Yellow jackets...

You know, that sounds like a good idea...

thanx! It did work great.
A bug bomb might work the same way..
I had a nest in our lawn a couple years ago, and got nailed badly the second pass, so I parked the mower over the hole for a while for revenge. It did not kill them, so I flooded them out one night, that did the trick....

Originally Posted by WebSlave

I checked on the nest today and yellow jackets are all over the back of the house. This has to be a real recent development, as I have been back there quite a bit lately, and they weren't there till real recently. Wonder if that nest I thought I killed just migrated to this new location?

Regardless, they have to go. Even doing anything to the pool pump is too close to that nest for my comfort. As is the hose valve I've been using to water a couple of plants back there.

I guess I'll be running out tomorrow to get some wasp spray. That stuff tends to paralyze bees on contact, so I want to knock them down before they come at me. Even at night, as warm as it is here, I'm sure they will still be a bit active. Since I'll have to have a flashlight to see what I'm doing, that will likely be a target for any sentinels on duty during the night shift.

I will have to move some plant pots out of the way surrounding the nest hole so I can put something to cover the hole once I spray it, so I'll have to spend more time than I would like right there in the vicinity. I've still got a mark on my arm from that sting/bite last week, so no way I want a bunch of them getting me.

I was thinking of how it would be to have a huge nest right near the house. Just be careful, maybe get the Vette out and ready in case you need to leave while the spray is working. Good luck.....

Sheesh.... Connie went and removed those pots around the nest hole today. I about had a heart attack when I noticed they were gone. I actually looked around the back yard thinking I was going to see her laying there stung to death. She said she just moved real slow and did one at a time and the yellow jackets just ignored her.

Maybe yellow jackets just don't bother her. I remember an incident many years ago when we were snake hunting together in southern Maryland. She was poking through an old mattress stuffed with these cubes of foam rubber. I'm a bit away from her and when I looked over at her I saw that she was completely surrounded by a swarm of evidently pissed off yellow jackets that apparently had a nest in or under that cushion. She was oblivious to them and I had to yell for her to get out of there QUICK. She just walked away like nothing was the matter and didn't get stung even once.

Yeah, she's going to give me a heart attack for certain one of these days....

Unlike bees or wasps, these guys release pheromones that cause them to attack en masse. You can kill (or try to kill) hundreds, and not make a dent. My folks had a nest professionally removed last year. The exterminators came with 'space suits' on, and had to dig down about 3 feet to get the whole nest. The nest was about 2x2 feet. Then they treated the ground, and came back a week later to spray one more time. I remember them telling us that you can plug up one entrance, and they just dig another from underneath. I don't know what the cost was, I can ask, but it was well worth it.

Originally Posted by rcarichter

Unlike bees or wasps, these guys release pheromones that cause them to attack en masse. You can kill (or try to kill) hundreds, and not make a dent. My folks had a nest professionally removed last year. The exterminators came with 'space suits' on, and had to dig down about 3 feet to get the whole nest. The nest was about 2x2 feet. Then they treated the ground, and came back a week later to spray one more time. I remember them telling us that you can plug up one entrance, and they just dig another from underneath. I don't know what the cost was, I can ask, but it was well worth it.

I think this ^^^ is the safest option.

Honey bees and many other wasps also release attack pheromones. DO NOT use the flashlight at night, at least not in your own hands, get someone you don't like because they are going to be attracted to the light and is a sure way to get nailed bad.

I'm starting to think that I'm in the wrong business. It seems that these would be in high demand...



Throw some honey and half a dozen of those in the hole and call it a night. Problem is, once they've done your dirty work, you'll probably have to drop a grenade in the there to get rid of those goliath's.

The cure might actually turn out to be worse than the original disease. Those big hornets look like a commercial bee keeper's worst nightmare.

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it looks like the yellow jackets might be gone. Connie removed the garden pots around the hole leading to the nest the other day (some day that girl is going to give me a heart attack!), and someone on one of my other forums said there was some studies done indicating that changing the landmarks of a nest entrance could confuse the bees wanting to return and they might not be able to find the entrance again. Not sure if this is the case or not, but it sure appears that the yellow jackets are gone.

Of course, the worry now is that if they have just relocated, where the heck are then now?

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Of course, the worry now is that if they have just relocated, where the heck are then now?

I dunno, but I'd keep a can of bug spray handy just in case. You have a big property, it is scary to think that you might take a misstep way in the back while doing some project and suddenly be surrounded by POed yellow jackets.

Hopefully they've relocated further from the house. A couple of years ago I had yellow jackets build a nest built inside the house.
My house has a finished basement and there's a space of 12" or so between the ceiling downstairs and the floor upstairs. Plumbing goes through this space including an exterior faucet which has a small gap beside it outside where the siding was pieced in.
They came in there and built a nest between the floors above the snake room.

I opened the snake room door one day and two or three dozen of them were flying around in there. They had made their way to the electrical box for the ceiling light and came into the room through the wiring knockout.
That left me in a tough spot, how to kill the bees without risking hurting any of the snakes or the tortoise that was in there.

I finally eased in and moved slow so as not to further agitate them and took the roaches out of the room. Then I used Black Knight to knock them down.
Surprisingly BK is not as effective a killer of bees as it is roaches and other things, but it messed them up enough so I could kill them without getting stung.
You don't want them gaining access to the house from a nest lol.