Everybody says winter is a great time to destroy wasp nests. First, don't bother with wasp nests, because wasps don't reuse them. In fact, an old nest may deter wasps from making a new one nearby.
Wasps are dormant in winter that is true.
But, DON'T mess with honey bee hives in winter. Honey bees DON'T go dormant, and winter is their most important time to defend the hive. Even in Wisconsin winter, honey bees keep the interior of the hive at about 95 degrees, by flexing their wing muscles. That's why they store all that honey. For food to keep them going over the winter.
BTW, for anybody who thinks they got stung by a bee at a barbeque. No you didn't. You got stung by a Yellow Jacket (a type of wasp)
If you see 'bees' going after your crab shells at a crab feast, or hovering around your beer or soda, they are Yellow Jackets.
Wasps eat meat and fruit. Honeybees want flowers - pollen and nectar. (Honey bees WILL go after a sugar/water solution, at certain drought (non-flowering) times of the year, but is not their preference. I feed my honey bees sugar/water in late fall, or early spring just to help them over the winter, but they'd rather have the real thing). At any rate, if you ever see a 'bee' at your crab-feast leftover shell table, I will bet my life that it is not a 'bee'. Bees don't eat meat.
I'm a 50+year old beekeeper. I just realized last year that maybe I've NEVER been stung by a 'bee'. (Unless as a kid I maybe stepped on one).
Here's the deal: Wasps (hornets and yellow jackets) defend everything all the time. They can sting multiple times, with no detriment to themselves. So they have no reason not to. They are naturally bread to be *****holes. Their stingers have no barbs, like barbless hooks we're now using in pre-Striper catching season.
Honeybees only defend the hive, and the honey. If a honeybee stings you, it dies. That's of no use to the hive, away from the hive. Any honey bee away from the hive REALLY doesn't want to sting you. It will only sting you away from the hive if you step on it, or trap it in some way. Honey bees graduate through different jobs to be an outside, forager bee. These outside bees are CPO, Sargent, experienced bees, useful to the hive. The hive really can't survive a forager bee losing it's life on stupid shlt.
It's all a matter of timing, which makes sense when you think about it.
See, if you messed with a honey bee hive in early June, you may get away with it. The bees have plenty of time to fix it or make new honey before winter.
Last week I was convinced that I needed to open my hives and feed them. (Long story short here). So I did. I put on the bee suit (which I thought was a waste of time), smoked the hives (to convince the hive that 'Fire may be coming. Ignore the dude in the suit and prepare to move the hive')
So, in Feb at 58 degrees I popped open the hive with a tray of condensed sugar water. These bees, the gentlest bees I've ever known, attacked me like I was a red shirt in a Killer Bee movie. They ignored the smoke, and in seconds covered my veil, so I couldn't see.
Aside from being freaked out, I was a bit stunned. These were my bee bros.
Usually, smoking the honeybees is a very high priority, so they ignore the beekeeper.
Apparently, In late winter, they have not much winter honey stores, so protecting the hive is even higher than protecting against fire.
It was weird. In seconds, I could not see beyond my veil. And this was my smallest of my gentlest hives. I did the same to my other hives, and it was worse.
Creeped me out. And I'm a beekeeper. Still, creeped me out.
Lesson learned; don't mess with honeybees in winter.
Knock down all the wasp nest in winter you want to. Doesn't matter. Wasps won't reuse them, anyway. BUT the old nests MAY convince the new wasps to make a new nest elsewhere.
