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

We always have a short time of the year when there are a ton of Yellow Jackets (meat bees as the locals call them) around and become a real bother. I just hang a plastic trap baited with attractant I buy from H.D. When it gets full, I empty it & replenish the attractant. After a while they decrease in number and fade out totally. Then I can sit on my swing in front overlooking the canyon in peace.

Demand CS

$40 for 8 oz online. Put it in a pump sprayer and spray where they enter the nest. Read the instructions and mix to the strongest ratio recommended if you are outside. 8 oz is like 90 years worth of supply.

They get it on their little feet and then go inside the nest.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629484179.jpg

On the list, thanks.

French wasps.....that's apropos

exactly right

I use a high pressure hose from a distance

I love watching wasps die.

They once built a couple nests inside my garage eaves about five feet from the workbench.
Ate the asparagus bugs and probably aphids outside. Never bothered me.
Buzzed a little when I turned on the florescent lights at night.

This year I was bit by a spider and stung by honeybee. A first in many years.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629506977.jpg


I ran into this pulling vines off the Azaleas did not see it. Got stung in the chest, took it and stood still only to get stung in the back. Got away as quickly and safely as I could. The nest was a little larger than a volleyball. Used Spectracide Pro Wasp & Hornet spray on it that night.

I buy the wasp shot spray, point and spray and usually it nail em and they fall and croak..

If I see a wasp (or any flying/stinging bug), they are dead, just as fast as I can kill them, with anything I have.

About 25 years ago, a friend and I were walking a lot to build a house on and I walked up to a tree, that had an opening at the bottom.

As I stood there, I said that looks like a great place for bees. As soon as I said that, a black cloud of yellow jackets came up out of the ground and stung me 18 times, as I was running away. My friend didn’t move and only got stung one time.

I had a real phobia/aversion to stinging insects after that, for years.

If the nest is out in the open...hornet spray or gasoline will drop them fast.

If the nest is hidden behind a wall...this sprayer with Sevin Dust kills them fast.
One puff on a bees nest is usually all you need. HD has it in small bags..cheap.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629643827.jpg

Oh now that’s funny.
French wasps are pacifist vegetarians. Color me surprised...

Expect the wasps and hornets to become more and more aggressive through September, when they disappear and die off.

Wasps do not return to the same nest each year, they build new somewhere else.

Paper wasp versus yellowjacket - https://www.rescue.com/latest-buzz/outdoor-pests/how-to-tell-a-wasp-from-a-yellowjacket/

The nests that are clearly visible, like up in the eaves are usually paper wasps that are only mildly aggressive. But will sting and chase you.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629473965.jpg

Yellowjackets like to live in holes underground and are nasty critters, especially if you run over their hive with a lawn mower.

This, looks like a Bald Faced Hornet hive. Not very friendly either!
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629506977.jpg

Almost got it tonight. One of my cars I have put on the back burner for far too long, was yellow jacket central. I was under it, and just before I grab the fender liner, there it was.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1632365093.jpg

Going in. I did put gloves on.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1632365198.jpg

The kill.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1632365380.jpg

The nest.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1632365547.jpg

It could have been a bad night! Brake cleaner with the win!

Edit: Paper Wasp, ckcarr nailed it.

Yeah and they don't like PB Blaster either, it knocks them down pretty quick!!!

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While playing a round of disc golf in the West Virginia mountains with my family, my son got into a den of ground hornets. He came running up the hill like his shorts were on fire with about 20 hornets on his body continuing to bite him. My SIL, and I each got bit several times trying to get his shirt off, and shoo them away....I've never seen anything so aggressive in my life.

That would have killed me. I mowed over a ground bees’ nest and got stung in the leg twice like I got hit by rocks from a slingshot. Started itching like crazy, I turned beet red, my lips swelled and mouth went numb. I did made it to the hospital and went into anaphylactic shock, throat tightened up and was sweating profusely. Epinephrine shots. Doc pulled the Chief Sandwicher aside and told her if my reaction didn’t reverse in the next two minutes, I was a goner.

1/2 hour later I was sitting on the porch having a beer being quite thankful.

Doc said if I ever get stung again immediately go to ER. Now, when I see a bee/wasp/Yellowjacket/whatever it’s DEFCON V, search and destroy, shoot to kill, aim later.

The following summer I got stung again. Drove myself to the ER told the receptionist the situation, she took down my info and I waited.

Nothing.

ER doc came out and asked why am I here? Blah, blah. He says Ok. How about we pretend you were never here, delete any evidence of it and be done.

I’m good with that and good to go.

I was up on the roof of my porch staining the upper portion of my house. Thought I had cleared all the wasp nests when I power washed. I got stung four times on the neck while staining. Lucky me, I didn’t fall off the roof straddling the gable end flailing my arms. My neck swelled slightly but the itch was terrible.

It's long, but very good. Run it at 2x

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Wasps have been building a nest under the siding next to my garage door for a week. This thread motivated me to spray it down last night at midnight. Sort of hated to do it. Pretty sure they were the reason my cucumbers produced so well this summer.