Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Hutch on March 11, 2016, 01:57:10 PM
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And I ain't talkin' about Episcopalians, neither. I noticed a couple of them last weekend, as I was trying to restore some semblance of order amongst all the stuff. It's suffered some termite damage, and is not bank vault tight, on the best day it ever had.
All that said, I've never seen it like was today. I blundered into the outbuilding, toting a very heavy box. I was about to ope said box and distribute the contents appropriately on the shelves, when my balding head got bumped by a flying critter. I reflexively waved it away, and the I noticed that I'm in a 11x17 room with dozens of the little bastards. I UA the AO to the single entrance door, and watch with dismay as it appears that there is muy grande problemo.
I will scout the exterior of the building at dusk, looking for obvious nests. I'm familiar with standard wasp and hornet spray treatments of under-eave nests in the evening, but my view of the circumstances leads me to believe I'll have to treat inside the building. It has a low ceiling, covered by insulation above. There's a 2'x4' removable panel to permit access into the "attic".
How do I kill these pests? Does an aerosol bomb work on wasps? One in the main room, one in the "attic"?
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First read this as in the outhouse.
Then I saw the size and thought that would be bigger than a two-holer.
As a solution to your problem, kill it with detcord and start over.
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Fire. Burn it to the ground, watch with glee as the bastards dies, build new shed.
Sent from my iPhone. Freaking autocorrect.
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Bug bomb. Forty or fifty of them. Maybe some gasoline. And detcord.
Brad
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Did you actually get stung?
Some wasps are fairly benign and don't start stinging unless you get them really upset.
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I've had some fun with a beekeeper hood, a can of starter fluid and a lighter.
Those had already stung me, though, so burning their wings off and letting the chickens deal with them seemed like good revenge.
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You MAY need to call in the military . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Bo2ro60ro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Bo2ro60ro)
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Lift off and nuke the site from high orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
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Put hornet nest in box to get honey!
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FcwAPVIl.jpg&hash=4c10d21a2be28da08276aee58282d6e1244cccee)
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I've had some fun with a beekeeper hood, a can of starter fluid and a lighter.
Those had already stung me, though, so burning their wings off and letting the chickens deal with them seemed like good revenge.
I bet the chickens were happy. Darn things are descended from velociraptors or some such...
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You MAY need to call in the military . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Bo2ro60ro (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Bo2ro60ro)
Kind of an interesting "buddy rest." Don't know why he'd need it with a flamethrower, but is anything like that used in our military for more accurate shooting?
(Sorry about the mis-spelling in the pic title.)
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Burning that building would be... exciting. In the interest of OpSec, I would never reveal the location of the magazine.
So.... A flea bomb?
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http://www.harborfreight.com/electronic-fly-swatter-40122.html (http://www.harborfreight.com/electronic-fly-swatter-40122.html)
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You may want to go professional on this. They could be nesting above the insulation, or they could be nesting in the attic. Without knowing exactly where, there's a good chance bombing them won't do a thing for you.
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If you can find a single opening a running shop vac can contain critters as they emerge. A few good sprays in said vac settles em down.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
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Since burn the bitch down and detcord have already been mentioned...
Go back in there *carefully* at night with a flashlight. See if you can find the nest. If not, check out the outside of the building in the daytime when they are active to see if you can find the hole where they go in and out.
You want to use an insecticide dust. Sevin is probably good enough. Throw a big pinch of it on the nest or in their access hole. They will get it on their feet and contaminate the nest. I've killed big underground yellowjacket nests (one was under a sidewalk where a tree root lifted it up) this way.
The key is using dust instead of spray.
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Burning that building would be... exciting. In the interest of OpSec, I would never reveal the location of the magazine.
So.... A flea bomb?
Well good. Makes it more certain to get all the little bastards.
Sent from my iPhone. Freaking autocorrect.
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You may want to go professional on this. They could be nesting above the insulation, or they could be nesting in the attic. Without knowing exactly where, there's a good chance bombing them won't do a thing for you.
