{"id":5436,"date":"2023-08-10T18:04:14","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T01:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/?p=5436"},"modified":"2023-08-10T18:08:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T01:08:20","slug":"helping-wasps-go-to-a-better-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/?p=5436","title":{"rendered":"Helping wasps go to a better place"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The other day, I discovered an enormous wasp nest (about 14&#8243; in diameter) in a tree next to my house:<\/p>\n<p><center><div style=\"width: 400px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-5436-1\" width=\"400\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2023-08-07-nest-1.m4v?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2023-08-07-nest-1.m4v\">https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2023-08-07-nest-1.m4v<\/a><\/video><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n<p>The next morning, Google helped me discover <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/oregonwasps\">Dan Scollard<\/a>, who comes out to remove wasps from homes, humanely &#8220;sends them to sleep&#8221; in a cooler full of dry ice, then donates them to a lab that extracts the venom for use in allergy shots. (!)<\/p>\n<p>When he arrived, he said, &#8220;Oh, that&#8217;s a beauty.  A lot of people say they found a nest as big as a basketball, but yours actually IS.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My nest was constructed and occupied by the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dolichovespula_maculata\">bald-faced hornet<\/a> (which apparently is actually a wasp).  Dan told me all about this wasp; he has a real admiration for them.  I highly recommend reading about their <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dolichovespula_maculata#Life_cycle\">life cycle<\/a> and also viewing Dan&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/oregonwasps\/photo-gallery?authuser=0\">photo gallery<\/a>!  These wasps are a useful part of nature, but risky to have next to your door where you (or unwitting visitors) could be suddenly attacked.  Apparently this wasp can be quite aggressive and territorial.<\/p>\n<p>Dan put on all of his gear, then vacuumed up all of the wasps around the nest, waited a bit for more wasps to come home from hunting, did a second vacuuming pass, and clipped the nest from the branch to remove it.  He said it would hang it in his backyard so the queen (who had not emerged) could &#8220;live out the rest of her days in peace.&#8221;  He said I could hold the nest with its lurking queen: gosh wow!<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_9752.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_9752-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Me holding a wasp nest\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_9752-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_9752-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_9752.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>What an amazing experience!  It&#8217;s a joy to meet knowledgeable people who love their subject and use their knowledge to do good in the world.  I&#8217;m much happier sending these wasps out to help people avoid severe reactions, and the process was so much better than dousing the nest with poison.  Thank you, Dan!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other day, I discovered an enormous wasp nest (about 14&#8243; in diameter) in a tree next to my house: The next morning, Google helped me discover Dan Scollard, who comes out to remove wasps from homes, humanely &#8220;sends them to sleep&#8221; in a cooler full of dry ice, then donates them to a lab [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5436"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5460,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5436\/revisions\/5460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/today\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}