I really love the icemaker in my refrigerator, until it quits working!  I was able to watch a video online, and thought it was easy enough, I can do this.  The first two times, it worked like a charm.  This last time, I wasn’t confident that it was going to work, so when the two screws fell into the ice cube tray, I figured the repairman could retrieve them.  The next day I walked into the house and the hubby is enjoying an ice cold glass of water.  I was shocked that the icemaker was working.  I warned him about the two loose screws, but he couldn’t see them. It was when the glass sat there and the ice melted the two screws were found!  He claims it would have killed him, nope just two loose screws.

If you visit my place these days, you might think that I have some screws loose.  I’m on the attack of flying pests, I’m doing my own private research on fly/wasp traps.  I have three different kinds of purchased traps. I also watched some online videos on how to make your own.  Three days in and I must admit the purchased sticky traps have 3 times more catches than the ones I’ve made. 

Wasps seem to be more abundant than ever! Wasp species are categorized as social or solitary. As their name implies, social wasps live in colonies, which may number in the thousands. Within these colonies, female workers perform all duties within the nest. Solitary wasps live alone and therefore do not have a colony. They do lay eggs, but their eggs are left alone to hatch.

Some wasps are predatory, while others are parasitic. Predatory wasps kill and consume other insects as well as other animals which they often feed to their larvae.

Parasitic wasps typically lay their eggs in the bodies of living creatures like caterpillars or spiders. The larvae feed on the still-living host. Wasps can assist in the management of other pests, particularly in agriculture as biological control agents. Many wasps also feed on nectar from flowers and therefore function as pollinators.

Some wasps are aggressive species and can sting when threatened. Unlike honey bees, wasps often are capable of stinging multiple times.

There are many species of wasps that are important pollinators. However, taken as a group, wasps do pollinate, but are not as effective at pollinating as the bees. This is primarily because bees have hairier bodies than wasps, so pollen is more likely to stick to a bee’s body and be transported from one flower to another.

Late in the summer, the queen of some species will produce unfertilized eggs. These will develop into males. The males will fertilize the wasps that will become the queens of the following year. These fertilized females will overwinter in a sheltered location. In most cases, the rest of the colony will perish when winter comes. Next spring, the queen will start laying eggs. The fertilized eggs that they produce will become workers, building the nest and feeding the larvae produced by the queen.