What has happened to fly spray?

Good old Friedrich Nietzsche had it right when he said 'That which does not kill us makes us stronger'. Or you might prefer Herbert Spencer's 'survival of the fittest'. Both sayings derived from Darwin's concept of 'Natural Selection' - generations either adapt to their environment or become extinct.

Populations exposed to poisons demonstrate the effect well. When poison is applied, the sensitive organisms are killed leaving only survivors who are less vulnerable. Their offspring inherit the resistance. If repeated over many generations, you may end up with creatures that are completely immune to the poison.

Insects are annoying but the effect is already dangerous to humans for another reason. We think we've defeated the common infectious diseases that once kept death rates high - diptheria, typhoid, cholera, typhus, gonorrhea, syphilis, tetanus, leprosy, pnuemonia, tuberculosis etc. Actually, the bacteria that cause these diseases are only being kept at bay by antibiotics. Unfortunately all these bugs have developed antibiotic resistance and we are running out of ways to control them. The type of Pencillin deadly to bugs in 1945 is now ineffective. Unless someone comes up with something new most of the old epidemic diseases will be back. Quite likely your local hospital is already struggling with outbreaks of MRSA, streptococcus, C Difficile and others.

Another major problem with powerful insecticides is that Sod's Law applies - you kill all the wanted insects like Ladybirds and Bees and end up surrounded by super-blowflies.

Dave

I'm not saying I believe this but it's cheap so I'm trying it anyway!

A friend told me they'd kept the wasps away from a family barbecue by deploying a few 'Waspinators' around the barbecue site. The Waspinator resembles a nest, see Amazon. The makers claim that wasps are territorial and stay away from the site of an existing nest.

Some years ago I had a 3 inch wasp nest hanging from the workshop ceiling. It didn't get any bigger or show any activity so I figured the insecticide in the treated timber had been the end of the wasps as they gathered their building material. (Have you ever sat quietly beside a fence or other wood while a wasp is gathering? Their chewing as they gather the wood fibres is quite audible.)

More recently, I had to expel a queen wasp that was investigating the inside of my workshop. So I bought a couple of Waspinators and hung one up in the workshop. So far, so good.

I do have some reservations - the instructions claim that a Waspinator installed in the roof space of a house will deter wasps from nesting there. It caused me to wonder if this means wasps can see in the dark?!?! Or are they impregnated with some pheromone?  (That's the Waspinator, not the wasps! )

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 17/09/2018 11:14:48

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 17/09/2018 11:16:56

I used a waspinator in our garden next to a plum tree last year, no wasps, all the fruit intact, this year didn’t hang a waspinator and the wasps had a field day with the plums, demonstrates that in my situation it worked.

Dave W

I always think of Polio when I hear this statement

Tony

Swish, CRACK!. Har, har, har. Very satisfying too!

Queen wasps will only come into your workshop at the beginning and end of the season. At the beginning, looking for somewhere to found a nest or actually building and nursing the first round of offspring. At the end of the season, to find somewhere to hibernate for the winter. The rest of the summer, she will be attended to by worker wasps and will not leave the nest.

So, since the start of summer until now, the waspinators have done nothing to stop queens. There are only a few late nests - when the first gets flooded out, for example.

Reading up on the life cycle of the wasp would also make it clear why and when the wasps start searching out sugary foods, start to be annoying and stop catching caterpillars, etc. All but the newly mated queens perish at the end of the season - but when? That will depend on the weather...

It seems wasps and bees see differnt colours to humans, the ultraviolet range. this means that wasps may be able to see in the dark of a loft or enclosed space. True about the artificial wasp nests and that the foraging wasps catch live food but cannot eat it! so the suck sweet liquids. ergo plums and such. Upon return to the nest with live food they feed the grubs (Good fishing bait) and as a reward the grub exudes a drop of sweet liquid as a reward. But like all things a wasp finds it does not need to work if it attacks plums. Interesting is the fact that i saw in Spain wasps eating holes in sweet grapes and then the bees start supping the liquid and the honey has a green colour. Also in places like Turkey the bees collect honey dew which is exuded by Aphis. the bees have two stomachs and the second stomach converts the sucrose into fructose which is then honey!

