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- Aug 4, 2014
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For one of my colonies, our feeding routine is that I go out there at 6 am and leave food until about 8:30-9 am, at which point I drive back out to pick up the bowls.
I have to do it this way because -
1. Lots of wildlife at night
2. Vultures during the day
3. Enclosed feeding station to keep wildlife out is not possible in humid, Texas heat (it gets dangerously hot inside)
4. I absolutely have to pick up bowls because of neighbors and an HOA in the neighborhood, so I need to be discreet
5. I only recently started feeding this colony, so they won’t eat in front of me yet
It’s a pain in the butt, but luckily this schedule has been working really well for a few weeks now. Our game camera shows no signs of wildlife or humans in this area during this time frame.
Unfortunately, half of the cats still haven’t caught on, which just breaks my heart, but there’s not much more I can do about that
And now we have yellow jackets.
Yesterday when I went to pick up the bowls around 8:45 am, there were about 7 yellow jackets on the food.
I managed to escape with the wet food bowls, since I know wet food is more appealing to them, but that meant all 7 were then on the dry food bowl (I only got away with the two wet food bowls because the yellow jackets were divided between all three).
I didn’t know what else to do, so I just left the bowl... at some point, someone picked it up, set it somewhere else, and flipped it upside down on the ground.
I used to leave out two water bowls at all times behind some tallish grass, and last week someone had dumped out the water, moved the bowls, stacked them, and flipped them upside down on the ground nearby - so I think it’s the same person.
Either way, it’s definitely not a good sign that the first day I leave a single food bowl, someone deliberately let me know they found it...
Today I decided I would pick up the bowls earlier, at 8 am, hoping it might be early enough to miss the yellow jackets.
Nope. Today there were 10 of them. I got away with one wet food bowl before a yellow jacket buzzed by my ear, at which point I got the hell out of there. Clearly there is a nest somewhere near by.
The only real option I see now is to close their feeding window down to one hour - 6 am to 7 am. Our sunrise is usually around 6:53 am so I’m hoping, again, that this will be early enough, and enough time for all the cats to eat.
Has anyone dealt with yellow jackets before?
This colony is just becoming increasingly impossible to feed. I’m trying not to get discouraged, but it’s becoming really difficult not to :/
I have to do it this way because -
1. Lots of wildlife at night
2. Vultures during the day
3. Enclosed feeding station to keep wildlife out is not possible in humid, Texas heat (it gets dangerously hot inside)
4. I absolutely have to pick up bowls because of neighbors and an HOA in the neighborhood, so I need to be discreet
5. I only recently started feeding this colony, so they won’t eat in front of me yet
It’s a pain in the butt, but luckily this schedule has been working really well for a few weeks now. Our game camera shows no signs of wildlife or humans in this area during this time frame.
Unfortunately, half of the cats still haven’t caught on, which just breaks my heart, but there’s not much more I can do about that
And now we have yellow jackets.
Yesterday when I went to pick up the bowls around 8:45 am, there were about 7 yellow jackets on the food.
I managed to escape with the wet food bowls, since I know wet food is more appealing to them, but that meant all 7 were then on the dry food bowl (I only got away with the two wet food bowls because the yellow jackets were divided between all three).
I didn’t know what else to do, so I just left the bowl... at some point, someone picked it up, set it somewhere else, and flipped it upside down on the ground.
I used to leave out two water bowls at all times behind some tallish grass, and last week someone had dumped out the water, moved the bowls, stacked them, and flipped them upside down on the ground nearby - so I think it’s the same person.
Either way, it’s definitely not a good sign that the first day I leave a single food bowl, someone deliberately let me know they found it...
Today I decided I would pick up the bowls earlier, at 8 am, hoping it might be early enough to miss the yellow jackets.
Nope. Today there were 10 of them. I got away with one wet food bowl before a yellow jacket buzzed by my ear, at which point I got the hell out of there. Clearly there is a nest somewhere near by.
The only real option I see now is to close their feeding window down to one hour - 6 am to 7 am. Our sunrise is usually around 6:53 am so I’m hoping, again, that this will be early enough, and enough time for all the cats to eat.
Has anyone dealt with yellow jackets before?
This colony is just becoming increasingly impossible to feed. I’m trying not to get discouraged, but it’s becoming really difficult not to :/