Year after year we get a ton of these nasty critters around. I usually leave them alone until they start zapping me.
Then its all out war. These 20 foot spray bomb's do a great job but really provide no residual and they keep coming back!
Went to our local farm Agway and the gent there knows his stuff. Although Agway has their own brand, he never pushes it and always gives me a straight up answer.
His comment's were, .... out of all the bug chemicals they sell, Sevin Dust is the most popular by a far margin. According to him, its able to kill and or repel a lot more insects than what's shown on the label.
I've used it before and it is a bit unsightly on plants, but it does work! So 2 area's that were loaded with these bad boys got heavily dusted. (my chimney and storage shed)
Well, I don't know if it killed them off but they are gone and have been so for over a few weeks now. Pretty much everything else I tried was a no go. Probably spent $50. on spray with poor results and I container of Sevin dust for 8 bucks did the trick.
Are other area's plagued with these things or am I just one of the lucky ones?
Just curious, .. Lou
Hi Lou —
We have yellow jackets, 🐝 wasps, and meat bees.
Some years are less, some more —
We did everything including pesticides — but this is the real deal — cheap, simple, effective, safe for other insects and animals:
https://www.harborfreight.com/fatal-funnel-wasp-and-hornet-traps-94139.html
We also use the pre-made traps that are sold at feed stores and hardware stores. They are effective, but this little simple deal from Harbor Freight is scary in its effectiveness.
Within 24 hours, we will have an inch of drowned yellow jackets — which is about 300.
We put 3 or 4 of these around our house — no more problems.
Part of the issue with poisons, and pesticides is the collateral kill of other good insects like butterflies 🦋. Plus, other birds eat the dead guys and die. Sevin is effective — but when you read the label, it is very dangerous to people, animals, pets, birds, and other insects.
Just use orange soda, sugar water, grape soda, meat bits — and the issue is gone.
And a 2 liter soda bottle.
We will get 1200 to 1500 stinging guys within a week.
Best,
Fred
We have them all over here when doing vegetation management in the foothills. The nests are underground and are a real problem if you step on one. We use a product contianing pyrethrin in a power backpack sprayer mixed with 5 gals of water. It allows you to keep a safe distance while soaking the ground with material. Pyrethrin breaks down quickly and is labeled organic as we're limited by the environmental laws.
For long term control around the house I use a product contianing pyriproxfen which is an insect growth regulator. It works on any insect by interrupting it's life cycle so eggs don't hatch and so forth. It works really well for insects that live in colonies but it takes time for the colonies to die out from old age. Since it only affects insects it's a very safe product unless off course you're a bug. You might check if it's available in a bait form for yellowjackets. It would take care of the nests from the area without having to track them down. The downside is it takes time.
Alot to be said for the traps too but you only get the ones that are out foarging which is a good start. There's the instant gratification factor of seeing them meet their demise also.
I've wondered if the reason they are so aggressive in the late summer is that they are drunk from feeding on overripe, fermenting fruit.
Lou: As a small time farmer (Hobby) I can say 7 works however I comes with some drawbacks. I will burn blossoms off of other plants and it is not safe to breath in the dust or get it on your skin. So be careful with handling it. I was devolved for standing corn crop to rid the corn of ear worms.
Joe
Getting my house re roofed this week, I went up last Thursday morning to disconnect my old swamp cooler. The damn bees had moved in and as soon as I stuck my arm in to disconnect the power. What the little buggers got me. I was in a pretty good mood so I only killed every bee I could find. Then I sprayed everything and noticed they were starting to swarm my chimney. The little buggers were setting up shop inside my chimney too. So that got a good spraying also. Haven't seen one in a few days so maybe I got them, maybe not.
Thank you all for the suggestions. I don't mind them as long as they're not stinging me or anyone else around the house.
Agreed Joe, none of these pesticides are great but they were really starting to be a pain and Sevin worked.
Fred, thanks for the heads up and I'll give the Harbor freight traps a try. Simple enough and no pesticides, how can you beat that.
Thanks, .. Lou
I have carpenter bees in my garden. You can here them coming. They sound like a buzz saw and they will buzz you and chase you away. I just spray them with water so not to kill them. They pollenate so i just get out of their way.
Mike
About the only nuisance wasp we have is a paper wasp. It's marked much like a yellow jacket but with more yellow and less brown. Supposedly, they help control caterpillars, but they're too aggressive towards people to let them stay around. Finding the nest is the hard part, but a quick spray with WD-40 will immobilize the workers. They can't fly once oil gets on their wings. You can even shoot them out of the air if necessary. The ones that escape the WD-40 seem to abandon the nest and move on.
-steve
let's try not to put them all out, those work very hard to give us a better life.
Sal
Wasps and yellow jackets are usually looking for water to build nests so I put out a basin of water with some dish washing soap. In a few days you'll have a bowl full of dead bees.
The big problem was they were close to my flowers and plants and very aggressive. I couldn't get near anything to water.
On the days that I go fishing, Gracie does the watering and definitely don't want her getting stung.
I was getting a piece of lumber near my shed for my neighbor the other day and got nailed pretty good. I usually let them be as long as they're not stinging me.
I have a pretty large piece of property in farm country and enjoy living with and seeing a lot of different things. Its only necessary to take action when things are causing harm or damage.
Had a critter come out of the ground the other day and it was huge. Kind of an orange color and between a hornet and a wasp but 3 times the size. Nothing I'd be willing to mess with!
Thanks for the comments and suggestions, .. Lou
Lou, I wonder if that big one you saw was a tarantula hawk? It's a solitary wasp that preys on tarantulas. We have them here,there huge. goggle it,an impressive creature.
Lou & others, I have a large piece of property which has a barn and 3 stables and also a now wood shed. I have encountered ground bees,Hornets,and Yellow Jackets and Carpenter bees.
