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Wasps
Latin Name: Dolichovespula maculata
Common Name: Baldfaced Hornet
Other Names: White-faced hornet
Pest Details
Origin:
This is a native species that is found throughout North America from southern Canada to Mexico and in all states of the U.S. It may be most common in the Southeast U.S.
Biology:
This large paper wasp is a close relative of yellowjackets, but has workers of a much larger size and color. It creates large football-shaped paper nests that hang from branches of trees, eaves, and other horizontal surfaces, and tends to restrict its nesting to outdoor areas. The workers will aggressively defend their nest and attack anyone who approaches, stinging repeatedly if necessary. While they tend to restrict their diet to other insects they have been seen scavenging on dead meat. Like other social paper wasps the colony is initiated in the spring by a fertilized queen that overwintered, starting her own nest
Latin Name: Sceliphron caementarium
Common Name: Black & Yellow Mud Dauber
Latin Family Name: Sphecidae
Other Names: Thread-waisted wasps
Pest Details
Origin:
A number of species of wasps in this family are native to North America, with the Black and Yellow Mud Dauber and the Blue Mud Dauber most often nesting on structures.
Biology:
Mud daubers are solitary wasps that provide a nest and food for their larvae but do not further care for them. The nest is created from blobs of mud gathered by the female and formed into hollow cells, often with many cells arranged next to each other in columns. The female then gathers food, in the form of insect larvae or spiders, stings it to paralyze it, and then places this immobilized prey in the cell. She lays an egg in each cell, seals the cell with mud, and never returns. While the female mud daubers can sting it is a rare occurrence. They do not defend
Latin Name: Chalybion californicum
Common Name: Blue Mud Dauber
Other Names: Blue burglar
Pest Details
Origin:
This is a native species in North America and is found throughout the U.S. and southern Canada.
Biology:
This beautiful wasp does not create a mud nest of its own, but instead locates one already made and provisioned by the Black and Yellow Mud Dauber. It uses water to soften the mud and then makes a hole to the inside, where it then removes the food cache and eggs of the previous wasp and supplies the cell with its own paralyzed spiders and eggs and once again seals it shut. This wasp specializes in gathering black widow spiders, making it exceptionally beneficial to have around homes. While the female may be “capable” of stinging it is a solitary wasp and shows very little aggressive nature, so stings of humans are exceedingly rare.
Identification:
The adult wasp is about ¾ inch long and
Latin Name: Sphecius speciosus
Common Name: Cicada Killer
Latin Family Name: Sphecidae
Other Names: Eastern Cicada Killer
Pest Details
Origin:
There are several species of these giant wasps in the United States, occurring commonly in states east of the Rocky Mountains and south into Mexico.
Biology:
This is an enormous wasp, fully 1.5 inches long. It is a solitary wasp which burrows into the soil to create a cavity or its larvae, and then provisions this cavity with a paralyzed cicada which the adult has captured and stung. The burrows can be up to 4 feet deep with several side branches and cells for a number of larvae. Piles of soil are left at the surface around the entrance hole. The fully developed larva then spends the winter in the soil, pupates in the spring and emerges as an adult wasp. The females can sting but are unlikely to do so as solitary wasps. The males can be very pugnacious and curious about intruders,
Latin Name: Vespula alascensis
Common Name: Common Yellowjacket
Other Names: Formerly Vespula vulgaris (European), The common wasp
Pest Details
Origin:
This is a native species in North America and can be found throughout all of the U.S. and southern
Biology:
This is one of several species of yellowjackets referred to as “scavenger” species, due to their tendency to forage for human foods such as meat products and sugary beverages. Most of the 13 North American species, for the most part, restrict their diet to natural foods of honeydew, other insects, and similar sweet or protein sources. In warm regions a colony may continue from year to year, but where winters are cold the social structure breaks down in the fall with females mating and going into hibernation while all workers die and the nest deteriorates with weathering. The fertilized queen begins a new nest in the spring with around a dozen eggs, and once these have
Latin Name: Vespa crabro
Common Name: European Hornet
Other Names: Giant hornet
Pest Details
Origin:
This wasp is native to Europe but found its way into North America by 1840 and now can be found throughout the eastern half of the United States and into southeastern Canada.
