# What would you do? (Hornet nest) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 10, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474 "2019-08-10T22:15:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/41 "2019-08-12T14:43:19Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > [Last weekend my gf pointed out a hornet nest in a small tree midway between our front door and our garage man door.](https://m.imgur.com/a/mT5q4hO) I immediately wanted to destroy it and its inhabitants, while my gf argued for respectful coexistence and leaving them be. > > So, I’ve since taken a couple of stings (four, but who’s counting?) and my gf has capitulated. Last night I sprayed right into the entrance with wasp/hornet spray. This morning I was surprised to see business as usual. That’s… inexplicable. Raid or Wilson wasp killer should absolutely kill every single wasp in the nest, and every wasp that comes back and lands on it. Was it an old can? That stuff is incredibly effective. The foam stuff works, but honestly it’s not great. Use the liquid and soak it. The results should be 100% death. I’ve wiped out a dozen nests effortlessly. Do not use gasoline for anything except running an engine. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/42 "2019-08-12T15:48:21Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > That’s… inexplicable. Raid or Wilson wasp killer should absolutely kill every single wasp in the nest, and every wasp that comes back and lands on it. Was it an old can? That stuff is incredibly effective. It was a very old can. I used the last of it last night and will pick up a fresh supply today. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/43 "2019-08-12T17:26:54Z")
FWIW, I’ve removed and/or mechanically destroyed lots of wasp nests, and I’ve never been stung doing it, and they’ve never come back. I assume they go rebuild elsewhere, but it’s never been anywhere that was a problem for me. Yes, I’m careful. But wasps don’t associate the person at the end of a long pole or whatever with the end that’s attacking their home. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/44 "2019-08-12T17:46:25Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > It was a very old can. I used the last of it last night and will pick up a fresh supply today. Ah. Yeah, that makes sense. Bug spray has a shelf life. It’s measured in years, but it does go bad. Coexistence with a wasp nest close enough to sting people that many times isn’t possible. I appreciate your girlfriend’s pacifist nature, and I wouldn’t want to go out into the woods looking for insect nests to wipe out, but wasps and hornets that near enough to people to sting them just going about their business around their homes are a menace. They’re dangerous to kids, animals, and of course anyone with allergies (and you can’t know for sure who that is.) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/45 "2019-08-12T18:13:55Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > You could invest in one of [these](https://www.htpow.com/ultra-powerful-laser-pointer-blue-10000mw-class-iv-445nm-p-1028.html), turn it into entertainment. Sit on your porch sipping your beverage of choice while aimint it at the nest entrance. But how are you going to attach to a shark’s head? ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/46 "2019-08-12T18:27:43Z")
Shop vac. Suck em up, nest and all. Make sure there is already dust and debris in the cannister, that will subdue them, they will all be dead the next day and you can empty it out. If they fly at you you just point the hose at em. Environmentally friendly, easy simple. Done it multiple times, no stings. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/47 "2019-08-12T19:39:29Z")
IME, sprays do nothing unless you can totally saturate the nest or get a good long spray directly into the opening. I had a basketball-sized nest hanging under my porch a couple weeks ago. I dressed in a few layers of clothes, with ski-goggles, cowboy hat, and handkerchief across my face. On a cold night I quietly scootched a garbage can directly under the nest, carefully lining it up. I took a long telescoping pool-cleaning pole in one hand, a can of spray in the other, and looking like the world’s worst renaissance fair actor I lanced the nest down scoring a perfect landing into the trash can. I sprayed mad hell all over the porch and inside the can and plopped the lid on. I then turned tail and ran inside, without a single sting. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/48 "2019-08-12T21:38:04Z")
Without using bug spray, you could have dropped the nest early in the evening, staying well away from the cloud of angry wasps, and then put the lid on the can a few hours later when they had gotten cold and calmed down. (I don’t like using bug spray, nor getting close to that cloud of angry hornets.) ---
**Author:** ![Swampwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Swampwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swampwolf)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/49 "2019-08-12T22:28:01Z")
I’ve never tried this, but it seems like it would work. Some people use bug spray and a lighter, and I was thinking “well, he should have a fire extinguisher on hand if he tries that.” But then I realized that just the fire extinguisher might work. The CO2 would be cold enough to induce torpor, and deprive them of oxygen. A 5-10 second blast with the extinguisher, and then a quick Hefty Bag grab might – and I want to emphasize the _might_ – do the trick. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2019, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/50 "2019-08-12T22:52:50Z")
