Wasp Numbers Booming

Encounters with things that sting are a part of living in the Inland Northwest. The searing pain of a wasp attack can make grown-ups scream, jump about and pull clothes off while swatting aimlessly. The rain clouds that arrived late this week ended a run of hot weather that enabled the region’s three main species of wasps – yellow jackets, paper wasps and bald-faced hornets – to reach their peak numbers, said Pete Landolt, a research entomologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Yakima. “We had a stretch of weather this spring where it never really warmed up. We had high mortality of nests during that period and the numbers fell off,” said Landolt, who studies wasps. “Then we hit the really hot weather at the end of June. That weather has been ideal. So the ones left have been growing and reproducing like crazy”/ Thomas Clouse , SR. More here.

Question: When were you last stung by a wasp, yellow jacket or hornet?