WASPS or whatever they are, that don't die!

[897tgigvib]

I'd been noticing a few of these at the porch on my cabin for all summer, but now they are taking over my porch. That's where I process and sort my seeds and harvest, until this last week.

It has become too dangerous to be on my porch when it is warm. Holy berjeebers, I have some kind of nest that is inside the walls, and last night I could hear them in the walls. Sounds like they are working on the sheetrock in there!

So far I've tossed 2 pounds of diatomaceous earth at the place they come in and out, used a can of dap construction filler, sprayed some spray paint down there, and yes, I ACTUALLY USED A CAN OF POISON CALLED HOT SHOT(!), which went against all my better nature. It did no good. 3 of them fell to the ground, and I had to stomp them out of their misery. I even tried heavy magazine paper crunched and stuffed in there. Nope, they are still there, more every day!

These things are from outer space I am sure! They are planning a hostile takeover of planet earth! If you fall asleep they will take your body!!!

This is an INVASION OF THE WASPS FROM OUTER SPACE!

Back to kind of serious...
What is the best remedy?

I can't just let them bee. If they make it through the drywall they will be in my bedroom. Nevermind them stinging me. I can take it, but if they sting my cats, who weigh something like 1 tenth what I do, it might really hurt them.

 

[catjac1975]

You might try sugar water in a soda bottle or a yellow jacket trap. I don't know if it works for wasps. Or how about yellow sticky tape? Fly strips?

 

[thistlebloom]

To decide the best way to deal with them you need to figure out just what they are first. Can you get a picture of them?

 

[OldGuy43]

I have found brake cleaner and/or carburetor cleaner to be extremely effective. I like it because it is:

1. Low cost.
2. While poisonous it is of low persistence.
3. Once I have hosed down the nest the wasps don't return to it.
4. The youngun's don't seem to hatch.
5. It's easy to use from a distance with the little spray tube.

Another thing that works well is WD-40, but it's rather costly and messy. I tried the Yellow Jacket Traps by Rescue since I'd had great luck with their fly traps

but found them to ineffective for wasps.

 

[journey11]

Here's a recipe for a "European Hornet Trap" that I hang in my apple trees and around the table where I set my tomatoes and near my honeybees (Honeybees won't touch it, but it helps kill off the wasps and hornets that might try to rob your hive.) This trap will catch all types of hornets, wasps and yellowjackets which are drawn by the smell of fermentation.

Recycle a 2-liter soda bottle. Place the following ingredients inside the bottle:

1/2 sugar
1/2 water

Shake to dissolve the sugar.

Add 1 cup of apple cider vinegar.

Shake to mix.

Add a 1/4 of a banana peel.

Add a little more water until the bottle is about half full.

Cut a 7/8" to 1" size hole in the bottle in the curved area near the top of the bottle.

Put the lid back on and tie your bottle on a tree limb or any place you see hornets, wasps and yellowjackets.

Throw the trap away when it's full and make a new one to replace it.


I have 4 of these out right now and they are completely full of drowned hornets, etc. They are especially effective this time of year when they are getting ready to bed down for winter and need to build up their food reserves.


That will catch the ones out flying around, but you still have the queen and the nest to deal with. You'll either need to fumigate them (maybe call an exterminator) or if you don't want to spray anymore poison another option would be a trap-out, which a beek or exterminator might be able to set up for you (or Google, if you want to try yourself.)

(You're sure they're not honeybees, right? Honeybees frequently build hives inside buildings and other structures.) :bee

Good luck!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree with Thistle. What are they?

Do they actually sting or is that an assumption on your part?

There are a whole lot of different kinds of wasps and bees. I'm not even sure what the cut-off is between wasps and bees. I don't go out of my way to harm either wasps or bees, not that any of that matters. Those sound like weeds, by which I mean, they are not in the right place.

That behavior sounds a lot like yellow jackets or honey bees but I'm sure there could be a lot of different suspects. Drastic action may be required but exactly what should depend on what they actually are.

Could you possibly send one to your local California land grant university for positive identification?

 

[897tgigvib]

K. I know they are not honeybees of any kind. I know they are not yellowjackets of any kind.

Hard to photograph. I'll try at some point to photograph one.

I kind of think these are what some folks call mud daubers. They have more dark on them than what I think of hornets or wasps having.

So far I have not yet actually been stung,
but, when I come in or go out, one flies right into my head. Whack. Then I'm running off the porch batting my hat at my hair to make sure it is not in my hair. That causes cussing.

They are definitely inside the wall, right over my bed.

I am 40 miles from town.

Somewhere I have some wd40.

I don't have all the ingredients, but I put some sugar water into a gatorade bottle, along with some meat pieces that sank, then ducktaped it under their opening in my porch.

The nearest agricultural university is uc davis. I'll try googling around. davis is something like 180 miles as the raven flies.

 

[journey11]

Mud daubers are blackish-blue all over and they don't sting. They build clusters of tubes of mud on the side of a wall, usually in a cool, dark, out of the way place.

Any type of wasp is going to be thin and long in the body, about an inch in length. Any type of hornet will be big and fat, about 3/4" to 1-1/2" long, striped on the abdomen, may be brown/gold or black/white usually. Hornets are always aggressive. Wasps are only aggressive if you come up on their nest in mid to late summer.

 

[897tgigvib]

this is the culprit

it is a wasp. 70 to 110 thousand species of them, but the kind bugging me look like this one. The yellow bands seem slightly dimmer than this photo, and slightly less yellow on it overall.

 

[digitS']

Sure looks like a yellow jacket to me, Marshall.

The meat traps are supposed to be more effective during the early season, when they are feeding babies. The babies are all hatched by now - they are coming after you!

Anyway, they are very interested in flower nectar right now. It is probably because of cooler temperatures and no need to feed said babies.

Pyrethrins. They are neurotoxins for insects. I don't know what was in Hot Shot but the wasp sprays are the synthetic versions of Pyrethrins. You need to paralyze them so that they won't be able to go after you and sting you. The gas in the spray should knock them out even if you don't hit them with it - inside the wall. But, move away for a time like several hundred feet.

At some point, you may need to remove some siding . . .

Steve