Actually bagging the nest right after attacking it seems risky. The trash can (to be lidded later) seems WAY safer. I mean, I routinely remove small paper-wasp nests from my windows, and I just knock it down, maneuver it into a glass jar, lid the jar, and take it outside. But those are SMALL nests, with maybe a dozen wasps, all of whom I can track as I do my thing. But if you do end up handling a nest, it’s worth knowing that the default direction for the wasps to fly is up and towards light. So, for instance, if you put a glass jar over the nest, and slide something opaque over the mouth of the jar, it won’t take long for the entrapped wasps to be batting against the clear glass, and away from the opaque piece of paper, so you can slip a more solid covering over the mouth. Or, after taking the jar outdoors, you can unscrew the lid with the lid DOWN, so the wasps aren’t close to your hands. Of course, that works better if you have a dozen wasps than if you have a few hundred, because there is some randomness. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/51 "2019-08-13T04:16:55Z")
**Kayaker** – you didn’t happen to have a little ooopsi with a car, the nest, and a nearby house tonight, did you? I caught something on the news and --------- the thought crossed my mind ---------- ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/52 "2019-08-13T05:30:58Z")
Molten aluminum will do for the underground sort of nest, though this doesn’t help Kayaker much! There are lots of hits involving a shop vac for other sorts of nests. It looks like one of them suggested lining the vac with duct tape! ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/53 "2019-08-13T14:00:12Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > **Kayaker** – you didn’t happen to have a little ooopsi with a car, the nest, and a nearby house tonight, did you? I caught something on the news and --------- the thought crossed my mind ---------- Nope. My daughter returned from a trip to the Jersey shore with her fiancée’s family. She came by to pick up her dog. What happened that I missed out on?! ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/54 "2019-08-13T15:39:13Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Call an exterminator. Not only will they get rid of the nest, they can also spray the area with an anti-pheromone so they won’t rebuild. I found this out when I first moved into my current place, and wasps kept building nests under my deck chair and I called the landlord because I figured there was some kind of mother-lode nest somewhere. > > 7 years later, I still haven’t had a re-infestation. I love it when I get a a chance to tell this story. When I signed up for a lawn service several years ago, they knocked on my door and said they refused to trim my bushes in the front yard because there was a hornets nest in one of them. “How bad can it be?” thought I. Well they showed it to me and it was HUGE! It was bigger than a full-sized football. It was close to basketball size, except more oblong. Anyway, there was no way I was going near that thing either; so I called an exterminator. I was expecting a dude to come over dressed in something akin to a hazmat suit to properly remove it. Nope, just some dude in jeans and t-shirt, and a can of wasp spray. He walked over to the nest, found the entrance hold; and just started spraying the crap out of it! Then he shot at a few wasps flying around that were pissed off that their home was gone. After that he kicked it down with his boot, and scooped it into a trash bag. “That’ll be $50.” :eek: It was nothing short of amazing. Best money I ever spent. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/55 "2019-08-13T16:12:26Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Nope. My daughter returned from a trip to the Jersey shore with her fiancée’s family. She came by to pick up her dog. > > What happened that I missed out on?! > **[Jeep Slams Into House, Catches Moon Township Home On Fire](https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/car-crash-into-house-causes-flames/)** > > Police are amazed that a "freak accident" in Moon Township resulted in no injures. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/56 "2019-08-13T16:19:08Z")
Any way to smoke them out? If the nest is up in a tree can you put a weber grill directly below it and burn some greener wood? ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/57 "2019-08-13T16:24:16Z")
The only good hornet/wasp/yellow jacket is a dead one. Use Raid, the one made for destroying nests. It shoots a stream of deadly poison into the hole. You can enjoy yourself watching bodies drop to the ground. Oh, do it at NIGHT, when they are all in there and docile. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/58 "2019-08-13T16:26:01Z")
Sounds like Kayaker has it under control with spray, but I was hoping he’d use the shotgun. Several shots of birdshot would probably decimate the hive and the bees inside. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/59 "2019-08-13T16:52:58Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > [Jeep Slams Into House, Catches Moon Township Home On Fire - CBS Pittsburgh](https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2019/08/12/car-crash-into-house-causes-flames/) OMG that was an amazing event!!! ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474/60 "2019-08-13T17:10:06Z")
I use Onslaught insecticide, it takes a while it’s not a knock down spray but it does the job. I also use it to bait yellow jackets when they start getting aggressive for meat. Last year I must have killed every nest within a quarter mile. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-hornet-nest/838474.md?page=4)