I had a wasp problem last year where they were going into the attic of my home. I did what I could with spray cans, but it wasn’t enough.
I ended up calling an exterminator who used delta dust, which the wasps carry into the nest. It was a little pricey (~$150) but it was peace of mind from the other alternative, being able to do nothing. The exterminator came back for free a few days later to re-dust when there was little change in activity. The second go did the trick.
I did look at a few options online before calling. One idea was to set up a vacuum trap with a shop vac (1).
This summer, we had a white-faced hornet nest, in a bush, a few feet from our front door, so it had to go.
Normally, hornets are great. They are nowhere near as aggressive as yellowjackets (unless you mess with the nest), and they eat yellowjackets, so you either have hornets or yellowjackets, but not both (but they also eat bees, so people who want to encourage pollinators, need to discourage them).
But that low on the ground, and that close to the house, they had to go.
I have heard too many horror stories about botched hornet removal, so I called in a pro. I have a friend in the business, so I got a break (but that was $150).
It was interesting, watching him do it. Took about 15 minutes. He had a special suit. It looked flimsy, but they couldn’t get through.
I was at my cabin in the fall - it was after Covid and the first time I was there in a couple of years. I got a nice fire going in the fireplace and maybe thirty minutes later I saw a wasp flying very poorly and slowly around the living room. Then a few more and a few more. I figure they must have built a nest in the attic during Covid, and were in hibernation for the winter but the warmth woke them up.
So that night and the next few I had a roaring fire and let it get cold during the day. I really didn't want to go into the attic to investigate. Eventually there were no more wasps. Problem solved!
For people that don’t know, regular wasps always leave in the face of danger to the nest. If you have the typical small nest, the easiest thing you can do is hit it fast with a broom or similar. They will all disappear in seconds.
I’ve seen my dad do it a lot of times with his bare hands, never got stung. But if you pass by the nest enough times, you’ll be.
Another good solution is fire. A blow torch with a wide flame, burns their wings (if it doesn’t outright kill them) and also their nest, which is more or less made of paper.
We had a wasps nest last summer inside the wall under the eaves of our house, some kid from the exterminator's came with a long telescoping rod and puffed some kind of white powder into the opening. He explained that it was something like a slow-acting poison (or maybe like diatomaceous earth) that would cover the drones when they left or arrived at the nest and that it was enough for one of these drones to brush up against the queen to kill her. They swarmed around for a few hours then we never saw them again, so it apparently worked.
This was after attempting to spray the opening with regular wasp spray a few times. Sure, it killed a dozen or so drones each time but never really put a dent in the population.
Vigilance and attentiveness is definitely better here; early in the year you are looking for a handful of wasps spending more time near any one part of the facade of your house than normal. Pick a warm day in mid-spring, go round the property and note where wasps are going.
You can safely use a spray to pick them off late in the evening, and if you get there early enough, depending on the species, one of those wasps could actually be the queen, because she may still be leaving the nest in order to care for her earliest brood.
If you don't get the queen, because the nest is so small, you may get enough toxin onto one of the early workers that they will bring it into contact with the queen.
You then use an insecticide foam around the entrance to any hole you see wasps going into. You can lay it on pretty thick, more than once, and they will progressively poison the nest. You can do this a few days apart in the evening.
Since the nest is still small you probably don't need to hit the nest, and you might as well leave it because then no other colony will use the space. You do need to saturate any pathway they take to it.
Directly above a bedroom window that is impossible to see from the outside but can be deduced by a process of elimination, in the roof of my 210 year old house, is a tiny gap, which attracted a nest nine years ago. I used this method and while I think I might very well have got the queen directtly, activity around the nest stopped in about 48 hours, and while every year I see wasps investigate the hole, I am guessing corpses put them off.
In the warm late spring of the pandemic I resprayed the hole, and sprayed a couple more, with what was left of the can, because I reasoned that it might be difficult to get a pest controller to deal with them; this proved to be a wise decision because nests established in several places nearby in that lovely hot summer that went untreated for far too long.
I wish I had the was blower 3 months ago. Wasps nested in the space between my
laundry room and the 2nd floor. The exit was a crack between the concrete blocks outside wall and the vinyl siding. They found an entrance into the house through the overhead light socket when a fool whose name shall not be mentioned duck-taped their regular exit route.
A call to the pest-control and $400.00 USD later took care of it. They bore a tiny hole next to the exit and pumped lethal gas in it. The problem with the was blower in my case it it would have to be 8 ft attached to the wall.
I had two yellowjacket nests in the wood siding of my house this summer. Several cans of foaming spray had no effect since it couldn't penetrate far enough inside. I found a random forum thread where someone suggested using Sevin insecticide powder on the openings. It took a week and a half of daily applications using a paintbrush, but it seemed to be effective. Less expensive than calling an exterminator, and I have most of the can of powder left for next time.
