# Yellow Jackets



## gthomas785 (Mar 22, 2021)

I am trying to replace a piece of siding on my house. I started working on it for about 30 seconds before they showed up out of nowhere and I got stung pretty bad on my knuckle. After that I observed them going in and out of the hole in the broken piece of siding (I assume nest is inside the wall)

I don't like to kill insects but at this point I have to finish the job so I bought a can of Raid wasp hornet and yellowjacket spray and sprayed it in the hole. It foamed up pretty good and I thought that would take care of it.

Then a couple hours later I get back to work, 30 seconds in they reappear and I got stung again, this time on my face. I did not see them come out of the hole so they must be coming from somewhere else now.

What should I do? I can't just leave a gaping hole in my wall but anytime I try to work on it I get stung. Any advice greatly appreciated.


----------



## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Yellow jackets, if that is what they are, always have TWO holes, one to escape from in case the primary is blocked. Approach the job and take notice of where they are coming from before you start work. You can foam that hole and it should take care of them.


----------



## Randy Bush (Dec 9, 2020)

It helps to have like a can of brake clean handy to hit them with too. And if you can work on the area when it is cool in the morning helps too. That way they are pretty much all in the nest.


----------



## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

The nest may be deeper in. Those foaming sprays release a toxic gas that may not be reaching it. I had a similar problem at the vent for our gas fireplace and ended up calling an exterminator. Not only do they have access to a wider array (and probably more powerful) products, she had a long probe that was able to get in deeper. One shot and done.


----------



## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

Go up to the area, beat on the siding and run back. Watch where they come from.


----------



## Old Thomas (Nov 28, 2019)

Are you sure they are not honey bees? Canned spray usually doesn’t do anything except make them mad.


----------



## gthomas785 (Mar 22, 2021)

Old Thomas said:


> Are you sure they are not honey bees? Canned spray usually doesn’t do anything except make them mad.


I'm pretty sure they are yellow jackets, they are bright yellow and don't look fuzzy but I'll try to get a closer look and make sure. However, I was surprised that the spray didn't kill them all instantly so I could have been wrong. The first sting swelled up my finger and burned for like 2 hours, it was much more painful than bee stings I've gotten in the past. The second was not so bad I think I swatted it off me pretty quick.


----------



## quatsch (Feb 4, 2021)

The hole in the ground goes horizontal for a foot or so and then leads to an unground nest the size of a melon.

Their stinger always points down, so if you want revenge & they land on a hard surface you can crush them with one finger w/o getting stung.
Some of them then take the rest of the day figuring out what happened. They don't die soon. Some appear to die but then rouse themselves.

They're very aggressive. 
I was whacking a nest with a 10' 2x8 plank and they absolutely could not figure out that the problem was 10' away & not at the end they were stinging.


----------



## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

I've only seen yellow jackets above ground once. For the most part they burrow in the ground. Here's a nest we encountered at a client's house. Definitely yellow jackets.


----------



## Steve2444 (Sep 28, 2020)

If it were me, what I would do as already suggested is find the entry holes.
Then I would inject Tempo 1% Dust
Into all the holes I could find AT NIGHT. End of story for them up to a year.


----------



## Shrewboy (Apr 30, 2021)

joed said:


> Go up to the area, beat on the siding and run back. Watch where they come from.


I always do this just because its fun LOL


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

@gthomas785 nice to meet you.

I think some positive ID on your critters is in order. I say that because sometimes names get mixed up.

This is provided in an abundance of caution. Some people call bumblebees "yellow jackets" - though they're entirely different. Yellow jackets are relatives of hornets, and they're nasty [expletives]. Bumblebees aren't nearly as nasty, one because a colony has fewer individuals, and two because they're just less inclined to declare jihad on you and attack with many individuals at once.

I've been attacked by both, oh yeah, you vividly remember the differences.

Bumblebee









Yellow jacket


----------



## gthomas785 (Mar 22, 2021)

DoomsDave said:


> @gthomas785 nice to meet you.
> 
> I think some positive ID on your critters is in order. I say that because sometimes names get mixed up.
> 
> ...


They are definitely not bumblebees. We have lots of those and they are very friendly. As I said before I'm pretty sure these are yellowjackets, I will take a closer look again tonight to make sure they are not some other kind of bee but they are the same ones that I have always thought of as yellow jackets, buzzing around the table when we eat, generally obnoxious and they look like the second picture.


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

chandler48 said:


> I've only seen yellow jackets above ground once. For the most part they burrow in the ground. Here's a nest we encountered at a client's house. Definitely yellow jackets.
> 
> View attachment 661853


They don't burrow as in dig a new hole, but instead use one that's already there. That's one reason they love buildings so much.

Yowza, hope y'all didn't get stung! Hope you found them before they found and attacked you or your helpers.

This is unusual, but it shows how huge the nests can be.


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

gthomas785 said:


> They are definitely not bumblebees. We have lots of those and they are very friendly. As I said before I'm pretty sure these are yellowjackets, I will take a closer look again tonight to make sure they are not some other kind of bee but they are the same ones that I have always thought of as yellow jackets, buzzing around the table when we eat, generally obnoxious and they look like the second picture.


Okay, thanks for your rapid reply.

I'm sure you got the right ID. 

Other characteristics: they fly like teensy little fighter planes. They also land on dead animals, doggie or kitty poop, or, god forbid, a hotdog or burger you're eating. They want the meat to feed their grubworms.


