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Just moved into the house about a month ago and discovered that the pear tree in our backyard is filled with bees/wasps/hornets feeding on the fruit. At the moment, I could care less about the fruit--I just want to get rid of them. When I try to pick up the fallen fruit to trash them, the larger hornets (most likely european or giant variety) gives me a warning fly-by over my head. This is pretty intimidating as these guys are about 1.5 - 2 inches in size! Now the fallen pears are spoiling and my backyard is starting to smell like rotting fruit.
The other day I tried spraying the fallen fruit with insecticide, which worked well enough so I could pick up some of the rotting pears. However, as I get closer to the base of the tree, I get the fly-by warnings again. I can only assume that it's a warning and don't really want to find out either way (by getting stung). My question is, if I spray a harsh pesticide onto the tree would it affect the tree in any way? I plan to use some type of organic pesticide prior to the next growing season, but I also want the bees/wasps/hornets to leave me alone when I'm out tending my yard--especially mowing the lawn. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
Does your town have one of those county help extension service centers which could advise you of the best way
to tackle this issue. I forgot what they are called but I do think many places do have them.
Be carefull of stings while out there also.
Most insect killers will also kill whatever portion of the tree they come in contact with. You should be able to pick and pick up fruit early in the morning or late in the evening when the insects are not active.
Most insect killers will also kill whatever portion of the tree they come in contact with. You should be able to pick and pick up fruit early in the morning or late in the evening when the insects are not active.
I was afraid of that, didn't want to harm the tree.
Thanks for the advice, I will try the late evening or early morning.
We had a swarm of very large wasps, my husband found that a tennis racket was very effective for swatting them. We bought some chemical to spray the areas they were swarming, we never did track down the actual nest/hive, but they went away.
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