The other night, the dogs took off out the doggy door and stood at the far corner of their gulag barking and howling -then through an open window we caught scent of a skunk. Luckily none of the dogs were skunked. A few days later we found the hard clay ground ripped open and torn apart. It had been a HUGE yellow jacket nest and it was full of larvae which apparently are a real treat for skunks and possum! I also read that if you find these nest just leave them out at night where there is activity and they'll be eaten by dawn! Here are the pictures! I am so glad there is a 100% natural cure for these super villians. I guess without skunks and possums, you can get a really bad infestation! I wasn't even aware of this nest. It was just outside the range of the traps! You can use the size of the fallen oak leaves to get an idea of how big this thing was! the torn open earth and some nesting strewn about! ( photo / image / picture from CrisGzr's Garden ) My husband took the photos, since there was a lot of yellow jacket activity, but it looks like a lot of larvae will not be hatching next year! they edge of the hole and nesting strewn everywhere ( photo / image / picture from CrisGzr's Garden ) woo hoo! Thank you skunk! –and thank you for not spraying the dogs!
Congratulations! Not everyone gets to see the benefits first hand of a skunk. I have seen this in my yard before, but they also like bees so I try to deter them if I can. They will happily eat the bees right from the bottom board at nighttime if they have the opportunity. Skunks are pretty non selective when it comes to eating the insects. They like the Japanese beetle grubs in the lawn, too.
We have skunks--especially in the springtime when their romantic interests are aroused, we smell them frequently. We have a resident possum in the barn--he has a little hideaway under one of the stalls. Maybe that's why we don't have ground wasps--our smelly and short-sighted little friends are taking care of them! Carolyn, we put a roll of chicken wire on the ground just in front of the bottom board. That way the skunk has to stand up to get at the bees, and the guards can sting the skunk's tummy, a vulnerable spot. We haven't skunk predation on our hives.
oo thank you for the bee tips and I was also wondering how to fence off a hive as we are interested in starting some beekeeping... I went so far and to buy the Beekeeping for Idiots Book LOL
Chris, that's a good starter book. We got it before we got our hives, and it has been of great help. Chickenwire, some barbed wire, anything that will make a skunk back off and stand up will help the guard bees take care of the problem. Cheryl, we may be grateful, but not to the extent of inviting skunks to stick around for a while!
I may not have been so grateful if I had to get skunk out of 4 siberian huskies who really really hate baths and really really love to be stinky!
The carpet tack strips cut the width of the bottom board and wedged or nailed down are the absolute best deterrent for the skunks. They can't roll the bees on the bottom board.
CrisGrz yikes I am glad the skunk took care of those buggers. We saw a program on our PBS station that showed guys going out into the under brush and killing those ground wasp nests. I think it was in Texas but I could be wrong. Anyway the wasps are not native to the area and are killing off the good bees. They put out pieces of meat and watched the direction the wasps flew in. Then they would track them by sight. They would keep doing the above until they found the nest site in the ground. They marked it and came back in the night to kill the nest. They suited up like they were space men. Every area of their bodies was covered because of how aggressive the wasps are. Then they came back in the day light after being suited up again to check and see how well the kill was. They they dig up the nest which can be 2 ft. under ground and haul it all away so nothing can hatch or be rebuilt. It was a really interesting story. So you probably should have someone come out and dig the rest of the nest out of the ground and take it away. It sounds like those are the same type of wasps as in the story. If the nest isn't removed they will just rebuild it.
Tooty, that's amazing! I'll let my DH know, he wanted to pour Sevin down it, which is what most people do around here and he may still but I told him if he does he has to plop a large rock over it to keep the wildlife from being poisoned.
One of my customer-possum died in their dryer vent.Walked into house-Stink. Seen a note Connie-Lee if you see dead mouse. please take in out side.Called her up at their cabin.And said more then a mouse.Called Critter Control for them. They had to get new dryer.
