Paper wasps need a source of pulp for their nests, so if you have a woodpile (or a few dry shipping pallets for them to chew on) they will likely nest nearby. Mud daubers need a source of wet earth. Other smaller wasps (and some bees) will nest in rotten wood, so the woodpile is also helpful there. I burn a lot of firewood, and the fringe-benefit of a large woodpile has been a large bee & wasp population (and a resident woodchuck). :-( A good long-term food source is also helpful... in my garden, cleomes & yardlong beans seem to be especially attractive to them. Yardlongs??? Yes, something in the pads below the flowers (not the flowers themselves) is irresistible to wasps, ants, and ladybugs. Yardlongs have two added benefits: (1) you can eat them; and (2) something in their nectar seems to pacify the wasps. While there are many wasps on my yardlongs, I've never been stung during harvest; even yellowjackets become passive. I agree that wasps in general are helpful, but mostly the long-bodied ones... they are docile for the most part, unless disturbed. The short-bodied hornets or yellowjackets, on the other hand, are more aggressive; so if they nest in or near your garden, you might want to (carefully!) evict them as quickly as possible. If you have small children, I would make that a "must".

Fully-matured adult wasps eat nectar like bees, so things that attract bees would attract them. They also eat dead fruit. I'm not sure really how you'd set it up to attract them, as I'm still a beginning gardener, but I do know a deal about biology, so hope it helps. Eliott

Having fun before winter comes? Congratulations on the new water park.

I too am paying much closer attention to the honey bees since hearing about the loss of so many hives. Last year I had the small blossom sunflowers in amongst my vegetables like squash and beans and the honey bees were going crazy for the pollen all summer. Of course they visited the other vegetable blossoms while they were at it. So far itÂs mostly native bees of all sizes. There is a large family of hunting wasps looking for insects including geranium bud worms. When my lemon tree was in bloom earlier this spring there were just a few honey bees visiting. It will be interesting to see what happens this year when the sunflowers bloom. I gage the health of my garden by how many critters want to live there. IÂve got snakes, lizards, toads, peepers, a few praying mantises during summer and a large variety of insects including those pesky leaf miners on my chard that I canÂt seem to get the upper hand on, in an organic way.