tmc
Wholenote
Posts: 911
Formerly Known As: tmc
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Post by tmc on Nov 10, 2023 15:48:44 GMT -5
I found a rather large nest of yellow jacket in the ground near my house. Insecticidal dust would easily kill the colony, but there was no way I could sneak up and apply it without getting stung. My solution was to buy a toy remote controlled dump truck from Amazon to do the dirty work. Using binoculars from the comfort of my den window, I successfully delivered the load of dust to the opening of the nest. The colony was gone by the end of the day.
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Post by Leftee on Nov 10, 2023 15:55:38 GMT -5
That
Is
Awesome!
My preferred method is to go out to the hole at night, pour gasoline in it and light it.
But you win. Cuz now you have a cool remote controlled dump truck!
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Post by Laker on Nov 10, 2023 15:57:14 GMT -5
At dusk go to the nest and hose it down with one of those wasp sprays that will shoot 20’. Start at a distance and move in. I’ve done this several times without a sting.
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Post by Taildragger on Nov 10, 2023 17:32:07 GMT -5
^This^
Yellow jackets really spook me because my brother and I were stung multiple times when I was about 5 years old. We were in a city park in Denver, jumping up and down on the roof of a shed that housed the sprinkler system controls for the lawns. Unknown to us, it also housed a very large yellow jacket nest, the occupants of which did not appreciate our exuberant antics.
Those wasp sprays really do the job.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Nov 10, 2023 18:48:20 GMT -5
Missed opportunity if you didn't video tape it🤣
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Post by LeftyMeister on Nov 10, 2023 19:00:27 GMT -5
That's an excellent story, TMC.
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Post by Taildragger on Nov 10, 2023 19:24:50 GMT -5
Missed opportunity if you didn't video tape it🤣
You coulda been a You Tube 'floonser!
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tmc
Wholenote
Posts: 911
Formerly Known As: tmc
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Post by tmc on Nov 10, 2023 21:00:41 GMT -5
Missed opportunity if you didn't video tape it🤣 I considered attaching a GoPro to the truck bed facing backwards, but the thought of my camera stranded in a swarm of jackets or in the hole made me chicken out. Gasoline, on the other hand, was definitely on the table as an option. Delivery was the problem. Filling a condom with gasoline, like a water balloon, seemed like a good idea.... it would either rupture on impact or burst when punctured by their stingers and changed their lives forever. The irony of that was almost worth the risks... maybe next Fall. |
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Post by Leftee on Nov 10, 2023 21:06:21 GMT -5
You do the gasoline thing at night… well after dark. They’re all in the ground then.
Or you order a remote control toy tanker truck…
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michael
Wholenote
Recent Retiree
Posts: 620
Age: old enough to know better and not care
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Post by michael on Nov 10, 2023 22:23:54 GMT -5
that's a great idea... more fun. if they're in the ground, i'll wait until dark and pour gasoline into the hole, stand back and pitch matches at it. or i'll buy a couple cans of wasp spray and soak'm down.
i had a huge nest under the steps of the sunporch deck. i didn't know what i was going to do cause i couldn't get at it. i finally bought a bunch of the old fashion sticky fly strips like my gramma used to hang from the ceilings in the old farm house... i opened them up and laid them around the deck then i jumped up and down on the steps and ran like crazy. they came out to check what was going on and a few got stuck, then the rest came to their defense and they got stuck too, more and more and more... those strips looked like ears of corn they had so many yellow jackets on them. i also stood back and sprayed the strips with wasp spray. i got them all finally.
i took the the steps up later and the underside was full. the hugest nest i've ever seen. if i can dig up the pictures i'll link to them. it's scary how many there were. they could have killed someone.
i was down in the hayfield behind the house with the dogs and they got a nest stirred up. they took off running and left me there. i was hit a dozen times, at least 3 on the side of the head. i felt as if i'd been beaten! i slept with my head on a frozen 2 liter bottle... and still looked like a basketball the next day.
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chucksmi
Wholenote
Posts: 178
Formerly Known As: Offshore Angler elsewhere
Age: I saw Jerry Live
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Post by chucksmi on Nov 11, 2023 7:17:22 GMT -5
Once it's dark out they won't bother you. At that point use your preferred method.
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Post by Leftee on Nov 11, 2023 7:45:09 GMT -5
Last year, before I found the nest, I opened up a Hummingbird feeder in the kitchen sink to wash and change the nectar. When I got it open it had @ a dozen young/small yellow jackets writhing around, sugar drunk. That got the old heart rate up!
