wasps wasps wasps

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

On my, what a huge nest they made and no one noticed. In the eave of the house next to missus' rose garden they got a hole in and under the shingles and into the wall.
No way to know how large it is but I been sucking vacuum on the entrance for a few hours now and they are still coming. But now they are solitary as opposed to the dozens and dozens that was the regular in-flight before.

I figure I got most of 'em. I place a 2" pipe against the opening and attach my shop vac to that and as they fly in or out I get 'em.

Then when there's no one left to tend and feed the young 'uns they die off.

This is about the third of fourth nest I've done this way. I read about a guy who made money doing it with a vacuum and a dry ice line trap where he'd trap and freeze 'en and sell 'em to some pharmaceutical company that made anti-venom.

I thought it was such an ingenious way to eliminate 'em that I had to try it. It works every time. But I don't bother collecting and freezing 'em. They just go in the saw dust and die in there. No muss no hoard of angry buzzing stinging wasps just some noise for a few hours and that's it.

[David G Baker]

I am a serious stinging critter killer when they enter my environment but the other day I saw an example of why I may want to slow down on my slaughter. I was squishing potato bugs on my plants and saw a hornet land on a potato plant leaf that had an adult potato bug on it. The wasp stung the bug and flew off with it. Looks like I may have found a support group. I know that the stingers are generally bug killers but I had never had such a graphic example.
When I get serious about killing stingers I use a product called Drione. It is expensive and needs to be applied by an expensive dusting device but if you ever see how well it works you will also become a believer. The stuff kills them instantly and will shut down a nest immediately.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

The wasp stung the bug and flew off with it. Looks like I may have found a support group. I know that the stingers are generally bug killers but I had never had such a graphic example.


I have seen oodles of wasps with flies and other bugs in their clutches. They need protein not pollen. They will also do the finish work stripping a carcass after the winged and four legged scavengers are done.


Drione. It is expensive and needs to be applied by an expensive dusting device but if you ever see how well it works you will also become a believer. The stuff kills them instantly and will shut down a nest immediately.So does Mineral spirits and Gasoline.

Drione is pyrethrin with piperonyl butoxide (which boosts the base poison's effect) you can get the trade name product here:
http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/spec/pick-drione1.htm


It might be fun to pump a free hanging nest with propane and light it off. I bet that'll ruin their day.
{note: have good water hose handy}


I'm pretty aggressive about killing 'em as I have grandchildren with allergies.

[Jim Becker]

Well, I, um...damaged...an in-ground yellow jacket nest the other day on the tractor. One got me. He's dead. The tractor took a rest until after sundown. I, of course...had to do manual labor for most of the day. oy!

[Jim Mattheiss]

I seem to live in a paper wasp on steroids zone also.

This year they got into a soffit and appear to have eaten a wasp sixed hole thru the sheetrock ceiling into my sons bedroom. The exterminator came and sprayed in some white powder from inside and outside. He said that the sheetrock must be wet as they don't normally burrow thru into the house like that. It's been too hot for the last week to go up there and rip it apart.

Two years ago they forced their way under a trim board along the garage. They got into a pencil lead thick gap and FORCED the board out to 1/4" gap alond the length of the board.

Before that it was a monster nest in the gutter over the deck.

I also live on what appears to be Grand Central Station for carpenter ants. I have 3/4 acre of a back yard and if I set a spackle bucket upside down anywhere on the lawn for 48 hours they mound up underneath it. I scared myself this spring when I flipped over my spare wheelbarrow and an 18" tall mound EXPLODED with ants. They don't come in the house - thank the exterminator - but they own everything else!

As long as they stay on their side of the line, I'm willing to remain on my side.

