Find the entrance. Get your Wet Vac out and place the suction hose close to the entrance. Turn the vacuum on and go get a cup of coffee. Read the newspaper.Get the aerosol hornet killer out and shoot a small amount into the still running suction hose. Place the hose back at the entrance. Go get another cup of coffee. Repeat as necessary.
First, use a little care.
Yellowjackets start with one queen at the beginning of the year, the rest die during the winter. By the end of August the colony is generally about 1500. The fatal dose (assuming no allergies) is between 500 and 1000 for the average human. So, do the math!
Living in Virginia, I usually find one nest a year while mowing the lawn. I think they start in a mole tunnel then dig it out.
I kill them with soapy water. I set a couple five gallon pails of water and laundry soap near the hole, wait until dark, and pour it in. No risk like with gasoline or pesticides. I've never had this method fail, though I've sometimes had to do it a couple of times. It took a little nerve the first time, I thought they might wake and come flying out the hole, but that's never happened.
I've tried the sprays and other methods. The sprays all get soaked into the ground before they get to the nest, here anyway. Spraying with or trying to fill their hole(s) with water doesn't generally get rid of them either. Pouring, quite a bit of, gasoline or kerosene down the hole near or after dark and ingniting it from a safe distance works. Don't wait a half hour after pouing the gas though. The stuff will woomph all around you. You might just get singed.
About a dozen people have suggested the 'cleansing fire' solution in this thread, just like all the times before when somebody has asked about the same problem. Just like before, it is a dumb idea, and can get you in trouble with the law for putting the ground water at risk. Doesn't matter if it works, the downside is too large.
I know, playing with fire is fun, but you can't buy real M-80s any more either.
There is a law that says you can't use fire to get rid of yellow jackets??? You don't use enough gasoline to fill a well. A quart or so is generally all it will take but I have seen a nest that was over 5 ft deep.
I guess he says the same about having an asphalt driveway on your property,
Not always. They'll build typical wasp's nests, on buildings, trees, and such, too.
One can kill. Do the math.
That's an excellent idea. Begnign, too. I'll file that one away.
There is a law that says you cannot put gasoline into the ground and another that frowns heavily on arson.
Ask your local EPA droids or your fire marshal about that.
Walmart has something with that name on the box. Knowing our EPA, it is probably confectioners sugar, though.
Not to belabor the point, but I believe that yellow jackets are like other bees and once you've wiped out their base and killed the queen, the drones just get lost.
uh..... arson? can't use gas or presumably anything to burn yellow jackets? You're not serious?
that is what we need to do to the dems in november.
I said that because one of the morning drive talkers has the county extension services representative on every Friday. Recently they were talking about "Army Worm" infestations. Apparently Seven is the only treatment for it and he said it was now only available in liquid form, which is expensive for this use.
Ask your fire marshal about dumping gasoline on the ground and lighting it.
Right after you ask yer mommy if you can come out and play.
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You would think about your mommy, nutjob.
Tennis racket, you march to the den of death and dare them to come at you knowing "to the victor goes the spoils". Wear something with a tight collar they fight dirty when they go down your shirt.
All day long, 24/7. She has alzheimers and I care for her.
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Why light it? When you pour the gas down the hole, the fumes will displace the air, so the fire won't go down the hole. The soil will keep the heat away from the nest.
I have found that the fumes from a tablespoon of gasoline will kill a nest. I imagine soil organisms can soon break down that small amount.
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