I’m going to give one shot to being nice and try to repel any yellow flying insect with a stinger from my deck. If your outside there will be about a dozen various forms of bees and wasps within 15 mins. My kid will not even go out on deck for an irrational fear of them.

There are no obvious nests and I cannot see where they end up going.

I have seen fake wasp nests, spraying certain essential oils and certain live plants. What will actually work before I can an exterminator to nuke everything that flies.

Do you have a lot of clover in your grass? Flowers planted nearby that are attracting them?

Something is drawing them to that area.

Wasps are foraging insects; they are active food seekers and anything with sugar will draw them, as will most human food. The best way to limit how many are drawn to your deck is to seek and destroy all wasp nests that you can locate. These will most often be the paper wasp variety make open faced nests and that fly seemingly clumsily with their rear legs kind of hanging down. They aren’t very aggressive unless the nest is being attacked.

That said, your biggest problem wasps by far are yellowjackets which probably won’t be nested near your deck. If they are, you’ll know it as they will be more quick react adversely to stimuli or show up if there’s a ready food source. They are long ranged, agile, aggressive food seekers so looking for a nest would be pointless aside from eradicating them from the get go. The best way to keep them away is not have the kids eat and drink on the deck. They will also be drawn to water sources during dry spells/climates.

I don’t know of an effective way to keep yellowjackets from showing up besides keeping food out of the area. There are bait traps specifically targeting them but as bait, they will attract them to begin with. If the kids have food, juice, etc would be the only way I’d put bait traps out. Without food or water attractors, yellowjackets shouldn’t be much of a constant issue.

I've never lived in Pittsburg, but have lived in Upper Midwest.

Can you tell whether you're dealing with a paper wasp or yellow jacket?


It's important to distinguish as they both have different nest locations and reasons for interaction.

Down here, I get the red paper wasp which is a cousin to the yellow paper wasp. They are extremely industrious and build small nests prolificially (both in quantity and speed). The main reason I encounter them is they're pollinators and everything I've planted (e.g. marigolds, zinnias, etc) to encourage bees to pollinate my veggie & herb garden also attracts paper wasps. Their small nests are hard to see, but they like corners of structures (e.g. windows, roof peaks, etc) and they like my hedge row (e.g. typically 7 or 8 nests in 50'). They get real aggressive if I trim my hedge row, or mow along the flowers where they're eating nectar and eating other pollinators. If the op has paper wasps, I'd check bushes for small nests and check the deck joists for small nests. If their nests are in bushes you're probably going to have to fog your bushes with an insecticide, and if their nests are on structures you're going to have to spray the bastards with an aerosol insecticide.

Yellowjackets are meaner and more aggressive. The mean bastards tend to build their nest underground and a defend their nest with extreme prejudice. Most people get stung because they don't know they're walking over the entrance to their underground nest. They sell yellowjacket traps to kill them, and if you can found their nest entrance you can drench with an insecticide at sunset then run.

To answer some questions.

I could only tell you the difference between a bee and a wasp. I have noticed some with the legs dangling down and that appears to be more of a paper wasp. I will have to try to look better next time. There is not much clover in the yard. There are no plants or flowers in the back yard or even at neighbors for that matter. It seems majority of them are bouncing around my siding, windows and sliding door. As far as the first story of the house the areas are caulked and there is no where for them to go. The deck is almost ground level and tapers from 3 ft to touching the ground. I would have to crawl on my back and would only be able to check about half the area for any nests.

I get thousands of paper wasps around my property in the summers. They're typically everywhere. The ones here, though, are not aggressive at all, just a bit unnerving. What I have found is that getting after them this time of year helps keep the numbers down drastically. Most of them die off in the winter, and the ones flying early are often queens looking for a place to nest. Nuking them obviously keeps them from making more. I usually "pre-treat", with Raid, certain areas that they are prone to congregate (around propane valves, under the deck, under the roof of the woodpile, etc...). This helps too.

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:
The deck is almost ground level and tapers from 3 ft to touching the ground. I would have to crawl on my back and would only be able to check about half the area for any nests.

Would an insecticidal fogger work to nuke the unseen nests under the deck?

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:
The deck is almost ground level and tapers from 3 ft to touching the ground. I would have to crawl on my back and would only be able to check about half the area for any nests.

Would an insecticidal fogger work to nuke the unseen nests under the deck?

That would be my only option.
You couldn't pay me enough to go bee finding under a confined deck

Pretty much anything that isn't a honeybee gets terminated with prejudice at our house.
Luckily, the red wasps haven't made too much of a showing yet. The 16k gallons of cool water in the back definitely draws them in throughout the summer.

