Site Discussions

New to us this summer is a football sized paper wasp nest in the eves of a barn top cupola, accessible only by scrambling up a steep metal roof after a two story ladder climb.

It was scarey enough to get up there to paint the cupola. No way to spray insecticide the nest and then retreat quickly.

They don’t bother us so we were waiting till after a hard freeze to remove it. The mention of the hibernating queen in this article tells us that won’t really solve our problem.

Any ideas how to kill the wasps before the queen disappears and we get a new outbreak next year?

Thanks,

Rick

The venoms do indeed have some different chemical components, and it is possible for one to be more sensitive to one group of stingers and not others. However, a simple test at the allergist will give evidence if it is likely that one might respond in a cross-over reaction. Example, my son, after a severe reaction tested positive to all three of the main stinging culprits and immediately began 5 years of immunizations that will likely save his life in the future.
One must always remember that only through repeated exposure does an allergic reaction process even begin to take place and thus vigilance is a must. I just stepped right into a ground nest of yellow jackets and received no less that 10 stings. My reaction was minimal, but painful, itchy and temporally traumatic. The fact that my response was not even close to life threatening does unfortunately not mean that I will not, should there be a next time,  react the same way. Keep working with the bees, but I strongly recommend that you get the skin tests that may save your life.

Judith - I’m not an expert, but I have seen fellow beekeepers develop allergies after being stung over time.  I’m told the opposite can occur, that one can loose an allergy as well.  Keep in mind that a lot of people think a really bad reaction to a bee or hornet sting is an allergic reaction.  It’s not.  Though very painful, uncomfortable and possibly necessitating medical attention for relief, a true allergy can be deadly resulting in a whole-body reaction that may close the throat very quickly.  It’s nothing to mess around with.  If you’re considering beekeeping, please find out for sure if you are allergic by visiting an allergist.  If you find out all is well, the Vt. Beekeepers Association can help get you started with a mentor and trainings.  Best of luck to you.

I have question. I’ve heard that if you are allergic to wasps that you are not then allergic to bee stings. Is this true? I seem to have an increasing reaction to wasp stings, but want to keep bees. Should I take a chance on beekeeping?

I was just riding my bike with my Weimaraner along our gravel road by our oceanfront house in Prospect Harbor, Maine. I saw an animal sitting in the middle of the road. I initially thought it was a fox, as they do that sometimes. But as I got closer, it didn’t look like a fox. Then I thought it was a cat, but a big one, 18-20 lbs at least, and beefy, not lean like a cat. It saw us coming and didn’t go anywhere until my dog saw it and began pulling towards it, about 50 yards away. At that point, it ran into the brush. I was able to get a better look as I got closer. It had dark ears and dark stubby tail. The coat was tawny looking, but it didn’t look particularly spotted like the photos on this website. I suspect it was a bobcat. In 30 years of coming here I have never seen a bobcat before. It was quite exciting. Do you think it was a bobcat or is there some other type of wild cat it could have been?

Frank,

We here at Northern Woodlands are unfamiliar with any particular method for stripping dead leaves from oaks, as none of us have ever tried to do that.

Many thanks, Virginia, for the detail you included two years ago in your description of the Nannyberry (viburnum lentago).  From April to October in 2012, I have taken photos of this plant on a walk I take and this helped verify that it is indeed the nannyberry.

Greatly enjoyed your article, Ben! I’m a huge fan of wild rice, and love to look for it along the river and marshes in CT. A year ago I wrote an article for our local Audubon Society’s newsletter concerning wild rice, and a few times a year I purchase wild rice from Native Harvest in Minnesota. Thanks again for the excellent article!

IS there a way to strip the dead leaves from oaks?

I am working with students in high school and we are identifying trees and it is difficult to determine which spurce trees are which.  Your website was extremely helpful.

