Bleg: Wasps
I have them. The are obviously forming a nest in my attic. They’re coming in from the outside awning where they wriggle through the some of the space between it. Ordinarily, I’d just wait until dark, spray it and knock it down. But there is a particular level of difficulty here. See, the wasps are in the furthest corner of my attic from the entrance. So, if I went through the attic to spray them and pissed them all off, I’d be hard pressed to make it to the exit while navigating the support beams in the attic without getting stung all to hell. Now, you say, Just attack them from outside at the awning. Trouble with that is that this particular spot where they are is, at a guess, thirty feet off the ground. So, different problem but similar. Get up there, spray them, piss them off, then try to haul ass down the ladder without getting stung all to hell. And I can’t reach their nest from the outside.
Any ideas?
April 10th, 2009 at 8:47 am
I had a particular nasty nest right under my back porch a few years back. Was about the size of a basketball.
I waited until dusk, then suited up in full motorcycle gear: leather jacket, gauntlets, chaps and even my full face helmet. A little duct tape around the sleeves and waist to prevent unauthorized entry, and I was wasp-proof.
Slid under the porch on a creeper, spray the HELL out of the nest, then watched with amusement as they bounced off the helmet…
Would be hot as hell in an attic in TN as spring progresses, I would guess…
Otherwise, call in the professionals. We had Terminix come over to kill a bunch of paper wasps that had bored through the wall into our office. That was 6 years ago and they haven’t been back since…
April 10th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Set off one of those aresol bug bombs (like a flea bomb, but they make them for bugs in general) in the attic–you won’t even have to go in there, just set it off at the hatch. That might kill ’em off
April 10th, 2009 at 8:57 am
+1 on the pros….
As an alternative, the home supply stores have gas bombs that work with water. Drop the cannister into the cup, watch it begin to hiss, then get out and stay out for a few hours. I think they learned it from German genocide technology. No flames, nothing but hissing poison gas deadly to buggies.
A few of those at the attic hatch, and then go to the range for the afternoon (Taking any pets and children you like with you). I have no idea if they are powerful enough to take out a wasp nest, but might be worth a try.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:00 am
If you have a six foot folding ladder, they make a spray that will go about 20 feet. Six feet of Uncle plus six feet of ladder + 20 feet < 30 feet. So set up the folding ladder next to the house, Get up there with the spray, and do the deed. There won’t be much down the ladder ass-hauling to be done. I also agree about setting off a bug bomb up there, though I’d get as close as you can while still leaving a relatively easy exit route before setting it off. (The quick retreat, in this case, is to escape the bug bomb, not the wasps).
April 10th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Do it very early AM. Cold nights are best (it slows the little buggers way down). Or as close to cold as you get down there. Cold plus long range spray will do it.
I’ve even gone out (dark thirty in morning) with a plastic bag, slipped it around the nest, pulled it down and stomped the crap out of ’em.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:19 am
I sorta recall a tip for a similar situation that involved using a torch (fire, not flashlight) stuck in the ground – at dusk go up the ladder and spray the nest. The wasps will fixate on the fire and ignore you while you climb down the ladder.
However, with flaming flying things and petroleum-based insect spray maybe it’s cheaper to call the pros after all, especially since the little b*stards will propably survive and reinfest the house after you rebuild.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Either a parachute, or set your house on fire.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:23 am
‘they make a spray that will go about 20 feet’
They lie. I tried.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Nuke the site from Orbit…it’s the only way to be sure!
April 10th, 2009 at 9:32 am
The Raid Wasp spray lets you hose them down from a good distance – I had a nest at the peak of the roof that I sprayed from ground level. One story house – actually raised ranch but this peak was at the end so outside I was standing at floor level.
It’s the black can – Wasp & Hornet killer. Hose ’em down from a distance and make a discreet retreat for a hour or so. The imprecision at long range is actually good because you make the area around the entrance toxic as well so as they go in and out they coat themselves in toxins which they carry inside the nest.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:34 am
+1 on the motorcycle gear if you have it. Just make sure it’s sealed up good so they can’t sneak in.
Have any beekeepers in your area? I’d imagine one of the suits they use when robbing bees would work for wasps too.
Or you could just call the pros and save yourself the stress.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:57 am
+1 on the Raid spray. It’s maybe 10-12 feet effective (20 feet downhill with a tailwind) but if as said before you get them on a cold morning that should be enough.
Also LEAVE the nest up. Would you go into a house that smelled like death and you could tell a mass murder happened there? Neither do wasps. Strange but true, if you knock it down they may rebuild in the same spot.
