I doubt the paper wasps all vanished. Instead they hung out in other places you didn't see.

I haven't even seen any for a couple of years. They'd often be on the deck scraping up wood pulp for their nests and around the bird bath for water. I'd see them throughout the day every time I was outside. For 15 years we always had nests in the eaves and other places around the yard, so they just aren't around any more. My brother wondered if mites got them.

As far as I'm aware, they've not been affected with anything widspread and/or new that decreases populations.

I wonder if many people would even take notice in a lack of them since many would rather not have them around, thinking they're mean. I sure miss having them and I don't like the yellow jacket nests on the house. We've gotten rid of most of them in the first nest I found, so we can be on the deck again with food.

I think they've moved on to greener pastures. Two years ago we had them in the hundreds building their nests on anything that didn't move, the same last year thanks god they were a docile lot I could walk in amongst them in my greenhouse where they had built at least 6 nests and I never got stung. This year I can count their numbers on my two hands, about the same amount we usually see most years, haven't seen one nest tho'. No honey bees yet, we seem to get those in the fall when the michaelmas daisies are blooming. and :) not many yellow jackets so far this year.

I don't know. I'll have to check with some neighbors, although most of them see all wasps as bad and may spray them. I think I'll knock all the nests off the house this fall and see if any come back next spring.

We have honey bees, mason bees, bumble bees and more yellow jackets than I've seen around the yard before. I saw another wasp of some type at one of the nests the day we hung the bug zapper by their nest, mostly black with a long, thin body. He went right to the entry. I think I located another nest...on the pool! We have an AG pool and I've seen wasps going in and out of one of the holes where the trusses connect to the top pole. Not good if my dd gets some friends together to swim and they make a lot of noise. So we have a very bug friendly yard.

We had quite a time with hornets last year. We had 2 nests in shrubbery close to our rear entrance and sadly had to deal with them after getting stung a number of times. We also had a peculiar 2' wide paper wasp nest that was enclosed with artistic layers of different colored paper in swirls, above our front door. I wish they would stay away from our house so we could leave them alone because I appreciate them as predators. In future I want to knock off similar nests when small so maybe they will go nest elsewhere.

The paper wasps with the small flat nest of cells each with a little round cover likes to nest in our mail box, so we had to tape up the holes and put in inverted 3 gallon pot under the mailbox which they then used.

Yellow jackets have been getting into our dropped and hanging fruit, but have not been aggressive. We don't eat outdoors much.

We haven't had trouble with hornets so far this year.

I have not noticed a lack of paper wasps. I have seen them around my yard this year. Mites can be a big problem in commercial-scale honeybee hives but I doubt they'd be much of a problem with paper wasps, which build such small colonies that only last one year. Not much opportunity for mites to build up a large population.

I suspect that paper wasps like new construction much better than older buildings. I've been told that yellow jackets and carpenter ants prefer buildings under 5 years old. After a few years the paper wasps may have already harvested all the easily-harvested wood fibers available, and move on. My decks are about 5 years old now and that's where I've been seeing the paper wasps.

I am finding way more yellow jacket colonies this year than last. I think they go for fruit in the fall primarily because that's when it's available, not because their tastes change, but who knows.

We had paper wasp nests for close to 15 years and this is the first time we've had yellow jackets on the house, so ours don't care about the age of the house it seems. Our deck is a constant supply of fiber for the paper wasps and we have a forest around us too, so there's no shortage of wood fibers. It's just odd that I don't see any at all after having them around for 15 years.

I'd find nests in nursery pots now and then too.

I think we stopped the nest in one of the blinds, between the bug zapper and rainbow vacuum. I still have another one by the side door to do and I started on the nest on the pool and got several with the vacuum. There were too many around our deck and it's getting close to the time when they start getting cranky. I had some come after me from a ground nest when I was mowing one day in early fall, an area I had mowed over several times before that. They chased me a long ways.

After 2 years of dealing with paper wasps drinking from my pool, I woke up this morning with just 1 dead wasp in there. Purchase swim pool algaecide with the following ingredient: dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride. Walmart sells it as HTH Algae Guard 3x Concentrate and pool stores may sell it as Bio-Dex S-Kill-it. Sprinkle it (yes, do not follow the directions on the label)- you need to sprinkle it on top of the water all the way around the pool. I did this for 3 mornings and 3 late afternoons and it actually has been working. The wasps that do land on the water will crash & die. The wasps hate the ammonia smell but humans cannot detect it. It is safe for the pool and swimmers although I would not swim while treating the pool water as it floats on top of the water. I have not seen a wasp all morning of the 4th day!!!!!!!

JBG4321: I'm on a mission to get back in my pool after four weeks of wasp takeover!! Your post has me curious, so when I bought groceries this morning, I bought some the algaecide you mentioned. You said not to follow the directions on the bottle and to "sprinkle it." About how much did you use?

You also said it took about 3-4 days of 2x day dosing. So I'm guessing that it has to build up in the pool? Is this part of your daily regimen on days you want to get in the pool or everyday? Thanks!!!

I've been doing some reading about hornets and wasps on the web lately. There are 3 general types of Yellow Jackets in the NW none of which is beneficial in terms of being predators of other insects. One type builds a paper nest and they're called aerial yellowjackets. Another wasp that builds a paper nest is the baldfaced hornet, they are beneficial predators but are also agressive around their nests. So it's not a good idea to let any of those build around entrances or anywhere there is a lot of human traffic.

The paper wasps that build an open nest, meaning not enclosed at all on the bottom are beneficial as are mud daubers, the long thin black wasps. Not agressive either.