Not to worry about the clothing. We do the clothing, believe me. Once you’ve been chased, and stung multiple times, it makes you really jumpy about wasps. We are all very, very jumpy about wasps (dogs included). We ain’t casual. We plan our attacks like you fall a big tree.
This is not a small or even average-size nest. We’ve done what would take out one of those, three times over. We’ve only reduced the population.
We are preparing our arsenal.
Shotguns and/or fire were never options. We’re stupid enough to live out here but we’re not that stupid.
cue “Ride of the Valkeries”
I’m thinking a tarp, some baking soda and vinegar. or block it in wood and make a 2 x 4 swimming pool assuming you have a hose.
I wonder if it would help to tack down some screening with tent stakes or something before starting to pour more stuff down the holes? Maybe the vibration from tacking it down would just agitate them. Dunno. Just throwing it out there.
Make sure to dig it up and take pics after the genocide!
I’ll make up a solution on the fly
Buy a roll of patio door screening, lay it over the nest, weigh it down with boards or bricks, sealing the edges.
Fill a large pot with water, get it boiling
Pour water on nest, repeat as necessary. Don’t take the screen off.
If they come out, and are trapped under the screen, judiciously apply a shovel to the outside of the screen, while screaming “Die you Bastards!”
I like the idea with the glass jars over the entrances. Simple, involves no chemicals, and pretty safe. If they have another entrance/exit you don’t know about, then you’ll see them coming in/out of that one, too, and you can put a jar there, as well. They’ll be forced to use that 3rd exit if you block the other two, which will make it easy to find.
I’d find a way to fix the jars solidly in place so the wind doesn’t blow them over.
I was just going to recommend this. Propane fuel-air explosion, just like the military uses. Now in your backyard!
Not a good idea to hammer anything down near the entrance.
Maybe on a very, VERY cold night.
But probably not. Sensitive and spiteful about vibrations near the nest, the bastards are, in my previous experience (only about 6 stings around the face).
Hey, OP, any chance we can get action pics?
I also grew up in North Texas, where yellow jackets were those obnoxious, violent wasps that hovered over the pool whenever you went to swim. Flicking them with water always had the opposite from the intended effect.
As a side question: WHY are these fucking wasps (or bees or whatever their demon spawn selves are officially designated as) SO damned aggressive? They are aggressive everywhere. Its not just around their nests, which I can understand…but they are aggressive as shit when alone around a pop can in a picnic garbage can, at the pool, etc…what drives their aggressive behavior?
Is there any wasp porn we can show them to slow them down? WTF is up with these aggressive hornets? I can’t stand them and try to kill them at every opportunity when they start fucking with me. A baseball cap is a great weapon against solitary members of this species for knocking them onto the ground, then you can step on them with a satisfying crunch of chitin and bee guts. Hate these things.
Actual action pics unlikely as the last time I was the one holding the flashlight while my SO sprayed, they made a straight line for the light. Not risking even a flash (yes I know they don’t see red light – now).
Happy to dig up the nest for the post mortem though.
After reading all of these it makes me wonder if you could just put a 5 gallon bucket full of hot water near the hole. Then put several huge chunks of dry ice in it and let the suffocating fog just flow out of the bucket and down into the nest. (My guess is that it either A:wouldn’t actually go down the hole or just disolve too quickly into the air to do much good. Come to think of it doesn’t CO2 tend to piss off hymenopterans?)
Probably; what doesn’t?
A very special episode of COPS
Cop (as dash cam rolls) What the heck? Another night in redneck country I guess…
Cue the flashing blue lights. Sanford and son pickup truck dragging a bush tied to the back bumper pulls over.
Cop approaches pickup. Sir, you need to roll down your window.
No.
Cop. Are you drunk?
No.
Cop. Again sir, you really need to roll down this window. And why are driving around with a bush tied to your bumper in the middle of the night?
Hell no I ain’t rolling down the window. And you’ll see why!
Cop starts swatting, dancing, and cursing.
Pickup truck peels off back down the highway into the darkness.
When I was a kid, we had wasps/hornets living in a stone wall in our backyard. They had a single entry/exit.
One weekend my dad got up early and wheeled a large propane bottle to the wall. He propped the business end securely and lit it so that the flame was shooting up over the hole.
All morning they flew out one at a time, flying through the flame and toasting. There was a nice pile of roasted wasps on the ground. Tres cool.
The things I missed not having a father…
I proposed something similar once and was laughed out of the room.
That is some classic Racid Crabtree shit right there.