SWMBO has also suggested this. Thus shall it be, and may God condemn to perdition.
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http://www.harborfreight.com/electronic-fly-swatter-40122.html (http://www.harborfreight.com/electronic-fly-swatter-40122.html)
Got one of those just to look at the circuitry and how they put the grids together.
Really awkward to use, especially in the house. Almost as destructive as a cat chasing a moth. Table lamps, knick-knacks beware.
Terry
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Got one of those just to look at the circuitry and how they put the grids together.
Really awkward to use, especially in the house. Almost as destructive as a cat chasing a moth. Table lamps, knick-knacks beware.
Terry
I got one for my birthday a few years ago. Its amusing as it is satisfying to use!
The same god that gave us irritating pests gave us a brain to figure out entertaining to eliminate those pests with extreme prejudice. The do work on hornets, but it takes them a bit longer to die a burning crispy death, little bastards deserve it.
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I got one for my birthday a few years ago. Its amusing as it is satisfying to use!
The same god that gave us irritating pests gave us a brain to figure out entertaining to eliminate those pests with extreme prejudice. The do work on hornets, but it takes them a bit longer to die a burning crispy death, little bastards deserve it.
reminds me of this doohicky
http://bugasalt.com/
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reminds me of this doohicky
http://bugasalt.com/
My objection to that is that I don't like the idea of salt being distributed anywhere near guns.
Just paranoid about salt near ironish materials.
In the house I use a spray bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol. Knocks 'em down, then I pick them up with a tissue and discard them.
Muzzle (or nozzle) velocity is low, so you've gotta lead them a lot in flight. If just sitting, you have to really sneak up on them.
Nice thing about most spray bottles is they have adjustable "chokes" for either a stream or a spray. :)
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My objection to that is that I don't like the idea of salt being distributed anywhere near guns.
Just paranoid about salt near ironish materials.
In the house I use a spray bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol. Knocks 'em down, then I pick them up with a tissue and discard them.
Muzzle (or nozzle) velocity is low, so you've gotta lead them a lot in flight. If just sitting, you have to really sneak up on them.
Nice thing about most spray bottles is they have adjustable "chokes" for either a stream or a spray. :)
OOOH.... I like this idea....
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^ Takes a little practice and development of technique, though. Look up fly vision to understand how they see things. They also prefer tan or dark yellow things and tend to roost at night on vertical things.
And they are fast in flight.
Nice thing about the spray is it's relatively harmless. But don't experiment with lighting the spray on fire without extreme caution. "Beware of your target and what lies beyond."
I got to be kind of an expert on fly behavior since I once raised horses.
'Nuff said.
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I like the idea of waiting until dusk or night to look. You could just try to go up to the door in daylight but stay low and see if you can see a nest under the eaves or just inside the door. These are not killer bees or anything. Move slow and easy and keep your eyes open. Or you could just get a book and a chair and wait around until you see them flying in or out.
If you can figure where the nest is, WalMart and Lowes sell "insect fogger" spray cans that kill wasps. Walmart has a "Camp Fogger" in the camping section that will work. They don't have long range, but can affect a large area especially if you can't get a direct line of fire or it is enclosed. If you see the nest and have a direct line of sight, the 20 foot wasp killer sprays will generally drop them almost immediately.
My guess would be the nest isn't that large yet. I got bumped once while mowing. There were 8 or 10 black paper wasps trying to make a nest in a cavity on my house. I only saw 2 or 3, but several more came out when I started spraying.
My generally rule is move slow and easy then stand still when you actually spray with as much distance as practical. They tend to attack movement when irritated. If you can stay around a corner or something even better.
Of course, if these are the big wasps that nest by the hundreds, I don't know if any of my advice really helps.
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So far all the suggestions offered have been some sort of variation of tried and true methods. What I have not yet seen is advice on how to keep the buggers from being able to fly once they leave the nest to see what is disturbing it.