April 10th, 2009 at 9:57 am
“Any ideas?”
Suck it up and just do it.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Just one suggestion for what NOT to do. Don’t try anything involving rubbing alcohol and fire to try and burn them out. Friend of mine tried that in his shed last summer. Ended up setting his arms and I think part of his chest on fire. He’s ok now, but was hurting pretty bad for awhile there.
That aside, the Raid wasp spray is pretty good, now that I have seen others mention it. I’ve used it before in the past with success.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:30 am
I’ve used a shopvac with the longest extension I could assemble – prop the end of the extension about an inch or so away from the entrance hole, and run it for a couple of days (I shut mine down at night) – as they enter and exit, they get sucked into the cannister. Some folks suck up a cup or so of cornstarch, which is supposed to kill them if they haven’t expired from the trip down the hose.
Good luck…
Dan
April 10th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Simple, call your congressman and have them pass a law against unauthorized use of a private residence by a wasp. Based on lib’s reasoning that oughta fo it.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Man up
April 10th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Bug bomb. It’s really fun to roll a hissing can at them like a CS canister.
April 10th, 2009 at 11:18 am
+1 on the vacuum. You could put together some 2″ PVC pipe to reach the entry (with a couple of “t” joints near the top to make a “spreader bar” it would be stable). It won’t destroy the nest but if all the wasps are gone that is a pretty safe operation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CY9vuj2nwM
April 10th, 2009 at 11:22 am
I wonder if there’s poison bait for wasps…
April 10th, 2009 at 11:47 am
There’s sticky bait …
April 10th, 2009 at 11:55 am
I use a wasp trap. Hang it near the nest and load it with either a chemical attractant, or a bit of fruit juice and lunch meat (wasps are attracted to the sugar and protein). The trap is a one way deal, they can get in, but not out.
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Wasp-Trap
April 10th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Related
http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-a-Wasp%27s-Nest
April 10th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Play lots of hip-hop, and raise the prices of Perrier, Izod Lacoste and Topsiders. That should drive them back to New England.
Wait, wrong kind of W.A.S.P.’s.
Nevermind…
April 10th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
well if they don’t like cold, get some dry ice, or some real big cans of that canned air.
or you could go the green route and find the bugs that eat wasps and get some of those
April 10th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Unfortunately for our reading amusement, I don’t think uncle is going to use any of the techniques involving gasoline, a 12 gauge, aerosol cans, and a box of strike-anywhere matches. Be some headline though …
April 10th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
“Either a parachute,…”
No. Listen, Unc: have you ever been in a sit-harness designed for mountaineering?
I’d go at it like that. Rig a rope for a fast rappel after the assault from a ladder. You would need a rope, a harness, a descender (usually a figure-8) and at least one carabiner.
The thing is, of course, that I have gear laying around here and not everybody is that kooky.
April 10th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Skin So Soft (or anything with Citronella in it) will drive them away. Long range application with one of those squirt guns you pump up to pressurize. This works best outdoors but avoids poisons in the house.
Then spray all entrance holes with Skin So Soft. I used to spray the eaves at the roof line every spring to deter them.
April 10th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Been there, done that. If you DIY, you will get stung.
The remedy is tobacco juice on the sting and taking sudafed.
Man, I hate those critters. I got a bunch of Yellow Jackets in a rose bush stump and it took all summer to get rid of them several years back.
Yeah, I got stung.
I was mowing near the stump and all of a sudden it felt like my hat was being tugged off and things were bouncing off my shooting glasses. Then one got my ear and another my wrist above the glove…
I was not amused.
April 10th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Don’t forget the spray foam stuff to plug the whole after you erradicate them so they can’t come back in (that way, anyway). Did you know a BB pistol, pumped 2 times, with no BB in it, will blow them apart at about 5 ft. It’s a fun summer game at our house.
April 10th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Call in the IRA! (Insect Rights Assoc.)
http://www.bloomingtonwebguide.com/insect.htm
April 10th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
1. Get some of that money the .gov is pissing away.
2. Buy a new house and 500 pounds of Tannerite
3. Make sure your camera(s) have fresh batteries
4. ???
5 Profit!!!
April 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I use a trap at the Taj Mahal but it doesn’t get rid of the existing nest. And it will bring in new wasps from the next block over. It will thin the population and reduce the incidence of new nests and the probability of human/wasp interaction.
