Thanks for the info. New or used dryer sheet?

Yellowjackets nest in the ground, so if you were attacked by them, you might have inadvertantly gotten too close to their nest. Happened to me once, the whole swarm chased me into the house, getting under my clothes and everywhere. Must have been pretty funny, me running and screaming and shedding clothes as I went! Luckily, I was home alone!

The dryer sheet idea sounds worth trying!

Sandy

Brilliant! And so simple! Now - do you have a quick fix for black flies and mosquitoes??
Jan

I have those, and the look-alikes that don't nest in the ground, but make 'paper' nests under eaves and decks and such. they're quite common out here. Works on both types. Old_dirt, I used a fresh dryer sheet.

Don B.

Don in Colorado-
What brand, what scent? I use the unscented ones in the dryer, and I don't think those will work. We have wasps buzzing around here, and I go in when they come out. Thanks!

-Babka

Babka, what we have is Bounce 'outdoor fresh' scented dryer sheets. That's what I'm using.

Don B.

Thanks, Don.

-Babka

The "dirt daubers" are the black ones which build the muddy nests under the eaves of houses and such. They do not sting. In fact, they are a beneficial insect because they pack harmful insects into the dirt tubes where they lay their eggs, to feed their babies.

I'm thinking a friend of mine told me she used dryer sheets (fresh ones) to rub on her skin to keep away mosquitos. I'm going to try it today, and will let you know the results. Even a tiny bowl of water will hatch out mosquitos so police your saucers beneath pots, if you use those. To keep down mosquito larva in still water, they make these "donuts" that can be immersed in the water, not supposed to be harmful to animals who might drink it.

When I set up my big pot of water for the shade, I get what we call "mosquito fish" (10 for $1 at the pet store) look like silver guppies, and those eat the larva. Plus it looks beautiful in a big deep terra cotta pot. However, if you have a fountain spraying constantly, the skeeters don't usually lay their eggs on that water.

Since mosquitos also carry the heart worms which are so deadly to dogs especially (maybe cats, don't know), I try to keep the mosquitos away from my shady spots in the garden. If you rub against a shrub on a hot day, expect to be covered in a cloud of hungry mosquitos, hiding from the heat.

Never seen black ones out here in Colorado. However, the yellow and black ones that build nests under eaves here are predatory, and provide the same benefit the 'dirt daubers' do down south by eating/feeding pest bugs to their larvae. Perhaps a different-colored subspecies of your daubers in Alabama?

For mosquitos, I use a rubber bracelet called a 'bugband' that some people say doesn't work, but I've not been bitten by a mosquito since I started using them last spring. Coincidence? I think not. : )

Don B.

We have the slender blue/black ones, the tiny yellow jackets, cicada killers, velvet ants (actually wasps) bald faced hornets, big red wasps, paper wasps, mud daubers, and three or four other kinds here in Missouri. Most of them don't bother me but I don't like the yellow jackets, they get into your drinks (especially soda cans) if you aren't careful and you don't notice until you have one in your mouth. They are very aggressive if you get near their nests. The paper wasps build nests in incovenient places (under the hose winder, above the door, etc and they are aggressive if you mess with their nest. So are bald-faced hornets that build the big huge paper nests in the woods, if you are dumb enough to fool around with a nest in the summertime. You will only do that once. The aggressive ones will chase you home and believe me they can fly faster than you can run.

I remember my younger daughter watching a science program on killer bees, where they experimented with poking a "dummy" om a stick to make the bees sting it to observe their actions. She thought she would try it with a wasp nest under her window. The wasps, having a different type of mentality, didn't sting her dummy. They went for the person holding it. She only tried that once. It was a very painful lesson!

Cicada killers are solitary wasps, and pretty benign in spite of their scary size. So are mud daubers and the big red ones.

All of them are valuable to our ecosystem, and I never kill one unless I have to.

Sandy