Turns out I have some of the most enormous hornets on the face of the earth. These mothers have to be about two inches long and I can see the stinger on his fat ass.
Do hornets build nests underground? I have been seeing a small pile of dirt on my front lawn with a small entryway. I thought this was a beetle’s or spider’s nest at first, but now I think these hornets are the squatters.
So how do I kill them? They must suffer mercilessly. I tried drowning them tonight but who knows if these guys can breathe underwater? If I see his humble abode rebuilt tomorrow after work, its time to wipe them out before come after me.
Are there any Hornet Weapons of Mass Destruction out there?
Gasoline. At 2.56 a gallon, its not cheap, but worth it.
Pour gasoline in the hole (pour as much as you want, really, but i would suspect a pint would be more than enough) and do not ignite. Thus will end the life of those pointy-assed bugs.
The OP might want to check the local laws about that. I know I wouldn’t want my neighbor dumping gasoline into the water table.
When we had these growing up we just maintained the lawn better - spreading fertilizer and watering more often so that the grass was fuller and thicker made them go away.
I also have to second the notion of checking with your local laws. One of the neighbors to the beach lot in our neighborhood did attempt to burn out a nest of hornets/wasps/bees/yellowjackets (or whatever they were), and got a rapid visit from the PD, FD, and DEP (Dept of Env Protection). Along with a big fine. Granted this was close to the water, and very visible. They moved later that year.
Maybe one of the “bug” types can chime in, but I believe that technically, “true” hornets are Old World bugs. Some probably live in the New World as the descendants of stowaways, though. Most of what are commonly called “hornets” in the US are actually more closely related to yellow jackets, which are members of the wasp (family?). I’m not a bug expert, and I’m basing that on memory, so anyone a little more informed feel free to get me straight.
Well, I’m not one of the “bug” types, but I am interested in this topic because my husband got attacked by some angry wasps on Sunday, and we were wondering what the difference was, too.
It appears that hornets are indeed a variety of wasp, according to this and this.
I also wanted to issue a friendly warning to anyone who attempts to kill a hornet/wasp. As with bees, some people are allergic to wasps, and their stings can be deadly if you are allergic. Not that you want them to bite you anyway (I was bitten once … felt like someone hit me in the leg with a baseball bat.), but this is a really good reason to stay away. In this case, watch your step in particular!
You should be able to find wasp/hornet killer at your local hardware or grocery store. Drops them dead in their tracks. Of course, some may prefer not to use chemicals, so YMMV.
If in fact a cicada killer wasp is what you have, and your lawn grass isn’t in any danger from burrows, perhaps you might consider simply leaving it alone? We have had a cicada killer resident in our front yard every summer for the 20 years we’ve lived in this house, and we’ve never had any trouble with it. If one flies up to you, just stand still and give it a couple of seconds to establish to its own satisfaction that (a) you are not a tree, and (b) you harbor no cicadas on your trunk, and then it will fly away. Back when my kids were preschoolers, and we used to spend summer afternoons having tea parties on the front porch, a visit from our Big Bug was about an every-other-day occurrence. We just sat still while he made a couple of loops around our persons, and then he always zoomed off immediately.
But they are bigass noisy bugs, ain’t they? Scary-lookin’. But just tell yourself how much of a dent they’re making in the local cicada population, doing their own small bit to keep down the noise levels coming from your trees…
Is there any reason why boiling water wouldn’t work? That’s the way we always dealt with bad ant burrows, and it works fine without leaving any harmful residue. Might kill the grass right where you pour it, but from what you say it sounds like that spot is already dead anyway.
Scary-lookin’. But just tell yourself how much of a dent they’re making in the local cicada population, doing their own small bit to keep down the noise levels coming from your trees…