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Has anyone ever seen wasps eating through sunflower stalks?

aliby

By Aliby

Herts, United Kingdom

On my allotment my three fine sunflowers in a row are now two - arrived to find one flat out on the ground, stalk chewed through. Usual suspects - mice, slugs whatever but later realised that the stalks of the remaining two were being chewed through by dozens of wasps! A leathery old allotmenteer confirmed he had never seen this before, like me (not leathery) - any explanations?




Answers

 

welcome to GoY
this sounds like they are collecting material to make new nest material. they use the cellulose to make 'paper' for their nests. sunflower stems are tough so the cellulose from the plant cells would make good paper.

27 Jul, 2009

 

Makes sense SBG - they chew the wood off our garden table to do the same thing.

27 Jul, 2009

 

i found a nest with blue in it from my blue fence quite amazing

27 Jul, 2009

 

I have just had an 8 foot sunflower topple over due to being eaten by wasps.2 others are affected so we have banked the soil around them. My husband is a joiner and the wasps usually go for the wood left around in the garden but for some reason they have gone for the sunflowers this year. Must be a good vintage for sunflowers.

11 Aug, 2009

 

must be lol cant you just wrap the stalks up

11 Aug, 2009

 

My childrens sunflowers are currently being eaten by loads of wasps. I am desperate to save them as they are massive - what can I do??

14 Aug, 2009

 

wrap them in tin foil from top to bottem

14 Aug, 2009

 

I have just observed 6-7 wasps at the base of one of my sunflowers. I notice that all 8 of them have been stripped of the outer layer at the base, but they are still standing at the moment - thanks to the helpful tips above, I'll be making a earth mound & wrapping in tinfoil - thanks

24 Aug, 2009

 

your welcome

24 Aug, 2009

How do I say thanks?

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