How to murder yellowjackets without pesticides

[Arianwen]

Fracking yellowjackets decided to set up camp on the back deck. I hit 'em with some nasty window cleaner but it didn't seem to dead-ify them. Stupid roommates have no Raid and did't bother to buy any. HALP! I need to kill the demons fast before the tiny nest grows any larger!!!111

[Darkimbolc]

Aquanet works very well. It'll collect on their wings and ground them quickly. It also plugs up their breathing holes so they smother.

Of course, you can add a lighter for extra fun
(Warning: this is a joke - you can get seriously hurt using a lighter and hairspray)

[Susan4]

Hot soapy water will work.

[Ought Six]

S4:

"Hot soapy water will work."

How would you apply that to the nest without getting swarmed?

[Susan4]

Dump it into a ground nest at night when they aren't flying anymore. If it's paper wasps in a hanging nest I'd sooner use some kind of spray.

[Arianwen]

This lady on youtube used a super soaker, lol.

[Ought Six]

I generally leave paper wasps alone, unless they have set up in a place I just cannot allow them to be. I like wasps. Yellow jackets, though, must be eradicated immediately if found anywhere on my property.

[Arianwen]

Yellow jackets are eeeeeeeeevil. These are the above-ground paper kind. I believe they are German yellow jackets which are non-indigenous.

Been stung a few times by these b@stards in the past, have a hate-on for 'em.

[PatS]

We have paper wasps here and I knock down their nests in the early morning when it is still cold and they are lethargic. Here, yellow jackets have ground nests, so I guess I would try to fill them in and smother the little buggers before it got warm enough for them to fly -- and sting.

[Ought Six]

These are paper wasps.



-----


These are yellow jackets.

[Old Hawk]

The problem we've had is with the yellow jackets being attracted to the cat's food making life difficult for us all. Last year was bad! Couldn't locate the ground nest.

When a nest is found it is usually the hard way too.

Tried all kinds of commercial traps and home made traps with little success.

I learned they leave a nest in the fall and never return to it so that is why some years are bad and some not. Have not seen any so far this year.

We will appreciate any and all information to help the next time.

OH

[Susan4]

I've never seen a yellowjacket nest above ground like that pic!!! Around here it's just a hole in the ground, you have to watch them to see where they are coming and going from. Gasoline will knock them down the fastest.

For hanging wasp nests, either paper wasps or bald faced hornets, I use a commercial spray. If you've got hornets and only one opening on the paper nest that they come and go from, there is a foaming variety of the long shooting spray that would work better and coat the insects as they came out to defend the nest. I've known some brave souls who would collect them by bagging them in a large black trash bag at night and then spray into the bag or just close it up and leave it in the sun.

Late summer wandering feeding yellowjackets are a tough one if you can't find the nest. They'll go for anything sweet and crawl into every kiddoes pop can...fat lips all around

[rb.]

Originally Posted by Susan4

For hanging wasp nests, either paper wasps or bald faced hornets, I use a commercial spray. If you've got hornets and only one opening on the paper nest that they come and go from, there is a foaming variety of the long shooting spray that would work better and coat the insects as they came out to defend the nest.

Warning...any of those long shooting sprays I've seen, or used, are toxic to pets and plants. The placement of the nest will likely dictate the method most successful. If the spray is used, I'd immediately hose down anything it comes into contact with, other than the nest.

I hate them, wasps, yellow jackets, all of them. We have them year after year, and they always find a way to make it into my house, just to piss me off.

[Arianwen]

I think I successfully murdered them with the hot water/dish soap.

[Sarrah]

Did you use the super soaker Ari? I like that one.

[DBA]

I've used my shop vac to catch them coming and going. Then there aren't so many flying around enabling me to spray. Duct tape the nozzle closed before shutting off the vacum! then let it sit a couple of days.

Night time works best, but they will fly out if realy disturbed.

[Sysiphus]

Last summer, I made the mistake of kicking a nest in my flip flops. The nasty little buggers struck me again and again like they were killer bees or something. I never realized how territorial they were or how they can attack as a swarm like that.

[lilly]

not funny, but lol when someone I was with up at Mohonk Mountain House mentioned dabbing on ear wax if you every got bitten out of doors by a yellow jacket.

I didn't have any ear wax when I stuck my finger in my ear to see how much would be there. I wonder if it actually will help. A tip from a woman from the Baltics. She paints houses, to make money for traveling, and she runs into yellow jackets now and then.

