Biosurveillance: Wasp Watching 101

Wasp Watchers is a citizen scientist biosurveillance program hosted by the University of Minnesota. The objective is to monitor the nesting sites of the buprestid-hunting wasp, Cerceris fumipennis, for the invasive Emerald Ash Borer. Yesterday I received from the director of the program a list of ball fields in and around Northfield to survey. One of the sites is just a few blocks from our house, so today, late in the morning, Lisa and I walked the dog in that direction.

The playing field at Greenvale Elementary was quite weedy and unmown. I walked the perimeter looking for nests and found none. Turning my attention to the rest of the field I noticed several black wasps flying near the center of the field, Cerceris fumipennis.

I returned to the field in the afternoon with my net and camera and spent an hour, from 2pm to 3pm, watching the wasps. During this time I found two nests. There were probably more nests because they were very difficult to locate among the weeds growing on the field. The two nests that I found did not have any beetles abandoned near the entrance. And I wasn't able to collect any beetles from wasps returning to their nests (I didn't see any return to their nests with prey either).

Posted on Ιούλιος 01, 2017 0318 ΠΜ by scottking