Interview with Kate Anton and Michael Skvarla about Wasps, Hornets, Bees and more!

Let's talk yellow jackets, are they really "that bad"?
How about Deer Keds, what are they?
Kate and Michael share their appreciation for social insects, and some unusual tiny animals that I had never heard of.
More information:
Dr. Michael Skvarla is an Assistant Research Professor of Arthropod Identification and the director of the Insect Identification Laboratory at Penn State. His duties include identifying insects and other arthropods submitted by the public, writing and maintaining entomology fact sheets, and conducting limited original research. His current research is focused on whether deer keds, which are ectoparasites of deer that occasionally bite humans, can vector tick-borne pathogens to people. He also co-hosts the entomology-themed podcast Arthro-Pod.
Kate Anton is the Grozinger Laboratory manager and Beekeeper. Kate manages colonies for research focused on ecology, nutrition, landscape, bee health, and genomics. With a specialty in honey bee reproduction and breeding, Kate also collaborates with Penn State Extension Educator Dr. Robyn Underwood to provide advanced beekeeping educational programs. Kate appreciates numerous species of bees and wasps and has a special interest in social insects.
LINKS Provided by Kate:
Center for Pollinator Research pollinators.ps...
Common Social Bees and Wasps of Pennsylvania extension.psu....
Five Step Decision Support For Bees and Wasps Around the Home
Carpenter Bees extension.psu....
Affiliations:
Penn State University
Department of Entomology
Center For Pollinator Research
Huck Institutes of Life Sciences
This entire series is available as a podcast:
www.fredsfinef...
View all of my Interviews with Experts here:
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[@ThesmartestTem]

As a gardener, I have a love/hate relationship with wasps and yellow jackets. They do an amazing job of keeping my plants pest free. In fact, I can tell when they start to enter die off at the end of the season because that's when pest numbers explode. But its not always fun for me to share my garden with them. I usually try to work around their working hours. Unfortunately, as a homeschool mom who loves to hike and picnic with her kids when the heat of summer wanes and the schools are back in session, they don't make it very fun for us. In fact, a fellow homeschool friend's young child was recently stung some 15 times by yellow jackets after jumping on a log along the path that had a nest in it.

[@FrederickDunn]

The nests that show up where children walk/play are removed around here. That's a terrible first wasp experience that many children have. Thanks for commenting.

[@lambbrookfarm4528]

I've said it before, another informative interview, Thanks Kate, Michael and thanks Fred!

[@FrederickDunn]

Glad you enjoyed it! I get a lot out of these discussions myself, so I'm glad others also appreciate the conversations :)

[@adam-bonticoubees]

Absolutely great interview. Learned so much!

[@FrederickDunn]

I'm so glad :)

[@guiart4728]

I have witnessed a wasp harvesting a spider from an orb web. It dived at the spider and bounced it so that the web was acting like a trampoline. If it doesn’t succeed the first time it does it again until the spider is dislodged and falls to the ground where it attacks and then carries it away! The natural world is amazing! Thanks for your interview with experts series. I love it!!!

[@FrederickDunn]

I'll bet that's a mud dauber! They are persistant little miracles :)

[@tommychew6544]

What a great episode! I wish I would have watched it sooner. I remember seeing the under eaves area of the garage by the house from the 70's as a kid were completely filled with open air nests of wasp nests. None exist now, there are BB Gun indentions in the wood that I made in the mid 70's when I was a kid shooting at their nests that I can still see today. Those wasps would be taking care of a locust tree issue I have going on now if they were here now. Age seems to bring wisdom, it's strange how times come around. I remember watching and inspecting mud daubers as a kid and seeing them act like they were caught and drawing the spider to them so they could sting and carry them off. I remember taking apart their sealed mud tubes and being shocked by the different spiders I saw, that was before I was even a teenager. Nature is great!

[@GrandpaBees]

Great episode Fred!! Had to laugh when Michael was talking about the Tiger mosquito being day biters. Here in NW Minnesota the skeeters are so bad I have to wear my beekeeping veil during the day, even on hot bright days. In the beeyard, I'm using the veil not for bees, but skeeters. I'm constantly telling other beekeepers to leave the wasps alone if not in a heavy traffic area. They are a great boon to nature and great cleanup crew for the beeyard. Great episode!

[@FrederickDunn]

I was in Minnesota one summer, their State Bird is the Mosquito! :) I also wear a veil out in the woods during the day when it's been raining. I'm with you, deal with wasps that are in close proximity with the hives or people, otherwise they are awesome :)

[@jenjohnson2984]

Riffles are like the expanded metal in the bottom of a sluice box for getting gold. It creates turbulence and eddies as water runs over.

