Yellowjackets! for Questionland Seattle

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Yellowjackets!

Yellowjackets are building a nest in the eaves of our shed, which is two feet from the table on our tiny but precious patio. The nest is only about the size of the last knuckle of my thumb right now, but there are two others starting nearby and I know it's going to get much, much bigger.

I understand these are beneficial insects and I don't want to spray gallons of poison, but I'm not willing to share this space, in which we pretty much live in this weather -- it's twenty degrees hotter inside than out. I can cope with a few of them hanging around occasionally but not a whole nest of them -- there's a dozen working on it now, with babies and everything. I want them gone!

What's the best way?

Fnarf asked in Gardening about 1 year ago | Report

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I grew up with yellow jackets and paper wasps both, and this sounds like wasps. Yellow jackets are usually in the ground (I even got to step on one of their nests once trying to retrieve my mother's hat, wheeeee).

Regardless, the suggestion about using a bucket of soapy water is right on.

However, if you start getting nests in places you can't reach so easily, and are willing to go a less natural route, stuff like this is great:

You basically saturate the nest, wait a few minutes, and then knock if down.

I wouldn't worry about killing beneficial insects. This is on the same level as killing a mosquito and even the Dali Lama said that's okay.

Lilting Missive answered in Gardening about 1 year ago | Report

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In my experience, traps will not be effective at getting rid of a nest. There are simply more wasps in a nest than the trap will take care of. Traps are good if you want to keep random wasps away from a particular area.

Penny Lane's advice is good, except the bucket of whatever is superfluous (unless you really want to kill them instead of just getting rid of the nest). Just knock the nest off and let it fall to the ground (or wherever). Once you knock a nest off the area where they were building it, they will abandon it. Wasps go dormant at night, so wait until about 11pm to be safe, and wear as much clothing as you can.

Greg Barnes answered in Gardening about 1 year ago | Report

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If it's that small right now, I'd wait until night, get a bucket full of water and yellow Dawn dishwashing soap (I don't know why it has to be yellow dawn dishwashing soap, but when I had this problem and got this advice, they were ADAMANT about that), gloves, and a long handled broom, and knock it off into the bucket.

I think, though, that if they're building a nest under your eaves, those are paper wasps and they're pretty docile. Yellow jackets tend to build nests underground and they are really aggressive little assholes.

Penny Lane answered in Gardening about 1 year ago | Report

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Traps have been very effective in my experience. Typically they involve a chamber with some deli meat or other bait, and a hole recessed in the top, so that they are sort of unable to find their way out. all you have to do is occasionally empty out their dead bodies and add more bait.

See, http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/diy-yellow-jacket-trap.html

Though if you are asking about how to dispose of the nest, I am less experienced

vooodooo84 answered in Gardening about 1 year ago | Report

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We had non-stop problems with paper wasps under every eave of our new place until last year a pair of swallows moved into our birdhouse. Problem solved! They ate every one of them. Won't do you any good this year so I suggest any commercial spray poison to kill them now and put up a few birdhouses next year (assuming you have airspace for them to swoop around for bugs). Do not remove the nest - wasps don't like competition and will generally not build a new nest if another is already present - even an unoccupied one. You can even buy fake nests to hang up and fool them. Even if less aggressive, paper wasps do not like alot of activity in their area and will respond. They also get aggressive over meat in late summer and will harass you if you are BBQing. Wasp traps are good but won't take out a whole nest.

mike in oly answered in Gardening about 1 year ago | Report

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