I tend to use a shop vacuum to get rid of undesirable wasp nests. Fill the tank with a few litres of water so the victims have something to drown in, point the tube at the nest entry or whatever entry the wasps use and switch it on for an hour or so. As soon as there is some disturbance most of the resident wasps will exit the nest to defend it so you'll get the resident population in only a few minutes. Keep the vacuum in place for a while to catch those which were out and about. Once you've got (most of) the workers the nest will die out if left alone. If you can reach it you can knock it down and drown or burn it, if it is in a wall somewhere that is not an option.
Don't forget to put water in the tank or you'll be met by a cloud of angry wasps when you open it.
Similar story, had a nest in the walls of a bay window bump. Too far up the side to spray effectively, but they had one weakness: there was a clear entrance spot. So I duct taped a pool vacuum hose next to it and ran it into the garage attached to a shop vac. Left it running for a day, problem solved. It was fun listening to the "ka-thunk" sound when each insect got sucked in. I think for next time I'll make some kind of detector based on audio to count the kills.
I see a lot of advice being given in these comments, and I find it a little alarming that my own preference hasn't got a mention.
Just leave them be?
I've had plenty of wasp nests in sheds, roof spaces, garages etc and never had a problem peacefully coexisting with them.
Almost everyone I've spoken to about it shares this sentiment, and generally wouldn't do anything about it unless it was in an especially risky location.
I get the impression most commenters here are from the US, whilst I live in the UK. Am I naive to the aggression of American wasps, or is it just more acceptable to kill creatures you find bothersome over there?
Does anyone with experience both sides of the pond have any insight?
It's amazing how much DIY problem-solving comes out of necessity. Always interesting to see the basic household tech getting repurposed in a creative ways.
Horror. The spiral birth factory, stepped terraces of the hatching cells, blind jaws of the unborn moving ceaselessly, the staged progress from egg to larva, near-wasp, wasp. In his mind's eye, a kind of time-lapse photography took place, revealing the thing as the biological equivalent of a machine gun, hideous in its perfection.
Wasps in a high traffic area are definitely bad, but if the nest is somewhere not too in the way I'd encourage folks to leave it be. Wasps are predators, and they eat a lot of the bugs that damage gardens. Yes, they are also assholes, do you have to strike a balance, but they can be really beneficial.
Obviously, if you've got young kids around or the wasps are being aggressive, take care of the humans first, but understanding them a bit can really reduce the conflict with them.
I have lots of paper wasps and red wasps nesting around my house and on the inside and outside of several outbuildings. They do a great job managing the fly population around here.
If you have a problem with wasps trying to nest under porches at your exterior doors you should paint the underside of the porches sky blue. This will discourage nesting by making the wasps feel like the site is exposed to the weather.
If you have a nest in the ground you can fill it with CO2 gas at the entrance hole in the evening when they are resting. The gas will sink into the nest and leave no toxic residue.
Trick might be finding the CO2, you can normally rent a tank at a welding supply shop. You'll also need a pressure regulator and hose.
Dry ice can also be used, put some in a soda bottle with water and a hose taped up or snug fit to the top. Do not allow the bottle to pressurize however.
Some people have reported using car exhaust but I'm not sure that's as effective.
I haven't seen my successful method mentioned yet, so I’ll share.
I had a ground nest, but it was built into a rock wall for a raised flower bed. They had several exit points. Despite emptying multiple of those spray cans, it was a healthy hive. Feeling discouraged, I dumped a bunch of fire ant powder all over the rocks. I did it at night, hoping they were all in there. I checked on them the next day and they were gone. I have no idea if it killed them or they decided it wasn’t a good home location anymore and left. Either way, no more yellow jackets.
The house we bought last year "came with" cicada killer wasps[0]. They are impressive insects. The ones show in the Wikipedia article are a little smaller than the ones we have! I'd never heard of these things before getting this house.
They are somewhat destructive in their nesting. We ended up having to kill a few when they were excavating the bedding sand between the flagstones surrounding the house. They could dig out a pile of sand standing 4 - 5 inches tall in about 30 minutes (leaving a hole about an inch in diameter right in the middle of the pile).
They don't sting and are scared of humans. When they're unladen they fly very quickly and are quite agile. When they're laden with a cicada they bumble through the air in a most amusing way. They are also persistent-as-heck when it comes to their nesting behavior.
I wish I could do something like this wasp blower to gently suggest these guys nest in the yard instead of between the flagstones.
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I ended up calling an exterminator who used delta dust, which the wasps carry into the nest. It was a little pricey (~$150) but it was peace of mind from the other alternative, being able to do nothing. The exterminator came back for free a few days later to re-dust when there was little change in activity. The second go did the trick.
