Wasps

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Pod
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Wasps

Post by Pod »

I thought that this would provide some amusement for you guys! I have a wasp nest in a high, inaccessible location in my house and appears to be built in the cavity between the walls. Its above a car port, so not reachable by ladder and about 6M up, so just falls within the "special quotation" rules of our local exterminators :roll:

Not to be outdone by a bunch of flying nuisances I have developed my own "Heath Robinson" apparatus to deal with the problem. A visit to a local DIY store provided 9M of plastic waste pipe and associated solvent joints for about £10. This will hopefully remove the wasps rather than leaving them in-situ to rot and possible bridge the cavity causing damp. I don't know how I will get the nest out though :-k

I have mated this to a Vax aquamac vacuum cleaner and it appears to work fine [-o<

So far I have avoided being attacked by an angry swarm, but of course, this situation could change :lol:

Watch this space for updates :P
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Post by Masked Man »

Pod?

I'm not at all sure what I'm looking at here...are the wasps atop the window? :-k :-k :-k Are you attaching a shop vac to the unseen portion of pvc pipe? What do you do with the wasps (if you're sucking them into the shop vac) once you shut off the shop vac?

Please elaborate, inquiring minds want to know!!

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Post by Hefeweizen »

We had a nest right under the roof and used that as a target for air soft guns. Yes I know, it is red neck style but that was fun. I recently discovered wasp building a nest in a bird house that I have hanging at the front porch and took some packing tape and taped the hole shut. All seemed to have been in there except for one who kept flying against the clear tape. After a while I just took the birdhouse and emerged it in a bucket of water for 10-15 minutes and then I put the birdhouse right where I had it without the tape. The lone survivor did not stay after the discovery of the inside.....
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Post by Ralph in Socal »

Genius. I know that insects will not survive in the conditions inside of the vacuum cleaner (very dusty is best) so this will work well in your efforts to exterminate the pests. No harmful chemicals necessary.

Now if only you could connect the vacuum to a motion sensor that will turn it on when the critters are active!! That would truly be genius.


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Post by sharkfan »

I'm in an old, battered rented house at the moment and recently discovered increased wasp activity near the eaves; i tried some of the foamy stuff but obviously didn't find the main nest; the pest control pro did though, all 2ft by 2ft and about 4000 wasps worth!

He also found three old dead nests, one measuring 3' by 3' and two new nests being started. Hopefully all gone now though.

I had dealt with the three I found in the lawn this year, they're easy and fun; a cup full of petrol, a loooong stick as a taper and whoosh - all gone!
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Post by BMWtyro »

Hefeweizen wrote:We had a nest right under the roof and used that as a target for air soft guns. Yes I know, it is red neck style but that was fun.
Rainer,

I can top that.

I once had a huge hornets' nest on the inside wall of my barn. They must have been "mutant" hornets: they never slept! I could go in there at 2:00 a.m. and they would be busy, so using wasp & hornet killer was out of the question.

And so I contrived a plan which was pure genius: I would shoot the nest off the wall with my 12-gauge shotgun loaded with bird shot! I checked the first round in my gun to confirm that it was indeed loaded with bird shot, and I was ready to go.

Firing parallel along the wall from a stall adjacent to the one in which the nest was located afforded me a bit of protection (and little risk of damage to the building) so I let fly the first round. Not much damage to the nest, but surprisingly it quieted the hornets down considerably. With the second round, quite a bit more of the nest was gone; third shot, halfway gone; fourth shot, almost gone. I knew that the fifth and final round in the gun would finish the job, so I took aim and pulled the trigger.

I was aware of a tremendous kick and a roar like thunder from the gun, and lots of wooden shrapnel blasting back into my face. When I determined that my eyes still worked, I looked at the place where the hornets' nest had been . . . and saw a hole in the side of the barn. I then looked down at my feet and saw four spent red bird shot cartridges . . . and one freshly-smoldering black 00 buckshot cartridge.

Believe it or don't; this story is 100% true.

And so I learned my lesson: when shooting a hornets' nest off the wall of your barn, ALWAYS check ALL of the rounds in your gun.

"You might be a redneck if . . . you've ever used a 12-gauge to remove a hornet's nest from your barn wall!"

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Post by mojocoggo »

My car had several nests on it when I first towed it home. I thought I got rid of them all. And then…


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Post by Pod »

Masked Man wrote:Pod?

I'm not at all sure what I'm looking at here...are the wasps atop the window? :-k :-k :-k Are you attaching a shop vac to the unseen portion of pvc pipe? What do you do with the wasps (if you're sucking them into the shop vac) once you shut off the shop vac?

Please elaborate, inquiring minds want to know!!

