die, bad bees, die!

[beefree]

i detest yellow jackets.  They have a nest in the dirt under the stairs to my deck.  A biiiig nest.  Mr. Beefree suggested i suit up and go dig them out.  I suggested Mr. Beefree put on his OWN suit and go dig them out (he had already tried spraying them, to no apparent effect).  Then i had a subjectively brilliant idea... i would just walk out there in shorts and tee, armed with running garden hose, and i would lay the hose end on the entrance, and run like heck.  I just had to go back for a peek before it got too dark to see anything.  They are peeved.  i am gleeful, not having been stung yet this evening.  Does anyone else have any idea whether this will work to get rid of them?  (Will they just come back when the puddle dries up?) or any better way to make them disappear permanently, so my kids can play in the sandbox on the deck without getting stung?
beefree

[Anonymous]

As You may know or maybe not know is I had to recently kill off two of my honey bee colonies. I also do the pest control in Kares flower gardens. Since I don't like to kill every living bug just to kill some bad ones I have looked into many ways to destroy the bad.
What I have found that works for nearly every thing I have use it on is just plain old dish soap. I fill a hose end sprayer with the cheap stuff from the dollar store turn the water on and point it on the bug, or the area effected by the bugs. Most die instantly some take a bit longer but end up dead meat in time.

I hate yellow Jackets too. They are not bees. They are wasp and are terriost which give all stinging insectes a bad name.

:D Al

[BigRog]

Check this out

http://www.pollinator.com/gallery/yellow_jacket_trap.htm

I have seen this in several places. And it is claimed that honeybees won't go for it

[Finman]

I hate yellow Jackets too. They are not bees. They are wasp and are terriost which give all stinging insectes a bad name.

:D Al

Really I can say that I love wasp. They catch harmfull insects from garden and from nature. Aphids are a nuisance to garden and wasps are goos in eating  them. One year I found  14 wasp colony in my garden area (2500 m2).

At autumn they try to go into bee hives but is not problem. I have 1 milj. bees against 1000 wasp.

However  I had followed that wasp is very guick to kill bees. One kill 20 bees  in half minute and bees were not  able to catch it.

We have not in Finland that big wasp The European Hornet Vespa crabro.

We only use Shwedish hornet http://www.amazingpaperairplanes.com/AboutHornet.html

[BigRog]

:lol:

[Agility Mom]

I had to kill off a beehive recently as all my efforts to turn them into peaceful bees was not working. They were vicious and terrorizing our property. I read  that they destroy africanized hives by using soap and water and applying it through a hose sprayer as Al said he did. I just filled the container, where you usually put fertilizer, with liquid detergent.  Apparently the water keeps them from flying and the soap draws the moisture out of them and they die. Sad as it made me, it did work for the hive I had to destroy.

[beefree]

well, if there is one thing i've got a lot of around here, it is soap...my kids  have a bubble making obsession... so i will be liberating a bottle and trying that next, because a bunch of the yellow jackets were just hovering around the hole in the ground today, in a rather annoyed frame of mind.  Apparently, an hour and a half of H2O from the hose didn't drown them all last night.  Sigh.  Thanks for the suggestion(s), and information (note "die, evil wasps, die... which allows for the existence of good wasps, like the non-stinging ones that eat other annoying bugs in garden  here").
Beefree

[Anonymous]

I guess I should have pointed out that yellow Jackets are wasp and they alone are the terroist. In the hornet family the bald faced ones fill that nich.
:D Al

[Queen Bee]

This is the time of year that we going around cleaning out our Carolina Bluebird boxes! Well, this year , 7 out of 27 were filled with wasp or hornets! DH donned his bee suit,veil, gloves and went to clean them out.. Using  hoe and a can of Raid. :shock:  Next year we will use the soap in a stray bottle instead of chemicals....  Debbie

[Lesli]

It reminds me of the time that my neighbor, her children, my dog, and I all discovered a nest of ground-dwelling hornets (wasps???). My dog and her young son were stung. She sagely told me that "around here" people pour gasoline or kerosine down the nest and light it.

The nest was about 5 ft from my 150-old frame house.


Hmmm. Nope, no flammables! I used spray.

[golfpsycho]

can you say explosive?

[Bee Boy]

Well since its in the ground... you could pour a little gasoline and then throw a match. And while the nest burns you could listen gleefully to the larva and wasps popping. :twisted:

[Anonymous]

A safe way to rid the area of the yellow jackets with spray is to go late in the evening when they are mostly nested up for the night.
I got the spray (Specaside pro, spelling maybe off a bit) at Home Depot beefore I had bees. It kills yellow jackets on contact and also stays in the entrance area for a few days afte,r still killing them. Rain washes it away.
I do not recommend this stuff If you have honey bees though.

:D Al

[Lesli]

can you say explosive?

Right. And for all I knew, they had a huge nest that extended, say, all the way to my cellar. Glug, glug. Match. Good-bye house!

[beefree]

well, i  like fire as much as the next pyromaniac (i just came in from toasting s'mores over the buring brush pile in the back yard), but since the nest is under the wooden stairs to our wooden deck (which my husband so kindly stained and sealed for me two weeks ago), i think i will have to skip the gasoline.  Sigh.  I did sound like a mighty fine and entertaining idea otherwise...
Beefree

[eivindm]

Found a webpage about hornets:
http://www.vespa-crabro.de/hornets.htm

There they claim that the hornets can actually be beneficial, not only for the gardeners, but for the beekeepers  as well (page 3):

"Some beekeepers even encourage hornets and erect a box near their hives because, as night-active hunters, hornets reduce infestation of the more damaging wax moth! Additionally, hornets hold a type of peace near their nest, they don’t seem to hunt in the immediate vicinity. "

Here is a picture of a hornet box

eivindm

[lobstafari]

bee vacs work well on yellow jackets too.  Shut the damper all the way if you dont care about saving them..heck maybe just a shop vac, then let it sit in the sun for a week    :?  :lol: