Lawn Care Forum banner

Wasps

6K views 38 replies 11 participants last post by  Grass Clippins 
#1 ·
I have been seeing a lot of wasps flying around my yard, but my search for the nest has come up empty. If i found it I would normally just hit it with my Temprid aerosol after sundown, but I can't locate it. Anyone know how to bait wasps? Figure if I can bait them out I could take out the nest with some Fipronil. Any tips?
 
#3 ·
Same problem here but they seen to be fixated around the bottom of the over hand in my house. They may have made a nest in one part..

I have a cone style trap that only catches flys lol... but i think the right bait is the trick.

@g-man the amazon link provided, a user used broth... interesting.
What are you planning on using ?
 
#4 ·
I think I may have found them. I saw a lot of activity around some outdoor speakers I have mounted under an awning. I can't see well enough to verify, but I am thinking the nest may be back there. I will inspect further this evening so I don't risk getting attacked.
 
#5 ·
Couldn't wait for the trap to work so sprayed with Cyszmic CS. dark and can't see well but already found 2 wasps affected on the windows, seemed to work great in combination of waiting for night fall & Cyszmic.

I wonder if I didn't get them all and they don't die from residual, if they'll move their nest as I pretty much removed their food supply as well.
 
#15 ·
I've got a lot of yellow jacket activity under my front porch behind a brick column going into the ground. These little guys are working tirelessly on something big and it has me worried because there are so many. They're playing offense now and won't bother you but I have a feeling once they finish working on their nest they'll turn into the nasty little a holes I remember from my childhood. Called Do My Own and they recommended Tempo Dust followed by Suspend Polyzone. I bought both and plan to squirt the dust between the cracks in the decking and shag it inside. It's only about a 2 foot drop from decking to soil, hopefully it lands on target. If not I have a plan that involves a ballon filled with Tempo and a BB gun...:bandit:. After I get this situation handled I plan to use fipronil in bait stations.
 
#16 ·
@Grass Clippins the article has an interesting bait:

Each can of chicken meat yielded about 150 ml of chicken juice. The chicken juice was filtered through a filter paper to remove large particles and was diluted with 450 ml deionized water. The diluted juice (600 ml) was mixed with 1.6 ml of fipronil (Termidor SC) and 30 g of granular polyacrylamide hydrogel (total 630 g), resulting in 0.025% (wt/vol) fipronil liquid bait absorbed in the hydrogel.
I might try chicken stock + cymzic next.
 
#19 ·
Grass Clippins said:
After I get this situation handled I plan to use fipronil in bait stations.
Fipronil works great on yellowjackets. If you can locate the nest in the ground, foundation, or wall, you can also spray the entrance of the nest with fipronil when the nest is quiet (like shortly after sunset just before it gets really dark) -- it takes surprisingly little product, and the nest will be empty within a few days.

One caution with fipronil is that you need to keep it away from any place that beneficial pollinators (honeybees or bumblebees, for example) will pick it up. So definitely keep fipronil away from flower beds, clover, etc.
 
#20 ·
@ken-n-nancy I heard that as well but couldn't get a straight answer from Do My Own on using it as a soil drench. A say soil drench because I'm not interested in hanging around long enough to get a proper spray :lol: Do you have any experience with Tempo? The reviews have me feeling optimistic it will take care of it.
 
#21 ·
Thats what I was looking for with the chicken stock. I saw other people mention lacing cat food with fipronil as a bait, but I was scared I would end up poisoning a neighborhood cat. They are pretty crafty so it would be difficult to keep them away if they decided they wanted it. Luckily I found my problem and eliminated it with the Temprid Aerosol I always have handy for these situations.
 
#22 ·
Grass Clippins said:
@ken-n-nancy I heard that as well but couldn't get a straight answer from Do My Own on using it as a soil drench.

A say soil drench because I'm not interested in hanging around long enough to get a proper spray :lol: Do you have any experience with Tempo? The reviews have me feeling optimistic it will take care of it.
I've never used Tempo. I've had such good success with Taurus SC that I haven't had to go any further.

