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Yellow jackets... HELP

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

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MbfVA

Quote from: WH_Conley on July 25, 2017, 01:01:51 PM
...The Chickens were very happy. Obviously Yellow Jackets don't bother chickens.

Must be the feathers, or/and chickens are really quick as you might have observed.  I wonder if guinea fowl will eat them, too, since we want to get a couple for their tick eating proclivity.  They make a good farm doorbell as well.
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Magicman

After dark I will pour a cup of gas in the hole and lay a board on top.  The fumes will take care of them.
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MbfVA

Quote from: Magicman on July 25, 2017, 01:24:07 PM
After dark I will pour a cup of gas in the hole and lay a board on top.  The fumes will take care of them.

That's definitely the easiest solution.

But, and please don't brand me as a tree hugger, if you've got a well anywhere near there, consider that a really small amount of petroleum product will contaminate a LOT of ground water over time.

Plus, lime etc is a whole lot cheaper than gas 💰😇
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MbfVA

 Maybe we could consider lime as "white gas" instead of "straight gas"...
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YellowHammer

Quote from: newoodguy78 on July 24, 2017, 10:39:45 PM
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
More than once.  There's not a bug flying that can take a load of white gooey waxy Anchorseal full in the face. 

Delta dust works well.  The most effective I've used is a three bottom plow, and a tractor in high gear going away...That was fun. 

In the fall, I bait my carpenter bee traps with a little meat, and the yellow jackets will go in and die.  So will the wasps.

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

WV Sawmiller

Quote from: WH_Conley on July 25, 2017, 01:01:51 PM
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.
Reminds me of the time right after I got my little Gravely tractor with a 30" bushhog on the front. I was cutting multiflora roses in the pasture on the hillside and ran the mower up into a nest of yellowjackets and ticked them off. One stung me and I slammed the tractor into reverse and backed out of there as quick as possible. Just my luck - I backed into a little walnut and it had a big hornet nest on the first limb about 6' high and several of them came out and stung me. I figured with my luck the next thing to happen would be I would turn over and get pinned in a nest of copperheads. Just one of those days.
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

Ljohnsaw

On the News last night was a report of unusually high numbers of yellow jackets.  We normally get a lot at the end of summer and are called Meat Bees as they attack/bite any meat (including people).  I guess they are building up supplies for winter.  Anyhow, they think it is because of our unusual wet winter (normal but after 4 years of drought) and a hotter early summer (100-109 for a few weeks already) they have peaked early.  I've noticed that they are huge this year.  They all look like queens.

They sent a team down to an area south of Sacramento to do a report.  A person with a fair amount of land (IIRC 1 or 2 acres) had 90 (ninety!) in-ground nests!  They were poisoning them and then did a demo - they placed a big plexiglass box over the hole and banged it.  A big swarm was buzzing about in the box.
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

dustyhat

I always heared if you hold your breath they wont sting you. but i never been able to think of it in time.

Kbeitz

Turkeys just love bees. When working in the Christmas trees and when we came to a nest
we would just mow around it and the next day the turkeys would find them and clean house.
You would laugh to watch them eating. Every so often one would get stung and jump 3-4
feet in the air.
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

pineywoods

Or you could entice one of our Texas members to send you an armadillo or two. Their armored hide is impervious to stings, and they will dig out the nest and eat the grubs...
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
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btulloh

Quote from: dustyhat on July 25, 2017, 07:09:25 PM
I always heared if you hold your breath they wont sting you. but i never been able to think of it in time.

I'd like to see if that works but I don't want to be the first one to try it.  Plus I can't run and curse while holding my breath.

I haven't had any trouble getting rid of a nest.  I'd like to find a better way to locate a nest that doesn't involve getting stung though.
HM126

Kbeitz

Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

Ianab

QuoteYou could always just dig them out...

Only recommended if you have a space suit on.  :D

As for finding the nest, I usually just go with the "watch quietly" method. Sit for a couple of minutes and watch where the wasps are going to and from. The German wasps shown in the video are nasty if you disturb them like that, but if you are just standing there 3 ft from the nest, they just ignore you and fly past.

Once you have it's location, come back after dark with a can of gas and sack. Pour the gas in the hole and stick the sack over the top to keep the fumes in.

We did have a nest of them get into the ceiling a couple of years back. Not a good location for petrol bombing. Lara woke up in the morning with dozens of wasps buzzing her bedroom. Bug bombed her room, and set up a bait station under their exit hole on the outside wall.(again, just watch quietly and you can spot it). Took a couple of days, but we got them all.
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

WH_Conley

I only have one question about the video. Why? ??? ??? ???
Bill

highleadtimber16

Brake Kleen. It will kill everything in its path ;) I used it a few days ago on a nest in my machine.
2011 Wood-Mizer LT 40 hyd w/ 12' Extension,
EG 200 Wood-Mizer
Cutting Old Growth Cedar from Queen Charlotte Islands.

whitepine2

Also they say if in-ground nest use LP gas as it is heaver than air and will go down the hole and kill overnite. Have not tried this as well but seems to make logic just some more info good or bad????