Phillip
Sorry, its obvious to me as I've been dealing with the problem! There two vertical slots above the window (known as "weep holes") which the buggers are using. I started off locating the pipe near to the closest one in the pic. then moved it to the shown location. Of course the problem is that they can use either entrance, so I'm not getting them all, all of the time :x

The last time I used this method, there was only one entrance/exit and I got the lot in one day. So far I've been vacuuming for three days, but numbers are much reduced now!

I order to reduce the power consumption (the vac. draws about 1kWh), I've now instituted a regime of switching off after an hour or so and regularly checking activity. Once I see more than a couple of wasps per minute I switch it on again :wink:

The end of the pipe is taped onto the vac's flexible hose with gaffer tape.

I haven't emptied the can yet, but boy does it stink for a few minutes every time I switch the power on! Surprisingly enough, this aroma doesn't seem to attract wasps from the nest (fortunately for me!).

Ralph, great minds think alike! I too, was wondering how some sort of motion sensor could be utilised, however even if that was possible I think the time (turbo :lol: ) lag might be sufficient for the wasp to get past the tube before sufficient suction is generated :-k
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Post by GazM3 »

I enjoy a good wasp removal story.

Wasps don't really add much value to society. Are they food for anything.?
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Post by hornhospital »

GazM3 wrote:I enjoy a good wasp removal story.

Wasps don't really add much value to society. Are they food for anything.?
Not typically, but they do serve a function:

(Wikipedia) "A wasp is any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers, or natural biocontrol. Parasitic wasps are increasingly used in agricultural pest control as they prey mostly on pest insects and have little impact on crops."

With that said, I hate them, too, mainly because I am allergic to their stings. I kill all of them I can find. BTW, aerosol brake cleaner worked great for killing them instantly, and it's WAY cheaper than the commercial wasp sprays. Without the "wand" on the spray head it typically has a 10'-15' range of jet spray.

I do wish we could find a wasp that preys on Love Bugs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug)

If you know what they are, you'll know why I say that. If you DON'T know what they are, thank God every day that you can drive your E24 without it getting peppered with highly corrosive Love Bug guts.
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Post by Hefeweizen »

BMWtyro wrote:
Hefeweizen wrote:We had a nest right under the roof and used that as a target for air soft guns. Yes I know, it is red neck style but that was fun.
Rainer,

I can top that.

I once had a huge hornets' nest on the inside wall of my barn. They must have been "mutant" hornets: they never slept! I could go in there at 2:00 a.m. and they would be busy, so using wasp & hornet killer was out of the question.

And so I contrived a plan which was pure genius: I would shoot the nest off the wall with my 12-gauge shotgun loaded with bird shot! I checked the first round in my gun to confirm that it was indeed loaded with bird shot, and I was ready to go.

Firing parallel along the wall from a stall adjacent to the one in which the nest was located afforded me a bit of protection (and little risk of damage to the building) so I let fly the first round. Not much damage to the nest, but surprisingly it quieted the hornets down considerably. With the second round, quite a bit more of the nest was gone; third shot, halfway gone; fourth shot, almost gone. I knew that the fifth and final round in the gun would finish the job, so I took aim and pulled the trigger.

I was aware of a tremendous kick and a roar like thunder from the gun, and lots of wooden shrapnel blasting back into my face. When I determined that my eyes still worked, I looked at the place where the hornets' nest had been . . . and saw a hole in the side of the barn. I then looked down at my feet and saw four spent red bird shot cartridges . . . and one freshly-smoldering black 00 buckshot cartridge.

Believe it or don't; this story is 100% true.

And so I learned my lesson: when shooting a hornets' nest off the wall of your barn, ALWAYS check ALL of the rounds in your gun.

"You might be a redneck if . . . you've ever used a 12-gauge to remove a hornet's nest from your barn wall!"

Jeff "Foxworthy" Dreibus
That is pretty funny! Next time maybe use a 155mm Howitzer?
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wasps

Post by dakal »

i did the same thing for the wasps in my barn, only i used dynamite .

the barns gone but the wasps are still there.i'm worried now.
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Re: wasps

Post by BMWtyro »

dakal wrote:i did the same thing for the wasps in my barn, only i used dynamite .

the barns gone but the wasps are still there.i'm worried now.
:lol: :lol: :lol: =D>
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Post by Pod »

Back to the drawing board :lol:

I went away for ten days and had hoped the virtual absence of wasps around the nest indicated that I had reduced the population below its critical mass and there had not been enough workers to feed the larvae. However there are now more of the buggers around than two weeks ago #-o

I reconnected my "Heath Robinson" apparatus and left it running for an hour. Then I did a (rough) count of the number of wasps getting sucked up. I probably missed a few, but it was still running in excess of 12 per minute :shock:

I took a couple of pics of the previous haul - I wonder how many wasps are in that mass :-k
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Quendil

Post by Quendil »

When I use to keep bees there were around 60,000 in a hive. Not sure about wasps. I still have a habit of making sure I kill any wasps I find in autumn as they are usually female ones.
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Post by sharkfan »

I found another two nests this week - an extension of the first one in the attic and another in the ground.
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Post by Pod »

Quendil wrote:When I use to keep bees there were around 60,000 in a hive. Not sure about wasps. I still have a habit of making sure I kill any wasps I find in autumn as they are usually female ones.
According to the internet, really large nests can contain up to 25,000 of the buggers - although apparently 6,000-10,000 is more normal.

