BILLINGS — It's a summer staple: setting up a picnic and eating outside. But as you sit down to enjoy that meal there's some buzzing around, as something else is also looking to get that food.
“The wasps have been really bad. They’re all over the place,” said Billings resident Macy Johnson.
Johnson and her kids were enjoying their Tuesday morning at Pioneer Park, but they did have to escape the buzzing insects.
“They’re chasing us out of whole sections of the park,” Johnson said. “We don’t really eat on our patio anymore because they’re everywhere.”
Just the sight or sound of them can be enough to run someone off, but those wasps are here to stay.
Horticultural Yellowstone County Extension Agent Anthony Sammartano said it's just the time of year.
"These wasps have huge nests. They're full of larva that they're trying to feed and their normal food sources, which are insects, that they hunt are kind of starting to decline. So now the picnics and the sweet drinks left out are looking pretty appetizing for wasps hoping to feed their young,” Sammartano said. “The next kind of early fall months they're just going to be heavy with wasps. That's kind of the norm.”
As annoying as they may be, Sammartano said the paper wasps, yellowjackets and all the others native to Montana that are buzzing around are also beneficial.
“They’re wonderful pollinators," Sammartano said. "They’re great hunters and they love all the aphids and harmful insects that people find in their garden.”
Sammartano encouraged people who see insects they're curious about and want to learn more to email him at: anthony.sammartano@montana.edu or insects@montana.edu.