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Post by Taildragger on Nov 11, 2023 12:59:19 GMT -5
The budget method:
1)-buy a can of tuna.
2)-remove the tuna and save the oil or water (oil works best) in which it was packed.
3)-place the can of oil/water near the nest, or anyplace in the yard if you're unsure of nest location.
4)-stand back and watch the yellow jackets arrive in droves, eager to drown themselves in the oil/water.
We killed hundreds of them this way one summer while camping up in the Sierras.
Sardines will work as well. They basically can't resist anything made of meat/fish/poultry.
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Post by Leftee on Nov 11, 2023 13:27:38 GMT -5
I neglected to mention that the nest I napalm’d last year was right next to our foundation. But I got’em!  |
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tmc
Wholenote
Posts: 911
Formerly Known As: tmc
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Post by tmc on Nov 11, 2023 18:32:19 GMT -5
I neglected to mention that the nest I napalm’d last year was right next to our foundation. But I got’em! And you had the foresight to eliminate any colonies which may have been hiding in the walls. Well done! |
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Post by RufusTeleStrat on Nov 11, 2023 21:35:47 GMT -5
The good news is the plausible deniability of the cause for the fire that paid off your mortgage.
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Post by LTB on Nov 12, 2023 4:21:29 GMT -5
Red Wasp I am cautious around but not that afraid of but Yellow Jackets are relentless. Stung several times as a kid. Coundn’t out run them
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Post by LeftyMeister on Nov 12, 2023 8:16:50 GMT -5
Just a couple of months ago, we were preparing for a barn sale (ie, a yard sale) and I had to get into one of the lofts after dark. I heard something buzzing around my head and thought it was mosquitos, since we'd been having a bad problem with them in late summer. My wife was down below and I said, "The mosquitos are really bad up here." Just then, I was skewered in the neck and swatted a yellow jacket. I beat feet and returned the next morning to find this. It was bigger than the milk crate beside it.
It took 6 cans of HotShot and a half-bag of diatomaceous earth to eradicate them. There were hundreds of them and they were persistent not to leave.
It took several days for the welt, redness, and burning to subside from my neck.
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Post by Opie on Nov 12, 2023 10:15:23 GMT -5
It may be fun, but you don't need to light the gasoline. I just cover the hole after dark with an old towel soaked in gas. You can hear them rev up and then slowly it backs down. One nest I did that way collapsed a few weeks later during a rain storm, left about a 4' x4' hole.
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Post by Leftee on Nov 12, 2023 10:35:59 GMT -5
But flame shoots out like a jet engine in full afterburner.
I’m pretty sure you do have to light it. Solely to witness that.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Nov 12, 2023 13:19:33 GMT -5
Missed opportunity if you didn't video tape it🤣 Worth it for the soundtrack options alone.
Ride of the Valkyries seems like an obvious choice.
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Post by Leftee on Nov 12, 2023 13:49:46 GMT -5
I bet that’s the tune Wagner was whistling when he dispatched his nest of yellow jackets.
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tomcaster
Halfnote
Posts: 91
Formerly Known As: strat-hacker
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Post by tomcaster on Nov 15, 2023 15:39:02 GMT -5
I've learned how to deal with them, but when we called an exterminator a few years ago he called Yellowjackets the A-holes of the insect world. I agree.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Nov 15, 2023 15:58:37 GMT -5
I've learned how to deal with them, but when we called an exterminator a few years ago he called Yellowjackets the A-holes of the insect world. I agree. Yep. They're a nuisance in early autumn around places like bleachers at football games. My nephew got stung in the mouth by one he didn't notice had landed on his Coke can. My Brother got stung in the eyeball by one while painting on a ladder. My only hit was on the top of my hand when I went to open a propane tank valve on my grill. Hurt, but man did the itch linger. Back in Michigan we had a contractor working in our crawl space, middle of winter, and came crawling out with half a dozen stings on his hand. He disappeared on us the next day, lol. |
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Post by Mfitz804 on Nov 15, 2023 18:35:07 GMT -5
It’s the same as any other color, first I unzip it, then pull from the cuff and remove my right arm…and so forth.
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mikem
Wholenote
Musician soundman musician soundman
Posts: 233
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Post by mikem on Nov 16, 2023 19:27:40 GMT -5
Two months ago I discovered two wasp nests in my yard; one in-the-ground under a bush, and the other in a seam of the house siding.
I dusted them (at night) with: Drione using a "puffer".
The house-nest was dead the next day. The ground wasps took three applications.
All clear now.
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