AboutEric R. Eaton Expertise I can answer most questions related to wasps, solitary bees, grasshoppers and katydids, beetles, cicadas, and spiders, especially requests to identify "mystery bugs" in North America!
Experience
Past/Present clients Principal author of the "Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America" (in bookstores now!), Smithsonian Institution (contract), Cincinnati Zoo (employer), Portland State University (contract), Chase Studio, Inc (employer), Arkansas Museum of Discovery (guest speaker), Krohn Conservatory, Cincinnati (volunteer trainer, guest speaker).
Expert: Eric R. Eaton Date: 7/4/2008 Subject: yellowjackets ?-underground
Question hi, i'm here in riverside, ca. and have 50 or more flying bees flying over about 20 to 25 small holes, then each one lands and crawls into a different hole.This is on the side of the house, in a dirt bed, about 2'x15'.last night poured boaric acid in most the holes & covered most the area w/ plastic sheeting, & weighed it down.But this morning there are just as many flying above the plastic as before and they are going into holes nearby that weren't covered.should i give the plastic more time or get a larger piece to cover ALL the holes,or use a different powder ?? please help,i have kids swimming in the backyard & don't want to have an accident. thnx allan
Answer Allan:
Please stop what you are doing! The insects you describe are SOLITARY female bees or wasps that are not going to sting anybody. They are way too busy going about their business to bother with people. Unless a child actually grabs one of these insects, or steps on one in bare feet, he or she is not going to get stung. That simple. Yellowjackets would all be coming and going out of ONE hole, and these social wasps 'are' aggressive because they must defend a communal nest with vulnerable eggs, larvae and pupae. Solitary bees and wasps each create a single nest, provision it with pollen and nectar (bees), or paralyzed insects (wasps), lay and egg, and then leave. The nest burrows may have multiple cells, but nesting activity of solitary bees and wasps is invariably short-lived. They will be gone in weeks, if not sooner.
Poisoning, if even with a relatively inert chemical like boric acid, is depriving yourself of pollination services (bees) and/or pest control services (wasps), and a natural way to aerate the soil (burrowing activities of the insects). Further, you are teaching the children intolerance of the natural world, and that is perhaps the biggest crime of all.
I apologize for being so adamant about this, but because of urban sprawl, solitary bees and wasps have fewer and fewer places to nest that are not already occupied by people. We have to learn to coexist. Some bees and wasps have very specific soil requirements, too, so they can't nest 'just anywhere.'
Thank you for understanding. I encourage you and the children to observe the insects coming and going. You can also look at images of various solitary bees (Halictidae, Colletidae, Andrenidae, Apidae) and wasps (Sphecidae, Crabronidae, Pompilidae) at:
