Anyone have a proven method to trap or otherwise eradicate these rotten bastards without having to wield chemicals or a shoe at them?

TIA

Ground wasps, otherwise known as yellowjackets? or Paper wasps- the kind that make an exposed egg cell type nest in building eves?

I would just use a chemical spray. Wasps are nasty and don't do any good. I wouldn't want to play with a nest of them.

I guess you could go smack the nest away with a broom but I wouldn't try that method myself.

As many on SigForm have stated in the past - kill them with fire!

pinged for a follow up, I have these bastages and cannot find their newest nest.

I normally keep a can of spray on the patio and near me if I am working in the yard.

A buddy gifted me a salt gun....works on flys not sure if it will work on wasps but I am gonna try it.

That being said I have seen several wasp traps on amazon just not sure if they really work or if I could make something myself?

I figure something with sugar water that once they get in they cannot escape...but I have not had the time to explore this

My father in law was a fairly highly ranked member of the German forest service.

We were out to pick up some firewood he bought, and discovered a paper wasp colony in 2 piles of wood.

We got rid of them. Went to the PX and bought a couple cans of bug killer spray.

Took my 22, put the bug bombs in the wood pile next to the nests, shot them with the 22.

Killed all the little bastards!!

I doubt there is any way, short of poison, to get rid of them. You might try a vacuum cleaner to suck them up as they come out of the nest, but you won't get the ones inside guarding the next generation.

These are the big black ones that kinda flitter all over. Paper wasps then, I guess. I am using Hot Shot, but would rather not chase them all over the yard since they sent me to the ER in an ambulance a few years ago.

For the ground yellow jackets, putting a clear glass bowl over their nest entry has worked for me in the past. They look like popcorn when they try to get out...

Nope.

Couple years ago I tried the shop vac method. That's where you set a shop vac to running with the end of the hose just outside their entrance/exit. After doing that for three freaking days, emptying out hundreds-upon-hundreds of them the next morning, I gave up and resorted to chemicals.

Problem solved.

Get some Section 8 wasps to move into the nest...

quote:

Originally posted by varoadking:
These are the big black ones that kinda flitter all over. Paper wasps then, I guess. I am using Hot Shot, but would rather not chase them all over the yard since they sent me to the ER in an ambulance a few years ago.

For the ground yellow jackets, putting a clear glass bowl over their nest entry has worked for me in the past. They look like popcorn when they try to get out...

Paper wasps are actually kind of stupid and not very agile. I used to knock them down with long sticks as a kid and never once got stung. Knocking the nest down will do more to get rid of them than you would think. Repeating the process as they rebuild almost always guarantees they disappear.

For yellowjackets, I do the same thing you do. Fill a large, clear glass bowl with hot water, dump it down the hole at about midnight, and stomp the bowl down tight. About a week later, most of them will have died. Another thing that works is running a hose into the hole and flooding them for about a 1/2 hour or so, and add the bowl.

I live in wasp country. The yellow jackets are nasty little bastards, as are all the ones that nest close to the ground. We especially have trouble with them nesting in farm equipment. I have been swarmed by hundreds of them in a pile of pallets and thank goodness I was in a tractor with a cab at the time. Never move stuff that has been there for a while during the day in wasp season. I buy a case of wasp and hornet spray with 20-25 foot range every year and then watch them during the day to see where they go. Spray them in daylight and you will miss a lot of them that are out on wasp business during the day. After dark go soak their nest with the wasp killer. You get all of them that way. Work that a few years in a row and you will cut their numbers way down. Brush piles, lumber piles, paper and cardboard piles, old vehicles, outbuildings, playground sets, pipe, landscaping timbers, etc all provide them a place to build their nests. Also have found them in bushes next to buildings.

This stuff works on them and is generally cheaper than products labelled to kill them.
Edit: Make sure you buy the stuff in the red can.

We get about a gillion paper wasps around here in the summer. Thankfully, they are pretty docile and don't mess with you. It is still a bit unnerving having that many around though. I hit the visible nests with Black Flag Wasp and Hornet spray. Kills 'em dead instantly.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
I would just use a chemical spray. Wasps are nasty and don't do any good. I wouldn't want to play with a nest of them.

I guess you could go smack the nest away with a broom but I wouldn't try that method myself.

Some wasps kill spiders. So they have that going for them, which is nice.

Brake Cleen! Spray the hive or any place they are gathering. They die nearly instantly, falling to the ground like a shot down goose.

I've had great success using a propane torch on softball-sized nests and smaller. I wait until just past dusk to ensure that all of the bastards have returned to the nest and then let them have it. The heat vaporizes the wings of the ones that try to defend the nest and they fall to the ground, I torch them after I'm sure that there are no more that are coming out of the nest.
YMMV. Also, this only works when the nest is not next to something highly flammable or where a scorch mark is something that I'll have to look at. I usually keep a watering hose on standby, just in case things get out of hand. I've never had to use it. The best part is that there are no residual toxins afterward.

If the nest is reachable with a garden hose and a pole, wait for a rainy night then hose it down with high pressure and knock it down. Soak the shit out of it. If brave, do it without the rain or during the day. I tried the sugar bait method without success.

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
After dark go soak their nest with the wasp killer. You get all of them that way.

This has been successful for me the half-dozen times I've had to deal with them.

I had wasp nests for a period. I remember getting a wasp spray from orchard supply. One attribute it that it had an extremely long focused spray so that I could spray it from my driveway and hit the houses on the second floor overhang.

I figured I'd google it and here it is.

Recommend spraying them when it's cold. Typically thats nighttime or just before dark. Otherwise, wake up early and hit the nest with Black flag foam. The foam covers the exit hole so you can make your get away. Works well too.