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September 08, 2005 - Those pesky picnic pestsThe Suffolk Times • September 8, 2005 Those pesky picnic pests WE HADN'T HAD RAIN all summer until recently, and the countryside showed it: Lawns were parched, leaves on bushes were shriveling up, even some trees were dropping their dried -out leaves that once collected the energy from the sun and con - verted it into the useful stuff of plant J But there was some good that cam from the lack FOCUS of rain — we had a bountiful ON supply of sunny weather, and NATURE that meant days at the beaches, by Paul enjoying the Stoutenburgh bay with its boats and, of course, beautiful weather for outside barbecues. My, how barbecues have changed from what I remember. When I was a kid my dad built a freestanding fireplace out of field - stones. In the fireplace he used some old digger chains to make a grill. This is what we cooked our barbecues on, whether we were having hot dogs, hamburgers or, on that special day, a steak. The only trouble with the fireplace, which stood on the edge of the property, was it took a lot of woof and a fairly long time to get the dig- ger -chain grill hot enough to cook on. Oh, you don't know what a digger chain is? Well, when the farmer want- ed to get his potatoes dug he used a potato digger. A tractor pulled the ��- �',�j�li�l i p Suffolk Times photo by Barbara Stoutenburgh Yellow jackets are opportunistic feeders, which means they'll settle for a bit of the fish you are cleaning or attack your barbecue of hot dogs or hamburg- ers or feast on the orchard grower's ripening apples. Remember that yellow iackets won't bother you if you don't bother them. potato digger with its one or two wide blades that dug into the ground below the potatoes. As the tractor moved forward, it pulled the digger behind it, and the dirt, vines and potatoes were directed up over the moving belt of digger chains. On the way up, the dirt would fall through, the vines would be thrown off and the potatoes would be directed to a bagger or, in today's modern farming, a waiting truck that travels alongside the potato digger. The chains I spoke of became worn, as dirt was continuously moving through them. The abrasive action on the chains and other parts wore them out so they had to be replaced. The result was the old worn-out chains be- came junk and a farmei would gladly give them to you. So that is what a digger chain is and how it came to serve as my dad's grill in his outside fireplace. Well, we've gotten just a little off track, so let's go back to how bar- becue equipment has changed. Our next step toward so- called progress was when charcoal became the cho- sen fuel for barbecues. Here is when we begin to change with better and easier -to -use cookers, all moderately priced; but can you believe the cost of those super -jazzy ones today? Why, you could buy a. good used car for the price of one of those stainless -steel extravaganzas! Nevertheless, whether it's a one- time -use throwaway barbecue or one of the kind you and I use, it's been the ide—al time for outdoor cooking and picnicking. But there's a little demon that sometimes can be so obnoxious it can drive you away from your barbe- cue and into the. house, and that little demon is the pesky yellow jacket. Yellow jackets are opportunists, and once one finds good pickings, whether it is your hot dogs or ham- burgers, steak, soda, juice or whatever you are serving, the little demon goes back to his hive and lets everyone know where the good stuff is. Soon five or six or more yellow jackets start sampling the spread you've put out. It's a real problem because yel- low jackets can give a mean sting and, remember, a yellow jacket — unlike the honeybee, which stin s onl once — can sting you time and time again. Actually the only time that you'll have a problem with yellow jackets is when you accidentally sit on one, somehow one gets in your clothing or one gets tangled in your hair and you panic and swat at it. Otherwise they are more inter- ested in your food than stinging you. Of course, if you happen to be cleaning up the back yard or digging in the garden where there is a nest in the ground and you disturb it, they will attack you. Some people are patient enough to follow the yellow jacket as it flies to its hive. Once lo- cated, it's a good idea to keep a good distance away from that "hot" area. I wouldn't advise it but some (people wait until dark and then squirt a goodly amount of hornet spray into the opening of the hive and then put something heavy over the opening. That usually does it, but it's a bit risky. If we know a little bit about the life cycle of the yellow jacket it will help us live with this somewnat useful insect. It all starts each spring, when a queen yellow jacket — which is larger than the average yellow jacket and wintered over in your woodpile, your garage, under the bark of a tree or some protected place — comes out to shop around for the best place to start a hive. It could be an old rodent hole in the ground or similar opening. Occasionally they build their hive in the sidewalls of a building. The queen is the only member of the yellow jacket family that winters over. Having been impregnated last year, she starts to build her hive out of old wood or dead plant materials that are chewed and mixed with her saliva to form a paste. With this, she builds a small starter hive and starts her family, which multiplies quickly. By the end of the summer the number of yellow jackets can reach into the hundreds or even thousands. She will start by laying one egg in each capsule of her small hive. When the eggs hatch she will feed her young the chewed -up in- sects she gathers, particularly caterpil- lars. That's why yellow jackets aren't all that bad. Many of the caterpillars the yellow jackets destroy when feed- ing their young would otherwise ruin useful plants. Once the colony is es- tablished and the queen's eggs have produced enough workers, she retires from the outside world and spends the rest of her life laying eggs. So what can we learn from this? First, yellow jackets do not attack you unless you interfere with their eat- ing habits or intrude on their nesting ground and then it's `Beware." Let's play it safe and let the yellow jackets eo their wav and we'll eo ours. There's a little demon that can drive you away from your barbecue and into the house.