then hide them in small underground nests, where they lay one egg at a time in their bodies. After that, the female clogs her earthen mink, and after a while the larva hatches from the egg, slowly eating the still alive, but immobilized victim.
The larva of the earthen wasp begins to feed from those parts of the body that do not lead to the instant death of the insect victim - from the intestines, excretory and reproductive systems. Only at the end the predator gets to the nervous system and heart, after which it pupates and hibernates. The next year, an adult wasp is selected from an earthen mink.
It is interesting
Solitary earth wasps are known as versatile and very powerful predators. Some species of them catch exclusively poisonous spiders for their larvae, and, for example, a whole subfamily of these insects feeds only on bedbugs, including a harmful turtle bug.Meanwhile, ordinary paper wasps also feed their larvae with other insects, and the so-called bee wolf, or philant, hunts only bees, for which it is extremely unloved by beekeepers.
Among solitary earthen wasps, there are species that have a very strong poison - such that ordinary wasps simply cannot be compared with them. For example, some road wasps are included in the Schmidt index (a scale for assessing the pain of insect stings) as one of the most painful stinging insects in the world: only the bullet ant from South America bites them harder. However, fortunately, road wasps are quite rare insects, and even if they suddenly settle in a summer cottage, they most likely will not cause any problems to the owner.
Is it worth taking them out?
Due to the fact that earthen wasps actively catch other insects (including agricultural pests), in some cases getting rid of them means destroying very useful helpers in the fight for the crop.
In this regard, the question arises: is it worth it to destroy earthen wasps in a summer cottage? Indeed, is it really necessary to deal with earthen wasps if one of their nests consumes at least 50-70 harmful insects per day, including caterpillars, bedbugs and aphids?
In fact, to make the right decision, you need to take into account some additional important points.
If the nest of wasps is located in the center of a flower bed or garden, if insects interfere with the work necessary on the site, constantly fly near the table, summer kitchen or children's playground, they need to be taken out without a doubt.It is also necessary to destroy the nest of earthen wasps if it is located on a potato bed: in August-September, when the potatoes need to be harvested, a disturbed swarm can bite gardeners hard.
If the wasps settled somewhere in the corner of the garden and do not interfere with anyone, then you should not get rid of them - let the insects help to fight pests. Even if the earthen wasps have chosen some kind of bed, but the vegetables on it will need to be dug up only in late autumn, they can also not be touched - the nest will empty by itself.
Removing earthen wasps from the site: rules and methods
The fight against wasps in the ground is carried out by several methods, among which there are three main ones.
- Burning the nest is perhaps the most reliable way. To implement it, 1-2 liters of kerosene or gasoline are poured into the hole, a “path” several centimeters long is made from them, which is then set on fire. An underground nest burns out very quickly due to the abundance of paper honeycombs in it.
- Filling the nest with boiling water. This is a less efficient method, so repeated treatments are often required for complete destruction. When applying this method, it is important to remember that after each such filling, the entrance to the nest should be covered with a stone so that live, but extremely angry insects do not fly out.
- Destruction of earthen wasps with insecticides. To do this, a solution of a powerful poisonous agent is poured into the hole (for example, Cucaracha, Get, Karbofos, Solfisan, Aktara), and the entrance is clogged with a gag soaked in the same drug. It should be noted that this method, although effective, is quite expensive.
You can also breed earthen wasps using poisoned baits: this is a rather long, but easy-to-implement method. Syrup or honey is poured onto a saucer or into a glass, in which boric acid or some effective insecticidal preparation (preferably odorless, for example, Get) is dissolved, after which the bait is set near the nest. All wasps that “feast on” the solution die, therefore, with a constant renewal of the poison, it is possible to destroy all earthen wasps in a week or two.
Review:
"Familiar situation. We had this two years ago. Wasps at the entrance to the garden made a nest in the ground. And it seems like they didn’t interfere with anyone, but once the husband installed light bulbs nearby for lighting and he was bitten by earthen wasps. And not one, but a whole swarm attacked him, but he was dressed, and therefore got off lightly. After that we decided to take them out. We were helped by simply filling with water. In the evening, the husband pulled the hose to the gate, turned on the water and inserted the hose into the hole. An hour later, the whole nest was in the center of a large puddle. Apparently, all the wasps died, because we didn’t see them near this nest again.”
Olga, Moscow
Whichever way you choose to get rid of earthen wasps, you must follow safety precautions, otherwise the consequences of such a “hunt” can be very deplorable. Let's find out how you can protect yourself during the operation to destroy the hornet's nest in the ground.
Safety measures when removing insects
The fight against earthen wasps requires caution, as it always involves the risk of stinging. In some cases, especially dangerous for humans, wasps, protecting their nest, can attack with a whole swarm.
To get rid of wasps in the ground and not harm your health, all insect extermination procedures should be carried out:
- at nightfall, when the wasps hide in the nest and are generally less active;
- in tight clothes with long sleeves, gloves and a beekeeper's mask;
- without sudden movements and screams.
If suddenly something went wrong, the wasps began to fly out of the hole and try to attack, you should quickly but smoothly move away from their nest and hide in a closed room. Only after a few hours, the operation to get rid of earthen wasps can be repeated again (or better to postpone it for a day).
Review
“We tried to get the wasps out of the ground, but everything worked out only the third time. Once the nest was filled with boiling water, and a whole bucket was boiled and poured out, but the wasps only became a little less. Then they simply covered their hole with a stone. It did not help, they dug a new passage near him. In the end, the husband could not stand it, diluted several liters of Karbofos and filled the whole nest with them. It worked right away. I poured it in in the evening so that no one would bite it, and in the morning we didn’t see a single wasp.”
Olga, Izyum
Well, if you are still serious about getting rid of earthen wasps on your site, you just have to choose the method you like and, observing safety precautions, act!
And this is how the "earthen" wasp digs a hole ...
The battle of the earthen wasp and the spider
