What does the nest they’re trying to build look like? Are you sure they’re not just mud daubers?
I have a nest of yellowjackets between the inner and outer windows of my house, up near the top where it doesn’t open. They don’t seem to get into the house, but they freak me out. The space between the windows is abougt 2 inches, so I’d have to stick my hand all the way up in there, but if I do that, I’m opening the window so the bastards can get in.
Would you guys just leave it there or should I make the effort to exterminate the little brutes?
Anecdote alert!
When I was a kid, about 12 years old, I noticed one of these about 10-12 feet up in a tree a few houses up the street. Paying keen attention, my little brother, about 8 at the time and I noticed black and white ‘bees’ around the are of the nest. Looking it up for this post, I now know these are baldfaced hornets.
Boy being boys, we did what any kids our age would do: we threw rocks at the nest. The hornets didn’t care for this and literally swarmed from the nest in a black cloud and headed right for us…We went running home for mama.
Again, boys being boys, we too the normal course of action: we did it again about a half hour later, yeilding similar results. We kept this up for a few days, actually punching some holes in and tearing some chunks from the basketball-sized egg-shaped nest. Several times, each of us felt the hornets flying into us and in* our hair* as we ran for our lives back home. Eventually, our luck ended and my little brother was badly stung about a half inch from one of his eyes. It swelled completely shut and he missed several days of school. My mother went over and asked the elderly neighbor on whose property the nest was for permission to dispose of the nest. The neighbor agreed.
Having heard this, I decided to take matters into my own hands. That night, I found a very long pole (maybe electrical conduit?) and wrapped the end with some gauzy cloth. I then sprayed the cloth with about a half a can of hairspray, grabbed a lighter and headed to the sting-site. My mother, I guess curious to see what would happen, made a half hearted attempt to stop me and followed me over there. She informed neighbor who readied a hose in case the fire got out of control. I lit the cloth and shoved the burning torch into the entrance of the nest. The paper caught fire right away and was brightly burning within a few seconds. Other neighbors came out to see what was going on. Hundreds of inch long hornets flew out of the fireball, most on fire themselves. Actually, it was surprising how far a flaming hornet can fly before it drops to the ground AND how beautiful this slow motioned firework display was to watch. The watching neighbors cheered and I was a neighbornood hero for the rest of the year.
Anyway, this is obviously not a good idea because of the fire and stinging hazards but it worked for me. Don’t try this yourself!
We have several species of social wasps here in the UK, but by far the most common is Vespula Vulgaris (and the very similar German Wasp - Vespula Germanica), which build a spherical nest in dry places such as roof voids, sheds and burrows left by rabbits. Nests commonly range from foot(soccer)ball size upwards and produce ten to fifteen thousand individuals in the course of a season (not all at once). The nests are strictly annual, but in exceptional cases, when weather conditions are ideal, food and building materials are abundant and the nesting site is large, dry and undisturbed, colonies can truly thrive and can, in the course of a single summer, grow to enormous sizes, several feet in diameter.
As it turns out, the term ‘yellowjackets’ in the USA doesn’t appear to refer to a single species, but rather several (or perhaps any) species of the family Vespula, including V Vulgaris
I was attacked by a swarm of wasps when I tried to remove an apparently-dead nest I had previously sprayed - it broke open and I was stung many times (stupidly, I was only wearing shorts and a T shirt) - I went into a state of near collapse and was in a very uncomfortable hot sweat for half a day.
‘Hornets’, in the UK, build smaller nests with just a few dozen individuals, but the insects themselves are very large (up to a couple of inches long and looking almost exactly like a perfectly scaled-up version of a common wasp) - my experience has found them to be very aggressive and very very difficult to kill (my wife attacked the last one we had in the house with a thick mail-order catalogue and it was still alive, although stunned and thoroughly pissed off, after a dozen or more frnzied blows).
Entomologists often seem to claim that they aren’t aggressive unless provoked, but I think there’s a bit of misunderstanding here (on the part of both the humans and wasps) - I happen to consider aggressive the act of attempting to land on my face - even though the the wasp may not at that point have any immediate intention of stinging. I also think wasps can often interpret seemingly innocent human acts - such as merely being in close proximity to their nest or food source - as provocation or attack. In any case, they rarely try to settle a dispute or misunderstanding by means of diplomacy.
We had a nest of baldfaced hornets (same as jinglmassiv) and I read the descriptions which indicated that they typically aren’t agressive if left alone. It also said that in the fall, the queen finds a nook in a tree and the rest of the colony dies off, and that they don’t return to the same location. My strategy was to get rid of it in the fall.
I first noticed it in mid July when it was smaller than a football. A month later it was the size of a basketball. There was lots of activity, but the hornets were never interested in anything we were doing. The nest is now gone.
