Mangetout 1 Wasps nil

It was an act of brutality against innocent creatures going about their ordinary lives.

It was not particularly friendly to the environment, since it involved a gallon of paraffin(kerosene).

But it had to be done, Mangetout had been pushed to the absolute limit of endurance.

OK, there was a wasp(yellowjacket) nest in the compost heap at my allotment and I couldn’t pick my gooseberries (which are a few yards away) without them attacking me (they want the gooseberries too, you see), so I torched the nest.

I would have sprayed it with insecticidal foam, but there was long grass in the way and all I could see was the entrance hole to their nest, the fire burned away one side of the compost heap, revealing an irregular shaped papery nest structure something like two feet wide by one foot deep. An enormous cloud (I estimate 300 or so) of wasps (presumably individuals which were out foraging when I lit the fire) congregated in the vicinity, acting about as pissed off as it’s possible for wasps to get. It must have been a BIG colony.

But no stings this time (last time I tacked what I thought was a dead nest, the little stripy bastards swarmed out and stung me severely all over).

Tomorrow I will go back and give it the foam anyway, just in case.

This is a duplicate thread; I have no idea how it happened, please could a mod delete it for me, thanks.

Fuck it. Tomorrow, you blowtorch the little buggers, you hear?

I closed the other one, just to be contrary. So nyah.

If I could get hold of a proper milirary flamethrower, I’d use it, but there’s no way I’m going close enough to use a blowtorch.

I thought this thread was about WASPs. Not wasps. You know, white guys with severe inferiority complexes and misused bedsheets. If you interpret the thread that way, it gets even more entertaining :).

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
WASPS!

runs

The little buggers were still there today, so I gave them half the can of foaming insecticide; there appears to be another entrance, so maybe the nest occupied more than one cavity in the heap.

If the foam hasn’t killed them by tomorrow, I’m just going to dump a heap of dry timber on top of the pile and light a massive bonfire.

While not as life-threatening or interesting as your encounter, I myself eliminated the world of many small ants. They were crawling in my room near my desk on the floor. I laid a few traps (they kind where they take the bait back to the nest to kill all the little suckers.) The next day I found out where they were heade…my desk drawer. I don’t know why, I have never put food in there. Oh well, I killed all I saw in the drawer/around it and cleaned it, then put a trap IN there. Heh, let them come back and find THAT. Little bastards. There’s a lot less of them today.

Alas, paper wasps have built a nest under the eave above my front door and I’m too chicken to do anything about it except start entering and exiting my domicile from the rear.

I’m waiting 'til winter kills 'em all.

The best wasp killer ever:

Gum-Out Carburettor cleaner.

No, I’m serious.

Plus, it burns. Really well. :smiley:

Last summer, some bees built a nest on the side of my parents’ garage. Somehow it became my job to get rid of them. I put on jeans, a heavy flannel shirt (this is July or August, mind you), a hat, my leather driving gloves, and a bandanna over my face. With a can of Black Flag Flying Insect Killer in one hand and a can of WD-40 in the other, I stormed the yard, gave 'em both barrels Johnny Woo style, and made a hasty retreat back to the house. It worked, though. By the next day, there were only a few stray bees still around. I finished 'em off with the bug spray.