It really takes surprisingly little. If you can see the entrance to the hive, then just a 2-second spray of Taurus SC, mixed according to label directions, sprayed into the entrance, is all that will be needed. You'll be in and out before any insects knew what is going on. That said, it wouldn't hurt to have an escape route planned beforehand, but I've never found particular haste to be necessary.
 
#23 ·
Update: I have a couple steps that make it difficult to locate entry/exit #1. Last night I carefully removed the step treads to get a better look at things. I also had to move a lot of leaves around but stopped short when I noticed some activity. It's still tough to see but I think I've located my target within a few inches. Tonight I need to move a few more leaves and look down through the decking to flag my target.

This morning I was out, doing my thing, and noticed some new activity...entry/exit #2? These weren't there yesterday. It's approximately 20 feet northeast of entry/exit #1. I'm glad I noticed these because my original exit strategy would have run me straight into entry/exit #2, which also happens to be directly under where I drink coffee every morning. Again I have a decent idea of where they're going but still need to move some leaves. I had no idea there were so many leafs under the porch, it's only about 18" to 24" off the ground.

Activities is picking up boys...I'm not kidding when I say that during the day we have a constant stream of two to three moving in and out every few seconds from both holes and they're moving quickly. It's going down tonight, Operation Dust Drop. Hopefully I've planned enough to avoid a Black Hawk Down situation...... Not afraid to admit that I'm a little scared but trying to act brave for my 2 1/2 year old son :lol: :shocked: :lol:

Entry/exit #1 is about a foot to the right of my flashlight beam behind the column in the picture below. I just took out a holly a few weeks ago so the area looks nasty and is getting a make over once the dust settles (pun intended).

 
#24 ·
One of the more unique ways I've used to kill a wasp nest is to simply invert a glass bowl over the entrance. It has to be relatively level ground so they cant escape under the rim. Because they can see sky they will not bother digging a new entrance and instead will just bang their heads against the glass for days until they starve to death.

I dont think it applies to this situation but is just an interesting story.

I've also used Taurus SC, Fiprinil, on nests. It's non agitating, doesnt rile them up, and just a small spritz is all that it takes to nuke the entire nest.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the time I put a computer fan over a nest entrance. They were sliced to bits by the fan blade and took a few days to empty the nest.
 
#25 ·
I suited up and waited for night to fall. Although the hive had clearly gone in for the night I still noticed one or two flying around the area so they must leave out a scout at all times, very smart. I was picking up leaves with my trash picker but still couldn't see the actual hole on either site so I got the rake and went at it again. This brought a few out but nothing major. I started on the smaller/newer hole by the front door to test my method. I got directly above the activity and shot the dust straight down on them through the deck slots. Temp Dust doesn't have any knock down power but as more came out I could tell they definitely didn't like what was happening. Thankfully they had no idea I was only a couple feet above them so I kept going until I covered about a 2 square foot area. From the smell of this stuff I believe it's 99% talcum powder and 1% cyfluthrin which is nice because some of it hangs in the air before falling to the ground, similar to drywall dust. I believe this is why a lot of people use it in soffits.

When I got to the bigger nest I didn't notice any activity so I believe these were two separate nest. I followed the same steps as site 1 but this time noticed significantly more activity, this is a big hive. I dusted about a 2 square foot area again and got out of there because it was getting pretty bad. I watched from inside as they attacked my flashlight for a few minutes and then everything stopped. I gave it awhile and then went outside to sweep some of the tempo dust that got on the decking through the cracks, all was quiet.

It wasn't until this morning that I noticed my flashlight is covered in paralyzed yellow jackets. According to the MOA this stuff doesn't kill them immediately, it paralyzes them so they can't eat or drink. I win :cool:, sort of. The dust on my flashlight tells me that I probably got it all over my tomatoe and cucumber plants as well. I'm going to rinse these off to save my pollinators, hopefully.

 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top