Obviously, I’m now faced with task of eradicating a yellowjacket nest. I’ve read some different reports online, each saying something completely different. Some say soap and water. Some say poison (each website I’ve seen has different ideas for what poison works best). Some claim that simply smothering the nest with a wheelbarrow of dirt is best.
Any dopers out there have experience dealing with these types of nests? All info is much appreciated. I really don’t want to go to the hospital again.
I had a nest in my front yard and emptied about 25% of a spray can of wasp killer into it and then covered the hole with a brick. I thought that would do it but a week later, they were still active. I then used an entire can of the same off the shelf wasp killer and that did the trick.
Are you allowed to kill yellowjackets in your jurisdiction? Some places, they are protected*, so you must first call the society to safely remove them to someplace else if they are a current danger to you; if they are in a remote corner of the garden, you may be asked to just stay away from them.
Because with the Bees dying from CCD and other problems, yellowjackets and other insects are necessary to take over their duties, so protecting them does make sense.
Gee, no need to shout. Unless the OP is a proper entymologist, I doubt that it is a specific yellowjacket species as compared to “bigger than a bee, smaller than a hummingbee, striped yellow-black and stings” which could be any one of a dozen species, some pollinating, some hunting.
Which is why in some areas you are required to call the experts, who can then deal with the species the appropriate way.
I had the same problem last year. I was quite happy to coexist with the yellowjackets, but the nest was about 15’ from my door and they would occasionally sting me for no good reason.
I was about to undertake research to figure out how best to get rid of them, when it was done for me: a skunk dug up and destroyed the nest - presumably as food.
And there’s no need to ignite it, either. I know there are those who will cite pollution issues, but check out the ingredients on the bug killer labels. You’ll find they’re just as bad.
Seconded! And it doesn’t take very much, either. A cup full should do the trick nicely.
I would suggest that you have a shovel full of dirt ready to cover the hole, after you pour in the gas.
I don’t know what they are called, but I get these smoke bomb things from my hardware store that are basically gunpowder (only made weaker and with sodium nitrate, instead of potassium), that are intended for moles, chipmunks, etc. My mother had some ground-bees in her garden that were stinging her. I got one of those out.
You light them, shove them in the hole, plop a shovelful of dirt over the whole thing and that’s it. In this case, run like hell. They usually have more than one hole, and they swarm. I got stung. The whole forearm still itches, three weeks later.
The good thing is that the toxic smoke it produces rapidly weathers into chemicals that are actually good for the plants. They thrive afterward in soil that had the treatment. No pollution issues.
I didn’t know yellowjackets burrowed in the ground, but it makes sense that they’d want to be that much closer to their lord and master in Hell. No mercy for those bastages.
OTOH, solitary mud daubers bumbling around are your mellow natured, spider eating friends: leave them be.
Yellowjackets get no sympathy from me. They are the only member of the bee tribe I know of that are aggressive and go looking for trouble, rather than just stinging you when directly threatened.
I recently took out a small wasp nest that they’d thoughtfully established right over the door to my shed. A short blast from a leftover can of bee/wasp killer took care of them. I’d have no compunction about using it on a yellow jacket nest, provided they were not active at the time (usually dusk is better) or there was any risk of a highly susceptible (to anaphylactic reactions) individual getting stung.
I can just imagine what contortions one would have to go through to get local yellow jacket protectionists (assuming any exist in the OP’s area) to relocate the nest. Maybe there’s an all-purpose Yellow Jacket-Scorpion-Flesh-Eating Bacteria Defense League that’ll visit your property, assess the situation and advise you to move away to avoid disturbing the balance of nature.
Accept that their existence is purposeful, good, and a acceptable. Yellowjackets are a creature whom I may not understand but I must come to to accept, my fear of possible death, while legitimate, does not give me the right to pre-emptively kill another living creature. We are all put on this earth for a reason; it is not my place to question why or to upset the balance of nature.
Screw nature. Nuke the bastards from orbit. Thanks to them I have an massive doctor bill, a compromised immune system, softball-sized blisters on both legs, my ass and most of my torso, a scary, deep muscle pain I’ve never felt before, and my newest fashion accessory - an epi-pen!
Are you absolutely certain that they’re the aggressive kind?
I ask because I found hundreds of giant yellowjackets nesting in the ground on the side of my house a few weeks back. I started looking into the best way to kill them, but in the process I managed to find out that they were, in fact, Digger Wasps (or, more colloquially, Cicada Killers). It turned out that they’re completely harmless- they just look scary- and they are actually very beneficial in that they keep the cicada population under control.
Like I said, they were completely harmless- I was able to walk right through their nesting area without a single sting. And a few weeks later, they’re now mostly gone, having laid their eggs on the cicadas they dragged back into their burrows.
What about option 3 - call an expert to identify them first? I certainly didn’t say anything about “not questioning or upsetting the balance of nature”; I said that species are protected and have their place, and if they aren’t a danger to you, then why must everything that just looks dangerous be eliminated immediately? Surely there’s a difference between a wasps nest in a kid’s sandbox and one on the edge of a 15 m garden where you can easily keep away?
I also fail to see how it’s the fault of yellowjackets that you have a doctors bill - that’s the fault of your political health system.
If you are allergic to the stings from these, then that’s a very different issue, an exception.
But then I wouldn’t go near the nest for the extermination, either: call somebody competent and let them handle it, because if anything goes wrong, you’ll get stung again. ( I just watched a short segment where they showed an exterminator at work getting rid of wasps in people’s garden, and he cheerfully told of how many people burned down their garden sheds by trying fire, either with a flame-thrower or with gasoline, when he had a proven and safe powder, experience and knew what he was doing.
I did this about four years ago in my back 40 - didn’t need bitey-stingy-bug experts to tell me the wasps stung, they nailed one of my dogs. Luckily she didn’t have an allergic reaction but she was covered in stings after running over the nest while I was throwing a frisbee for her.
I covered it with dirt, then took the opportunity to clear all the sticks and twigs on my property. Lit a small bonfire on top of the nest, didn’t burn down any sheds, didn’t cost me a penny, cleaned-up yard and no more wasps.
And I’m the sort who carefully carries spiders and moths outside and generally dislikes killing bugs, but mosquitoes, fleas and wasps that attack my little dog
get nuked, burned, poisoned, whatever works.
I know there are those who will cite pollution issues, but check out the ingredients on the bug killer labels. You’ll find they’re just as bad.