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The bit that is missing is the size of the nests when sampled. A 50% wasp diet in a vastly under populated velutina nest is a good thing. It shows that velutina is struggling to find easier more abundant prey and small numbers of wasps taken don't reflect casualty rates amongst hunting velutina...

Thank you for this link. It's certainly an interesting paper. I don't think there are any surprises in it but it is good to see corroboration of what is generally understood of velutina's diet. The results need to be taken in the context of the life cycle of each nest. By that I mean that the...

Last time we had mass queen wasp die off was in 2012 and before that 2004. It's not unusual. Mild winters and inclement Springs and early Summers are very challenging for wasps. I disturbed a germanic nest in a pile of rubble whilst working on a garden project and it was at least a month behind...

The result of which is circa 10,000 fewer wasps to fend off velutina. Not clever.

Perhaps I might suggest that you read my contributions on the control of velutina. That way you might understand why preserving native vespine species is critical in the fight against velutina. Decimating wasp populations by culling queens is ecologically irresponsible for other reasons not...

Nothing like being ecologically irresponsible.

Another give away is that velutina holds its wings out when at rest at circa 45° to its body whereas other vespines hold their wings in line with their bodies.

Not even when it's Stormy?

What about when it's Stormy?

I didn't assume anything. You stated and I quote: "The nests were too early in the year for there to be adult offspring." What time of year would that be? Colony founding is weather dependent and is inconsistent from one year to the next making your statement imprecise. You made no comment as...

It's vespine behaviour not to feed within circa 10m of the nest. There's no guarantee that a queen caught in proximity to a nest is the resident queen.

Too early in the year? If the nursing atrium to the nest has been enclosed there will already be vanguard workers. It's a very common mistake to assume that a queen will build an enclosed nursery before laying her eggs. In the real vespine world, the queen drops a petiole onto which she builds...

Erichalfbee's question still holds. Vanguard offspring are in many cases not much smaller than their queen so there's no guarantee that it was the queen that was eliminated. The only real way to tell would be to conduct extensive anatomical and genetic testing on the killed queen to confirm...

Which suggests that there is population density pressure. Not sure of the logic of of taking such an approach. Yes it's a means to attract a usurping queen but monitoring the nest requires resource which could be better spent elsewhere. If the nest were destroyed the usurping queen would be more...

Misreading me. If you locate a nest call the NBU and get them to deal with it. The last thing anyone wants is a botched attempt that sees the queen relocate elsewhere out of reach.

I suspect it's more to do with trees lining roads.

Usurpation is known in vespines. However, it tends to occur when there's over population where conflict between queens results in culling of the weaker queens. Usurpation occurs early on in embryonic nests before queens become nest bound and before worker numbers increase. What is not clear is...

She doesn't decide. New queens are released on mass as part of the concerted mating event (along with all of the other sexuals from all of the other nests). These new queens never return to their original nest. They mate and then look to hibernate asap which means finding a suitable secure...

Cuprinol solvent based not aqueous should do the trick. Failing that, teak oil adulterated with Oil of Olbas. 95 parts to 5 parts. Wasps are repelled by Eucalyptus oil. We formulated a deterrent for wasps but the cost of biocide registration was extortionately expensive so didn't take the...

Just seen an interesting clip purporting 95% reduction in varroa using oregano oil vaporised slowly within the hive. Any thoughts?