I only use insecticide for Wasps that make a home in my Sheds or are too aggressive. None used in the last couple of years.
For Black Widows I have to be more aggressive, if they are to close to a Bolt Hole, thus not easy for the Cookietaster to eliminate them.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Maybe if you spray a little bit, a couple feet away from the nest, it will be enough to drive them away.

A little while after I wrote that I went out and noticed that there is only one wasp left at the nest. Just one.

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~Sue~

I have wasps building nests around my house every summer. If they're in a place that is low-traffic, I leave them alone. During the winter all the wasps leave or die or something. Except this year. All the paper wasps have gone, but I have a different kind of wasp that won't go away. There were a lot of them, originally, but only a few now. I thought our recent freezing temperatures would drive them off or kill them, finally, but it didn't. And now that it's warm again, they're back at work.

What I had planned to do was, as soon as they were gone, I was going to spray that area with wasp killer. Of course, there would be no wasps there to kill, but my hope was that they would be repelled by the poison and go build a new nest somewhere else. Now, if I want to spray the wasp killer, I would actually be killing wasps.

"What's the big deal?" you might be thinking. Well, I'm a little weird in that I don't like to kill anything that doesn't deserve to be killed - anything that isn't a "pest" to me, personally. The wasps are not doing anything to bother anyone. For now. If I don't spray them away, how big will the nest grow next year? How many more wasps will I have flying nearby than I did last summer? Will I eventually have to kill LOTS of wasps later instead of just a few now?

I don't think I'll kill them now. I think I'll wait and see.

Just thinking out loud, I guess.

Maybe if you spray a little bit, a couple feet away from the nest, it will be enough to drive them away.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

I have wasps building nests around my house every summer. If they're in a place that is low-traffic, I leave them alone. During the winter all the wasps leave or die or something. Except this year. All the paper wasps have gone, but I have a different kind of wasp that won't go away. There were a lot of them, originally, but only a few now. I thought our recent freezing temperatures would drive them off or kill them, finally, but it didn't. And now that it's warm again, they're back at work.

What I had planned to do was, as soon as they were gone, I was going to spray that area with wasp killer. Of course, there would be no wasps there to kill, but my hope was that they would be repelled by the poison and go build a new nest somewhere else. Now, if I want to spray the wasp killer, I would actually be killing wasps.

"What's the big deal?" you might be thinking. Well, I'm a little weird in that I don't like to kill anything that doesn't deserve to be killed - anything that isn't a "pest" to me, personally. The wasps are not doing anything to bother anyone. For now. If I don't spray them away, how big will the nest grow next year? How many more wasps will I have flying nearby than I did last summer? Will I eventually have to kill LOTS of wasps later instead of just a few now?

I don't think I'll kill them now. I think I'll wait and see.

Just thinking out loud, I guess.

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~Sue~

Poor little guys.
(Or are they gals?)

Yes!

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rOZZ
Music
Pictures

I saw a display of Realbug key rings at the drug store yesterday. They have other stuff, but the display I saw was key rings.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Never, ever, EVER use cotton to plug the holes in a hummingbird
feeder to keep the bees from climbing inside. I did this. I found
several bees stuck to the cotton. A couple were dead. I took the
rest inside and carefully freed them from their cottony prison.

I feel bad.

That's dedication.

Well, I'm taking the time to feed them. Not to torture them. Poor little guys.
(Or are they gals?)

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~Sue~

Never, ever, EVER use cotton to plug the holes in a hummingbird
feeder to keep the bees from climbing inside. I did this. I found
several bees stuck to the cotton. A couple were dead. I took the
rest inside and carefully freed them from their cottony prison.

I feel bad.

That's dedication.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Never, ever, EVER use cotton to plug the holes in a hummingbird
feeder to keep the bees from climbing inside. I did this. I found
several bees stuck to the cotton. A couple were dead. I took the
rest inside and carefully freed them from their cottony prison.

I feel bad.

---

~Sue~

The bees have finally discovered the feeder.

---

~Sue~

Alas, my beautiful spider has disappeared from the front porch. I don't think she had the strength to "walk" away, to some other location. It's been too cold for her, I think. I didn't see her body on the porch under the web, but one of the cats could have seen it and carried it away. So all I know is that she's gone. She hung around for a very long time. For this I'm grateful. Today it's quite warm outside. It would have been a perfect day for her.

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~Sue~

I just went searching for information about argiopes and freezing temperatures
and I came upon this blog post. It's an amazing read, imho.

http://opulentopossum.blogspot.com/2011/11/frost-is-coup-de-grace.html

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~Sue~

It has been below freezing for three (I think) nights now, and the argiope spider on my front porch is still alive, and in the same place. Does anyone have any idea how cold these gals can get before it's too cold and they die? I've been so tempted to bring her inside and put her in a jar or something, but not knowing much about her species, I haven't done that. She gets full sun for a short time in the daytime, and the temperature rises above freezing. Today it's supposed to be 59ºF. Of course there aren't a lot of bugs around for her to catch in her web. I have some flies in my house and I'm tempted to try to capture one and release it extremely close to her web. To date I've only been swatting them.

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~Sue~

Obviously optical fibres. It has got 6 posts here already, so some bored spotty teenager is having a good laugh, and the Mail is short of copy again ....

Makes me think of a lamp I had as a kid...

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rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Looks like a fish lure.

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Member of the People Encouraging Niceness In Society club.

Looks like a high-quality Monty Python creation.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Looks like an Alien, better grab it so we have proof :-)

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2509259/Nymph-insect-iridescent-tuft-hair-discovered-South-America.html

I strongly suspect this will be revealed as a hoax. To me it just looks
like someone was bored and made a bug out of a bug cadaver and some
hair.

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~Sue~