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Old 12-08-2004, 03:58 PM
Cam
 
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Default OT Yellowjacket Shop Vac

My back yard is swarmed with yellowjacket wasps every August and
September. It can make it tough to sit by the pond with a drink or eat
dinner on the deck. They are attracted by the flowering silverlace
vines on the fence and deck railing. I have set traps for them, put out
borax ant-bait and swatted them with no real effect on the population.
I never used a hornet blaster because the poison in those is extremely
toxic to fish (and the rest of the world). Rather than cut down the
vines I set out to take the battle directly to the wasps themselves. I
found their nest, it was actually in a hole in the bricks of my house.
I got my wet/dry shop vac and vacuumed up about a gallon of soapy water
and then set the crevice tool of the vac beside the entrance of the
nest. Over the space of 10 minutes it sucked up every wasp on their way
in or out of the nest. As soon as they were flying within 5 inches of
the nozzle they would dissappear down the black hole. I let the vac sit
on the deck for a few more minutes to make sure the wasps had drowned
in the soapy water and then emptied the contents out into some fine
netting. I had killed almost 2 cups full of yellowjackets in the space
of 10 minutes without poison and never got stung.
I'll continue with the traps but any time I find a wasp nest I'm going
to get the shop vac out again. It really worked.

Cam

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Old 27-09-2004, 07:55 PM
Cam
 
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Andy Hill wrote:
"Cam" wrote:
I got my wet/dry shop vac and vacuumed up about a gallon of soapy

water
and then set the crevice tool of the vac beside the entrance of the
nest. Over the space of 10 minutes it sucked up every wasp on their

way
in or out of the nest. As soon as they were flying within 5 inches

of
the nozzle they would dissappear down the black hole. I let the vac

sit
on the deck for a few more minutes to make sure the wasps had

drowned
in the soapy water


You probably should toss some wasp nerve gas into the hole now. I've

used the
shopvac method in the past, and while it does a great job of knocking

down the
worker population, it doesn't do a thing for the queen, the

newly-hatched
workers (who are still hanging out on the nest) or the pupae.

You'll soon have
a thriving nest going again unless you do something about those guys

and gals.

You are right, the nest started to make a come back. But I wanted to
avoid using any pesticides if I could. Commercial hornet blasters
contain a chemical that is very toxic to fish, even in very small
doses. Why take the risk?
I bought a bottle of "Ant & Roach" powder (80% diatomaceous earth, no
poison) and shot puffs of the stuff into the holes in the bricks. After
a couple of minutes I had blocked all the entrances completely with the
fine powder. It is now 4 weeks later and the holes are still blocked
and I'm claiming victory.

Cam

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Old 27-09-2004, 07:55 PM
Cam
 
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Default


Andy Hill wrote:
"Cam" wrote:
I got my wet/dry shop vac and vacuumed up about a gallon of soapy

water
and then set the crevice tool of the vac beside the entrance of the
nest. Over the space of 10 minutes it sucked up every wasp on their

way
in or out of the nest. As soon as they were flying within 5 inches

of
the nozzle they would dissappear down the black hole. I let the vac

sit
on the deck for a few more minutes to make sure the wasps had

drowned
in the soapy water


You probably should toss some wasp nerve gas into the hole now. I've

used the
shopvac method in the past, and while it does a great job of knocking

down the
worker population, it doesn't do a thing for the queen, the

newly-hatched
workers (who are still hanging out on the nest) or the pupae.

You'll soon have
a thriving nest going again unless you do something about those guys

and gals.

You are right, the nest started to make a come back. But I wanted to
avoid using any pesticides if I could. Commercial hornet blasters
contain a chemical that is very toxic to fish, even in very small
doses. Why take the risk?
I bought a bottle of "Ant & Roach" powder (80% diatomaceous earth, no
poison) and shot puffs of the stuff into the holes in the bricks. After
a couple of minutes I had blocked all the entrances completely with the
fine powder. It is now 4 weeks later and the holes are still blocked
and I'm claiming victory.

Cam

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Old 27-09-2004, 08:12 PM
Mark Bannister
 
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Default

FYI:
For yellow jackets in the ground it sometimes works to put a glass jar
or pot over the hole. Because they can see light through the jar they
won't tunnel out but just keep trying to fly through the glass.
Just make sure the neighbor kids don't come to investigate and it has to
be heavy enough so that they can't just crawl under. (The wasps not the
neighbor kids.)
Mark B.

Cam wrote:
Andy Hill wrote:

"Cam" wrote:

I got my wet/dry shop vac and vacuumed up about a gallon of soapy


water

and then set the crevice tool of the vac beside the entrance of the
nest. Over the space of 10 minutes it sucked up every wasp on their


way

in or out of the nest. As soon as they were flying within 5 inches


of

the nozzle they would dissappear down the black hole. I let the vac


sit

on the deck for a few more minutes to make sure the wasps had


drowned

in the soapy water



You probably should toss some wasp nerve gas into the hole now. I've


used the

shopvac method in the past, and while it does a great job of knocking


down the

worker population, it doesn't do a thing for the queen, the


newly-hatched

workers (who are still hanging out on the nest) or the pupae.


You'll soon have

a thriving nest going again unless you do something about those guys


and gals.

You are right, the nest started to make a come back. But I wanted to
avoid using any pesticides if I could. Commercial hornet blasters
contain a chemical that is very toxic to fish, even in very small
doses. Why take the risk?
I bought a bottle of "Ant & Roach" powder (80% diatomaceous earth, no
poison) and shot puffs of the stuff into the holes in the bricks. After
a couple of minutes I had blocked all the entrances completely with the
fine powder. It is now 4 weeks later and the holes are still blocked
and I'm claiming victory.

Cam

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