I would like to cook some wasps out of my gas log fireplace but it seems that every time I try to the suckers find their way out of the fire and into the room. Question is can I burn the gas log with the glass doors shut? Log mfg. in instructions warn against closing the doors.Why? Lack of o2 breakage of glass or what? I intend to stay close to fire. FK
close doors and burn them out
Sorry if I'm being overly simplistic, but have you ever heard of this thing called an exterminator? People like this actually exist, and they're usually pretty effective in ridding people of such fairly simple problems.
Only problem is, like just about everything else worthwhile in the world, an exterminator will cost you money. If that's not an agreeable enough solution for you, wasps flying around your house are pretty easy to live with. You just have to learn to stay out of their way until they end up all dead and dried up-crusty on the windowsill in about a week.
AJS
Do the fire thing as the first line of attack. For any wasps that escape into the room get a cheap badminton racket to swat them. The racket has a large hit zone, is light, and very accurate. A hit will dismember the wasp before it can send out any alarm to other wasps to join in the attack.
I had a nest of yellowjackets under my front door concrete landing that nothing could reach. By late summer there were so many of them I received a note from the post office to get rid of them or else. I had a real enjoyable time with the badminton racket.
Eradincating nests of yellowjackets are the easiest thing in the world. You just shove a big funnel into the hole during the dead of night (when they're far less active) and pour a Mason jar full of kerosene into the funnel and into the hole.
Nothing will ever grow there ever again pretty much and it won't do anything for your backhand, but you'll instantly get rid of the wicked little pricks once and for all.
AJS
This was a 4' x 8' concrete slab that would require a bobcat to lift. Underneath was sandy soil that wasn't packed tight and gave the wasps multiple exits. Therefore I could have poured buckets of any liquid and all I would have done would be to flood out and damage my basement wall.
Its a lot more fun swatting the yellow jackets with a badminton racquet. Environmentally friendly (no chemicals), no mess, their bodies fed the ants and I had a good workout on a nice summer day.
I had a huge yellowjacket nest a few summers back in the space between the two layers of brick on my Cape Cod-style home, so I'm aware of what happens when you leave these buggers unattended or the futulity in trying to eliminate them yourself most times.
While your biceps are probably pretty buff after all that swatting, I see you're unaware of the mechanics of social nesting insects. Here's the thing: You were swatting the workers, and the entire nest of workers die off at the end of the year anyway. You got nowhere near the queen, which is still living somewhere all nice and tidy and well-fed under that slab. All those eggs she's laid for overwinter will hatch once spring rolls around and create a whole new generation of new nest, and you'll be back to th exact same problem until, like, forever if all you do is swat them.
Basic inescapable truth: If you want them gone for good, you've got to kill the queen. In most cases, an exterminator will eliminate the problem with basic boric acid power sprayed deep into the nest. "Deep" is the operative word here -- most sprays and stuff we use don't get anywhere near the queen.
Oh, one other thing: Yellowjackets get pissed off really easily; the whole nest can swarm-attack you or anyone else clueless enough to get within 5-10 feet of the nest. Being wasps, they can sting repeatedly (unlike bees, which are good for only one sting because their stingers lodge into your flesh and yank their intestines out when they fly away), which can send even a healthy person with no allergies into an allergic-style shock and even death. Very small kids are especially susceptible to this, if I recall right.
Wasps are nothing to screw with, plain and simple. Bite the bullet and get yourself an exterminator. Or a Bobcat.
AJS
I believe you. In my case It was around late Sept. 2 yrs ago when I got rid of them and our winter (below freezing point) lasts from late Oct into late May. The yellow jackets never reappeared. I think the queen and the grubs were starved out.
When I was a small kid a neighbour had a trading store with stacks of sugar that were a magnet for honeybees. That's where I did my badminton racket stuff. I must have wacked thousands just for the hell of it and never got stung or even attacked because their death was so sudden and total. I'm a tree hugger now and view my childhood actions (the bees) as incorrect. There was no such thing as tree hugging then.
I believe you. In my case It was around late Sept. 2 yrs ago when I got rid of them and our winter (below freezing point) lasts from late Oct into late May. The yellow jackets never reappeared. I think the queen and the grubs were starved out.
When I was a small kid a neighbour had a trading store with stacks of sugar that were a magnet for honeybees. That's where I did my badminton racket stuff. I must have wacked thousands just for the hell of it and never got stung or even attacked because their death was so sudden and total. I'm a tree hugger now and view my childhood actions (the bees) as incorrect. There was no such thing as tree hugging then.
It's easier and safer to use an insecticide dust. Toss a generous pinch down the YJ hole or on the nest in the evening when they are inactive. Because it is a dust instead of a spray, they will get it on their feet and contaminate the whole nest with it. The entire hive will be dead in a day or two. Methoxyclor powder works really well. Sevin is probably another good choice.
Bob
It's easier and safer to use an insecticide dust. Toss a generous pinch down the YJ hole or on the nest in the evening when they are inactive. Because it is a dust instead of a spray, they will get it on their feet and contaminate the whole nest with it. The entire hive will be dead in a day or two. Methoxyclor powder works really well. Sevin is probably another good choice.
Bob
It would be simple for most people, too, but yellowjackets don't build exposed nests like a lot of their wasp bretheren, like paper wasps or mud daubers. They build their nests in hidden, well-recessed spaced places that can be hard to get to, like between brick walls, in old mole tunnels, inside rotted landscaping timbers/railroad ties, etc. A nest inside the chimney itself would in my book most definitely call for a professional.
Of course they only come down when the fire warms them. You're waking them up and making them active. Dumb things think it's summer.
AJS
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