# On the killing of wasps

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-killing-of-wasps/466501>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 5, 2008, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-killing-of-wasps/466501 "2008-10-05T00:41:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-killing-of-wasps/466501/21 "2008-10-06T14:31:41Z")

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Bees=/= wasps, but for this I am willing to seize upon tenous links…  
[Oh dear lord! Bees!](http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2243176)

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**Author:** ![trupa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@trupa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trupa)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-killing-of-wasps/466501/22 "2008-10-06T15:45:32Z")

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> [@Cat\_In\_A\_Top\_Hat](#):
>
> I’ve recently started using something else, however: my vacuum cleaner. Strap on the hose attachment, sneak up on 'em, and you can suck 'em down with a satisfying _thwack_ before they even know what hit 'em. Quick, clean, and no undue flying around and stinging for spite/in self-defense. .  
> /end

Just make sure to plug your vacuum hose after with a rag or something. If you have a vacuum that uses a bag, the wasps won’t go through the fan to get chopped up, and may wake up a little shaken up, but some pissed off & able to fly & sting, inside you vacuum. Oh, and wasps can chew through paper vacuum bags.

I used my shop-vac to suck up three bumblebee queens this spring that somehow got into our basement looking for a place to start a colony nest. Things were the size of a quarter with wings. You could still hear them buzzing in there after they got sucked in. I used an old T-shirt to plug the hose, and left them to die in there for a few days before I changed the bag. I had thought about spraying insecticide into the running vacuum, but I was afraid the motor might set it off and cause a fuel-air explosion. Had I had some ashes or dry-wall dust, or some other very fine powder, I could have smothered them by sucking it up.

My normally totally unflappable wife was quite freaked out, and visibly scared, which I had never seen before. Never was I made to feel more like a valiant knight mounting his steed to go battle dragons than when I went into that basement. 😃 It’s amazing how much an appeal to male pride can overcome fear. (I have a bit of a a bee/wasp./yellow-black-stingy-insect phobia too)

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**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-killing-of-wasps/466501/23 "2008-10-06T18:52:39Z")

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We’ve had about one colony moving into our yard each summer - for the ground ones, we get that foaming wasp nest eradicator - it has worked fine for us. For the ones that built a nest in our siding and started coming into the house, we used spray-on insulation foam to seal up their outside access to the nest. That seems to have done the trick. We also use cats to combat wasps - my cat apparently has developed a taste for them. 🙂 (She eats the whole bug except the stinger - she’s not the brightest cat ever, but she has her moments.)

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