I have had great luck with the disposable yellow jacket traps. They are just plastic bags with a one way entrance. You add water and hang them up. Whatever they use as bait works like a charm, and after a couple days the bag is full of drowned wasps.
The bees go where the flowers are so they are not really a problem on our patio. If you have potted flowers they should just be moved away from where people are sitting or eating.

Colorful clothing, especially prints that can mimic flowers can attract them, as can perfumes, deodorants, colognes, scented soaps and such.

I have used a small swipe of peppermint oil on arms and legs, mostly because I cannot stand the feel of using spray or lotions on my skin in heat and humidity, and the peppermint oil is only on a few small places. And it works on mosquitoes, which see me as a walking, all you can eat, buffet.

I got into a ground nest of mini yellow jackets (AKA "ground bees") while clearing stumps, and they got in my t-shirt that was sweat soaked, at the back of my neck and about 1/2 dozen started popping me between the shoulder blades. I thought they were on the surface, but about 30 seconds later realized they were inside the shirt, I did the "Hulk" thing and actually ripped my shirt off, then made it to the water hose. Felt like someone was sticking me with a lit cigarette. Hate them bastages.

We have success spraying peppermint oil to keep the bees from around the pool and we hang a paper bag upside down fron the soffit as a fake wasp nest to keep them away, it seems to work for us.

Also...

It's easy to forget that almost any racquet makes a great CIWS regarding flying insects. If they piss you off as much as they do me, you will shred them in mid air. If not, swat them down and step on 'em.

They may be in your eaves or other nooks and crannies. We had a huge infestation of yellowjackets 2 years ago in the eaves of the second story of my house and had to bring in the exterminator with the suit who sprayed some sort of powder in there that killed them all off. It was kind of expensive like $250 but beats having my kids getting stung by those winged assholes.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
They may be in your eaves or other nooks and crannies. We had a huge infestation of yellowjackets 2 years ago in the eaves of the second story of my house and had to bring in the exterminator with the suit who sprayed some sort of powder in there that killed them all off. It was kind of expensive like $250 but beats having my kids getting stung by those winged assholes.

Probably delta dust. My pest control service applies that on old nests on eaves and windows so the bastards don't come back. One reason I don't DIY this is the extended reach duster is $265.

I'm down river a bit in Louisville, probably similar pests. Yellow jackets are the bad boys here. Wasps too but yj run the show. Lot of people call them ground hornets around here and they go underground in a small 1-2" hole, typically have another hole nearby for escape. If you find them both put a brick over one and pour a pint of gas down the active one. Do it at sundown after they get home from murdering.

My next door neighbor had to call a pro due to an eave infestation. I got in a ground nest when I was about 12, ate me up, got hives and swole up bad, soaked in oatmeal bath and was generally miserable while on a wonderful Lake Cumberland vacation. Was squirrel hunting when they got me. Still hurts 60 years later.

I must be allergic to them,as every time I run into a ground nest, I run and scream like a little girl! Brush hogging meadows, I may have just turned the key of my tractor off and ran for my life, several times!
Working for a power company, one of my jobs was monthly substation inspections. For some reason wasps and hornets love them. I’d heard this before, but they will head butt you if you are too close to their nest. I experienced this many times. One warning, then attack!
We used “Bee Bopper”! Fantastic stuff!

What is attracting them to your deck depends on what they are and where their nests are. In general, both bees and wasps are doing good things for the nearby plants, and if you can keep them away from your house/deck without killing them, your yard will be happier for it.

It would seem you need more info to figure out best path forward. My guess is that taking some videos and pictures might be a good next step. With that, you could ask either your county extension agent or an exterminator to identify what you are dealing with. If so inclined, put them online and post some links in this thread and maybe your unseen SIGforum friends can give you more definite IDs.

If you have plants on or near the deck that are attracting things, part of the plan would probably be to change the plants to things that the visitors don't eat/drink from and which don't host caterpillars.

If there are nests in/near your house, you will want that dealt with by experts. For example, if there's a honeybee nest nearby, there are probably beekeepers in your area who would be happy to entice them away. We have had European Hornets decide our house was perfect for nesting and that was something we were glad to hand off to professional exterminators.

There are some Youtube videos out there where people build fantastic traps that attract and kill these guys by the thousands. I would love to try it, but I don't have many around the house in Phoenix. Scorpions are the problem here.

I use a garlic spray solution around the eaves, bushes, etc. Helps keep the wasps and mosq. away as well. During the summer I may spray every 2 weeks, moreso if I see any show up.

I get the concentrate online and mix in my pump sprayer. Will smell only a few hours.

quote:

Originally posted by doublesharp:

If you find them both put a brick over one and pour a pint of gas down the active one.

I'm sure contaminating your soil like that isn't a great idea...