Wasp nest disappeared?

[Existential Angst]

Awl --

Really strange --

In the front hedges, a small round wasp nest (yellow jackets) started to grow -- and grow, and grow....

What started out the size of an orange quickly grew to the size of a soccer ball!! The wife is nagging and nagging, and ahm sayin, Yo, just wait until the first 32 F night, and I'll get rid of it.

But even I was wondering, Man, if it keeps growing at this rate, it'll be the size of a dog house by fall! And a busy nest this was!

Then, one day -- it was gone!!!

Now, it was being built IN the hedges, around/through all the branches, and I figger if someone "stole" it, there would be evidence from cuts, etc. But, nothing, just the missing nest!

What do you think happened? Where might I find out more info on this?

The little reading I did suggests that wasps are not without ecological value, preying on other nuisance insects, etc, altho they can also be a pain to bees.

[ransley]

Maybe you burnt it up sleepwalking, or an alien abduction or spontainious combustion, those things sting. I could understand them abandoning the nest, but the nest itself will stay quite awhile.

[Don Phillipson]

First, identify the wasp species, then do some homework on its typical behavior (when it nests, how it constructs nests, how long they last etc.) Then apply your new knowledge to the environment (urban or rural, climatic, etc.) to see whether your partial knowledge matches textbook generalizations.

Identifying the species is worthwhile because yellow jackets are aggressive but paper wasps are not. We usually have one paper wasp nest on this rural property every year, anwhere from the house dormers to hanging underneath the deck, and average about one sting per year.

Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)

[hibb]

I've seen where raccoons have taken out bald faced hornets nests when they are close enough to the ground but the nest is just torn up and the tattered bits are scattered around.

[krw]

As Don suggests, find out what they really are. Yellow Jackets are not wasps. They're Hornets; a *very* different beast. I'll let wasps live, mostly. I go postal on *any* hornets around my property.

Scotty transported them into a Klingon Battle Cruiser?

Wasps Hornets.

[Red]

If it was low enough I'd suspect an armadillo got it. They will root out a fire ant mound so I doubt they'd be discouraged by wasps. They'd eat the nest along with the grubs.

Red

[Existential Angst]

Well, these were yellow jackets. No animal seems to have gotten to the nest, as there were no pieces.

A co-worker came up with an interesting notion: He said these nests were *collectibles*, of all things, and that someone likely did come by and take it!!

I guess at night these 'jackets are quiescent, and someone who knows what they are doing can extract one of these nests. This type of nest seems to have just one entrance/exit hole, so if that is plugged, you can then deal with the spherical nest.

I was thinking that mebbe someone complained, and the City took it, and would be sending me a bill, but I'm sure I'd have gotten some notice to remedy first.

Still, the "extraction" was super clean. Mebbe if I look closer, I'll see the trimmed leaves/branches.

[mm]

We used to have a Hudson Wasp. The Hudson Hornet was more expensive.

[Nelly]

"Existential Angst" wrote amongst other things:

My father used to collect the really big hornet nests and hang them on the front porch. I asked him why; he said "salespeople."

[JIMMIE]

Wife got tired of waiting on you to do something about it so she did. Probably hired an exterminator to take care of it for about $100. Would have cost you about $5.00 for a can of Sevin dust at the Feed and Seed.

Jimmie

[whacko]

Jesus took it. He's feeding it so it grows faster. Next week he will return it and it will be as big as your house. This is a MIRACLE. Get on your knees and pray!

[mkirsch1]

Look for a bill from the exterminator...

[norminn]

clipped

Any chance a neighbor got out the ShopVac and sucked it up?

[1234]

replying to norminn, 1234 wrote: I had a paper wasp nest under my deck stairs that I had been watching. The nest is completely gone this morning but the wasps are still hanging out at the site of their former nest. When wasp nests are close to doorways I often spray them with water and essential oils, and after the wasps fly away, I remove the nests with leather gloves in the hope that they will rebuild at a different location. They may hang around awhile looking for their nest, but they don't rebuild at the same site. Something must have just happened to their nest, but I cannot imagine what.

[makolber]

this will be good, gerbils and wasps m

[songbird]

raccoons may eat them...

songbird

[buzzed off]

replying to Existential Angst, buzzed off wrote: I just had a nest disappear overnight also. It was in my greenhouse which I close up every night. The only creature in there might be a mouse or vole. No birds. There was no trace of the nest; no pieces; just gone. The wasps were still in the greenhouse, but seemed disoriented. Their is another nest close by and it is still active. I am wondering if the other wasps in the other nest ate the whole thing. Both nest are up high so animals are not likely the culprit.

[Don]

My hornet nest the size of a grapefruit has totally disappeared. It was high in the roof rafters. Not even a mud stain is left. I'm baffled. Paramount. CA

[micky]

Are you sure you are in your own house?

[Nina]

This happened to me. My house was full of wasp the nest was way up high in a big tree. The nest was huge. I couldn't get no one to come out and remove it, finally an exterminator was coming out the next day to see the nest, but when they came over to my house the nest was GONE. No more wasps either. I always wondered what happened to the nest or did I imagine it.🤗