I did look at a few options online before calling. One idea was to set up a vacuum trap with a shop vac (1).
(1) https://woodgears.ca/misc/wasp_sucker.html
Normally, hornets are great. They are nowhere near as aggressive as yellowjackets (unless you mess with the nest), and they eat yellowjackets, so you either have hornets or yellowjackets, but not both (but they also eat bees, so people who want to encourage pollinators, need to discourage them).
But that low on the ground, and that close to the house, they had to go.
I have heard too many horror stories about botched hornet removal, so I called in a pro. I have a friend in the business, so I got a break (but that was $150).
It was interesting, watching him do it. Took about 15 minutes. He had a special suit. It looked flimsy, but they couldn’t get through.
So that night and the next few I had a roaring fire and let it get cold during the day. I really didn't want to go into the attic to investigate. Eventually there were no more wasps. Problem solved!
I’ve seen my dad do it a lot of times with his bare hands, never got stung. But if you pass by the nest enough times, you’ll be.
Another good solution is fire. A blow torch with a wide flame, burns their wings (if it doesn’t outright kill them) and also their nest, which is more or less made of paper.
This was after attempting to spray the opening with regular wasp spray a few times. Sure, it killed a dozen or so drones each time but never really put a dent in the population.
You can safely use a spray to pick them off late in the evening, and if you get there early enough, depending on the species, one of those wasps could actually be the queen, because she may still be leaving the nest in order to care for her earliest brood.
If you don't get the queen, because the nest is so small, you may get enough toxin onto one of the early workers that they will bring it into contact with the queen.
You then use an insecticide foam around the entrance to any hole you see wasps going into. You can lay it on pretty thick, more than once, and they will progressively poison the nest. You can do this a few days apart in the evening.
Since the nest is still small you probably don't need to hit the nest, and you might as well leave it because then no other colony will use the space. You do need to saturate any pathway they take to it.
Directly above a bedroom window that is impossible to see from the outside but can be deduced by a process of elimination, in the roof of my 210 year old house, is a tiny gap, which attracted a nest nine years ago. I used this method and while I think I might very well have got the queen directtly, activity around the nest stopped in about 48 hours, and while every year I see wasps investigate the hole, I am guessing corpses put them off.
In the warm late spring of the pandemic I resprayed the hole, and sprayed a couple more, with what was left of the can, because I reasoned that it might be difficult to get a pest controller to deal with them; this proved to be a wise decision because nests established in several places nearby in that lovely hot summer that went untreated for far too long.
Don't forget to put water in the tank or you'll be met by a cloud of angry wasps when you open it.
Three Valuable Peptides from Bee and Wasp Venoms for Therapeutic and Biotechnological Use: Melittin, Apamin and Mastoparan [1]
BBC: Wasp venom 'a weapon against cancer' (2015) [2]
[1]: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8000949/
[2]: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-34115112
I get the impression most commenters here are from the US, whilst I live in the UK. Am I naive to the aggression of American wasps, or is it just more acceptable to kill creatures you find bothersome over there?
Does anyone with experience both sides of the pond have any insight?
Obviously, if you've got young kids around or the wasps are being aggressive, take care of the humans first, but understanding them a bit can really reduce the conflict with them.
If you have a problem with wasps trying to nest under porches at your exterior doors you should paint the underside of the porches sky blue. This will discourage nesting by making the wasps feel like the site is exposed to the weather.
Trick might be finding the CO2, you can normally rent a tank at a welding supply shop. You'll also need a pressure regulator and hose.
Dry ice can also be used, put some in a soda bottle with water and a hose taped up or snug fit to the top. Do not allow the bottle to pressurize however.
Some people have reported using car exhaust but I'm not sure that's as effective.
I had a ground nest, but it was built into a rock wall for a raised flower bed. They had several exit points. Despite emptying multiple of those spray cans, it was a healthy hive. Feeling discouraged, I dumped a bunch of fire ant powder all over the rocks. I did it at night, hoping they were all in there. I checked on them the next day and they were gone. I have no idea if it killed them or they decided it wasn’t a good home location anymore and left. Either way, no more yellow jackets.
They are somewhat destructive in their nesting. We ended up having to kill a few when they were excavating the bedding sand between the flagstones surrounding the house. They could dig out a pile of sand standing 4 - 5 inches tall in about 30 minutes (leaving a hole about an inch in diameter right in the middle of the pile).
They don't sting and are scared of humans. When they're unladen they fly very quickly and are quite agile. When they're laden with a cicada they bumble through the air in a most amusing way. They are also persistent-as-heck when it comes to their nesting behavior.
I wish I could do something like this wasp blower to gently suggest these guys nest in the yard instead of between the flagstones.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecius_speciosus