The answer that should be blowing in the wind is dish detergent. A few drops in a quart-sized sprayer bottle of warm-ish water will effectively ground them, giving time for the chickens to move in for the actual kill. Problem is in determining how much detergent a chicken handle before they also keel over.
If you want to be more proactive, use a mixture of citrus-based cleaner or tea tree oil and water. You'll have to experiment to get the concentration right so that their exoskeletons lose their protective wax coating and the internal juices flow out right before your eyes. If you make sure to get stuff that is not just citrus-smell covering up hydrocarbons but real citrus oil then the downed critters will still be safe for the chickens to eat. (I'm told that oil of clove also works but that chickens find the taste unpleasant.)
Area fogging during the day while they are buzzing about seems to be more effective than waiting to hit individual wasps/bees/hornets as they emerge from/return to the nest. It's also more satisfying to sit back with a cold adult beverage and turn the fogger on and off from a "safe" distance and be able to see them drop out of the sky than to go crawling around at dusk.
Pro tip, especially if you are using tea tree oil: make sure you understand the difference between upwind and downwind, and stay ready for any shifts in direction.
stay safe.
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Problem is in determining how much detergent a chicken handle before they also keel over.
I dunno why but that made me LOL more than it should have this morning.
Thanks Skid, I needed that bud.
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I bet the chickens were happy. Darn things are descended from velociraptors or some such...
You got that right.
I was puttering around in the yard at my old farmlet one hot summer day and a grasshopper buzzed by me about five feet above the ground.
One of my chickens spotted it from about ten feet away and leaped into the air to catch it in midflight in its beak. Right next to me, this was.
I was amazed by the almost instantaneous analog computations necessary for that bird to do that --calculating both trajectories to intersect at a given time in three dimensions. Four, actually, considering time as the fourth dimension.
Even more impressive than an outfielder catching a fly ball on a merely two dimensional flat plane.
Or busting 25 clays in a row.
Amazing.
Terry
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I dunno why but that made me LOL more than it should have this morning.
Thanks Skid, I needed that bud.
Guess you've never seen a chicken squirt like day #3 of the old-fashioned pre-colonoscopy cleanse.
It's difficult to feel sorry for the chicken when you are laughing so much.
stay safe.
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Guess you've never seen a chicken squirt like day #3 of the old-fashioned pre-colonoscopy cleanse.
It's difficult to feel sorry for the chicken when you are laughing so much.
stay safe.
I was gonna echo HeroHog's comment..... And then I read this....
Now my coworker's are looking at me funny because I keep nearly strangling trying to not laugh too hard....
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(https://polination.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/left-wings-vs-right-wings-wasp-or-bee.jpg)
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Yellowjackets are the souls of the damned, sent here by Satan to give mortals a foretaste of Hell.
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So far all the suggestions offered have been some sort of variation of tried and true methods. What I have not yet seen is advice on how to keep the buggers from being able to fly once they leave the nest to see what is disturbing it.
I have heard of using dish detergent, but I have never tried it. I haven't seen anything that will keep them from flying. Even the instant kill poisons don't do that even though they drop pretty fast. For those you still need know where the nest is and have a direct shot at it. So far, you have said you don't know where it is.
See if you find an MSDS for whatever you use and see if it is poisonous if swallowed. I am not sure trying to feed your chickens concurrently with killing wasps is worth it. I guess the chickens might eat the larvae out of the nest you knock down.
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Yellowjackets are the souls of the damned, sent here by Satan to give mortals a foretaste of Hell.
You ain't wrong there brother! We went shooting at the Sheriff's range once and I sat my range bag down on a stack of old school desks next to an out building. When I did, a cloud of those little @#%!@rds erupted forth! I froze in place. A few strafed me and bounced off my bare arms but no stings as I was motionless. Once they calmed down, I eased over, gently retrieved my bag and S L O W L Y eased outta there. I was well clear when one nailed me on the left shoulder! I shucked my shirt as it had managed to get trapped under it somehow and that was why I got stung. That HURT! The area hurt for days! I had the wife look at it and it looked like a huge zit so I had her express it for me. There was a hard round mass in there a bit bigger than a .177 BB! Once it was out, I healed up.