The life cycle of wasps, an overwintering fertised Queen wasp will start searching for a suitable place to make a nest. Then she builds a small cup about the size of an egg cup, she will make a paper comb of about 15 oor 20 cells and lay eggs and then raise a brood. On reaching maturity the workers then build up the nest and the Queen never leaves the nest again. Through the year the nest is enlarged and appriox 100 to 200 new wasps are made daily.

Come the Autumn the Queen then lays fertilised eggs that hatch into virgin Queens and she also lays eggs that become Drones. these will all issue and fly about to mate. Eventually the old Queen and all the worker wasps and Drones die of starvation or cold. The mated Queen wasps fly off and find a hibernation site and then re-emerge in the Spring and the cycle repeats itself. basically, kill any wasp of size in the Spring that you can swat, saves a wasp nest later. In some cases wasps are beneficial as they take other pests but of corse like an easy life so pester us when barbequing etc.I have never found a wasp nest being re-used but a new build alongside is possible. They also have a fly parasite that lives in the debri at the bottom of the nest. Again, I have found that any volatile applied to the nest will kill it off. Cellulose thinners etc. Petrol only outside but do not set light to it.

I have noticed that what I take to be first generation worker wasps are smaller than later generations. I always thought that this was because that first generation have to be raised by the queen wasp on her own.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

I use a 18" long fly swat (non-electric) but I've got so much practice this year I can now grab mosquitos out of the air with my hand. (shades of Kung Fu - Ah! Grasshopper...)

Neil

We use Spray-Mount, most effective if applied to flies settled on a window, the old formula was better thoug and it had a nicer smell, Artwork Fixative works well enough to relegate them to Shanks' Pony rendering them easy targets for the flail of your choice.

When you can snatch the pebble it will be time for you to leave - I wasn’t ready.

Mike

Still in use for mozzy control in India and other countries.

You may even be able to make a cocktail with the stuff.

Murray

I think it is near silver birch trees that the fly agaric toadstool grows.

You chop it up, put it in a saucer of sour milk then put the saucer on a high shelf so the cat can't get it

Edited By Robin on 22/09/2018 22:00:37

Robin, what then, do you go on a months holiday to get away from the smell of the rotting milk?

When I was a kid in the 1950s, and aerosol fly spray became available there was one brand that our household used, Aeroblast, one squirt and the flies would just drop, buzz for a few seconds, all over, now I'm like Neil, use a fly swat.

Ian S C

Get good at growing Venus Flytraps.

We have a species of wasp or hornet which nests in or around our house/garage from about May until October. They look identical to a 'standard' wasp, but are at least twice as big - most of them are easily 1.5 inches long - rather frightening when you see one flying in your direction.

Normally they are not aggressive, but will respond to electric lights, so become a risk at night - open a door or window to a room with a light on, and two or three will turn up virtually instantly. The good thing is that they make one hell of a buzz, probably due to their size, so its not difficult to tell they are around.

Very difficult to get rid of - for ecological reason I prefer not to kill them, but once they are in the room, killing is about the only way to do it. The local bug spray is crap. I won't give the name, but it is obtainable in most of Europe. It says on the tin 'instant action' - maybe, if you hit them with the tin, 'cause the spray don't affect them (or flies, mosquitoes or any other flying insect that I can see). So now we are trying to learn to live with them.

They do build beautiful nests, about the size of a rugby ball, and its a real architectural masterpiece, which they abandon each year. Although they will return to nest in the same location, they always build a new nest.

An Other,

You don’t have a profile, so no location - even at country level. I see you live in the northern hemisphere, but that is half the world. Maybe you are in Europe, but that is not for sure.

Probably hornets of some description.

Some heritage cottage up the road from here got a new, period correct floor made from a mixture of sour milk and chalk. Apparently it took a while to set

I can’t find any mention here of UV lamp / High Voltage insect killers we have used one for years. It works (full of bugs and flies after a couple of weeks. UV bulb only lasts for two years max but easy to get on Amazon. This is a BIG one. The small models are rubbish. ☠️