View Full Version : Yellow Jackets.
Has anyone had a nest of these on thier property? I just discovered a nest underground right off of our front porch. There are about 7-8 massive ant-hill looking things and when the sun is out there are dozens and dozens of them hovering over the lawn.
Suggestions?
Terminix?
Orkin?
Run like hell?
Warlock!
04-14-03, 08:56 AM
Baseball bat. Slam it into the ant hill things, about 3 hits per hill.
Oh...
...then run like hell.
Warlock!
Umm...
First of all I don't have a baseball bat. Will a hockey stick do?
Secondly I don't know if that will work as the holes were plugged in by a lot of mud during a heavy rainstorm.
However you decide to get rid of them (Slapshot, Raid, gasoline, etc...) make sure you do it at night as they are dormant then and you stand a better shot of getting them all so they don't just create a new hive in the same place.
Originally posted by tllips
However you decide to get rid of them (Slapshot, Raid, gasoline, etc...) make sure you do it at night as they are dormant then and you stand a better shot of getting them all so they don't just create a new hive in the same place.
I'm playing this one safe. I just made an appointment with Terminex. There are a lot of them in the front yard and there I know that there were more in the back yard last summer. Too much for a newbie like me to handle.
I might try 'Locks suggestion but only after a few Arrogant Bastards.
Gasoline dood, gasoline. BURRRRN BABY BURRRRRN!!! FIRE!!! FIRE FIRE!!
I stepped on one of those once (by accident) and got stung about 30 times. I went back that night with a gallon of gas and a match, justice was served.
One Sunday afternoon when my dad was a kid, his father discovered a hornet's nest while mowing the lawn. He didn't like the looks of it, so he sent my father (about 13 years old) and his brother (about 16) out to destroy it. They said, "How should we do that, dad?" My grandfather looked around, found a bottle of lighter fluid and handed it to them with these words of wisdom, "Soak it with this, then throw a match at it."
The way my dad tells the story, "It seems that hornets aren't harmed by lighter fluid, it just riles them up. And, when you set their home on fire, they have noplace to go but after you. If you ever have a hornet's near your house, buy yourself a can of raid and spray the entire can at it. Don't stop spraying until the can runs out." I think he's learned his lesson.
I guess thats what happens when you let city-folk roam the countryside.
I use several cans of spray from a distance and soak that thing until it's dripping. Alternative is gasoline and a match - just not very eco-friendly.
Give the Pentagon a jingle and tell them you think Saddam is hiding in a bunker in your yard. A couple of J-Dams outa get rid of those pesky critters.
trubritz
04-14-03, 03:50 PM
Just take away their whistles and they are useless.....
Oh sorry, I thought you said yellow shirts :)
RaceGrrl
04-14-03, 04:45 PM
My dad has used gasoline and a match, and has also used water to flood them. I remember thinking, even as a little kid, how stupid the gasoline idea was.
Any $3.99 spray-can pesticide made for hornets, wasps or yellowjackets will do the job. The key to success is to kill em all and that can can only be done when they are all at home. The best time for that is either early, early in the morning or early, early in the evening but when it is light enough for you to see what you are doing. Or you could spend $100 for an exterminator.
chop456
04-14-03, 11:53 PM
Whatever you do, don't go jump in a pond to hide from them. If I've learned anything from TV, it's that they'll figure out you're hiding underwater, then all dive down the straw you're breathing through and sting the inside of your mouth by the hundreds.
devilmaster
04-15-03, 01:31 AM
Originally posted by chop456
Whatever you do, don't go jump in a pond to hide from them. If I've learned anything from TV, it's that they'll figure out you're hiding underwater, then all dive down the straw you're breathing through and sting the inside of your mouth by the hundreds.
Don't forget they form an arrow when they are getting close to theire prey....
And people are amazed with the inverted V of Canada geese.
Steve
nz_climber
04-15-03, 07:14 AM
http://www.abcsafetymart.com/clothing/rainwear01.jpg
Maybe if you give her some wine and dinner, she might ditch the jacket and come inside ;)
If you want to get rid of her and the yellow jacket from your lawn then maybe the gasoline would work - but thats mean.. Have you tried asking her to leave??
other than that im stumped for ideas!!
:D
The Termanix man is coming by to give an estimate this afternoon and we are going to give the Orkin man a call for another estimate.
I'd rather pay the money cuz I am a chicken spit when it comes to these buggers.
Napoleon
04-16-03, 06:43 AM
I have gotten rid of more nest then i can remember. If its in the ground I get up at 4 am in the morning when its cool and they are in the nest and torch or flood it. If its in or on the house I hire someone.
Originally posted by Napoleon
I have gotten rid of more nest then i can remember. If its in the ground I get up at 4 am in the morning when its cool and they are in the nest and torch or flood it. If its in or on the house I hire someone.
Flood it with water? I like the idea of torching them but with all the old farts that live around me the fire trucks would be there in no time. The estimate that we got from Terminix is $500 for a 1 year contract. That is too much to spend with me still out of work. So I think that we are going to go to Lowes and pick some kind of pesticide/fertilizer thingy and go from there.
Napoleon
04-16-03, 11:50 AM
Originally posted by mapguy
So I think that we are going to go to Lowes and pick some kind of pesticide/fertilizer thingy and go from there.
There use to be a product made by Shell years ago which was great. It was a liquid you poured into the hole. I am sure that something like that is still around.
If we ever talk again you have to ask me about all my bee stories from when I was a kid. My brother is allergic to them and every single year I would manage to stir up a nest (imagine that) and he would be the one to get bit. There were a few close calls.
Eagle104
04-16-03, 12:08 PM
Originally posted by trubritz
Just take away their whistles and they are useless.....
Oh sorry, I thought you said yellow shirts :)
:laugh: :laugh:
mapguy, I commend you on your initiative to resolve this on your own (save the $500 and hit the track instead). If you have 7 or 8 nests you may want to rid them one at a time. One in the morning, one in the evening until they're all gone. If you try bombing them all in one shot all you may end up doing nothing more than chasing them around. Just a thought.
On the other hand perhaps you could place a small cardboard box on the ground over each nest, and one at a time punch a small hole in the top of it, just big enough to get the nozzle through and empty one can into each nest.
Either way, get the video camera set up on the front porch. Maybe the money you win on "America's Funniest Home Videos" will help offset your out of pocket expense.
Straight liquid Diazanon and then salt the whole area with the granular formula.
My buddy Dale Gribble told me this. ;)
Don Quixote
04-16-03, 04:16 PM
Whatever you do don't do this: I was painting my mom and dad's house in Columbus OH about 15 years ago and without thinking I dabbed a paintbrush full of white paint onto a small paper nest on the overhang. One problem, I was at the top of a 32 foot ladder. I remember seeing the wasps (or hornets?) shoot out of that nest like they were coming out of a gatling gun. I don't remember coming off the ladder, but someone told me that I hit one rung on the way down. Funny thing, I don't think I really was stung, just scared to death. That will teach me not to daydream on a tall ladder! :gomer:
Don,
That sounds remarkably like my dad's experience I explained above (without the fall, but with igniting their "home" after they'd all left!)
Well, the problem has gotten worse. There are at least three to four 'anthills' in every square foot of the front lawn. It looks almost like the surface of the moon. I'm afraid that the job is too big for me to do. I would need to buy a whole box of the Raid to take care of them all. I'm screwed.
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