I have a problem...

682bear

682bear

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I've known for a couple of months now that I have a yellow jacket nest under my front porch...

I'm not interested in crawling under there to find them... I've taken the 'live and let live' approach. As long as they aren't bothering me, I won't bother them.

This morning I was in the basement machining a part for my Hendey project... and the yellow jackets started swarming... inside... around my machines... there was several dozen of them. Apparently, they have found a way inside...

My machines are just inside the wall behind (and below) the front porch. The basement wall is 12 inch block about 9 feet high, about 6 to 7 feet of that is below ground level.

Either they have found a gap between the blocks they can come through, or there is some way they can get between the top of the wall and the sill... IDK...

I really don't want to have to abandon my machines until cold weather...

Any ideas?

-Bear
 
Boy, that sucks.

A mirror on a stick and a PVC angled connection for the garden hose and blast them out of there.

Or hang some yellow jacket traps.

Or hire an exterminator.
 
You need to get rid of them asap. They are nasty creatures. I would try the spray first. If that doesn't work then call in the heavy guns. A pest control company to take them out.
 
Eventually they will swarm and go after you, I had a nest under a wood pile and one evening when getting some wood for my stove they decided to go on the attack. Everything was buzzing and I was stung all over my body and they followed me into the house. I tried spraying, but the nest was very deep so the first extermination round was unsuccessful. Eventually I put on layers of clothes, face mask and taped all the gaps, then dug up the nest, it was huge maybe 2' wide by about 3' deep. You also need to think of the safety of others and animals. So one way or another I would get rid of the nest. When I lived in Tucson we had the Africanized honey bees (killer bees), and every year a few people/animals died from their attacks.
 
My son had a very large nest of Yellow Jackets last year that had gotten into his foundation landscaping.

We tried numerous methods to eradicate them and finally ended up using a pyrethrum-based spray followed by a good dusting with Tempo Dust. The source we found and used is from https://diypestcontrol.com/yellowjackets.htm.

I have no connection with this site but know it did solve the issue and he has not had any issues with Yellow Jackets this summer. If desired look at the process and see if it may work for you. FYI, this is a relatively expensive venture. I believe my son got the products via Amazon as we could not find them locally.

Good luck as noted in the article the activity is minimal at night. We planned our attack a few hours after sunset.
 
What's the access like under the porch? Those 20 foot plus spray foamer wasp and hornet killers are quite effective. Specracide has a reasonably priced two pack, I'm a big fan of that one. Not that it's the "best killer", not that anything's magic, but useability, aimability, effectiveness, overall it's just a bad day to be a hornet.

The biggest trick is to get in there long before the sun comes up, when they're all "at home". Just hose the crap out of 'em, because an hour before sunup... Nobody's sneaking up behind you. Most die in the nest, just stay on it.... The ones that come out won't make it to you.

There's also some of the "bug bomb" type foggers that are effective on wasps and hornets. I just recently discovered that. Stingy things kinda get shuffled to me at work, (Prolly because I'm there way earlier than anybody else...) I really wonder if I could get away with taping a bug bomb to a broom stick and shoving them where I can not get to, under some of the sanders and other winter equipment that sits idle out back all summer. Same thing, bright and early, let it spray right around the nest for long enough that "everybody" wakes up... You would use the containment you get by using them inside of a house, where they're kinda made for, but if you knew where you were headed.... Never did it, but I'm sure I will soon enough, legend has it that the old loader is full of bald faced hornets (black yellow jackets) again. Bug boms are not instant though I believe, so that'll tick 'em off a bunch. You'd want to stick it in before daybreak, and be elsewhere for the next several hours.
 
The local pest guys dug out a nest under a big Douglas Fir…really interesting nest, only about grapefruit size, but really elegant in construction. it had resisted sprays and a misguided gasoline arson attempt. Only cost $100.
 
Ok, I found the nest... sort of...

They have dug the mortar out between two blocks and are nesting inside the wall. I can see the hole... it is about 8 feet from the end of the porch and a foot or so above the ground.

I'll go buy a few cans of Raid... I can spray the hole from the outside edge of the porch... I just don't know if I can get enough spray inside the hole to kill the entire nest.

But I'm gonna try...

-Bear
 
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