I awoke at 4AM to hear some odd vocal grunts outside our bedroom window (backyard and tree with nest). I look and see a mother raccoon and 3 babies (babies may not be the right word, they looked almost full-grown). The mother was out on the branch and knocking parts of the nest out of the tree to the kids. The grunting I heard was the stings inside their mouths as they ate the hornets. I took a look at the half decimated nest in the morning…paper strewn about the yard and hornets trying to regroup. The raccoons finished the job the next morning. I have pictures if someone wants to host them.
There’s your answer, get a raccoon. Perhaps smearing the nest with bacon fat would attract the 'coons. 
I saw something similar to what jnglmassiv did–A woman spraying a huge nest with gasoline, then throwing a burning branch at it. The nest caught fire and all the little flaming yellowjackets flew out. It was amazing. She turned on her hose when the tree started burning, and the problem was solved.
Every summer I walk around our house and spray those damn nests. I probably sprayed a dozen of them this year alone. Some pointers:
-
Nests can be hard to find. So if you see a yellow jacket or wasp during the daytime, watch it. If you watch it long enough, it will eventually go to its nest.
-
The best time to spray the nest is at night. Of course, you have to already know where the nest is. See #1.
-
Definitely use “wasp and hornet” spray. There are two kinds: regular and foaming. You can spray the regular stuff farther (up to 20 feet). But I prefer the foaming spray, as it prevents most of the wasps (or whatever) from flying toward you after being sprayed.
-
No matter what kind of spray you use, don’t stand around after spraying the nest! Run at least 100 feet away immediately after spraying.
This is probably a stupid idea but could you possibly flood the gap with water and drown 'em?
Really, this is very good advice; when the nest is attacked, wasps sometimes seem to just say ‘fuck it, let’s sting everything’ - on the occasion I mentioned earlier, the wasps flew out of the nest and quite abruptly landed on anything they could find and began trying to sting; I saw (in the half second before I reacted and ran away, flailing my arms) quite a lot of them fruitlessly pressing their stingers against other objects in the vicinity, such as a lamp post, fence panels and the dropped spray can.
The problem is, the wasps are attached to the top of the window, in the gap between the outer and inner panes. The space between these panes is about 3 inches, but the wood that holds the glass in place on the bottom blocks it off until there’s only 1.5 inches of space. I can’t get my hand in there by a long shot, and not much of the spray will ge through either. I don’t want a swarm of those bastards in my house, either. :mad: I don’t know what to do. I’ve just left the window closed, and luckily, it hasn’t been very hot here this summer.
It may not be necessary to physically spray them directly; most household fly and wasp killer sprays can clear a room of insects just by spraying into the air for a few seconds, then vacating the space and closing the door; this might work for you.
I would not recommend leaving them there, you could end up with a hell of a problem, with them burrowing in further into the wood. You also have to be careful with spraying, if you are not completely successful it can cause them to dig deeper in. My advice is to get an exterminator. I just had one come a couple weeks ago to get rid of a wasps nest in a particularly bad position that I’d already used two cans of raid on. 20 minutes later, problem solved. The $75 CDN was well worth it.
Yes, Ruby, spray them. Shoot some wasp & hornet spray in there, and then close it back up real quick.
Although I am in general a “do-it-yourselfer”, the last time I had a hornet/yellow jacket problem I took the cowards way out and hired the pros. The exterminator guy took a few stings, and any follow up was covered in the original contract. He had to come back twice (no extra charge) and the problem is over now.
Don’t forget the noise you’re supposed to make while you’re running and flailing: “WOOAARRAAAAWWOOOOOAAAAA”
(I killed a nest a couple of weeks ago. Little fuckers.)
I think thats how they capture rattlesnakes, not sure about wasps.
Declan
Yes. Absolutely right. This is the solution. Be sure to get the very nastiest stuff you can find. Gumout Fuel Injector Cleaner is about as vile as any commercially-available aerosol can be. I have personally seen a mechanic throw up while using it and have to be pulled away from the bellhousing he was cleaning.
Oh yeah, make sure there is no one in the area that doesn’t know you’re doing this. The trick is to make sure you can make a terrifically quick getaway from this. There’s no insect born that can catch up to a human at full sprint, especially an insect that has just been internally incinerated by the most poisonous stuff Autozone sells. Make sure to get a decently long blast into the nest (one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, RUN LIKE HELL!) and then have a pre-set, preferably downhill and straight, getaway path.
Ok, it’s late. I told you to use the wrong Gumout product. You want the Carb and Choke Cleaner - the injector cleaner is not currently available as an aerosol.
Well, really my landlord should pay for it, but he won’t because he’s a :wally , so I have to try spraying them first. I guess I’ll wait until nighttime and do it. It’s a pretty big nest, about the size of a fist. I’m not looking forward to this. Will let you know how it goes, if I live to tell the tale.