Hornet advice sought.

[Blacksheep]

Started much needed maintenance on the back porch, scrape/paint trim replacement etc. Put the project on hold for a couple weeks and when I got back to work, discovered yellow jackets had taken up residence.

Started with 40 or so hornets going in/out at any given time (two distinct spots, maybe two colonies), waited until night, climbed the ladder in hopes of seeing the nest, no dice but sprayed two cans of into the gaps. The next morning I noted a definite reduction in activity, maybe half of what I had seen the previous day but did not note very many dead hornets on the ground.

Last night I sprayed again then packed the largest gap with batting (fake xmas "snow") then sprayed the material with foaming hornet spray. That seemed to help but the lil beggars are still at it, still have a handful of hornets going in/out.

I prefer not using expanding insulating foam until I am confident they are dead, anybody else have a similar situation that found a reasonable solution? Appreciate any idea`s.

(I believe they are flying in, then forward into the over-hang of the roof, just behind the rain gutter)

 

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[savant365]

I have an older house built in the late 1800's with a pretty breezy attic. I put moth balls in old panty hose and hang them up there. It works great for keeping the wasps out of the attic. Good luck,

Charlie

 

[Blacksheep]

I have an older house built in the late 1800's with a pretty breezy attic. I put moth balls in old panty hose and hang them up there. It works great for keeping the wasps out of the attic. Good luck,

Charlie

Appreciate the input, I use the mothball/nylon trick to help keep rodents from chewing things under the hoods of vehicles, might work well for this as well. Only noted five hornets going in at dusk, hopefully the residual pesticide will take care of the remaining few.

Thanks again.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

We ended up drilling small holes (after tracking them in the walls with a stethoscope), filling all the holes with spray, then taping the holes back up (little tiny holes). Did that every other day for 2 weeks (the ones that survive will make a new leader and/or make children as quick as possible).
Did all of this at night. They will die in your wall, too. Later, we closed all the external places (some external places came out into the house, through cracks).

B

 

[stefen]

Got hit on the back of my hand last year when I reached for the garden hose...they had nested under the hose holder...

Blasted the nest with a long-shot wasp spray...100% kill.

Hand swelled up like a football...got really hot and sore to touch...popped antihistimines like crazy...

 

[homefires]

Get a 1 gal jar.

Cut a 1/2 inch hole in the lid.

Fill it 1/3 way with disc soap and water.

Hang a peace of meat half way between the lid and soap water.

Place it near the nest in the shade.

Yellow jackets eat only meat/protein this time of year.

At the end of Sept they move to plant sugars.

 

[stefen]

Get a 1 gal jar.

Cut a 1/2 inch hole in the lid.

Fill it 1/3 way with disc soap and water.

Hang a peace of meat half way between the lid and soap water.

Place it near the nest in the shade.

Yellow jackets eat only meat/protein this time of year.

At the end of Sept they move to plant sugars.

Same principal as an Old Stinky for flies

 

[GPURS]

Got hit on the back of my hand last year when I reached for the garden hose...they had nested under the hose holder...

Blasted the nest with a long-shot wasp spray...100% kill.

Hand swelled up like a football...got really hot and sore to touch...popped antihistimines like crazy...

HaHa! Been there with the hand swollen like,,, well a softball for me .. I started wondering at one point if the hand was going to swell to the point of cracking the skin like ya see from a snake bite. I didn't have any antihistimines, but I do now . Gpurs...

 

[dpitt8]

Get a 1 gal jar.

Cut a 1/2 inch hole in the lid.

Fill it 1/3 way with disc soap and water.

Hang a peace of meat half way between the lid and soap water.

Place it near the nest in the shade.

Yellow jackets eat only meat/protein this time of year.

At the end of Sept they move to plant sugars.

hmmm...creative

 

[Blacksheep]

Get a 1 gal jar.

Cut a 1/2 inch hole in the lid.

Fill it 1/3 way with disc soap and water.

Hang a peace of meat half way between the lid and soap water.

Place it near the nest in the shade.

Yellow jackets eat only meat/protein this time of year.

At the end of Sept they move to plant sugars.

That explains why the hornet traps have been ineffective, I placed two outside within fifteen feet of the nest (one made from a two liter soda bottle and one store bought), neither has caught any hornets.

I`ll give your idea a try tomorrow, again thanks to all who replied.

 

[bbqbull]

When I get stung I put straight ammonia on the sting ASAP.
This have saved me many trips to the Emergency Room.

 

[Monty]

The most painful sting I have ever had was last summer from a ground nest of tiny yellow jackets. One little wasp hit me on the arm and it hurt for 4 hours! Didn't swell, just made a big white whelp, but darn it hurt for a long time. I snuck in at night and killed every dang one of them! There apparently are two varieties of yellow jacket. One is about the size of your average wasp and builds paper nests and the other is a tiny variety that hides in the ground. Monty

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

I take quite a bit of sugar in my coffee, and if I leave my coffee cup outside for a little while, I don't dare drink it - it always seems to call out the wasps and hornets - but they cannot swim well, and it ticks them off.

B

 

[Blacksheep]

I gave up on the "do-it-yourself" exterminating. They simply move the entrance using a different gap, are growing (rather quickly) in numbers and are now beginning to show up inside the house. (The wife put me ::cough:: out of commission ::cough:: when she inadvertently kneed me in her haste to leave the kitchen where several hornets were doing maneuvers, Duke nukem I am not).

Strange is the hundred or so sputzies (sparrows) that flew in and feasted on the hornets this morning, never seen that before and was a bit worried they were eating the dead ones but a closer look proved they were indeed, eating the live hornets. Hope they come back.

The traps have not caught one hornet, not even the one suggested here using meat, I used a large chunk of raw bacon to no avail, maybe fish will work better. In the meantime, the wife informed me I can no longer "play" with the hornets. The hornet king will be here Monday morning to apply his magic dust that he swears will do the trick.

Should be an interesting morning since he plans to apply this in the daylight, I`m going to attempt to get pictures of the festivities.



UPDATE: No more hornets, $80 worth of time/dust did the trick.

 

[homefires]

Meat! Raw Red Meat!

Bacon is cured and some times smoked. WILL NOT WORK!

 

[Monty]

This sounds crazy but I have had 4 people tell me it works and no one knows why. Take a large plastic bag and fill lit with water. Drop in about a half dozen pennies. Seal and hang the bag with the water and pennies up near an entrance. It will keep the wasps, bees, hornets and flies and mosquitos out of a house or garage. I haven't tried it but like I said I know 4 people who swear by it. Monty

 

[mikeofaustin]

Dish soap, dish soap, dish soap. Put some dish soap in a pump sprayer with water. Spray the heck out of it. Wasps will drop like a stone the moment the soapy water touches them. Really!!!