Good luck

Jim

[Paul Downes]

You can wipe out nests 2 ways that are cheap. For in the ground or walls I poke a drinking straw out of the corner of a ziplock baggy and leave just a little of the straw in the bag. Put some sevin garden dust in the bag with lots of air (fluffed out) and you simply wait till dark and stick the straw in the hole they are using and push some dust in the hole. They will get contaminated going to and froe and it wipes out the hive.
The second method is to get a garden sprayer and mix some liquid dish detergent with water and spray them with that. I will mix about I/2 cup of soap per gallon. I have taken out 100's if not 1000's of nest with a sprayer and never gotten stung while doing it. The soap will kill them in less than a minuet and it's a lot cheaper than buying wasp spray. They also don't mess with you after the soap hits them- they just want to get away , but usually can't even fly.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

about I/2 cup of soap per gallon.

Wonder if that'll work on the Jim's carpenter ants.

I usually use a strong Seven mix in blisteringly hot water on ant's in stumps or earth.

[jeremy levine]

Wonder if that'll work on the Jim's carpenter ants.

I usually use a strong Seven mix in blisteringly hot water on ant's in stumps or earth.

What is "Seven" ?

[David G Baker]

Cliff,
I gave up on the flammables. Had a friend use gasoline on a nest, he waited too long to ignite the gas and things went flash.
I do use flammables products on in ground stingers. I wait until Sun down to add the product. It doesn't have to be ignited the fuel does it all. If I have been stung by the critters I might add flame.
I have a lot of sand on my property and the ants love it. I have made a deal with the ants, they stay out of my living and working areas and I will leave them alone, if they invade, everyone of them will die a horrible death. So far it seems to have worked.

[Roger Warford]

We've got tons of these critters:

92997

They're "cicada killers" and they are BIG (note the nearly quarter inch long stinger on the mid-size specimen above). Fortunately they are not aggressive, but that doesn't placate my five year old who was recently stung by a wasp, nor neighbors who are afraid to walk through the buzzing cloud to our door. They burrow in the ground and have dug holes throughout my yard, leaving little mounds of construction debris.

They have to go!

[Jim McFarland]

What is "Seven" ?
Sevin is an insecticide -- info can be found here...
http://www.livingwithbugs.com/sevin.html

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

What is "Seven" ?

Prolly a wrong spelling of the bug poison that you can use on vegetables. I bet it has an "i" in it.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

We've got tons of these critters:

They're "cicada killers" and they are BIG

We too. they patrol looking for the critters. Never seen 'em take one. Must be a bear getting it back to the nest and then into it.

[Tom Veatch]

...It might be fun to pump a free hanging nest with propane and light it off. I bet that'll ruin their day....


Never done that, but my preferred method for dealing with an accessible wasp nest is to wrap the end of a long pole with newspaper, wet it with mineral spirits, paint thinner, kerosene, or other flammable liquid, fire it off, and when blazing good, pass it under the nest.

Not there long enough to start a fire, but more than enough to burn the wings off the wasps. Then it's a simple matter to take the nest without getting stung. The wasps on the ground can be dealt with in whatever manner is appropriate. Stomping is good. (Wear shoes!:))

[Ken Garlock]

The solution is as near as your local borg. Get a spray can of wasp and hornet spray. We have had about 5 nests of paper wasps this year, and a 2-3 second blast knocks them deader than a hammer.

I believe the old DuPont slogan, better living through chemistry.

BTW, the cicada killers are interesting in that the male does not have a stinger, only the female can sting. The male will buzz around your head trying to scare you away, but that is the most he can do.

[Darren Null]

Nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[Ken Garlock]

Nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Do you think we could focus a gamma ray burst on the pesty critters.:eek::D

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Do you think we could focus a gamma ray burst on the pesty critters.:eek::D

Yeah. Get a pure titanium disk and blast it with accelerated electrons that'll produce Gamma.

[Darren Null]

I'm in Spain, so not too far from CERN. Have you got a grid reference for that wasps nest?

[Ken Garlock]

Yeah. Get a pure titanium disk and blast it with accelerated electrons that'll produce Gamma.

Cliff, I was thinking of the huge bursts the cosmologists have begun to study. The ones that if sourced near(100 light years?) the earth would kill Everything.

Darren, do your think we could get some time on the new LHC?:eek::D

[Darren Null]

I wish.....