They all will sting except Carpenter Bees, First of all My wife and I have been been attacked by swarms of ground bees and yellow jackets. That's not pretty to see your wife surrounded by stinging bees. I know as a farmer how important bees are to pollination, and most of them go about there business doing what the do best. Making Honey or pollinating.
When it comes to Hornets,Yellow Jackets and Carpenter bees..............I draw the line. I control them because like Lou said I want to protect my wife from getting stung and as far as carpenter bees I don't know what you guys have but I know they do damage wood barns. I have traps that control them.
I hope this explanation is not misinterpreted to be argumentative. It's not it is the plain and simple truth.
Joe
I'm with you Joe. We have four horses in my son's barn but the two large jumpers are leased out for now.
We don't want a 17-3 hand Hanoverian going nuts from a bee sting.
I also have small automatic water trays mounted on the fences that get used often but when we have hurricanes and lose power I set out a large water tub and put about a capfull of vegetable oil which keeps mosquitos from laying eggs.
Quote from: STRIPER LOU on September 03, 2018, 12:56:09 PM
Had a critter come out of the ground the other day and it was huge. Kind of an orange color and between a hornet and a wasp but 3 times the size. Nothing I'd be willing to mess with!
Thanks for the comments and suggestions, .. Lou
That might have been a Cicada Killer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecius_speciosus They look scary like a wasp but they're harmless. There's been a lot of them around lately do to the number of cicadas (what some call locusts but they're really not a locust).
We control all manner of bees and flying insects with hanging traps. Homemade from 2 ltr pop bottles and baited with bacon or lunch meat for the bees and milk or yogurt for the horse and face flies.
The meat bees in our area can be very dangerous , putting a man in the hospital from just 5 or 6 bites.
My son Dylan when he was 16 or so set 4 traps in the spring , he was counting at first but within a week was keeping score by volume. In one month he had killed a full 2 gallons of meat bees. We don't have nearly the problem we used to have , but I follow his lead and set and maintain about 8 - 10 traps from early spring to fall.
No pesticides and I can be outside and work all day without being stung .
P S
I just came down from Wishon lake for the long weekend .
Friday afternoon we had horrible bee problem. Couldn't be outside the tent or car without being harassed .
Poured out 2 Gatorade bottles and made 2 traps , within 1 hour , a huge improvement , and in 2 hours the problem was solved .
By Saturday noon the traps were full of bees and had to be emptied and re baited.
You might check out this link from MouseTrap Monday, he traps everything. About halfway through he gets into the water trap, apparently YJ's drop down a couple of inches in the air after departing their landing zone and end up in the water and drowning. The soap as a surfactant is key.
https://binged.it/2Nt4PCY (https://binged.it/2Nt4PCY)
Quote from: Alto Mare on September 03, 2018, 09:27:30 AM
let's try not to put them all out, those work very hard to give us a better life.
Sal
They kill and eat flys but they also kill and eat my bees. In the past I rarely killed wasps and hornets but now I have to protect my colonies.
Quote from: JoseCuervo on September 06, 2018, 09:13:04 PM
You might check out this link from MouseTrap Monday, he traps everything. About halfway through he gets into the water trap, apparently YJ's drop down a couple of inches in the air after departing their landing zone and end up in the water and drowning. The soap as a surfactant is key.
https://binged.it/2Nt4PCY (https://binged.it/2Nt4PCY)
The yellow jackets and meat bees will eat so much that they can't fly , fall in the water and drown.
For the soap I prefer Dawn 😎
And cheap bacon is the killer bait.
What ever they are they make a fantastic bait for big perch... Jeff
I mainly only have wasps. They build nests under the deck boards on my railing.
We have an agreement, and I leave them alone. ;)
When I'm out there, they fly in and out, but don't harass me.
Brake cleaner will kill them instantly if they become a threat.
I haven't had to do that for several years.
Probably 10 years ago, I had some type of Huge bee that hung out by the mail box.
I'm talking 4" long. It was so protective of its space, it would chase the birds flying by, and I couldn't check the mail until after dark.
I was told by farmers at my work, that it was a type of fruit bee? It was Big and Scary. Black Butt with yellow stripes and Red wings.
It looked like a Yellow Jacket on Steroids.
Anyway, I thought I found their hole and poured some gas into it at about dusk.
It was right at the edge of the driveway.
I went back to put the gas can in the garage and grabbed a shop towel.
Lit it and dropped it toward the hole, and backed up quick. All I heard was a Wawooom! and the driveway actually shook.
I don't know what was living in there, but it perished that evening.
The Giant bees were still there the next day.
They were so large, They were shot one by one with a bb gun from the house when they landed on the front porch from a cracked window.
Sorry for the long winded story, but I find it funny to this day.
The wife was not happy when the fumes of the gasoline filled the hole that was much longer than I thought and the flame shot out 6 feet in the air. ;D
I mix cheep dish soap in water and spray it on wasps and hornets, it does not kill them as fast as carb or brake cleaner but it slows them down until they die.
I don't know but exposure to honey bee stings seems to help me with wasp stings., bee stings still hurt but not all that bad, a friend and former beekeeper had to sell her bees because she had a bad reaction to one sting. She made it to her house and used a epipen, she's a nurse, but passed out before it took effect. She hit her head on something when she fell but it did not do much damage. A week later the sting area was still swollen and it looked like a large bruise. Her husband told her no more bees. I was removing 4 large wasp nests in the attic crawlspace a few weeks ago and did not see the one above my head before 5 or so hit my arms. The stings hurt but not that bad and I had no swelling or itching.
Bumblebee stings hurt bad, bald face hornets are almost as big of jerks as ground wasps but their sting is worse.