What Do We Know About Wasps?
 

When I get wasps I typically hang my shop vac in front of their entrance and vacuum them up, then two days later you just dump out the dead critters.

This time I have wasps in an overhang and the wasps are getting in around the brickwork in about ten different places. I've sealed the entrances one by one over the last few days, now I have a few hundred buzzing around trying to get in.

If I block access will they eventually give up and build a new nest elsewhere?

If I can't get at the nest, how else can I kill them?

1 they are bastards

2 The goal is to get the recon wasps so they don't go back to the nest and tell their stupid little buddies that your place is awesome.

3 I use my BastardTrap ™
cut off bottle top
insert other way around
tape
add sugary liquid

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629468910.jpg

Put trap remote from where you sit
once initial bastards go in and die, their rotting bastard carcasses will give off an even better scent to attract their stupid little bastard buddies.

4 do this early in the season and you should be fine

:confused: Not sure what the top looks like...

I got it now.... thanks.

I know their little bastard bodies do not like brake cleaner. I have a few nests hanging around our home, both yellow jacket and red wasp.

I'm going to utilize the Jehovah's witness approach, and come knocking when they are at home, which is at night.

I know they'll sting you which is more than I knew about American dagger caterpillars a few days ago! I also know they die when you spray them with wasp killer.

I bought two fancy wasp traps and baited them both with sugary liquids and rotting meat. Apparently wasps feed on one or the other at different times of the year. I hung them low, I hung them high, I hung them everywhere that a wasp might run into them but have managed to collect exactly none of them.

Occasionally I managed to nail one in the wild with carburetor cleaner or a racquetball racket and they don’t seem to come back. Still, it would be nice to be able to rid my entire yard of the bastards.

I have wasp spray, but when the nest isn't accessible that approach doesn't work.

WD40 also works on a nest. Tyvek suit and leather gloves...

I spray them as they come and go. It makes it more of a sport that way.

you may have different types
We got french fieldwasps here, but they are non aggressive, don't go for meat and show up for water when it's dry.

they are very distinctive for the long hanging legs
https://beestjeskwijt.nl/storage/med...e_veldwesp.jpg

technically they aren't really bastards

I have several kinds. I don’t want any of them, I have dogs that like to try and eat things that come within reach and the last thing I want is for a dog to attempt to eat a wasp.

I used to leave wasps alone until one of them stung me in the back years ago, for no good ****ing reason and since then I have a zero tolerance policy.

Dispatching them with the racketball racket is fairly satisfying but not without risk.

I have one that has been trying to build a series of nests in my garage and he threatens me every time I walk out there. Thus far I have gotten rid of all of his starter houses that I can find, he’s managed to put one somewhere I can’t find and now I have to deal with his militant little ass.

We have several types in Texass.

Some like mud daubers and cicada killers are docile and can be ignored.

Paper Wasps are another story. We seem to have two variety, the Red ones which look evil but you really gotta get up close on them to provoke them.

The black and yellow ones, I've had them come at me if I get closer than 15 ft to their nest.

We also have velvet ants, Cow Killers, only ever seen one thankfully. It's not an ant, wingless ground wasp.

That may be all well and good but if you think I can teach my dog to identify the benign ones and only try to eat those, then you don’t understand my dog.

I would like them all to be gone, any suggestions welcome.

I just killed nest in the ground after i got tagged twice. What is their purpose??

Make more wasps.

Wasps eat aphids and other insects. They are part of nature's balance. If they don't perceive a threat they don't offer a threat. Unfortunately they don't always choose to nest where you would prefer. I try and watch for the scouts that establish the beginnings of a nest and destroy the nest leaving the wasp to find another more desirable location.

We have lots of mud daubers. They are not aggressive, but leave mud blobs all over the place.

At my old office we had a metal building, and an interior drop ceiling. Somewhere along the soffits wasps would get in and build a nest. We would get one or two per day inside the building in our work area. They usually were at the florescent lights wanting to go out I guess. We learned a standard broom was the perfect lure. Just get it close to them, and the went after the broom, lower it to the floor slowly and stomp on the wasp. Gone. We killed several per month. We called the building owner and he just ignored us. He was an idiot.

Pollination. They don't bother me too much, and they are everywhere around my house.

I have a nest of yellow jackets hanging from our hose spigot, they don't seem to care if I turn the water on, but I know I'm asking for it one day.

Just a few around here I’d say. The red wasps might be on the other side of the house.
These are all yellow jackets.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629473965.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629474053.jpg

Happy hunting!

Typically they're accused of being racist