Giant yellow jacket nests perplex experts

[bananas]

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060717/NEWS02/607170317/1009

August 23, 2006

Giant nests perplex experts

By Garry Mitchell
The Associated Press


A yellow jacket nest engulfs the inside of a 1955 Chevrolet on Harry Coker's Tallassee property on Thursday. Gigantic yellow jacket nests have been found in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama. -- Rob Carr


MOBILE -- To the bafflement of insect experts, gigantic yellow jacket nests have started turning up in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama.

<snip>

In previous years, a yellow jacket nest was no larger than a basketball, Ray said. It would contain about 3,000 workers and one queen. These gigantic nests may have as many as 100,000 workers and multiple queens.

Without a cold winter to kill them this year, the yellow jackets continued feeding in January and February -- and layering their nests made of paper, not wax. They typically are built in shallow underground cavities.

<snip>

[Sherman A1]

1. Sort of a Yellow Jacket

Condo?

[ovidsen]

2. More dangerous than "killer" bees?

Yellowjackets can be vicious when their nests are disturbed.

Unlike bees, they can sting multiple times and live. Scary.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Yes, but have they made a movie about them on planes?

[woodsprite]

13. Hubby mowed to close to an underground nest and

took off running. As it was, about 15 of them got inside his clothes. He wouldn't go to the ER, so the kids and I kept a really close eye on him for the rest of the day. I cannot imagine running across on of those giant nests.

I freaked out the other day because I saw a cicada killer (didn't know it was that at the time). I just thought it was a giant yellow jacket and there were about 20 flying all around my ankles when I was walking the dog.

[liberal N proud]

3. Hope they took that pic with a zoom lens

[mcscajun]

10. Doesn't look like it.

That's shot from the rear passenger side window looking to the steering wheel. A 1955 Chevy was a pretty long car.

Yuck.

[xchrom]

4. wow -- interesting behavior!

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. What else will mulitply rampantly once we lose our cold temperatures?

Think: termites.

[xchrom]

8. oh yeah -- that will make for

some interesting times -- i'm thinking home builders.

[mcscajun]

11. Mosquitos, for one.

And all kinds of yucky little critters.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Yes, but we'll have the frogs to take care of those mosquitos

Oops, never mind:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x64754

[mcscajun]

17. Yup. You've got it.

We've really screwed things up. All systems are breaking down simultaneously.

George Carlin was right (among many others)...but he was right back in 1992:

"...but nobody trusts the local water supply, nobody. And that amuses me. I like that. I admit I'm a bit perverted, but it amuses me that no one can really trust the water anymore. And the thing I like about it the most is it means- the system is beginning to collapse. And everything is slowly breaking down.

I enjoy chaos and disorder, not just because they help me professionally. They're also my hobby. You see, I'm an entropy fan. I'm an entropy fan. When I first heard of entropy in high school science I was attracted to it immediately. When they told me that in nature all systems are breaking down, I thought 'What a good thing. What a good thing. Perhaps I can make some small contribution in this area myself.'

And of course it's not just in nature, in this country, the whole social structure just beginning to collapse, you watch. Just beginning now to come apart at the edges and the seams...

(snip)

...there is nothing wrong with the planet, nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The people are fucked. Difference, difference. The planet is fine....the planet isn't going anywhere - We Are! We're going away. Pack your shit, folks. We're going away. And we won't leave much of a trace either, thank God for that, maybe a little styrofoam, maybe, a little styrofoam. The planet'll be here, we'll be long gone. Just another failed mutation, just another closed-end biological mistake, an evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet'll shake us off like a bad case of fleas, a surface nuisance."

(From George Carlin's "Jammin' In New York" Eardrum Records, 1992.)

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. The most interesting line was at the end:

"The planet'll shake us off like a bad case of fleas."

[mcscajun]

19. Yes, quite a visual, that.

I pictured that one when I first heard the routine. Seems odd to think of the planet doing a big doggie shake, doesn't it?

