Got back from Tassie a week ago, with a few small pieces of timber including some huon pine. While bringing stuff in from the car, I was attacked by a small but (hyper-)active group of flying things, which turned out to be wasps. SWMBO found the nest, in a gap between a drain pipe and a wall. The local pest exterminator came by the following morning to deal with that lot, and gave the whole property the full treatment in the process.

BUT . . .

I left the pieces of timber sitting on a table on our deck - under cover, but outside. Over the past couple of days I have found a number of small wasps (probably not many more than half a dozen at any one time), like the bigger brutes in other respects so presumably adolescents of the next generation, congregating on the pieces of huon. They seem fairly uninterested in the sassafras and blackwood. I've killed a dozen or so, but there are still some left and they are possibly breeding already. They must have a nest somewhere, but apparently outside the areas treated by the exterminator.

Two questions for the assembled expertise of the forum:

1. Why do wasps like huon pine?
2. What can I do about it? (I'm assuming that the wasps will find their way into the shed if I move the timber in there, so for now it's staying where I can see it.)

Any ideas welcome!

- Michael

Hi Michael

I use Huon Pine all the time, and they're regular visitors.

This reasonably ancient thread here has the answer. This one too.

Des

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HI Paul,
Those are different to the ones here in Geelong, Vic.
We get the ones with Yellow & Black Stripes across their back. Ours appear to be bigger than the ones you have.

One way of getting them is to have a Can of Hairspray, & hit them pretty hard with the Spray.
It seizes their wings & they fall to the ground & you can if you wish too, stand on them.

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Regards,
issatree.
Have Lathe, Wood Travel.

I have them here as well, don't normally see them but cut some huon and they arrive, don't seem to do anything other than just sit there and breath in the huon aroma, can't blame them for that! I wouldn't worry about killing them and I don't.

From Australian Stingless Bees by John Klumpp....
They look like they might be a member of the Family Syrphidae which contain a large number of fly species like the harmless hover flies which is beneficial in the garden, the fly on the huon looks similliar to a syrphid fly (wasp mimic) which is a pest to the australian bee


Pete

I turned a huon pine bowl here in Buderim and let it sit on the lathe over several weeks. Noticed it too had wasp-like visitors, obviously attracted by the odour it emits.

I'm pretty sure they're a QLD fruit fly.....Bractrocera Tryoni

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what if the hokey pokey is really what it's all about?

Here's a couple of pics of the ones I get here

huon fly.JPGhuon fly1.JPG


Pete

Yep.
Fruit fye, not wasps. Amazing where they live????, never see them and suddenly they arrive
Greg

Many thanks, all - "assembled expertise" was right!

Clearly I was misled ("spooked" might be a better word!) by the wasp attacks when I got home; I thought the two incidents were related, but it was just a coincidence.

- Michael

Interesting thread. About ten years ago I was cutting huon and released a couple of big fat wasps from a void in a log that we'd just bought back from tassie. Called the quarentine and they said it was nothing to worry about. This is the first time I've ever heard anyone else mention a similiar experience.

Has anyone actually seen them hanging around any fruit? Iv'e seen what I think are also fruit fly but much smaller, brownish body and constantly moving their wings.


Pete