:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
And I thought you were a really cool guy.
shudder
They’re cute. I had one for a pet briefly when I worked at a state park. It flew into the little booth I was in and drank sprite out of a bottle cap. As long as you leave them alone, wasps are no problem. Just as nice as spiders. 
sputters But-but-spiders have a use! Wasps are just big bullies!
We went with professionals when we had a 12-foot x 1 foot beehive in our exterior wall of our old house. They found it, removed it, and told us what to do to keep them from coming back. And I don’t think we paid over $100 for the whole job. I was very happy with the results.
Both brown wasps and dirt daubers.
Yep. They seem to go dormant right about twilight time, and don’t emerge until ten minutes after sweat.
I was going to recommend a soap and water solution, but I never thought of using a Super Soaker to do it. Good idea. It’s also better for the environment. Pesticides are lethal chemicals that can linger for weeks.
I once saw someone use another “old fashion” approach: Dip a stick in gasoline, lit it on fire, and throw it at the nest. She got a direct hit, and the thing went up in flames. Have a fire extinguisher handy, and call all the neighbors so they can witness it.
WD-40 can also be used to kill one or two that are bothering you.
Possibly, although the definition of ‘leave them alone’ is far too broad for most people;
Want to actually eat that jam sandwich? - you can’t - the wasp saw it, now the wasp owns it. Leave the wasp alone to eat his sandwich.
Want to sit in a deckchair in your garden? - sorry, you can’t, because you’re a mammal and mammals near the nest are just a potential threat; maybe after they’ve stung you, you’ll move away and leave them alone.
Sorry, but the hymenoptera definition of ‘leave alone’ just excludes too much of what I happen to consider normal human activity. I acknowledge that wasps are just part of nature, but unfortunately, they’re just part of nature that we sometimes need to control destructively and pre-emptively in order to make our own lives comfortable.
I agree, like “standing in the loft of my barn”.
They are, like everyone else just trying to make a living, but so are copper heads in the pump house. 
Advice:
Kill them quickly; do not piss them off en masse.
Question:
I’ve heard that mud daubers cannot sting, but I’m not brave enough to test it.
Also, a spray-bottle with soap and water kept on the deck can be useful. Once you’ve knocked a wasp out of the air with it, be sure to actually crush the little bugger a ways away from the porch. With luck, you’ll be able to get a swarm of them going after the pheremones released by dying wasp, and your kill rate will increase exponentially. Also, I’ve had lots of fun using bananas as bait.
Yes, I enjoy wasp-hunting. Why do you ask?
Don’t test it. They can sting. The “dirt daubers” or “mud daubers” feed on spiders, usually; several times in my life I have killed the wasps, and then used a stick or something similar to destroy their nest (which is a vertical tube of dirt on a wall or other surface). Sometimes they have dozens of spiders tucked away in there for food. They kill/anesthetize the spiders by stinging them.
There’s an insect that looks similar to a dirt dauber, although it’s usually larger. I have no idea what it’s called, but as far as I know it doesn’t sting. It can bite, which is semi-painful, but nothing like a wasp sting.
Cackle shrilly while you’re doing it, and then squeal like a girl and run away when they turn on you.
Other than that, I got nothin’.
After trying in vain for years to get rid of our stinging friends, we’ve finally thrown in the towel and co-exist harmoniously with them. We do have to warn all guests to stay away from a certain spot on the deck, but it’s a small price to pay for peace.
They build under the deck, you see, so to kill them you have to crab crawl under the deck, spray them, and then hope to hell you can get out of there before they realize you tried to Agent Orange them while they slept. Wasps have no sense of humor.
They always build in the same place, so we’ve finally decided that as long as we know where they are, we can avoid major skirmishes. Of course, I’ve never been stung by them and none of my family suffers from anap…uh, is allergic to them.
If you can’t beat 'em, join 'em, I say.
Anaphylactic shock is not pretty. What you need to do is kill the queens, so the don’t build nests in the first place. Petrol (sprayed, not lit) is a better killer than soapy water.
I just realized we have a few monster-sized hornets (approximately 3" long and a 1/2" wide) visit my place last night. One little bugger actually flew into my hair while I was having a smoke on my balcony.
I do have to say that I am not brave enough to go after these little monsters with soapy water or a hand towel. I am sticking with chemical warfare until they stop twitchin’.
tonight, I hunt.
I know. I’m not going to gather an army of PETA members and hover outside Liberal’s house or anything, though it would be funny if I could get them to loudly protest around the wasps nest.
I understand why people hate them and I know that they need to be killed and their nests destroyed. If there was one near my house, I’d likely do the same.
Film at eleven.
Well, that might kill two, er, birds with one stone. So to speak.
Here’s some info on finding, dealing with, and eradicating wasps and similiar nasties, including how to make a water trap out of a 2 litre bottle.
As for outdoor cats (always a hot button topic), while they can be odious in urban and suburan areas where they prey on sparse natural species, they can be beneficial in limiting the rodent population in areas as long as they aren’t allowed to propagate all out of proportion. Woe is the barn owner who doesn’t have a wiley cat. I hope Pretty Black Girl continues to do well.
Stranger