Hello... Althea...thanks for your link..I just got back to this forum and noticed another post to my question. I agree with you about leaving the sunflower heads for the birds. I tried growing sunflowers many years ago, but my yard just didn't get enough sun and the only place that had the most sun was in the root zone of some trees, so it didn't work well. They didn't thrive so I stopped growing them. I do have one large 15x15 full sun perennial bed in my front yard, but not a great place for sunflowers [g]. I grow cosmos that the goldfinches also love and it is great watching them swaying on the stems to get them. That sounds like a great tip about the paper bag. I think they recommend that for corn from the raccoons too. oh..thanks for the link to NN...It looks like they are a part of gardenweb ring. that will come in handy...didn't know it was there. ftm...well you have more tolerance than I do for nests. I love bumble bees and are not afraid of them at all, but having them in a work area that I needed to access would be intolerable to me. Interesting story of the one that bumped you..[g] I tried googling the miday clavatus, but came up empty. Not sure if it could be a fly, but if it is, it looks exactly like a wasp. [g] Actually just re read your description and this insect has all bright orange legs. Thanks for the try.. :-) Adam

In Asia, farmers will build cute little birdhouse like shelters for paper wasps. By encouraging them to live in their gardens they help keep caterpillars under control. Most of the larger wasps and hornets (yellow jackets are considered a hornet) really like to feed caterpillars to their babies. I imagine things as small as aphids are preyed upon by those tiny tiny wasps. One of my favorite wasps is the Steel Blue Green Cricket Killer. You don't see them as much here on the east coast. They are a shiny black wasp with black wings and every part of them has a blue or purple irridescence (thats the "steel blue" part of their name). They only eat Green Crickets (what some people call Katydids). The cool thing is that while you are out in the garden or sitting on the porch, these wasps will be hunting and totally oblivious to you. They walk around porch railings and potted plants feeling with their antennae and really seem to be peeking into every hiding spot big enough for a cricket. They'll even climb all over you if you sit still enough.

Being a long way from India, and without a photo to go by, I can only make generalizations. Your friend's wasp most likely finds the soil suitable to create a nesting burrow. Many wasps will then search for and catch insects such as caterpillars in the garden and cache them in the nest for their young to eat.

Bees generally provide very little pollination of vegetables in the garden. They are much more important for Fruit Trees, so you need to be careful with fruit trees when fruit trees are in bloom. But not necessarily careful with bees around most vegetables. This late in the year, the activity of any honeybees in your vegetable garden should be absolutely minimal. In addition, Tomatoes, and probably most garden vegetables, are self fertile. This means they don't need outside pollination at all. Once in a while you will see honeybees working on things like Squash or Pumpkin blossoms. Or coming into the garden for water (if water is otherwise in short supply in your area), but mostly honeybees should not be common in the garden. If you are still concerned about possibly hurting honeybees, then look up pictures of honeybees and compare them to pictures of wasps and hornets. Most (but not ALL) honeybees have the classical banded pattern on their abdomen, and a few wasps have a similar pattern. But other than that, I don't think they look at all similar. Honeybees are more rounded and less aggressive looking. Anyone who knows them will be able to tell you instantly whether something is a honeybee or a wasp/hornet. So, once you familiarize yourself with the difference, look to see if there are ANY honeybees visiting your garden. Quite unlikely to find honeybees in home gardens at this time of year. If there are none, then go for it. Kill the wasps. They reproduce like crazy anyway, and you will need to fight them year after year. Probably best to start early in the season, when their colonies are weak, and keep it up all summer and fall.