April 10th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
I pick them up and move them outside. I don’t get stung. I don’t know why. I wouldn’t suggest you do it, but I do.
April 10th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Straightarrow the Wasp Whisperer?
April 10th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
http://www.pestproductsonline.com/products/PCO_Fogger_Total_Release_Bug_Bomb-272-60.html
Just nuke ’em.
April 10th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Forget the pyrotechnics – use the professional approach that takes advantage of wasp behavior. Find the spot where the wasps enter the attic (binoculars, careful observation etc). Once located find a powder insecticide formulation (eg active ingredient permethrin)and apply liberally around the entry site (professionals use a little dust applicator that looks like a perfume sprayer). the wasps crawl thru this on the way to the nest. In the nest the wasps groom each other -they are social insects – and end up consuming the powder – eventually the queen gets a dose and within a few days the colony is done in. My colony last year was bigger than a baskerball by the time I found it. OF course the thrill of the Wasp and Hornet spray adrenaline event (microwave) does provide the thrill of the hunt, but the powder (slow cooker) works quite well.
April 10th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Call an exterminator and let them get stung in your place?
April 10th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Funny but exterminators say no to wasps.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I presume these are paper wasps or hornets, which build the large cylindrical nests kinda like a paper-mache` pumpkin, yes?
Gah. I suppose the ‘kills on contact’ Raid brand that shoots a stream > 10+ feet would do it; it sure works a lot better on the open type nests, such as red wasps or yellow jackets. I’d most assuredly pick a day when the temperature is below 40 degrees, but something tells me you’re running short of those in the near future. Near freezing is even better.
The “Kills on Contact” stuff is exactly that. It knocks them straight down into an agonal death throe. Die, Bug, Die. Dead in seconds. Makes me wonder if there’s an equivalent product we could put in khat and sell to Somali pirates. That shit is slick. If you can stand back enough for the stream to begin to disperse and get the opening, or sweep it across the higher part of an open comb nest, it drips right on down and rips them off by the twistys on their little haids.
I *could* tell you stories of how my grandfather used to handle red wasp and yellowjacket nests in his workshop, but I won’t. You’d get ideas, and I bet your house isn’t made of corrugated tin and steel beams. It did, however, involve a one pound coffee can, volatile aromatic hydrocarbons, Mail Pouch chewing tobacco, and a swirling motion.
Steve in TN is absolutely correct in that a chewing tobacco poultice will reduce the pain and swelling of a wasp sting dramatically, unless, of course you are allergic and anaphylaxis sets in. Then you’re truly screwed, and have brown stains which the paramedics must work through to save your ass.
You might consider selling and moving somewhere else, too. Now you’ve got a reputation in your neighborhood for running a public nuisance of a wasp ranch.
Good luck with that, y’heah?
Regards,
Rabbit.
April 11th, 2009 at 1:57 am
If you have a chimney, anchor a rope there. Then spray the nest and repell
April 11th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
teenager and 20 bucks .. problem solved.
if the first one you find is smarter than average and declines, they’ll know one that will take your offer.
April 11th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
that reminds me .. my uncle owes me 20 bucks….
April 12th, 2009 at 8:00 am
When I was about 12 we had a bushel-basket sized paperwasp nest under an eave of the house. Dad got a cylinder of CO2 and a length of copper tubing, and some heavy welding gloves. He connected the tubing to the hose, and attached the tubing to a 1×2 which he poked into the nest. I turned on the juice, and we froze those sonsobitches. You might be able to ladder up and mount the tubing, and then freeze ’em
April 12th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Companies offering wasp removal services in Knoville, TN:
http://local.pigeonforge.com/s/wasp-removal/knoxville/tn
April 12th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Rivrdog Says:
April 10th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Straightarrow the Wasp Whisperer?
Might just be professional courtesy of one nasty attitude bearing sonofabitch for another.
April 13th, 2009 at 5:43 am
Remember reading about someone getting rid of hornets in their barn using a .22 LR pistol loaded with shot.
Guess to wasps it’s like cannon balls.
“Bug Safari”
April 17th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Getting rid of a wasp nest in your home is NOT a do-it-yourself project. Like trying to take a steak away from a guard dog, it MIGHT turn out alright but it could also turn out very badly. It’s not just that you could stung while you’re in the attic, or while you’re on the roof; but if you seriously disturb the nest, you could drive them into the living area of your house. The way you’ll find out is, you’ll see 50 of them in your living room, looking for someone to sting all to hell.
Call the professionals. It may cost, but it will be worth it.