[ObamaisaLOSER1]

I got a .22!!!!!!!!!!
WORKS WONDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
ESPECIALLY if you are INSIDE A CAR Then you can ROLL UP THE WINDOWS AFTER
YOU SHOOT THE NEST!!!!!!!!!!!
ROFL

[ObamaisaLOSER1]

Mom got ZAPPED 22 times ONCE!!!!!
Oh talk about PAIN!!!!!!!!
she LOATHES the critters!!!!!!!!
She is FOREVER at war with them!!!!!!!!!

[Mama Alanna]

Crews to Dig Up Radioactive Wasp Nests at Hanford
Irradiated mud nests at Washington's decommissioned nuclear facility will be removed this month -- carefully.

By Amy Linn, 6-11-09


A mud dauber wasp

Sometimes life is like a Bee-horror movie—and, no, that’s not a typo. There’s just a different insect involved.

Workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington this month are going to dig up scores of radioactive wasp nests spread out over six acres, according to Tri-City Herald reporter Annette Cary.

The newspaper says the, ahem, sting operation involves some heavy lifting. “There are so many radioactive nests spread over six acres by H Reactor in northern Hanford that six to 12 inches of top soil are being dug up to remove the nests,” Cary reports.

If the image of glow-in-the-dark wasp nests isn’t enough to give you the willies, consider the “whoops” factor involved:

The nuked nests occurred because of 2003 demolition work on a basin holding irradiated fuel at Hanford, where plutonium was produced for the nation’s nuclear weapons program. Water used during the demo work created mud, which attracted the wasps, who aren’t called mud daubers for nothing (the insects build nests with it). The wasps also enjoyed hiding their nests in straw spread on the ground at the decommissioned plant, the largest nuclear waste dump in the Western Hemisphere, according to the public education group Hanford Watch.

The nuclear reactors at Hanford—a 586-square-mile site along the Columbia River in southeastern Washington—were shut down in the late 1980s. The ongoing environmental cleanup at the facility is the world’s largest, the U.S. Department of Energy says.

http://www.newwest.net/city/article/...hanford/C8/L8/

[Mama Alanna]

Apparently Alexander the Great used hornets' nests as weapons, catapulting them onto enemy ships. I can't decide if that makes them biological weapons or chemical weapons.

[D. Gale]

Originally Posted by Mama Alanna

Apparently Alexander the Great used hornets' nests as weapons, catapulting them onto enemy ships. I can't decide if that makes them biological weapons or chemical weapons.

I wonder how he stored/subdued them before he catapulted them? Now I'll have to go look that one up (and there goes my morning! )

[D. Gale]

Found a fun site called "TV Tropes" that analyzes many of the cliches in popular and classic media. There's a whole page on "Bee-Bee Guns", or the use of stinging insects as weapons. You can look at it here.

The bottom of the page had some uses of bees/wasps in "real life":

* The Mayans had soldiers specializing in throwing hornet nests at their enemies in battle. They covered themselves in thick mud to protect themselves from the obvious side effect.
* According to William Gurstelle in "The Art of the Catapult," Alexander the Great had his catapults fire hornets' nests onto the decks of enemy galleys during the Siege of Tyre. Which is just ghastly.
* Any twelve-year old who has filled a jar full of bees and thrown it into a crowded area.
* The Battle of Tanga in WW 1, where startling idiocy was compounded by a great many killer bees...
* A canceled US Army weapons project involved a chemical weapon that, when dropped on enemy troops, would attract and enrage any bees, wasps, or related insects in the area. This troper is sad the project was never fully realized.
o Bees and wasps emit an attack pheromone that attracts others to the target, usually when the hive is perceived to be threatened.
o The venom of the Asian Giant Hornet is not only one of the most painful in the world, but it also contains an enzyme that marks the unfortunate victim so that other Asian Giant Hornets in the vicinity will home in and attack the target. It also dissolves human skin.

Pretty interesting stuff! (I love tangents -- thanks, MA. Now off to do laundry, clean bathrooms, etc.)

[Mama Alanna]

I think I read somewhere that they used clay pots for them to nest in, specially made with just a small hole left for the wasps/bees/hornets to go in and out. Kind of like a ready-made dirt dauber's nest. If you foresee a need for your bee bombs, go out at night and stop up the hole. Or stop up the hole during the day in an emergency. Take the pot and put it in the catapult. Make sure that you get it a good long way from your own forces!