Yellow Jackets!

[rekees4300]

Anybody else use dish soap??

Yellow Jackets are the bane of my existence. On average get stung 3 times a year bushhogging the pasture. Have used dish soap (Dawn) on Japanese beetles but never tried it on Yellow Jackets. Black Flag Wasp & Hornet spray is my weapon of choice. Do it after Sundown and coverup the hole.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I also use gasoline, about a coke bottle full is plenty and it doesn't have to be burned. The fumes and contact gets them completely. You do have to stop up the hole for the fumes to get them all and of course do it at night when they are all in the nest.

 

[gwstang]

Those things are of the devil! I keep the front 15 acre fields cut in the summer and they do like any type of hole. I guess maybe moles make the hole? This is in Central Alabama so who knows. I've been stung several times and it feels like someone poured liquid fire down the arm/leg. They bite too. Someone I work with said one of those things stung him and then took a plug out of his leg. Some years back, I was using the old 8N to bush hog the far field and wasn't watching quite close enough. Well, I came around and straight into one of those spawns of Satan swarming around the ground where they had been disturbed. I didn't see them until I was in the middle of them. Yeowch. I just hit the key switch and bailed. I went back an hour later and those things were still stinging the tractor. Finally about dark, they abandoned the tractor and I had rolled a rock over by the hole so I could find it in the dark. A little gas down the hole and a rock over it and done. I learned when I was younger to watch for them swarming as I came back around. BTW, we call them guinea wasps or sweat bees down here. Seems like they like to attack when the prey is really sweaty from working in the sun. Those things are of the devil.

 

[txndncowboy]

They must be different kind here because I've never seen one come from a hole. They build a paper nest here but still attack if you get near them.

 

[rm4usall]

I use the Tempo 1% dust

Yellow Jacket Control - Traps, Bait, Spray & Repellent - How To Kill & Get Rid Of Yellow Jackets

 

[scdeerslayer]

They must be different kind here because I've never seen one come from a hole. They build a paper nest here but still attack if you get near them.

Those are probably guinea wasps if the nests are up high or out in the open. Yellow jackets are also a type of wasps and have a paper nest inside of their holes. Most of the time they either dig out a hole in the ground or build their nest inside of an object near the ground.

 

[scdeerslayer]

A story about a yellow jacket. This happened nearly 3 years ago. For our firewood we keep it under a shed and have a small rack in the garage that holds about what 1 row across a full-size pickup bed holds. We haul that much to the garage when needed, then carry enough for a day inside as needed and stack on the hearth next to the wood stove. One night I'm carrying wood inside and I grab a split block in the middle on the pointed edge. Soon after I feel something poking in the middle of my palm, but I ignore it at first thinking it's just a splinter. As I'm trying to grab a piece with my other hand the pain keeps getting worse until I realize it's not a splinter. I drop everything and go inside to run cold water on it and get some ice (don't really know why, that's just the first thing I thought about). I start worrying about what it could have been. Was it a scorpion, I've never been stung by one, how bad could this get? Could it have been a brown recluse, would the reaction be that quick? I finally go out to see what it was and this is what I found.



I don't know why it was in my firewood unless it thought that was a good place to hibernate.

As far as removal, I just just hornet/wasp spray after dark until I no longer see activity. Depending on where it is I may dig it up, otherwise I'll just keep coming back for a few days. I'll typically shine the area with my headlights, they tend to not be able to see me that way and just fly towards the lights.

 

[Travelover]

I put a glass bowl over the hole and the next morning it was full of buzzing angry yellow jackets. The following morning after that, the hole was dug out by a racoon, or skunk. I think the bowl alerted the critter to the nest location. I have heard that if you pour some honey at the hole entrance it will also attract the critters. Worth a try.

 

[dragoneggs]

I put a glass bowl over the hole and the next morning it was full of buzzing angry yellow jackets. The following morning after that, the hole was dug out by a racoon, or skunk. I think the bowl alerted the critter to the nest location. I have heard that if you pour some honey at the hole entrance it will also attract the critters. Worth a try.

Very interesting and natural way to try to rid a nest! Worth a try next time. :thumbsup:

 

[gwstang]

Those are probably guinea wasps if the nests are up high or out in the open. Yellow jackets are also a type of wasps and have a paper nest inside of their holes. Most of the time they either dig out a hole in the ground or build their nest inside of an object near the ground.

I have dug up a couple of those nests that have the hole in the ground type. After they are all dead, used a shovel and those nests are larger, under ground, than any of the paper type wasps except for the hornet nests we have around here. I don't know what makes those little bastages so angry....but they are. They have a sort of quick type of movement jerking up and down and are smaller than the other paper nest type of wasp. They love to snack on my pears and any kind of meat. I wish the fire ants would start snacking on the ground wasps.