I have discovered a bald faced hornet nest in my garden. It is about the size of a softball so far, but growing. My daughter has already bee stung by one of them. I'll tolerate paper wasps and honey bees and mud daubers, but these things have to go. How can I get rid of them without getting all stung up. Can I just hit them with horner spray after dark? Or will they be active enough to come after me even after dark?
I don't know what horner spray is, but I get those cans that shoot 20'. I hit the nest and get away. An hour later, hit it again. Give it an hour and you can get in close and saturate it.
But then, I am not too bright. Last year I dug a large wasp nest out of the ground next to my boat dock and threw it into the lake. There were wasps everywhere, but not one stung me! (possibly they were confused by someone acting so foolishly) I didn't have any insectacide handy, so I had to go to plan B.
"zootal" wrote
== I sprayed/saturated a large--no, huge--nest after dark and none came after me. I was standing as far away as I could get and close to my back door. I had already been attacked by this swarm and wasn't taking any chances. Next day there was no movement from the hive. They were done.
Ahh, good. I know wasps are not usually active after dark, but I've never taken on a yellow jacket or bald faced hornet nest before. I think they are more active when it's hot, I wonder if I should wait until the weather cools? It's 100 today and tomorrow but expected to cool down soon. This particular nest is 4' above the surface of an above ground pool, which is right next to the garden. I'm not sure if I can spray it without contaminating the water....but it's gotta go....
BFH are good night fliers so don't have anyone actually holding the flashlight if you attack by night. If the nest is free hanging you can quickly cover it with a trash bag and break it off inside the bag.
Lar
Spectracide Pro Wasp and Hornet Spray from Home Depot.
This stuff is the old fashioned petroleum distillate (roughly a light kerosene or mineral spirits) with a little insecticide. Squirts a stream from the can. Soak the nest.
Water-based stuff is asking for a duel. Hit em with kerosene and they're
*immediately* disabled. You're far enough away that they never know what hit em. Even if they did, they can't navigate in the dark.Once you do this you'll see how easy it is.
A little diesel fuel, lamp oil, Coleman fuel, or other petroleum distillate works just as well, if you can figure out how to squirt it.
I spray them anytime I see them which is when it is light. Wasp/ hornet spray knocks them down immediately and I've never had a nest empty out and come after me. A good shot of spray in nest opening will probably kill whole colony and you can remove the next day. Frank
I used some Real-Kill wasp&hornet spray and found out the dueling part the hard way... on the roof.
For spot killing singletons, brake-cleaner drops them instantly, and leaves no toxic residue.
Dave
Can't recall messing with bald faced hornets in cool weather, but they are actually not a hornet but a type of yellow jackets and a trait of is yellow jackets that they are somewhat cold tolerate. I have seen them active with temps in the high 30's.
Should be able to protect the water with a drop cloth and some tall stakes. Secure two corners to the tall stakes. Then secure two other corners to shorter stakes creating an angle for the over spray to run off.
Lar
Normally you can just use a water hose and high pressure nozzle and knock the nest off and they'll abandon it.
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i use gasoline in a garden sprayer.put on winter cover alls and gloves,hat. spray into the nest hole at night for about 10-15 seconds. for ground bees i pour some gasoline into the hole at night.
I recall a story from the 70s when hair spray-on nets were the rage. This lady used the spray to immobilize all manner of insect pests as once sprayed it held down their wings and slowed down their legs. I never did get around to testing it.
My innovation was to use a badminton racquet to swat yellowjackets from a nest under my front door concrete landing. I couldn't reach the nest by any method. I could hardly miss with the racquet and the strings cut up the YJs neatly midflight before they could send out any alarm signals.
LOL! I got to watch two safety department guys use tennis rackets; chasing pigeons and swatting them.
-- Oren
..through the use of electrical or duct tape, achieve the configuration in the photo..
I have some spectracide right here. In a few hours it will be dark, and by by hornets!
It's a cute little nest - if it wasn't in such a bad spot, I would leave it alone as they tend to be beneficial insects and don't bother us in the garden. Yellow Jacketws I kill with extreme prejudice. Paper wasps and mud daubers I ignore if they are not in my doorways. These guys put there nest in the wrong place.
I've heard large quanities of gasoline helps.
I'veheard of using a Shop Vac with the nozzle a coupl einches from a yellow jacket nest. Eventually you get em all int he shop vac. I'm not sure what you do then. Some days I wonder how to wrap up these wondeful plans.
And a match :-).
In all seriousness...many years I lived on the Island of Guam, where we had a small dark wasp we called a boonie bee. It was a small paper wasp, and was actually non-agressive. The problem with them is that they would build nests
*everywhere*, practically overnight. To get rid of the nests, we would take a rag, stick it on the end of a long pole, put some light oil, turpentine, etc. on it, light it, and then use it to burn the nest. Worked great.I've heard about that also. I guess it would work for those in the nest, but the ones returning to the nest might get real ticked at you. And if the power fails or the power cord comes unplugged, then you would be in a heap of hurting. Then you have to figure out what to do when you turn the vac off. You will have a bag full of very angry bees that will fly back out the hose as fast as they flew in. Maybe if you sprayed some insecticide into the thing before turning it off?
For something that small, I'd hit it in the daytime...Wasp spray (shoots about 10 feet) thoroughly and knock it down..scoop it up into a plastic bag and dispose... get someone to "watch your back" as you do it in case a couple "come home" while you re at it.
Or sure, do it at night..BTDT too.
Alas, the dastardly deed is done. I nailed it with some Spectracide hornet spray. Actually blew a hole in the nest. A dozen dead bees on the pool cover because the nest was over the pool. Dead or dying larva all over the place. We did it shortly after dusk, when it was dark enough that they were all in the nest.
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