Do You Have Straw Between Your Window Screens and Where They Slide Out?
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Here in Warren, we’ve been experiencing some beautiful summer weather. When it’s raining, many of us open our windows to the fresh air of an afternoon shower and welcome the breeze of a gentle wind, carrying the fragrance of nature as it enters our environment.
What we don’t welcome are the pests that have buried themselves under our screens, only uncovered when they’re slid out to clean.
If you’ve recently cleaned the tracks that allow your screen to open and close, you may have noticed a dry, straw-like grass protecting what can only be described as a nest of debris with eggs ready to hatch. These eggs may even catch you off guard.
At first, you may wonder how you ended up with such a big cockroach nest without seeing one cockroach.
Well, I got news for you — those aren’t cockroaches!
Actually, if you’ve ever seen a cockroach egg, they are rarely left within a nest. And, they’re much smaller than the ones you’re probably seeing in your screen.
Those eggs left in your screen came from one of two possible wasps that are actually killing other detrimental bugs and off pollinating the areas near your home. With an endangered bee population, it may be wise to just move these sacs, as opposed to destroying them — unless, of course, you’re allergic, that is.
These nests are often built by the wasps themselves, who gather loose mud, gravel and grass from nearby environments. They’re either constructed by a mud dauber, one of four wasps in the Warren Area that use mud to build nests or a grass-carrying wasp that would rather have a more lightweight built home.
Eliminating the nest is a great temporary option. However, many of these eggs have probably already hatched — so, you’ll have to do it soon again in the coming Fall. Your house stays warm all year round and is considered the perfect dwelling place for wasps that seek protection.
