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Yellow jackets... HELP

Started by WH_Conley, July 24, 2017, 05:21:30 PM

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WH_Conley

It appears in the slack time sawing a colony of Yellow Jackets has taken up residence in the sawdust under the mill. I thought it was wasps at first. I started spraying Wasp and Hornet killer it the holes in the frame as usual. The durn things just kept getting thicker. What can I put in there to kill them. I don't want to use Gas or Diesel, afraid it will start a reaction and start a fire. Anybody got any ideas?
Bill

btulloh

That wasp and hornet killer should work if you close up the hole after you spray a good bit in there.  Best time is when it's pretty close to dark so they're all home for the evening.  They must be in a hole under the sawdust.  The sawdust makes it more complicated than the usual nests I deal with.  Now that you've got 'em riled up, it adds another wrinkle.  I'm sure there'll be some more wisdom coming in soon.  Good Luck.  I hate yellowjackets.
HM126

SevernDH

Have been told that yellow jackets cannot fly in rain, and have seen a couple instances since I heard this that make me believe it.  Guy that told me about it suggests a hose on a fine mist setting as a "shield" when working on a nest.

That said, last nest I took care of, I used a full can of foaming wasp and hornet killer after dark and it seemed to do the trick for me.
EZ Boardwalk Model 40, New Holland TC40
Desk Jockey by day; Couch potato and occasional wood hack by night

YellowHammer

A good pyrethrin contact pesticide, mixed with water, will knock them down. I use fly spray for cattle from the COOP.   Mix it in a pump lawn and garden sprayer, with water, and hose them.  They do not react as aggressively to being sprayed with this, I guess thinking its rain.  I keep a jug sprayer mixed up at all times, better and cheaper than the canned spray.

When one comes at you, put up a wall of mist and they can't make it through without losing their fight. 

I like to hit them at dusk, to catch them all at the nest.  Hit them like with a firehouse, then jab the sprayer in to the hole with the trigger pulled and come back later.  Or just spray them in the air. 


YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Ron Wenrich

You need a skunk or coon to go in there and eat the yellow jackets.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

tree-farmer

My cousin had a interesting solution. He would put shop vac hose next to main entrace to nest, about 45 min or so and all the jackets are in the vac canister to be drowned if a wet/dry model, or just corked up to die in a day or two.
Seemed to work. Nest can be dug up once the live jackets are gone.
Fish love em as bait.
Old doesn't bother me, its the ugly that's a real bummer.

fishfighter

I had to deal with a nest just two weeks ago Suckers started building a nest in a stack of lumber. I threw a tarp over the stack and took two of those roach bomb fogger. Killed them all in no time. ;D

Kbeitz

I dump strati gas on them. I don't light it. The fumes alone will kill them.
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

dutchman

For ground bees,wasps I use powdered Seven insecticide.
Evening cool pour into entrance of nest. Leave small amount
outside of entrance. When they fly in and out they carry poison
to the entire nest. Takes 24 hrs. to work.
Need 10 o/o powdered Seven.

whitepine2

 They say DAWN dish soap mixed with water will knock them down
as good as anything. Mix and put in garden sprayer,now I have never used this mix but will in future have always used break cleaner but
probably not good in sawdust.
 
                                                  W.C.W

loganworks2

I vote for using a permethrin spray. It will not only kill them it will drive any other wasp away. They hate the smell of it. I had a nest of yellow jackets in my sailboat a few years ago opened the hatch gave a 10 second spray they were dead the next day. I have not seen a wasp around the boat scince.

KFhunter


YellowHammer

I have also used Anchorseal, in a sprayer....it just kind of glues them up....and they won't end check anymore. 
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Idiocrates

I use the cheapest liquid laundry detergent I can find and mix it with water in a 30 gallon sprayer that I carry around on the back of the Kabota RTV.  This stuff works on yellowjackets, red and black wasps and almost anything that flies and stings.  It goes a lot further than the wasp and hornet spray cans...lasts a lot longer......and is super cheap.  And if you get the perfumed kind of detergent every place you spray will smell really, really nice.
James

newoodguy78

Quote from: YellowHammer on July 24, 2017, 10:23:21 PM
I have also used Anchorseal, in a sprayer....it just kind of glues them up....and they won't end check anymore.
Was this one of those desperate times call for desperate measures type of moments? :D :D

WH_Conley

One gallon of Dawn applied with a garden fertilize sprayer, the kind that attaches to a garden hose. Final score. Yellow Jackets-7, Bill-hundreds.
Bill

WV Sawmiller

   Probably would not work for the in-ground application but the last I had was a football shaped nest 8-9 inches long in my wood storage shed that a customer noted. I was out of spray so came back at night, tied an old newspaper to a long strip and lit it. Plenty of flame and I singed the wings off as soon as they came out. You need plenty of flame more than the heat.