[Algorem]

7. We know from Japanese history that a country can be attacked by giant

monsters mutated by environmental degradation(Godzilla,Mothra,Smog Monster...).These bees indicate that we will soon be attacked within our borders by these types of things,causing Homeland insecurity.Lets say maybe fleets of humongus flying great white sharks,that sort of stuff.

[cmd]

9. and so, the Rapture began.

The sequel to the Bible begins in a '55 Chevy. How cool is that!

[soothsayer]

14. There was a giant nest in my shed (arlington, va). The pest guy

emptied three tanks of whatever into it. Said he'd never seen anything like it. But the one in the pic is much, much bigger!

[texpatriot2004]

15. How bizarre nm

[hatrack]

16. I read of an entire warehouse that was one big yellow jacket nest

They couldn't even approach it to spray - had to burn down the entire building. There was an interesting article about this in American Bee Journal.

[XemaSab]

20. Yellowjackets! In a m***** f****** warehouse!

And there's not a got damn thing you can do about it!

[phantom power]

21. All together...

Let us welcome our insect overlords!

[dbackjon]

22. Yes Kent Brockman

:)

[Dogmudgeon]

23. Old bugs with new mutations, or brand new bugs?

There have been other warm spells in the Gulf Coast, but I can't remember seeing or hearing about anything like this. "Killer bee" hives can grow to huge sizes in the South from overwintering, but a huge YJ nest is typically the size of a basketball, as the article says, and they don't overwinter.

I've also been seeing big wasps that look a whole lot like giant YJs up here in suburban Philly. They have a habit of building nests in the doors of cars. I looked into it and they're not yellow jackets at all, but a type of European wasp that just arrived in North America in the early 1980s. They're not too common in Europe, but they have none of their usual natural predators here, either. There was a legendary "yellow jacket attack" on NYC in 1978, when huge numbers of YJs were around in the fall, and stung thousands of people; I wonder if they were the same species, breeding in great numbers, and being disturbed in the city environment.

They probably dominate in their niche; they're by far the largest wasps, and most wasps "interpret" yellow face and body markings as dominance signals. These wasps are about 50% bigger than the usual black wasps and hornets (polistine wasps) and have much more yellow to them. They're big and scary-looking to humans, and I suppose also to other wasps -- and I haven't seen any black wasps or hornets this year, just these big yellow monsters.

One unusual characteristic is that they are attracted to lights at night. The only other hymenopteran (wasp/hornet/bee) I'm aware of that is active at night is the European "true" hornet.

The good news? Like the European Hornet, they're unusually docile. They don't follow if you run away, and even if you disturb a nest (as I have at least four times), they usually stay on the nest and don't attack. They've also quickly become a favorite of entomologists since they're easy to work with, as stinging insects go. But they can, and do, sting, and there could be major allergies associated with their venom.

Either way, this is something new. We either have an old species that's developed a mutation and has become more social and more dangerous, or a newly-introduced species from a cold climate that has "diversified" in its new, more hospitable, niche.

--p!

[bananas]

25. That's an interesting question

we'll probably see more mutant bugs as things heat up.

[kestrel91316]

28. We have an amazing giant wasp here in SoCal................it's a native.

It's called the Tarantula hawk. HUUUUGGGGGGEEEEE coal black wasp, with bright fluorescent orange wings. An amazing thing to see.........I have only seen one ever, and am glad of it because their sting reportedly packs quite a wallop. They prey on tarantulas, of course.

[htuttle]

24. Reminds me of the old sci-fi movie, "Phase IV"

[phantom power]

26. They didn't know what their role would be in the new world...

but they knew they would be told.

[htuttle]

27. LOL

It's my all-time favorite bug movie.

[Old and In the Way]

29. Yellow Jackets are nasty creatures.

I'm not a big bee fan, but those bastards are particularly loathsome. They are carnivorous, too. Nothing like seeing a pack of YJ's eating a fieldmouse.....they don't have barbs, so they can sting multiple times. And what's up with that body? I swear it's made out of some high tech plastic, seems almost indestructible. I've got plenty of hornets that hang around the house...they are getting to that time where they are looking to nest. But those YJ's are just plain aggressive...I take particular delight on bombing those bastards when I come accross a nest.