September 5th, 2006
the exterminator
Last Thursday, I discovered something interesting in the Spider Ranch part of the garden. Until last week, there had been a Yellow Jacket hornet nest in the earth between two tall stands of vegetation where the Argiope spiders build their orb webs. The hornet nest is usually very active and I was always a little concerned about its location — not on our account as we didn’t mind avoiding it — but because Sabrina seemed to not notice it and we were sure she would end up being stung. However, the problem has been solved as of Thursday morning. It seems that a skunk must have visited the garden and dug up the nest sometime Wednesday night. I’m guessing skunk as there was a bit of a skunky odor hanging around the area of the hornet’s nest. When I shot the above photo, there were no hornets to be seen, even though there had been many hovering around the nest the previous day.
Of particular interest is that only a few days before, a member of the NatureList (Eastern Ontario Natural History listserve) to which I belong, had made mention of a skunk visiting his garden two nights in a row to dig up a mega-sized Yellow Jacket nest. I suppose the larvae in the nest must be at the optimum size for snacking on and that’s why both nests were raided on almost the same date.
I don’t know if this link will work, or continue to work permanently, but I came across this post on a weather forum regarding skunks and Yellow Jackets. The poster mentions that he had observed that during a period of years when skunks seemed to be absent from his region, the Yellow Jacket hornets became especially numerous and bothersome, but went into decline when the skunk population increased once more. I haven’t really noticed such a thing in the past, but will try to take note of the connection in the future.
Yellow Jacket hornets, Skunk
Tags: Yellow Jacket hornets, Skunk
September 5th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
I was just thinking about natural predation the other day after reading a post about how many unsuspecting insects are zapped by bug zappers set out by people who want to rid their yards of mosquitoes. Wouldn’t it be better to have lots of swallows, swifts, bats and frogs do that work, the way you describe skunks dispatching of a hornet’s nest? I like the balance in this arrangement.
September 5th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Several years ago, Bev, I found something similar, a hole in which I knew there had been a yellowjacket nest that had been dug out and the nest dismembered and scattered about. I thought racoon? Possum? But skunk didn’t occur to me.
We do have skunks in northeast Georgia, I’ve seen a few roadkills, but never seen one close to the house. (And of course I wouldn’t smell it :-) ). But all kinds of things do happen in the night.
So there remains the interesting idea about cycling of yellowjacket populations against skunks or other yellowjacket predators. I will have to start thinking about this too, and watching.
Robin – those glowing violet zappers are pretty popular in town. I imagine they catch a lot more than just mosquitos – night flying moths and other nocturnal insects – probably daytime ones too when they’re left on. Probably fewer insect predators around when there’s less prey.
Although I’ve heard that those zappers aren’t really very effective at all I can’t confirm that. It may mean that they don’t do a good job in catching the target, and it may mean they have so much “bykill” that they’re more of a menace than an asset.
At any rate, it’s pretty creepy to see them in people’s yards. Bzzzzttt!
September 5th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Robin – I like the balance too. For the past few weeks, I’ve been seeing treefrogs on the window screens on most nights, wandering about eating the moths that are attracted by even minimal indoor light (we keep most of our indoor lights turned off much of the time). We have many Barn and Tree Swallows around here, and also many bats, so I’m sure that they must put a dent in the mosquito population. It was interesting to find that a skunk had removed the Yellow Jackets without me having to do a thing. I think of all of the posts I get on my Pbase hornet and wasp gallery asking me how to kill these insects and think, can’t people learn to live with them? And can’t they just let nature take its course, as in the case of letting a skunk clear out the nest. I’ve thought much the same about deer control. In our area, we hear so much blabber about having to control the deer because they cause accidents, tear up trees and gardens, etc… The problem is, the same people who seem to advocate extending the hunting season, hiring sharpshooters to depopulate the deer, etc… insist on having an open season on coyote (or wolf in other counties). I have seen enough coyote kills of deer to know that they are quite efficient predators, so it bugs me to no end to hear people wanting it both ways — to kill the deer for being pests, and then insist on killing coyote because they also perceive them as pests.
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Wayne – Skunks definitely like Yellow Jacket nests. The thing that gets me is how they manage to dig up the nests. Aren’t they getting stung like crazy just like any other animal that disturbs a Yellow Jacket colony?
As for the bug zappers… yep, there’s another thing I don’t care for. I’ve looked at the kind of insects that are killed and fall to the ground or in the catch tray below and they seem to get A LOT of moths — and many moths are useful pollinators! I’ve found Fritillary butterflies on our porch lamps as night, so I bet some butterflies are attracted and killed by the zappers as well. I don’t like a lot of these killing strategies as they almost always seem to result in indiscriminate killing of species. However, I suppose we have to realize that some people regard just about any winged insect as a “pest” and think, “Good riddance!” whenever just about anything gets killed. Certainly not a good attitude as far as encouraging biodiversity.
September 10th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Your burning silo story just killed me – so funny.
I got here because of the mushrooms, also in pbase.
I also enjoy nature photography a lot. Please visit my modest offerings.
Bob,
Ottawa, ON
September 10th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Bob – Glad you found your way to the blog and also enjoyed the story. I’ve already paid a small visit to your photo galleries and will definitely spend some more time there looking around!