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Citizen complaint of the day: Aggro hornets attacking pedestrians, dogs at one South End intersection
By adamg on Fri, 10/06/2023 - 11:44am
Hornet hive entrance circled in green.
Complaints that have been bubbling up in a South End Facebook group reached 311 today when a distraught resident filed a complaint about the chaos at the southeast corner of Washington Street at its intersection with East Springfield Street:
Hornets nest in hole in sidewalk / cobblestone around tree on E Springfield St. Hornets are swarming all day around trash and are very aggressive. Many neighbors and dogs have been swarmed and stung!! This is a busy corner for pedestrians. NEEDS IMMEDIATE ATTENTION.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Magoo sez
Doo dooooo dooo doooooo. In comes Super Magoo. For Super Magoo is on the case and will vanquish these evil meany hurty-doers. Magoo’s adoring fans can witness Magoo’s feats of bravery by attending the place of hurty, today at approximately 1:03pm. No hurty hornets shall survive for Magoo has super duper hurty hornet resistance and has recently leveled up. Super Magoo to the rescue! Magoo.
Scat. Magoo, scat
n/t
**eye roll**
Oh leave Magoo alone
Let people enjoy things. This literally hurts no one.
"literally"
Indeed, it would be quite the feat if it literally did. But perhaps you're new here and have yet to experience Magoo's feces obsession?
Arboretum hornets
Is it just random that there aren't as many huge paper wasp nests in the Arboretum this year or did they remove/reduce the wasps? Last year there were 3-4 trees which were roped off due to earth ball sizes nests along the southern reaches.
There's still at least one roughly the size of two bowling balls
On a roped off tree near where the brook goes underground sort of by the South Street entrance.
Are they protecting the nests or the visitors?
Do the insects add some value to the environment that's worth preserving? Or are the nests roped off pending removal?
Hornets and wasps are fantastic at eating caterpillars
so gardeners in particular should think twice about removing any nests that are in out-of-the-way spots.
Yellow jackets are a problem primarily because it's easy to accidentally disturb their nest. But tree-nesting hornets don't care about people walking around 20+ feet below them. Same for paper wasps on high-up eaves.
Ok time to bust out the blow
Ok time to bust out the blow torch
I’ll bring the torch who can bring the beer
Wasps and Hornets
Yellow stripey bastards are having a hard time this year.
Heavy rains have been flooding out their preferred harborage - holes in the ground - so they are moving into places closer to humans.
On top of that, they didn't eat much this summer between the rains and heat and humidity that impairs their ability to feed. They are normally busy this time of year, but this year they are off the hook.
They are up in our buildings and structures but they don't like our activities. They are hungry, aggro and desperate. Sting-related ER visits are way up.
Some advice from UMass Extension:
https://ag.umass.edu/landscape/fact-sheets/yellow-jackets
https://ag.umass.edu/integrated-pest-management/featured-pest/bees-wasps...
They're ground nesters, so probably yellow jackets
You can try waiting until after dark, when they're not active, and spray the nest with insecticide.