Eviction Time

[GoDawgs]

It's finally time to deal with the wasp nest that has been built on the front porch light. They have covered one side and now they're starting on the second side. The house is being washed and all is done except for the porch. That's tomorrow's project but I'll have to deal with the wasps first.



This nest has been building for a good while. I water the plants on the porch and mess with this and that and they have paid me no attention at all. They've raised maybe three or four broods so far. The nest was about covered with the most recent graduating class but they left home over the past few days, leaving behind those who will lay another round of eggs and cap all the cells.

This afternoon I moved everything off the porch so just before sunset when all is quiet the wasps will be evicted.

[Seven Bends]

Interesting. Do you know what kind of wasp those are?

[Cole_Robbie]

I don't know the formal name, but the black ones are much less aggressive than the red ones. Also, if you feel like getting up early, the air temp will be lowest right at dawn, making then the most lethargic.

[Setec Astronomy]

What do you use, Dawgs? I think I mentioned this in another thread last year, the supermarket wasp sprays like Raid, etc., don't work at all anymore, they used to be instant knockdown. Last time I had to take out a hornet's nest I had to get some professional stuff online, that smelled like the old Raid. (The supermarket stuff that didn't work smelled different, I really don't know if it's the active that changed, or the solvent, or why).

[worth1]

We used gasoline on the farm years ago.
No idea what this Arab no lead stuff would do.

[Hornad]

When I have a wasp nest on my house the garden is the most pest free that it has ever been

[GoDawgs]

UPDATE:

The plan was to lean out the front door enough to use the spray and be ready to duck back in fast if the wasps came at me. I was shocked and amazed at how that wasp spray worked. The very instant the spray hit the nest there was an immediate shower of dead wasps falling to the floor. Wow! A few remained on the nest, just frozen in place. The directions said to wait 24 hours before removing the nest so I will. I'll have to get the step ladder or something out to reach it this evening. NOT promoting a product but an FYI that I used the Raid wasp spray that shoots 22'.

Later I went down to pick field peas and noticed there were a ton of wasps and bees of all kinds feeding on the flower nectaries. All is well with the wasp population.

[karstopography]

Paper Wasps are frequently in my garden foraging for caterpillars and insect larvae. The wasps are very deliberate and methodical with their foraging. The wasps also scavenge wood from the fence for the nests. This year, I even had one wasp build a nest amongst the abandoned bean trellis. I used the garden hose to blast that little starter nest away. Once the nest was gone, the wasp abandons that defensive behavior they are known for and simply flies away to make a nest somewhere else. We don’t let the wasps build and maintain nests on the house either. I use a broom on those if the nests are just getting started. But, any nests with several wasps around a doorway would get the insecticidal treatment, no safe non-lethal way to get a large nest removed. I hate killing them though so the broom treatment is my preference. I’m still fast enough to avoid getting stung by a couple of defensive wasps, but thirty or forty, probably not.

Paper wasps love to build their nests in the yaupon hedges I maintain with hedge trimmers. They are impossible to see through the opaque foliage, but the wasps tend to use the same areas year after year for their nests that I’m able to memorize the specific locations and tailor my trimming to avoiding disturbing the nests. Painful stings help sharpen the memory.

[Setec Astronomy]

That's great, GoDawgs! It was a few years ago I had a giant hornet nest in a bad place, and I went and got my trusty Raid Wasp & Hornet and it didn't smell as usual and was largely ineffective. Then I went to Home Depot I guess and got a different brand, same thing. I think at the time I did some internet searching and found they had changed the ingredients, so I looked at one of those online pest control places until I found one that had the old ingredients, and bought that and it worked, as I recall it was very expensive though.

Of course my situation was a bit different, if I recall they were the white-faced hornets, and with a hornet's nest they aren't exposed to the spray like in your wasp nest, so you really need the good stuff to soak the nest with. It's always fun, glad it worked out easily for you...I've been up on ladders at night with a flashlight pumping dust into yellow-jacket holes.

[GoDawgs]

@karstopography , like you I usually sweep away the little nests just getting started. I've gotten into the habit of always checking under the front porch plant tables for any nests starting after I got stung once just reaching under the table for a jug of water. You're right about yaupons and wasps. It must be a favorite place for wasps to build. I have two out front and they prefer the one closest to the front steps. Every time I shear them back there are always some lazily flying out of the plants.

@Setec Astronomy, the instructions on the can said that for the big football shaped paper nests that the spray needs to be directed right up the hole. I can understand now how lethal that would be with the critters in that enclosed space. The same method would probably work for ground bees or nasty yellow jackets this fall.

[AKgardener]

oh my lord.. I have one in the corner on my front porch I have to wait until my hubby gets home to remove.. good luck

[Setec Astronomy]

@Setec Astronomy, the instructions on the can said that for the big football shaped paper nests that the spray needs to be directed right up the hole. I can understand now how lethal that would be with the critters in that enclosed space.

I don't remember exactly how I handled that, but it might be hard to spray in the hole without being underneath the nest...which is not where you want to be when they fall out all mad because you just drenched them with wasp spray...because they usally buzz a few times and it seems like that might be long enough to sting you...I've never tried to prove that theory. I just remember it being a 2 or 3 night job trying different sprays.

[JRinPA]

I had to spray one with real kill this year. I'd prefer not to but yellow jackets building under the shed eave a scant 3 feet from the closest pear branch - sorry, not happening. The stuff is not 1/2 second instant, but they are aren't going anywhere but down. But those cans of real kill are old stock.