Problems And Solutions

Q. I have a customer that was panicking. It seems that there were a few trees on this commercial property to which, for some reason, various types of wasps have been attracted. There were many of them buzzing around and others just sitting on cars near the trees. Unfortunately, some people had been stung and the customer called us to see what we could do. Do you have any suggestions? (T.W.)

A. From the description (unfortunately, I could not visit the site), it sounded like the wasps were responding to an overabundance of insect prey and honeydew. The trees also had lots of sooty mold on them, indicative of high populations of plant pests such as scales, aphids and others. Again, this is most probably the result of the weather conditions in this area this summer. The weather has been conducive to lush growth and the populations of these plant pests have probably grown accordingly.

My response is two-fold. First, rope off the area and do not allow cars to park there. Next, since this PCO does not have an ornamental license, a licensed turf and ornamental pest control technician will have to investigate to see what plant pests are there. He or she will have to possibly spray to relieve the population and the attractiveness to the wasps. If the technician chooses the latter, he or she must be sure to wear a bee suit! Most likely, this is just a unique situation for this year.