Point being, yes, yeller jackets ARE @$$holes! Also, wasps will go after motion and freezing in place can REDUCE how bad yer experience can be.
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I hate the little bastidges. Took 30+ stings up my right leg and hip one summer evening while helping a friend put up an 80 meter dipole on his property. They came out of a nest in the ground, right up my pant leg. Probably hornets, but don't know for sure. Ouch.
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I always read these threads. The thought of all those bastards dying just makes me smile.
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I always read these threads. The thought of all those bastards dying just makes me smile.
I thought you might be posting on the wrong thread, but if you are, better to leave it unsaid. =D
(edit: For those taking offense, the other thread I am thinking is not the the thread you are thinking of. Have a nice day.)
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Okay, talked to the pro. No Bueno. He offered to hose down the interior of the building with their barrier insecticide, which would dampen all the things. Nope. I asked if a flea bomb might work. "It might".
Off to do the research on the active ingredient in the bomb, to compare to wasp sprays...
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Why does nobody even listen when I suggest using insecticide dust? Wasps get it on their feet and poison the whole nest. (Listen and say "that's stupid" and don't do it is fine ;)) If you were local I'd give you a half ounce of Methoxychlor 50WP that you can't buy anymore; that's what I use.
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They also make flying insect sprays that will kill wasps as well as fogger sprays that will do it. They may not be instant kill, but you can hit them indirectly. Those usually kill mosquitos and other stuff also.
One time I was trying to deal with bore bees. They look like bumblebees, but bore nests into wood. Wasp sprays didn't work. I sprayed that Ortho Home Defense around where the holes were and never had any other problems.
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Why does nobody even listen when I suggest using insecticide dust? Wasps get it on their feet and poison the whole nest. (Listen and say "that's stupid" and don't do it is fine ;)) If you were local I'd give you a half ounce of Methoxychlor 50WP that you can't buy anymore; that's what I use.
I had yellow jackets under my patio once.
I sprayed several cans of wasp killer down the hole- it done pissed them off good.
Several days later, I poured some Sevin down the hole- it done wiped the little *expletive deleted*ers out, they died screaming in agony.
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Malathion is your very stinky but effective friend. It kills a TON of insects quickly and works for a while. Get a sprayer, mix, apply, CYA for a bit.
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I had yellow jackets under my patio once.
I sprayed several cans of wasp killer down the hole- it done pissed them off good.
Several days later, I poured some Sevin down the hole- it done wiped the little *expletive deleted*ers out, they died screaming in agony.
Had a nest in the ground at my parents place last year. Kerosene and a torch after dark worked nicely.
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Had a nest in the ground at my parents place last year. Kerosene and a torch after dark worked nicely.
Those types of yellow jackets are the ones I don't see in the area I live. The "yellow jackets" we have are just small paper wasps. They are mean bastards though.
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Proper identification of the enemy is an important skill
Yellow Striped bastard
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi23.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fb398%2FFLHRI-OK%2FPrivate%2520album%2Fyellow%2520jacket%25201%2520of%25201.jpg&hash=640569c976e612372cb6d293b474ebb972b2feca) (http://s23.photobucket.com/user/FLHRI-OK/media/Private%20album/yellow%20jacket%201%20of%201.jpg.html)
Red Bastard
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi23.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fb398%2FFLHRI-OK%2FPrivate%2520album%2Fred%2520wasp%25201%2520of%25201.jpg&hash=dc0eb8fcab061cdc5636ab3d4bfbfc6d4136b1c3) (http://s23.photobucket.com/user/FLHRI-OK/media/Private%20album/red%20wasp%201%20of%201.jpg.html)
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This is what we would call yellow jackets down here. If you walk nearby, they will all be turned and pointing directly at you. Not the only type, but they seem to have a high density of wasps per nest.
My Dad grew up in Mississippi and has told me about the larger wasps that have nests underground. I am glad I never saw them. I think they are in Texas, I just never saw them so much. Maybe the large numbers of fire ants has something to do with it.
