The Tail of the Wasp

Things are picking up. I didn't see the little lady monarch today, but I found 5 eggs that she left. My count is up to 9 eggs and 5 caterpillars....still quite behind last year, but we are on our way.

It's a real challenge getting the eggs because the milkweed is loaded with honey bees, great black wasps, great golden digger wasps, paper wasps, and bumble bees. The black wasps and golden diggers are the scariest because they are about an inch and a half long. Yikes! However, I found out that they are not supposed to be aggressive. The females are the bigger ones and the ones that sting, but won't bother you unless you disturb their underground nests. Their stinger is actually their apparatus to lay eggs. The males don't lay eggs, they don't sting. The females consume lots of high energy food like the nectar from the milkweed because they seem to do all the work. When the time comes that the flowers turn to seeds, I am hoping I won't have to deal with as many wasps.

I haven't photographed them myself....being a little timid around them because they are pretty big and quite scary looking, but I found some beautiful pictures taken by littlebangtheory.wordpress.com.

The Great Black Wasp

The Great Golden Digger Wasp

I continue to wait until the sun starts going down to hunt for eggs, so I don't have to contend with the huge wasps.

2016                                                                        2015

Eggs              9                                                     Eggs              2

Caterpillars    5                                                       Caterpillars    38