Wasps

[BoltsFan]

What's the deal with Wasps? I have a few that always set up nests near my garden hose. They are mean buggers... are they beneficial for anything or do I have the green light to kill them?

[Jason Akers]

Well that's a tough one.  They will keep your garden insect free.  But very likely they will keep your garden person free as well. 

Suppression is probably a wise choice.

Jason

[CopperKnight]

They are good to keep around, but once they become a nuisance or start building a nest in a busy area, they have to go.  There will always be some around from another nest. 

If you do decide to spray, do it at night when they are not active. 

[Ralph]

Last year I had a handful of wasps that seemed to be very interested in my miniature lettuce. They would go way inside the leaves and come back out a while later. No idea what they were doing in there but I became a lot more cautious before reaching to pick a head. From what I could see the leaves were spotlessly clean, but maybe there was something inside the head I couldn't see. The wasps didn't become a problem so I just left them alone, and they left me alone. From what I found on the internet they were paper wasps. They didn't seem to be interested in anything aside from the lettuce. Has anyone else noticed wasps being attracted to lettuce?

[CopperKnight]

That seems quite strange.  I have never noticed them paying any particular attention to the lettuce... or any other specific plant for that matter.  Maybe they were looking for a place to set up a nest and just kept checking out various tunnels, of which the lettuce seemed intriguing.  <shrug>

[Ralph]

Recently I've seen some wasps around again. They seemed to like walking around on my strawberry flowers, but I haven't seen them lately. I have some big bees, honey bees maybe that hover around the strawberry flowers but I think they know they are way too large and heavy to make a landing. It's kind of interesting to watch all the bugs and see what they like. When my lettuce starts growing again I'll have to see what happens. I have some borage in the ground and when it flowers the bees should be around a lot more. Last year they liked those blue flowers.

[Jason Akers]

Another reason I need to try borage.

Jason