My wife kept getting stung whenever she was trimming one of the bushes in front of the house. She thought there was a nest in the bush. I tried several times to find something, but I could not. She got stung again and began to be upset with me for not doing something with that bush. This morning I went out and shook the bush in every way I could think but saw nothing, then I discovered that behind one of our shudders, some yellow jackets had built a nest. I had dealt with some underground yellow jackets about a week ago, so I had some spray. I decided to take some pictures. The first pictures is before I did anything. The next picture, I sprayed all behind the shudder. They did not like that. I walked away and let the spray do its thing. I came back and poked in behind the shudder with my Swiss Army knife. One yellow jacket flew out, and I took off. I got the can of spray, returned, and gave it another dose. I let it sit for a while and returned to clean out the nest and the remaining yellow jackets. Now she can trim the bushes without fear. I am glad that I avoided any stings. I counted at least 20 yellow jackets on the ground below the shutter. I am sure there were others that flew off and died.
The ones that were underground were the hardest to kill. I initially sprayed it with hornet spray and covered the hole with a rock. They opened another hole and kept on. I got some yellow jacket/ carpenter bee spray that had a hose on it. I waited until evening and sprayed from a distance and then stuck the hose in the hole and sprayed half a can in it. That did the trick.
Mud dabbers & paper wasps here. They seem to try to build nests in their same spot every year. After 10 years you would think they would learn. You may have some dead members be the shutters too, Jim.
We get a lot of wasp - a lighter and the closest flammable aerosol work well for me. Just took out about 30 or so (2 nests) yesterdays with some mass airflow sensor cleaning spray.
Last year, a lady in our neighborhood used to sit out under a tree with her dog. She would sit and read and just enjoy being outside. She is about 5' 2" tall. I was walking by and noticed above her head was a hornet nest the size of a basketball. She did not know it. She did not bother them, and they did not bother her, but I felt it was just a matter of time before something bad happened. I took care of the nest with hornet spray, a step ladder, plastic bag, and loppers. I sprayed the nest really good, went up the ladder and put the nest in the bag, and lopped off the limb. I tied it off and took it to the dump. I made the mistake of taking a nest to school one year. One day, hornets started hatching. Never did that again.
It's a banner year for them at our house. I have killed 3 nests in the last month. Glad it worked out well for you! I hate those stings. They ache for weeks.
Glad you got rid of them without too much harm. I was visiting a job site on Friday. I must have combed my hair that morning or done something to seem desirable, because a wasp took a liking to me and flew right into my shirt through the sleeve. It started hammering me on my shoulder and back multiple times before I could get my shirt off. I'm still hurting a little in those areas, but the thing that annoys me the most is that through all the commotion the bugger still flew away unscathed by the time I got it untangled from in my shirt
Interesting. I just sprayed a yellowjacket that was building a nest in our wall at the front entry way. Strangest thing is that it found a hole at the bottom of the siding I would never see and thought was sealed. Don't know how far along he was but I'm not going to tear down the wall for 1 yellowjacket. Even had a bee company come out to make sure and yep he was the only one and also the only one i kept seeing. Caulk it and call it a day.
I hate the things. I'm mildly allergic so I get stung an I get loopy and I need to sit down. Its a drunken feel. I'm glad that all I need to do now is yell towards maintinence.
