Wasps in the outbuilding

[vaskidmark]

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.

[HeroHog]

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.

[230RN]

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

[vaskidmark]

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.

[AmbulanceDriver]

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....

[never_retreat]

[Hutch]

Yellowjackets are the souls of the damned, sent here by Satan to give mortals a foretaste of Hell.

[MechAg94]

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.

[HeroHog]

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.

[RocketMan]

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.

[BlueStarLizzard]

I always read these threads. The thought of all those bastards dying just makes me smile.

[MechAg94]

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.  



(edit:  For those taking offense, the other thread I am thinking is not the the thread you are thinking of.  Have a nice day.)

[Hutch]

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...

[zxcvbob]

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.

[MechAg94]

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. 

[brimic]

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.

[HeroHog]

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.

[bedlamite]

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.

[MechAg94]

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.

[RoadKingLarry]

Proper identification of the enemy is an important skill

Yellow Striped bastard


Red Bastard

[MechAg94]

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.

[K Frame]

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.

[brimic]

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.

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

[lupinus]

yellow jackets are agents of the devil.

[KD5NRH]

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.