You're absolutely right about the queens. They lurk around all Winter and I'm sure would sting given half a chance! I kill all that I find, as each one terminated equals one less nest!

I've found that if a neighbour has a nest which is not destroyed, then there are usually more nests the next year as the new queens do not appear to move very far :evil:
sharkfan wrote:I found another two nests this week - an extension of the first one in the attic and another in the ground.
Well, its a cup full of petrol and a hastily-flung match for the one in the ground. Better not try that technique in the attic though :lol:
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Post by Martin S »

I painted my house recently and found out I had about 5 nests in the walls and under the roof.
I found out that "ant dust" is very similar to what the professionals use. Ants and wasps are actually quite close relatives.

Problem was how to deliver it 6m up in the air and in behind the wall panels.
I finally found a good method.
I took some pvc pipes normally used for electrical installations, joined them together to a really long pipe and taped it to a piece of wood for some rigidity. In one end I put a 90deg angle. I filled the angle piece with some ant dust, put the other end of the pipe at the opening where the wasps flew in and out, and the I gave it a good puff with compressed air.
A "cloud of death" blew in through the opening behind the planks in the panel. Gave it 2-3 puffs in each nest. 2hrs later the nests were almost totally dead. Jus one or two wasps left that were out flying when I bombed the nest.
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Post by Pod »

Absolutely brilliant idea! Seems like your access problem was very similar to mine! Also, a variation on my PVC waste pipe with a vaccuum to PVC electrical pipe with pressure. It just shows that we car enthusiasts really can "think outside of the box" without paying through the nose for professionals to do the job!

At the moment I'm still vacuuming the nest and numbers of Gwepes have dropped considerably - however if this fails I shall adopt your "final solution" :lol:

Watch this space............................
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Post by GazM3 »

Nice work. Even Saddam would have been proud of that chemical attack.
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Re: Wasps

Post by Pod »

So far this Spring I’ve killed six queens. All inside the house. That’s 6 less potential nests around my property 😉. Then I had a Google search for the number of queens produced each Autumn per nest. One article said “up to 1,000”. I don’t know why I bother ☹️
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Re: Wasps

Post by ron »

I've killed about 25 Queens in my garage so far. I'm having a new roof fitted soon so they won't be able to get in!
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Re: Wasps

Post by bpoliakoff »

Had a major bee problem and hired a pro to do it. He came by for several evening at sunset. Reason being, he said, is that is when they all return to the hive or nest, He then sprayed his magic crap in the entrance they used, and then taped it off. Within two days, the problem was solved
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Re: Wasps

Post by Brucey »

if you want to be sure all the wasps are at home when you introduce insecticide, just do it after sunset; wasps don't normally fly in the dark (although they may be attracted to nearby artificial lights at any time).

FWIW if you don't want to use an insecticide -which will kill just about any kind of insect good or bad BTW- wasps can be killed by all kinds of things. Petrol kills them by contact and the vapour suffocates the buggers; no need for a fire. Obviously they can't breathe CO2 so running a tiny tube from a regulated CO2 supply into a wasps nest for a few minutes will usually kill most of them (without disturbing them greatly). Even soapy water bumps them off; they breathe through tubes in the sides of their bodies and these tubes are blocked by water, provided there is a enough detergent in it that it overwhelms the waxy coating on their bodies which normally prevents this.

Last year I had wasps next to a fruit crop and I used soapy water on them, not wanting to eat insecticide residues.

In the UK there is presently a new threat; an imported species of hornet which has previously been unknown here is now spreading through southern England. Not sure what the consequences of that are likely to be.

BTW am I right in thinking that in American English (moreso than in British English) folk often say 'bee' whether they mean bee, wasp or hornet? It can be very important to know the difference; for me bee stings are uncomfortable but wasp stings can make me swell up like crazy.

On the news here a while ago there was a thatched cottage (in Nhants?) with 'a major wasp problem'; the roof space was basically full of the buggers (several different colonies I presume) and it was estimated that there were about a quarter of a million of them.

Wasps are considered 'good for the garden' because they eat all kinds of other harmful insects. However I draw the line at having them too close to (or in!) the house

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Re: Wasps

Post by bpoliakoff »

I meant bee as in "bumble bee" I only have wasps alighting in my swimming pool as occasional visitors so they are only "drinking" pals
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