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Thread: Do you have a Yellow Jacket problem?

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
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    Wow, the bait approach makes great sense. The OP's right, those little nasties will be attracted from a long way off. I used to have to take the grill grease out to the reeking grease tank when I worked in fast food in college and there were clouds of them out there. Chowing down on waste burgers and drink syrup bladders in the dumpsters too.

    Carburetor cleaner (spray can) kills bees on contact. As soon as the mist hits them, they drop dead
    Amen! In fact, any thin solvent will poison/drown insects very quickly - the thinner and lower the surface tension, the better. One of my favorites is CRC Electro-motive cleaner which is non-flammable. Used it to go cockroach hunting every morning back when my apartment kitchen was infested. When I turned the light on, the place would come alive with them scrambling to get away. Very effective. Starter fluid is good, works fast. A co-worker once gave me a gas can full of last year's methanol dragster fuel - works great! That said, the down side to most of these is fumes/flammability/ventilation and that they may affect painted surfaces or vinyl siding rather badly, so watch out there. I used engine cleaner or something I grabbed off the rack in a light fixture with a huge paper wasp nest in it and it killed all 20 or so in seconds. They didn't even try to fly - just fell straight down and barely moved. Trouble was, the paint turned rubbery for some time. It's still there, but it doesn't look like it used to. . . .

    I often wondered what a scoop of dry ice chips or some liquid nitrogen would do if poured into a yellow jacket burrow. No ground contamination with chemicals and the cold gas would displace all the oxygen for the ones which aren't just frozen solid trying to get out. I never had ready access to such exotic materials, but it's an interesting idea.

  2. #22
    Boolit Grand Master


    GregLaROCHE's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by namsag View Post
    This looks like a great solution, does it affect honeybees? ETA: I know the fipronil will kill them, but are they drawn to the bait? Or do they stick to flowers? Just wondering about collateral damage.
    We need to protect honey bees. They are very important for agriculture, that ultimately produces the food we eat.

  3. #23
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Bees will not be attracted to baits with meat. If you bait with a sugary component adding vinegar will keep the bees at bay.
    Don Verna


  4. #24
    Boolit Master
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    Quite right about the importance of bees. I saw a video about areas in Japan where there are no bees, and to keep various crops going, they have people going around hand-pollinating the fruit trees and other stuff. Sounds nightmarish to have to shoulder a burden like that.

  5. #25
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    The yellow jackets can become a real menace. I had some property over in the Oregon Coast Range for about 18 years and we had a vegetable garden. We'd see a few around but didn't think much of it. One day I was out looking for some veggies and there seemed to be more than usual. I got stung a couple of times, so backed off and observed. I spotted a hole about the size of a tennis ball where they were coming and going from underground. I got a 30 minute highway flare, fired it up, and stuck it in the hole. Lots of smoke coming out of the hole, and pretty soon on the other side of the garden fence I spotted smoke coming out of various little holes and cracks in the ground. After about 20 minutes the grass caught fire over an area about 20'x20'. After it burned out the ground had sunken in about 4-6 inches. There must have been lots of paper nest underground. I was standing by with the garden hose, but the fire didn't spread. There remained a charred, sunken in place there for the rest of the summer.

    DG

  6. #26
    Boolit Man Norcal707's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Der Gebirgsjager View Post
    The yellow jackets can become a real menace. I had some property over in the Oregon Coast Range for about 18 years and we had a vegetable garden. We'd see a few around but didn't think much of it. One day I was out looking for some veggies and there seemed to be more than usual. I got stung a couple of times, so backed off and observed. I spotted a hole about the size of a tennis ball where they were coming and going from underground. I got a 30 minute highway flare, fired it up, and stuck it in the hole. Lots of smoke coming out of the hole, and pretty soon on the other side of the garden fence I spotted smoke coming out of various little holes and cracks in the ground. After about 20 minutes the grass caught fire over an area about 20'x20'. After it burned out the ground had sunken in about 4-6 inches. There must have been lots of paper nest underground. I was standing by with the garden hose, but the fire didn't spread. There remained a charred, sunken in place there for the rest of the summer.