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

The silver lining, if you will, is that yellow jacket nests are made of paper, which will absorb bug killer and kill the whole colony if you use enough of it.

They can be a real pain to get to, but it's worth the trouble to find and hit them with "bee and wasp killer" if you can. Usually (thank god!) they're not at the end of a long tunnel, but one that's short enough to be able to do something.

If push comes to shove and you can't annihilate that colony, the colonies only last a year in the north, though they're longer lived in the south. 

Be careful about "bottling them up" by blocking holes; sometimes they end up where you don't want them, like in your house, as what happened to a friend. (Yike. Mommy.) 

What state are you located in @gthomas785 ?


----------



## gthomas785 (Mar 22, 2021)

DoomsDave said:


> The silver lining, if you will, is that yellow jacket nests are made of paper, which will absorb bug killer and kill the whole colony if you use enough of it.
> 
> They can be a real pain to get to, but it's worth the trouble to find and hit them with "bee and wasp killer" if you can. Usually (thank god!) they're not at the end of a long tunnel, but one that's short enough to be able to do something.
> 
> ...


I'm in MA. I heard that mid-late august is when yellowjackets up and look for a new nesting location. I'm hoping that this is their old one and not their newly chosen place to live for another year. Maybe I can convince them to back out of their lease before it's too late.


----------



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

gthomas785 said:


> I'm in MA. I heard that mid-late august is when yellowjackets up and look for a new nesting location. I'm hoping that this is their old one and not their newly chosen place to live for another year. Maybe I can convince them to back out of their lease before it's too late.


They'll stick in one spot for a year, then leave, though they might come back in succeeding years, attracted by pheromones they release (bees certainly are). I'm in California now, though I used to live in Ohio, with a climate much like yours. 

At the end of the season, the colony kind of disintigrates into anarchy, and the young queens fly off and hibernate, while the workers just kind of wander around and wait to die. In the spring, the queens go looking for a nice hidey hole to start a new nest. 

I'd make an effort to try and find out where they were, so you can seal up and keep them from coming back again. 

You can do a kind of preemptive strike, by finding and blocking holes at ground level up to about 8 feet up, if you can, though I realize that's often easier said than done. In particular, they seem to love cracks in foundations. 

Honeybees are a much worse problem to have, though that's no much consolation at the moment. 

Let us know what happens, and ask any further questions!


----------



## bob22 (May 28, 2008)

I had yellow jackets build their nest in the wall cavity (just below top plate of wall) behind cabinet above the range microwave. It had three layers of those cells. 
Never heard any noise in the house; I noticed them flying into a small gap between vinyl siding and some trim molding and didn't find any bees anywhere else (in adjoining garage). I got one of those endoscope things for my laptop and after a good dosing of bee spray in the hole stuck the line in and found the nest.


























Good luck!
I did buy some thin plastic tubing (like end of the bee spray tube they provide); I think it was EGR tubing from Pep Boys and guided it into what I thought was the space and emptied the can one night. This seemed to wipe out the nest. I found no live ones when the wall was opened.


----------



## Missouri Bound (Apr 9, 2011)

If you are sure they are yellow jackets, get Bonide.
You need to locate the entrance hole(s)
It is an a squeeze bottle, it is a powder.
At night, where it is dark with no activity you need to spray it into the hole(s) where you have seen them exit and enter. They need to track it in to kill the whole colony.
I had a yellow jacket nest in the ground near my sidewalk.
You could see them coming and going from dawn to dusk.
Walking anywhere near them you got stung.....I found out the hard way.
I applied this one night after dark, using a flashlight to make sure I got the entrance hole.
The next day the activity was down 90%
The following day....absolutely nothing.


----------



## Old Thomas (Nov 28, 2019)

Try Sevin insecticide. I have used it on honey bees and yellow jackets and it knocks them dead overnight. I have used liquid in a sprayer and powder. I had a huge hive in a hollow tree. I put powdered Sevin in a 10 foot long plastic conduit, plugged the end to keep it in with a plastic plug, and stuck the end in the hole. Then I shot compressed air in the other end of the conduit pushing out the plug and blasting a white Sevin cloud into the hole. The next day there was not a single surviving bee, and 2 years later they are still gone. Liquid is easy, but I had to have some fun with a home made powder gun.


----------



## BayouRunner (Feb 5, 2016)

We get yellow jackets here all too often. Had someone weed eater around my trees for me last weekend. He got stung four times around different trees. About a half a cup of gas instantly knocks out the in ground nests. Takes a few days for the stragglers to go away. The ones in the wall will require a different treatment. Usually the nests are up higher in the wall and the go out through a lower entrance. So when you use wasp spray or something similar it only kills the ones in the immediate area. They are alive and well in the wall. Switch to a dusting powder like suggested above and you will wipe out the nests in a week or so


----------



## gkreamer (May 8, 2020)

You could look for the can at the store that says kills instantly and shoots 20 feet of you go the bang on the wall route. It basically is an instant kill as it just disrupts their nervous system or something. I think we had Spectracide brand, it even killed giant European hornets instantly that used to get angry and run into our floodlight on the corner of our soffit. A direct hit dropped them instantly to the ground- no crawling or anything, the mist slowed then down and killed then on a few seconds. My 25 year old son is still terrified of yellow jackets, wasps and hornets. When he saw the"murder hornets" story last year he added Washington state to the list of places he'll never go to, so now Australia has company!


----------

