No, this isn't the start of a bad joke. When I was young, a wasp was a black scary thing that I didn't see often. Not so anymore. Yellow jackets are not black, they look like bees but they are aggressive and everywhere. This week, Dean and I killed and removed ten nests from around our house and shed. There was even one in our damn gas grill. Hard to make bbq when you have a wasp nest in the hood of your grill. I'm seeing yellow jacket trap commercials now from Raid. I'm not paying for a damn trap when I have a cheap, sure fire kill method that I discovered a few years back. I can get them anywhere, no matter how high. If you are having trouble all you need is some Windex or generic glass cleaner. Spray the bastards till they die, only takes a moment. But, wait until sundown so you get them all. Any earlier and you will miss the workers. They all come home to roost at dusk and that is when you get them. If the nest is high up, get Windex Outdoor and attach to your hose. Then you can spray any nest. Remember that you must remove the nest. Killing isn't always enough, you don't want any wasp squatters to come back and make use of the thing.
What Is The Deal With Wasps?
Posted by Rosemary on
06.27.2007
R.I.P. Steven Malcolm Anderson
I'm not flying there to kill them for you, Tim. Use the Windex.
Just be careful when attacking a nest. Yellow-jackets secrete a hormone when injured that causes the rest of the hive to swarm the threat. Max stuck his nose in a nest in the woods last year and the suckers swarmed and followed him down the trail for at least 100 yards, trying like hell to burrow through his coat to sting him (he avoids that particular part of the trail now). Spraying is a safer way.
I kill all the dead ones too.
Don't just remove/take it down. You must destroy it.
A few years ago I had a nest of Mud Daubers on my front porch. I wasn't too concerned until the mail carrier refused to deliver mail, then I sprayed.
That turned out to be a pretty scary project though, they didn't die right away and swarmed, so I ran into the house. They knew I was in there and were buzzing against the window. Then I had to throw some rags down under the kitchen door as a few were crawling under it.
When they calmed down (died eventually) I removed the nest and put in on my bench in the garage and forgot about it. The next summer, while in the garage I noticed a bee crawling out of the nest. I killed it and cut the next in half. It was full of live hatching bees. They were sealed off from the spray in little chambers.
My Fuzzy dog needs a fresh education on bees and wasps each year. She will snap at them, she will catch them.... and then I come home to the Nose That Inhaled Chicago.