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 July 1, 2017 03:18 AM by scottking