[@FrederickDunn]

Thanks, I love learning new terms :)

[@58Kym]

I watched a video yesterday of a guy who took small wasp nests (small new nests probably like bald faced hornets as they were a paperwasp hanging nests) and fitted them to his fence near his vegetable garden for pest control. What he was doing was he made a tool using a clear plastic container on the end of a broom handle and covered the small nest and knocked it into his container. He then added CO2 to knock them out and separated the wasps from the actual nest adding the unconscious wasps to a mesh sock and sealed it with a peg. He hot glued the nest with young onto the underneath of an L shaped board hanging on his fence and then fitted the open end of the mesh sock to the board over the nest and let the wasps go back to their nest. That night he would remove the mesh from each nest. It was pretty interesting for a biologically aware pest control system. It was from SuburbanBiology

[@FrederickDunn]

Thank you for sharing! I've learned not so use CO2 to get them under control as is has an impact on their hormones long after that event. So, I just carefully collect and move them without any knockout methods at all. They are surprisingly easy to handle.

[@14623carolanne]

Cool! Enjoyed the conversation I put out extracted frames almost no honey beez all yellow jackets Must have been a good flow. I can walk right up to yellow jackets film them in my pajamas .they don't bother me at all. Only thing when the framez are gone the yellow jackets stay for a few days. I had to do stuff out side they get under my glasses close to my ears all over me but no stings! They also wait by my front door because they can smell the honey frames in the hall. Right now they are no threat to my hives. Probably end of the month I'm gonna have to put robbing screens on.

[@FrederickDunn]

Much like the honey bees, away from their nest they are completely approachable.

[@14623carolanne]

@FrederickDunn Yup nothing to defend...I enjoy watching them away from my hives. They are actually very beautiful 😍 in color

[@saintjohncoleman8602]

I have Asian tiger mosquitoes here in SE coastal VA, and I get bit all day and all night. When I was a child, mosquito bites would drive me insane with itchiness! Now that I’m a beekeeper and get stung weekly, I don’t even know the mosquitoes are biting.. I no longer react..no pinch, no swelling, no itch!

[@FrederickDunn]

Are those mosquitos much larger than those you remember from the past? Something else to learn about for sure :)

[@Peter-od7op]

Hi fred last year lost 2 hive to yellow jackets. Never seen so many. This year have no seen one.

[@sh9downonme71]

Did notice that was too late had a huge too deep three medium hive. Harvested 5 gallons of honey. Had the entrance wide open. By the time I noticed the WASP going in and out of the hive The Hive was gone. Queen gun bees gone a handful of bees left. All brood all eggs everything robbed. Then after the WASP came the robber bees. Two other hives right next to it just fine, but had reduced entrance.

[@nathanpotter8569]

It's a little bit long for me to watch the whole thing now. Will have to get back to it later.

[@thomasplummer2673]

Dragonflies are my big problem here in SW Oregon, we do have a lot of yellow jackets and ballface here too, but the Dragonflies kill them all, including my honey bees.

[@FrederickDunn]

They are certainly apex ariel hunters. I hope they don't take too many bees.

[@thomasplummer2673]

@FrederickDunn on any day there can be 20 to 30 dragonflies of different types,very large to small. We live about a mile and a half from the river.

[@RunningWithSauce]

I have video of a yellowjacket eating me. I had a massive open wound from sliding into 3rd base, it found it and was chomping away at it lol. I filmed it for a bit.

[@FrederickDunn]

Wow, that doesn't sound good at all.

[@frankspataro9714]

Im south of you a hour or two in pa this is the first year i seen huge hornets hunting my honey bees right at the entrances i have never seen em before this year there catching my bees and bolting off out of sight with em only doing it here at my house have you ever seen em do this i never have

[@seanrichardson881]

It's like Halloween and Christmas at the same time. Well, life is like a box of chocolates...

[@FrederickDunn]

:)

[@ihsbsllcihsbsllc2271]

i have 2 by 4 not painted sittin outside last two years i see alot of wasp including bald face hornet using as a nestin material i was hunting them beacause they attack beehive in october

[@FrederickDunn]

As the growing season comes to a close, I see them on dead sunflower stalks. Any unfinished wood is a possible source for their nests.

[@raymschmidt6032]

What kind of paper wasp is black? Seemed rather passive. What do they eat?

[@FrederickDunn]

Bald Faced Hornets are black and white. There is a Mud-Dauber that is all black but has blue where the sun hits it. Not certain about an all black paper-wasp. Maybe someone else knows.

[@raymschmidt6032]

@@FrederickDunn dull black with grayish white on its back. Weren't aggressive to me. Had a paper nest about the size of a softball.

[@raymschmidt6032]

Idaho

[@raymschmidt6032]

Dovichovespula. Looks like it

[@nathanpotter8569]

Hmmm