Ingrid Volikas

Well, I am definitely sure that I saw a catamount the beginning of this week. To be exact, it was on Monday,Sept.17,2012 at 11:30 am. I was sweeping leaves on my back deck which overlooks a meadow and brook which flows thru my back yard. The phone rang and I stopped raking to answer. My daughter from San Fran was calling. I was literally leaning on the deck railing and speaking to her. All of a sudden, I heard a movement in the woods and looked over to see this catamount walk gingerly from the meadow across my bottom lawn that parallels the brook. I told my daughter what I was seeing. The catamount was about 3feet long,perfect girth size,head and face and ears I was totally able to idenify this catamount. My daughter said for me to make a noise to see what he would do. I made a sound and he stopped, looked up the hill at me, then immediately jumped the brook without touching the water and walked up from the water bank into the woods. I was thrilled to see this and called my neighbors and farmers on my road to let them know. Quite an experience! Next time I will have the camera ready.

Elise, I want to wish you my heartiest congratulations on your new position.  I look forward to seeing regular postings of your wonderful writing!  Best, Rose

Are you 100% sure it wasn’t a bobcat, Kara? The size sounds bobcatty, as does the hair color. Many eastern bobcats are very tawny colored; if the belly fur is obscured, they may not appear spotted at all.

Check out the photo gallery at the end of this article:

http://northernwoodlands.org/articles/article/woods-ghost-bobcats-on-a-comeback1/

At a quick glance, the 4th pic from the end looks just like a lion on the plains of africa (or a catamount in someone’s backyard) to me.

I was just driving home from work w/my 2 year old son.  About an 1/8th of a mile from my house I saw what looked like a Mountain Lion or Catamount.  After looking online I see that it is said that Catamounts are extinct in Vermont.  What I saw looked like it was the size of a medium dog.  It had flat fur, like a boxer dog and it was tan.  The head looked like a female lion.  I live in a very rural area surrounded by corn and soy bean fields.  The cat walked across the road from a corn field and stopped in the road when I slowed down.  It jumped into a ditch and into another corn field.  It was only a few feet in front of me and I know it wasn’t a bobcat.  Could it have been a Catamount?

If current use is suppose to be a state “jobs program” for the timber industry, why are the jobs influenced by what seems to be a handful of consulting foresters? There could be many more small logging operations in business if the state was involved in fairly dividing out the work.

  Think we just saw a lunar moth caterpillar over in crawford notch on the 29th of August by the waterfall.Some woman was taking video of it. Was at least 3-4 inches long.Found this site cause was looking it up and the first thought that came into my head was Lunar moth caterpillar.Quite a few years ago saw an adult in my yard and it was gorgeous.Didn’t think there were cherry trees in the Notch though.I thought they would have already done their thing by the fall but didn’t know that they overwintered up here.

Have to retract my earlier comment!  Sorry to report that what I saw Tues morning was not a catamount cub, but a fox suffering from mange.  The practically hairless fox had been terrorizing local chicken coops and was caught in a local barn.

Nothing is black or white and I am not opposed to trapping.  Having said that, a good friend’s large dog was killed in a trap on his neighbor’s property just last December.  There might have been a problem with the trap itself of the way it was placed.  At any rate it was extremely traumatic for my friend.  Traps still have the ability to kill non-target species.

This morning around 11:30, I spotted what looked like a catamount cub run across my field.  It was an interesting tawny color with a very long tail and a lopey run that was definitely not that of a house cat.  I’m located near some state land and Cottonbrook Reservoir.

If you have large acerage in native viburnum suceptible to the VLB (e.g. arrowwood)there is a partial remedy.This is working on my 35 acres: First choose one or two plants/acre - the strongest specimens. Then fertilize and mulch heavily and follow the Cornell advice on pruning out the eggs- these plants only. They will survive: probably the only ones. But the VLB population comes in waves and it will crash to a remanent. Likely they will fruit the entire time. Now if you wish to support the migratory bird populations and local grouse replant a colonizing mixture of resistant viburnum + gray and silky dogwood. This fills the niche nearly as well as the susceptible viburnum. In my case (wet silt) I use nannyberry with the dogwoods. Lotsa fruit, grouse and thrushes.