Red Wasps. BIG red Wasp.

June 14, 2018, 07:32 PM

We have lots of them since moving here ~3 years ago but they have been extremely docile, never even threatening to attack or sting... until today.

I was painting a bed base I made for my daughter in the garage when one nailed me on the ear. OUCH! My first thought is the paint fumes bothered it, but further investigation revealed several buzzing around frantically just outside the open garage door near the gable vent and they started attacking me! Why now? I think I found out why they were so pissed off. Some smaller, different variety of wasp were trying to take over the vent they called home. They were ramming each other mid air!

Holy crap guys, leave me out of your fight!

A can of wasp spray later they agreed to a cease fire and I was able to return to painting...

June 14, 2018, 07:58 PM

Lord Vaalic

Burn your house down

June 14, 2018, 08:16 PM

PowerSurge

Only good thing about wasps is having wasp spray around for the Copperheads. Just killed another one today with a can.

June 14, 2018, 08:29 PM

DSgrouse

Google cicada killer. That is typically your big red wasp. Mud daubbers also can have a red sheen, but they are not super big. Ciccada killers are fairly docile. I first saw them in CT. They are pretty cool

June 14, 2018, 08:46 PM

MikeinNC

Brake Cleaner will drop them in flight!!!

It's cheaper too go to Auto Zone and grab a can of the balck and gold and let em have it

June 15, 2018, 05:04 AM

msfzoe

Carb cleaner works well on wasps, spiders too.

June 15, 2018, 05:44 AM

Mars_Attacks

Down here in the South, we have the big red ones, the striped paper wasps, then there are the little guinea wasp bastards. That's not even counting the several hornet species and yellow jackets.

I hate them all with equal fervor.

I grew up on a river and every last kind of the little shits built nests in the cypress trees at the banks, just close enough to nail you in the face if you weren't careful while fishing.

HUGE nests with hundreds of individuals.

Dirt dobbers will give you a sting that you will NEVER forget. Even though they prefer to shy away from you, if you accidentally put your hand down on them, you will get nailed.

Cicada Killers are a rare sight, they will keep to themselves.

We also have the velvet ant. Step on one and you will wear steel bottomed shoes outside after that experience. They are the spawn from hell. No matter how much you stomp on them, they laugh it off. Literally.

June 15, 2018, 09:35 AM

NMPinNYC

quote:
Originally posted by PowerSurge:
Only good thing about wasps is having wasp spray around for the Copperheads. Just killed another one today with a can.

I keep a can of wasp spray in the car door beverage holder, in case a pest needs spraying from the driver's seat.

June 15, 2018, 10:29 AM

cparktd

quote:
Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Brake Cleaner will drop them in flight!!!

Gonna try that, the wasp sprays I got are too slow to kill. Tried Spectracide and Hot-Shot. Very poor knock down. I think they kill by giving them cancer

June 15, 2018, 08:58 PM

Rotndad

quote:
Originally posted by cparktd:
quote:
Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Brake Cleaner will drop them in flight!!!

Gonna try that, the wasp sprays I got are too slow to kill. Tried Spectracide and Hot-Shot. Very poor knock down. I think they kill by giving them cancer

Brake cleaner and Carb cleaner work pretty good. Either one with a bic lighter work GREAT! DUring lovebug season it looks like a WWII Dog fight reenactment in the parking lot.

June 16, 2018, 08:18 AM

Bassamatic

Missouri has some huge wasps. The ones I hate are more of a rust color than red and they will go out of their way to nail you.

June 16, 2018, 08:37 AM

BadDogPSD

This stuff works great

https://rainbowtechstore.com/c...r?variant=1183361651

June 16, 2018, 08:30 PM

GJG

quote:

We also have the velvet ant. Step on one and you will wear steel bottomed shoes outside after that experience. They are the spawn from hell. No matter how much you stomp on them, they laugh it off. Literally.

.45 Or flamethrower. Your choice.

June 16, 2018, 08:47 PM

Leemur

Those fuckers are evil personified!

June 17, 2018, 08:59 AM

lyman

quote:
Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
Down here in the South, we have the big red ones, the striped paper wasps, then there are the little guinea wasp bastards. That's not even counting the several hornet species and yellow jackets.

I hate them all with equal fervor.

I grew up on a river and every last kind of the little shits built nests in the cypress trees at the banks, just close enough to nail you in the face if you weren't careful while fishing.

HUGE nests with hundreds of individuals.

Dirt dobbers will give you a sting that you will NEVER forget. Even though they prefer to shy away from you, if you accidentally put your hand down on them, you will get nailed.

Cicada Killers are a rare sight, they will keep to themselves.

We also have the velvet ant. Step on one and you will wear steel bottomed shoes outside after that experience. They are the spawn from hell. No matter how much you stomp on them, they laugh it off. Literally.

.

I took a vacation week a couple summers ago to stay with my mother, she had just had surgery,

walking around her yard one day and saw both Cicada Killers and Velvet Ants,

both were making nests in several areas of her yard,

once she was able to get up and motivate around a bit, I showed them to her,,

she said they had been there for years, and never bothered her, so I left them

as long as she knew not to step in that area with out shoes we were good to go

June 17, 2018, 01:22 PM

Rinehart

Once on the Outer Banks we had an old Jeep CJ2A that we would leave parked by the dock. I was young enough to think it was really cool to jump off the dock into the driver's seat and take off.

One week the weather had been rough so we didn't go over for a few days. Next nice day I jumped off the dock and slammed down into the driver's seat. Unfortunately over those days a group of red wasps had built a nest directly under the seat. When I ungraciously slammed down, they were not appreciative. I got nailed in the head and face about five or six times and had to jump into the water to get rid of them. It was memorable.
I take out the little bastards whenever possible.

June 18, 2018, 04:53 AM

Jumper

I've had a problem with red paper wasps) getting into my place somehow until I ordered some peppermint essential oil. A half dozen droppers mixed into a spray bottle with a bit of dish soap and I spray all around wasps' favorite places to hang out. Seems it might be true they're not fans of peppermint.

Have only found one or two inside since and that was months ago.

June 18, 2018, 07:47 AM

striker1

We’ve seen one cicada killer patrolling around the rock hill next to our house. I know there are a few here. Neat insect to observe, and yeah they just do their thing.

June 18, 2018, 07:48 AM

henryaz

AZ, as you know, is home to all sorts of biting, stinging, venemous plants, animals, insects, and arachnids. One of the most striking is the Taratutla Hawk, a wasp dedicated to hunting the large spider. the TH can grow up to 2" long. She scurries along the ground searching for burrows, then goes down and fetches her prey. They are not usually a threat to humans, but only because they don't care about us. Their sting is supposed to be extremely painful, though.

June 18, 2018, 09:23 AM

myrottiety

quote:
We also have the velvet ant. Step on one and you will wear steel bottomed shoes outside after that experience. They are the spawn from hell. No matter how much you stomp on them, they laugh it off. Literally.

This. Little fuzzy Sherman tanks. They hit just as hard too.