John - It's hard to say which species of wasp or hornet you might have in your yard. Unfortunately, there are so many species and each region has certain species that are more common than others. I'm up in Canada, so not really sure what you would have in Georgia. If you find that you have ground-nesting wasps of some kind, I've recently been told that turning a clear glass bowl upside down over the hole in the ground will kill the wasps. I have to say that I've never actually killed any wasps here at my farm. They don't usually bother us too much. You can usually find solutions to getting rid of hornets of wasps by doing a Google search for "problem wasps" or "problem hornets". There are a lot of websites devoted to discussion of how to get rid of bees, hornets, ants, etc... I'm just a photographer-naturalist, so not the best person to be asking. Good luck!
John Aldrich
11-Aug-2006 16:42
Hi, I have a garden in my back yard, and have found several of my cantaloupes broken open and something that looks like a European Hornet apparently eating the flesh of the cantaloupe. The thing is that the body of the hornet is all black instead of brown like the one in the picture. I live in Northwest Georgia. I'm wondering if you can identify this for me and tell me a bit about how to find their nest and get rid of them? I really don't like stinging insects near my house.
Guest
26-Jul-2004 23:28
European hornet, Vespa crabro, killing honey bee, Apis mellifera.