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gabeeremoval.com%2FImages%2FwaspCR.jpg&hash=598f2a6522e99dccb0c519f699456d9aa216350e)
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Last colony of ground dwelling Yellow Jackets I dealt with I used a a couple of pounds of dry ice and a wash tub.
Poured the dry ice over the hole and inverted the tub over it.
What the cold didn't kill outright the CO2 smothered. But I left the tub over the hole for a couple of days to make absolutely sure.
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This is what we would call yellow jackets down here. If you walk nearby, they will all be turned and pointing directly at you. Not the only type, but they seem to have a high density of wasps per nest.
My Dad grew up in Mississippi and has told me about the larger wasps that have nests underground. I am glad I never saw them. I think they are in Texas, I just never saw them so much. Maybe the large numbers of fire ants has something to do with it.
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gabeeremoval.com%2FImages%2FwaspCR.jpg&hash=598f2a6522e99dccb0c519f699456d9aa216350e)
Those are red wasps, the yellower colored one in RKL's post is a paper wasp.
These are yellow jackets:
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/eastern_yellow_jacket.htm
Nasty little bastards, especially if you run over their nest with a lawnmower.
These are the ones I hate the most though:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald-faced_hornet
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yellow jackets are agents of the devil.
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On an amusing side note, our high school mascot is the yellowjacket, and Howard Payne University in Brownwood (BHS has pretty much always been our primary sports rival) has not only the yellowjacket mascot, but the same blue and gold school colors. Apparently it's still fairly common for blue and gold and/or yellowjacket motifs to be the target of vandalism there, without much regard for whether it's ours or theirs.
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We get these suckers around the house:
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv320%2FKoloblicin%2FTheFarm%2Fwateringhole1sm_zps064126ab.jpg&hash=29cbe76c6439f73be878c3a7b4fcd34a01720165)
They're fairly calm, but they'll build nests damn near everywhere. I have to remove several nests out of my SUV every summer. They like to crawl into the cracks around the doors and build them on the door frame just outside the weatherstripping. RAID kills em quick, as does citrus oils.
There are some more aggressive buggers down by the river, but I don't mess with them if they don't mess with me.
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There are some more aggressive buggers down by the river, but I don't mess with them if they don't mess with me.
I suppose that rather than a SUV, those live in a van.
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I suppose that rather than a SUV, those live in a van.
:laugh:
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Surprised no one mentioned this:
CRC chlorinated brake cleaner (red can), non flammable.
Buy two cans
Find the nest, wait until dark, soak the nest with one can [ar15], holding the second in reserve.
Immediate kill, relatively non toxic to anything except bugs. Cheap.
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Last colony of ground dwelling Yellow Jackets I dealt with I used a a couple of pounds of dry ice and a wash tub.
Poured the dry ice over the hole and inverted the tub over it.
What the cold didn't kill outright the CO2 smothered. But I left the tub over the hole for a couple of days to make absolutely sure.
Like. Creative.
One single one damned near killed me on my motorcycle. Was tooling along about 40MPH on a hot summer day. Shirt collar open. One (something) went down my shirt and stung me two-three times.
Almost lost complete control and nearly went into a bridge column. Finally pulled over and got it out of my shirt. Don't know what it was, didn't care. Had wings. Corpse was pretty crumpled up from swatting at it.
Looked like I had a couple extra nipples for a while.
Bastige.
But learned not to ride with collar open any more.
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Like. Creative.
One single one damned near killed me on my motorcycle. Was tooling along about 40MPH on a hot summer day. Shirt collar open. One (something) went down my shirt and stung me two-three times.
Almost lost complete control and nearly went into a bridge column. Finally pulled over and got it out of my shirt. Don't know what it was, didn't care. Had wings. Corpse was pretty crumpled up from swatting at it.
Looked like I had a couple extra nipples for a while.
Bastige.
But learned not to ride with collar open any more.
That's why I wear full gauntlet gloves.