Wasps

[Castuserraticus]

So we get back from holidays and my wife notices some yellow jackets buzzing around the back step and asks me to handle it. In the next couple of hours my son and I kill about 150 using badminton racquets and some raid. That was early yesterday afternoon. As of tonight, the count is easily over 200 and they finally seem to be gone. I was stung twice. (There are commercial bug racquets with wire mesh on the market but the badminton racquets work great.) I now know that if I ever stumble across wasp activity when fishing I'll be making a wide berth. I was stunned at how many were hiding under the cement patio.

 

Something that was really amazing was how many appeared out of nowhere immediately after I killed the first half dozen. All of a sudden there were at least a dozen new, agitated ones.

 

I took a picture of a portion of our kill but I'm not tech savvy enough to post.

[birchy]

I'm pretty sure when you kill wasps they emit pheromones that attract other wasps in their colony.

[dAm]

If you can see the nest the Raid Foam works wonders.

[chidders]

After the sun goes down is the best time to attack the nest. All the wasps should be in that one spot for an easy kill shot with raid wasp killer. I know from experience as I had a nasty run in with a nest last year and that took care of them.

[Castuserraticus]

Killed 10 more this morning. The nest is under a concrete patio. Spraying standard Raid into the crack between it and the foundation doesn't seem to be doing the job. I'll check the other chemicals. I sprayed last night hoping to get them in the nest. I need to be able to direct the spray ~6" into the ground.

 

My left arm is starting to look like Popeye's from the sting there.

[Weedy1]

Castuserraticus, are the wasps in the ground? If so have fun. My neighbor and I had a huge colony between our houses a few years back. We had to dig up a good 3ft by 10ft chunk of ground in between the houses and drown the little buggers all the way through the digging process. It was about 30c outside and there we were dressed in coveralls, ski masks, goggles and gloves. The wasps were as far as 2ft down in the ground. I would estimate there were 5000 plus of them.

 

This is another way of getting rid of them. Stack 10 or twenty pizza boxes on top of each other inside a garage. Make sure there is still some leftover pizza inside. They seem to like Pizza 73. Leave the garage open enough that they can come and go as they please. Go on holidays for two weeks. Open the garage and be careful. Believe me, every damn wasp from miles around will be in those boxes. (Been there done that while restoring a Camero.)

[RandyS]

Once you do get rid of the buggers, hang a fake nest nearby. Wasps are territorial and won't stay around when they see it. You can buy them at Peavey Mart or maybe Wal Mart or someplace similar. Even a paper bag tied at the top and hung works. For a number of years I always had wasps around my deck. I couldn't find their nest but with the fake one hung, I think I counted 3 wasps in total so far this summer. It does work.

[Castuserraticus]

Last count at about 250. Only got about 10 today so the count is really down. I put an extension on the Raid and sprayed down into the crack. The sound echoed - it sounds like huge cavern was down there.

 

I hung a paperbag decoy the first day but I guess since they were there first it doesn't bother them.

 

I tried running water into the crack. After 20 minutes there was still minimal flow back. I was afraid to soak it too much because I don't want the patio to frost heave in the winter.

 

I'm going to get some bags and pour dry sand down the crack to try and fill the space. Hopefully it'll flow into the pockets.

 

Swelling from the stings is finally going down. The best medicine seems to be Cold FX. Benadryl had no affect.

[MMAX]

This might not be that environmentally friendly, but I've found that carb cleaner really does a number on those little buggers.

[Hopper]

I had one right above my back door. I found that using a wasp and hornet killer with a jet nozzle (not a mist) worked the best. I waited for dark to get all of them into the nest and saturated the nest (I actually read the directions on the can). By saturating the nest, it kills off the eggs before they hatch

[SilverDoctor]

You can make a great wasp trap. Take a 1 liter plastic pop bottle cut around the top where the curve stops.This makes a funnel. flip it upside down on the bottle. It's now a one way trap. leave some stale pop on the bottom and add about an inch of water. Wasps go in, can't get out and drown. I usually have about 3 or 4 on my deck. gets rid of em.

[Conor]

Try the can of spray foam. Even if you can't see the nest, you can coat the area where the hornets come out, and they will cover themselves as they come out to attack. Don't be shy with the foam.

 

I've taken down dozens of nests this way.

[booboo]

If its safe to do so, you can pour diesel on or near the nest. this has worked for me in the past