    DG
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  7. #27
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    GregLaROCHE's Avatar
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    I hate yellow jackets. I didn’t realize I was allergic to them until I was 55.

  8. #28
    Boolit Mold kelli's Avatar
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    My Grandma used to say, " A hornet's nest isn't interesting until you poke it with a stick."

  9. #29
    Boolit Master hoodat's Avatar
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    Problem with yeller jackets?? Heck no! Around here we grow them by the millions. They are big and healthy. One of the most common wild-life species we've got. jd
    It seems that people who do almost nothing, often complain loudly when it's time to do it.

  10. #30
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    Allergic to 'em here too, time to get a new epipen soon.

  11. #31
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr_Sheesh View Post
    Allergic to 'em here too, time to get a new epipen soon.
    Don't get the epipen!

    Get epinephrine filled syringes. I get 2 for $5. Epipen $ 250- 500.
    There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide. Ayn Rand

  12. #32
    Boolit Master
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    not Yellowjackets but I had a very serious wasp problem until I hired orkin, they come out 3 or 4 times a year and I hardly ever even see any wasps or yellow jackets anymore. I tried all the homemade traps and never got any to work very good.

  13. #33
    Boolit Master 358429's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Der Gebirgsjager View Post
    The yellow jackets can become a real menace. I had some property over in the Oregon Coast Range for about 18 years and we had a vegetable garden. We'd see a few around but didn't think much of it. One day I was out looking for some veggies and there seemed to be more than usual. I got stung a couple of times, so backed off and observed. I spotted a hole about the size of a tennis ball where they were coming and going from underground. I got a 30 minute highway flare, fired it up, and stuck it in the hole. Lots of smoke coming out of the hole, and pretty soon on the other side of the garden fence I spotted smoke coming out of various little holes and cracks in the ground. After about 20 minutes the grass caught fire over an area about 20'x20'. After it burned out the ground had sunken in about 4-6 inches. There must have been lots of paper nest underground. I was standing by with the garden hose, but the fire didn't spread. There remained a charred, sunken in place there for the rest of the summer.

    DG
    The nuclear option!!

    Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

  14. #34
    Boolit Master
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    Good to know

  15. #35
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    Farmer Jim, good info. On my insurance the epipen is free, but that could change.

  16. #36
    Boolit Buddy
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    Yep this works. Used Advantix II for the poison. Got to keep the meat moist though, (chunky chicken cat food) 1 teaspoon of bait to a bottle. 3 drops per tablespoon was too much and the bees were dying in the bait bottle before they could take back to the nest.
    so 1 drop to 1 tablespoon of chicken stir well. a little dab in a soda bottle with a window cut out, hang in a tree.
    Last edited by Polymath; 08-01-2021 at 09:49 PM.

  17. #37
    Boolit Grand Master bedbugbilly's Avatar
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    Thanks! Copied, pasted and printed one to keep.

    I used to fight them every year - they would their nests in mole runs and all of a sudden, when I drove the mower over the mole run opening those nasty little critters would nail me. I tried a variety of things but your solution sounds like a winner! Many here will greatly appreciate you sharing this!

  18. #38
    Banned
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    Not super effective but strangely satisfying.
    Saw a yellowjacket hole while cutting the lawn.
    Tied the mower handle so the mower would stay on, pushed it over the hole.
    Sat back and listened to the thunks and watched parts fly out the side of the mower.

  19. #39
    Boolit Buddy
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    The last underground Yellow jacket nest I burned, was out by the County road, between two of my big apple trees in a old mole run.

    Went out just at dark and poured a pint of gas down the hole, waited a few minutes and dropped a match down the hole and got back.
    Had a WHUP, and then the blue flame come out the top of the hole, some of the half dead yellow jackets were crawling out of the hole in flames.

    The funny part was the neighbor was leaving for work, this was about a half hour after dark, all you could see was the blue flame coming out of the ground about a foot high. He stopped and backed up and sat there watching the flame. I was standing by one of the apple trees and asked him if all was OK, he did not see me there and wanted to know that the blue flame was. I told him, he said burn them all I am Allergic to bees.

    JW

  20. #40
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    Allergic to wasp venom here, thats a good start on killing those

    Anakit is a good thing to carry, hoping I never need it.

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