Vulgaris Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 For those of you interested in my rearing projects with various types of Vespids, you may want to dig through my youtube channel a little. These videos show the jist of it Basic Paper wasp cage setup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulgaris Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 Life of a captive Paper wasp nest: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulgaris Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 A somewhat outdated cage for subterranean nesting yellowjackets. I have since designed a better model Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedEarthExotics Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 dude, those are awesome videos! keeping wasps have NEVER been an interest of mine. I'm a big baby when it comes to them I guess. I don't mind keeping and handling large retics, but a little teeny wasp will definitely get my attention. I don't want to get stung. I'm not sure I could ever hand feed or handle one like you do, but you have got me thinking of keeping some. I have a bunch of kritter keepers laying around...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLPBugs Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Very Nice Indeed Vulgaris thanks, I was thinking on trying my luck with some thread-waisted wasp any tips... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulgaris Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 Wasps and bees are actually my main interest. I live to work with them, and they are my passion. Thread wasted wasps are solitary wasps, each species with a different kind of life cycle. And there is an extreme variety of species, so they are near impossible to rear in captivity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozymandias Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 varry nice never been into the whole wasp think but have always wanted to start bee keeping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vfox Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 That's impressive. A few questions though. How do you keep full nests from escaping while putting food and water in? Why bother taming the queens? Why do the males "leave" or do you need to remove them? Just curious, we have two main types of wasps around here. Polistes genus I think, one is black and the other striped like a yellow jacket but it isn't like the ground dwelling ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulgaris Posted February 4, 2011 Author Share Posted February 4, 2011 what started out as wasps for me has turned into all sorts of bugs, including roaches! Wasps are still the main focus though. Vfox: With larger colonies, water and food are replaced at night. Obviously yellowjacket colonies cannot be held captive for their entire life cycle, and are turned loose after the first workers emerge. Taming the queen from the beginning will ultimately lead to a non aggressive colony that is easy to work with Males need to leave in order to prevent inbreeding. If you leave them in the enclosure, all of your new queens will be inbred which is very bad. The females also give the signal when it's time for them to leave by biting at their legs What you are probably referring to is Polistes fuscatus (one of the most abundant eastern wasps) and Polistes dominula (now extremely abundant non native). dominula is black and yellow and most people refer to it as a "yellowjacket" in general terms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hisserman Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Awesome! Have you ever gotten stung or are they a more mellow species? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLPBugs Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 well bummer on the thread wasps maybe i will go with: Polistes exclamans arizonicus, Or Dasymutilla magnifica, but i would really like to keep is Pepsis formosa, but i need to do more Research... Yes i Love My Native AZ. Species... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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