                                  W.C.W.

MbfVA

 if you insist on using something like that, why not use CO2. It won't explode, and it still  displaces oxygen and air,  killing everything it envelops.   And my recollection is it is pretty heavy.  Please consider my less dangerous clear bowl method with sealing lime.
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YellowHammer

The biggest yellow jacket nest I ever dealt with was one that had grown monstrous under the concrete slab of the floor of the barn where I ran my mill, day after day.  They had gotten used to the sound and vibration of the machiney, and I never knew they were there until I laid one of my band wheel covers on top of the hole by chance, and they came boiling out by the hundreds, thousands, millions, gazillions  :o or so it seemed.  Do to the location of the nest under the concrete, and the time of day, I couldn't get to them without coming under severe attack.  I tried everything to get close to the nest hole, including bug bombs, fire extinguishers, wasp spray, soapy water in a pump sprayer, everything.  It's hard to describe how many were flying around the entrance the nest after I had thoroughly aggravated them, but it looked to be an impenetrable, solid swarm of yellowjackets the size of a beach ball of flying death.  I had to completely shut our operation down, as these guys were mad.  So after trying everything at hand, can after can of commercial spray, I realized I needed much more firepower, lots more.  I loaded a pump up sprayer with a mix of diesel and gasoline, yes it was stupid, and pumped it up to max pressure.  Then, from about twenty feet away, I sprayed into the beach ball of yellow jackets, and they started falling like rain.  My buddies provided defensive fire, with more cans of spray, and yes, a sprayer of Anchorseal, to protect me from Kamaikazi attack.  More came out of the nest, and I just kept the trigger down, and kept spraying into the flying swarm.  The more I sprayed, the madder they got, and the more came out of the hole.  It was incredible, and I emptied the entire sprayer, a couple gallons, until I was finally able to work my way up to the tunnel under the concrete and jam the nozzle into the hole and lock the trigger on and finally flooded them out. 

When the battle was over, the ground in a wide circle was covered with a layer of dead yellowjackets, untold numbers, looking like yellow and black peas on the dirt. 

Unfortunately, we weren't able to saw again that day, as the foragers kept coming back to the nest.  So we took a break, shut things down, and made sure everybody knew this was a no smoking zone, until the fumes died down. 

Looking back, I got real lucky, but DanG, it was fun.   8)

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

Kbeitz

I use to keep a small can if pressured gas in the green house just for wasps.
Gas seem to work as good as anything and it's now any more flammable than
some of the wasp spray that you buy. But it sure is cheaper.
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

SineWave

Quote from: loganworks2 on July 24, 2017, 08:58:02 PM
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.

+1 Permethrin is pretty good stuff. Not too toxic to humans (the army used to treat soldiers' clothes with it, and so do I) but it kills bugs fast. I have a shirt I treated with it, and if a mosquito lands on the shirt, it drops dead on contact. Also good as a "between the shoulderblades" flea and tick treatment for dogs.

Holy cow, Yellowhammer, now I know where you got that name!

Quote from: WH_Conley on July 26, 2017, 09:11:28 AM
I only have one question about the video. Why? ??? ??? ???

Yellowhammer porn! :D

I like how the video calls them "German wasps."
In Germany, they call cockroaches "French roaches." In France, they call cockroaches "German roaches."
New Zealanders must not like Germans much!
If an Australian were making that video, he would have been drunk and naked! "Ouch, those little nippers smart!" :D

MbfVA

Quote from: YellowHammer on July 26, 2017, 11:31:18 PM
The biggest yellow jacket nest I ever dealt with was one that had grown monstrous und

Looking back, I got real lucky, but DanG, it was fun.   8)

I'm sure those poor creatures were ag[h]ast at what you did. But, no pictures?

First Charles Martel the-- and now Yellow – hammer.  We need Moor of them for what's bugging us?

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YellowHammer

No, no pictures, or video.  I never film something when I might get massacred. :D

Now, it did cross my mind that if I hadn't been so close to a building, I might have improvised a sure nuff flame thrower.   8) That would have been cool!


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

MbfVA

 I've got more at our farm, but I just eliminated one in the yard next to our restaurant:



 

The hole was big enough for a small snake, so it was easy to spot. I put some dust containing permethrin into the hole after dark, dumped a handful of lime around the opening & then pressed a 2 oz plastic cup over the hole.  Quickly, after watching Ian's video & hearing your angry beach ball tale.

No activity as of 24 hours later.   Gone gone gone gone gone.
8)
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petefrom bearswamp

Used the gas trick on a ground nest several years ago.
To my amazement 2 days later a skunk or other critter had dug the nest out.
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MbfVA

 Given the normal diet of these bees, rotting stuff, I wonder if the rise of home composting, in the US at least, is causing an upsurge in the population of these nasty little scavengers. 
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