Biology:
This imported species is similar to common yellowjackets but is considerably larger and has reddish brown patches and lines on the head, thorax, and abdomen in addition to the typical yellow markings of yellowjackets. While it can be very aggressive toward people near its nest or even around favored food resources, in many European countries they are offered legal protection, with heavy fines given to people who harm them. The sting is reported to be very painful and for the pain to last several days. Other problems include damage to domestic honeybee colonies as the wasps prey on the bees, damage to fruit on trees from wasp feeding,
Latin Name: Polistes dominula
Common Name: European Paper Wasp
Other Names: Dominulus paper wasp
Pest Details
Origin:
This species is native to Europe but was introduced into the U.S. as early as 1968 in New Jersey. In the 1980’s and 1990’s it spread throughout the rest of the U.S. and now is found in Canada, Australia, and throughout Latin America.
Biology:
This small paper wasp entered North America in the 1960’s and moved steadily across the country from East Coast to West Coast. In some areas it seems to have displaced most native paper wasps. The proposed reasons for this dominance include an earlier emergence in the spring, allowing it to monopolize natural food resources and good nesting sites. Colonies often are small but typically placed within small cavities such as bird houses, roofing tiles, lamp and exterior lights, dense shrubbery, and pipes where entry is available to the interior. Fertilized females
Latin Name: Vespula germanica
Common Name: German Yellowjacket
Other Names: European yellowjacket
Pest Details
Origin:
This species is native to Europe and is the common species in the eastern U.S. and Canada.
Biology:
This is one of several species of yellowjackets referred to as “scavenger” species, due to their tendency to forage for human foods such as meat products and sugary beverages. Most of the 13 North American species, for the most part, restrict their diet to natural foods of honeydew, other insects, and similar sweet or protein sources. In warm regions a colony may continue from year to year, but where winters are cold the social structure breaks down in the fall with females mating and going into hibernation while all workers die and the nest deteriorates with weathering. The fertilized queen begins a new nest in the spring with around a dozen eggs, and once these have matured to new adults the workers
Latin Name: Atomacera decepta
Common Name: Hibiscus Sawfly
Other Names: Mallow sawfly, Hollyhock sawfly
Pest Details
Origin:
This may be a native species that is found in the eastern half of the U.S.
Biology:
This wasp is a pest on rose mallow and many hybrids of other ornamental hibiscus that are native plants in the southern U.S., but which often are planted as ornamentals in other regions of North America. The female wasp deposits eggs in short rows along the margins of leaves, leading to brown spots at this point on the leaf. The larvae then feed in clusters on the undersides of the leaves, feeding only on the soft tissue and not the veins and leading to skeletonizing of the leaf. This feeding begins in late spring and multiple generations are likely. The life cycle from egg to adult is about 1 month, with the larvae pupating on the lower stems or in the soil below.
Identification:
The adult wasp is about 3/16 inch
Latin Name: Siricidae
Common Name: Horntails
Latin Family Name: Siricidae
Other Names: Wood wasps
Pest Details
Origin:
About 18 species of horntail wasps are native to North America, with most species in the western half of the continent.
Biology:
The horntail wasps derive their name from the presence of a horn-like projection on the top of the last segment of the abdomen on the female. These are solitary wasps whose larvae feed within the sound wood of dead trees, gathering their nourishment from a fungus that grows with them as they bore through the wood. The female wasp will lay her eggs only on the bark of trees, injecting them below the surface. In this way it is common for lumber to be milled with the wasp larvae already in it, allowing the larvae then to be built into a structure. The wasps will not infest wood already in use. Once the adult wasp develops it bores its way out of the wood through