    The little white grubs are tender but make good bream bait but don't forget and leave the nest laying around or some will hatch and the adults are not very forgiving.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Kbeitz

Quote from: WV Sawmiller on July 25, 2017, 08:52:25 AM
   Probably would not work for the in-ground application but the last I had was a football shaped nest 8-9 inches long in my wood storage shed that a customer noted. I was out of spray so came back at night, tied an old newspaper to a long strip and lit it. Plenty of flame and I singed the wings off as soon as they came out. You need plenty of flame more than the heat.

    The little white grubs are tender but make good bream bait but don't forget and leave the nest laying around or some will hatch and the adults are not very forgiving.

I only tried fire one time. When I caught my dads Christmas tree field on fire that was the end of that.
Try putting a fire out when you got the bees mad...
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

Ox

Quote from: Kbeitz on July 24, 2017, 06:48:18 PM
I dump strati gas on them. I don't light it. The fumes alone will kill them.
What is strati gas?

We used to knock them out with ether or WD40 on the farm.  I supposed diesel and kerosene would work too.
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

Kbeitz

Quote from: Ox on July 25, 2017, 10:24:49 AM
Quote from: Kbeitz on July 24, 2017, 06:48:18 PM
I dump strati gas on them. I don't light it. The fumes alone will kill them.
What is strati gas?

We used to knock them out with ether or WD40 on the farm.  I supposed diesel and kerosene would work too.

Sorry... Miss spell.... "straight"
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

WV Sawmiller

Kbeitz,

   Did your dad thank you for getting rid of the yellowjackets for him?
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

MbfVA

Ether or something related to it is an important ingredient in most wasp and hornet killer knockdown products. You've got a watch out, because if only ether gets on them, they will wake up in some cases.   Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed...

I think the times this happened to me were when I forgot to shake the can before shooting.
www.ordinary.com (really)

MbfVA

 Bear in mind that if they have gotten into a house where the foundation meets the lap siding, as they did here this summer, their nest could be as much as 30 to 50 feet away from the opening to the outside, per what I have read.

I caulked and caulked and sprayed and sprayed, shot dust up into the siding, etc.   For the longest time they kept finding a new way to get in and out.  It took almost 2 weeks to completely get rid of them ( I hope I'm right).

I worry about what was left behind, because it looks like it must've been a big nest based on the numbers I saw outside.  Apparently scavengers like ants love to feast on the remains.  For all I know they could be in our stud wall section based on where the opening was. I have noticed more ants in that vicinity, inside in our kitchen recently.
www.ordinary.com (really)

WH_Conley

I had a big old busted half log laying by the firewood pile one time. I went to move it fell off the end of the forks. and the Yellow Jackets were not happy. I hurried up and got out of there. The Chickens were very happy. Obviously Yellow Jackets don't bother chickens.
Bill

MbfVA

Some of you may be familiar with it but for the benefit of newcomers to the ground wasp problem, here's a nonintuitive solution:
Identify where the nest opening is (yes, usually there is only one)
Obtain a clear glass bowl around 9 to 12 inches in diameter or so
Come back at dusk or after, to that opening that you bravely marked during the day
Spray some water around the opening, not too much because you don't want to wake them up
Put a ring of lime or cement powder, anything powdered that you can use to create a seal, around the opening, such that you can plop the bowl down over it and have a reasonable seal; wet it a little bit if necessary
Plop the bowl down over the opening, and into the lime seal that you created,  doing your best to seal it against the lime/ground
The not so smart bees will come out the next morning and fly against the glass relentlessly until they die of dehydration and starvation.  For reasons known only to insect science, they will not create a new opening.  I guess it is because they die before they figure out that they're not gonna be able to get through the glass.

Perhaps they share some genes with the common skunk, that will stand his or her ground in the middle of the road and wait for a car to hit it because it cannot believe anything would dare mess with it.  For lots of laughs on that subject, go to the public television website and seek out the NOVA program called "Is that skunk?",  it may still be available.

Take note it does not work to simply block the hole opaquely as I did on my siding problem.  Apparently if they can't see out, they do go create another way in and out.
www.ordinary.com (really)

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