# Yellow Jackets



## jmon (Nov 5, 2012)

By law, we as consumers are not going to get the good stuff like your exterminator has. He has a license to use it. If you can't kill the nest using the over the counter stuff available at the box stores, best to call him back. 

I have had very excellent results using seven dust on those pesty yj's. I use a pump sprayer full of seven dust and pump it all around the active area. They get it on their feet and take it in right to the queen. 

Imo, spray cans don't work on the yj's very good even though it says it does right on the can. You only get the few guards at the nest entrance and that's it. There are hundreds inside you can't see. So the queen just keeps making more of them. Have to kill the queen then nest will die out and the rest will leave once the queen is dead.


Hope you get rid of them soon wirenuts. they are horible and will sting the crap out of you.


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## dj3 (Apr 27, 2020)

If there is a lot of activity, or if you are allergic, best to let the pro handle this.
Multiple stings could do a lot of damage.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

Another vote for Seven. I have used it in different applications and 100% took the nest out entirely. The dust at the entrance where they land and then walk definitely gets carried in. I watched some coming out to escape and they fell withing a foot or so. Stragglers that are away from the nest will walk right into the dust and gone.

If your evenings are getting cooler that is a good time to apply the dust. Cool temps slow them down and more are in the nest in the evening.

Bud


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## dj3 (Apr 27, 2020)

On a job site once, a worker reached and grabbed an open can of cola, he didn't see a yj inside, and was bitten in his mouth. When his face became a basketball, he rushed to ER.


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## dj3 (Apr 27, 2020)

A bee keeper once told me he uses all purpose flour, I wonder if it works on yellow jackets and hornets too.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

@99 wirenuts, nice to meet you!

This is going to be a bit of a windy public service announcement, since a lot of people are very justifiably concerned about yellow jackets at this time of year.

As you likely know, YJs can be fierce expletives when even slightly annoyed. But they're only active in daylight, and they build nests out of paper. 

So, attack them at night, preferably with a liquid bug killer. Sevin, malathion, diazinon, or any other "contact" bug killer will kill the wasps it gets on. If you can locate the nest with any degree of precision, spray hell out of it, too. The paper soaks up the bug killer, and kills the baby grubs, too.

Attacking at night limits their ability to do those aggressive air assaults that cause so much pain.

Since your nest appears to be in aluminum siding (my brother's house has it) it might or might not be close enough to give it a real soaking with bug killer. This sounds wierd, but sometimes you can pinpoint the location by feeling up the siding and see if you can feel or hear the hum of the colony. 

Which is why that foamy gunk the exterminator works. If there's only one opening, the wasps go through it and die, one by one, except the queen. 

On the other hand, liquid or powdered Sevin will work, too. (I couldn't find any over the counter foaming gunk.) So even if the nest is a long way from the entrance hole, the Sevin still works. I generally concur with Bud and @jmon, with the caveats noted above.

One more thing that's important. In western New York, YJ colonies are "annual" i.e., they only last a summer season. (I'm from NE Ohio, just down the road a piece.) Do nothing and eventually, the whole colony dies except for new queens who make whoopee with drones, then fly off and hibernate over the winter, then buzz off in spring, and start new colonies. 

You want to seal up that hole where they're coming and going; if you don't the pheromones they leave will tell later generations that your place is a happy home for them, too.

Before hiring an exterminator, do what you can yourself. If you're allergic ask a friend or neighbor. (I've done it a few times. Thanks is a very lovely word!) 

So, let us know what you do, and what happens, and of course, ask further questions if any you have.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

dj3 said:


> On a job site once, a worker reached and grabbed an open can of cola, he didn't see a yj inside, and was bitten in his mouth. When his face became a basketball, he rushed to ER.


Yeah, I got tackled into a YJ nest playing football as a kid. They were the Crusaders, and I was the Infidel, and they did their best and I ran like hell (might be useful in the Olympics). Mom freaked out, but no trip to the docs that time, thank heaven.


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## 99 wirenuts (Sep 8, 2018)

THANKS for all responses. 
I’m leaning towards using an exterminator, mainly because I’m a pansy and don’t want to get stung lol.
So far I’ve called about 6 exterminators. Of the few that could make it out the next day, only 1 gave me a direct price. $199 !!! Alot of money just to spray a hole in the wall. ( but this pansy will probably pay it)


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

> Multiple stings could do a lot of damage.


How true. I hit a low dwelling hornet's nest last Saturday while mowing. I didn't know it until one hit me on the jaw right under my left eye. Almost took me off the ZTR. I looked back and there was literally a kazillion swarming around the remnants of their nest.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

chandler48 said:


> How true. I hit a low dwelling hornet's nest last Saturday while mowing. I didn't know it until one hit me on the jaw right under my left eye. Almost took me off the ZTR. I looked back and there was literally a kazillion swarming around the remnants of their nest.


Sounds like me playing football, except, thank heaven, none near the eyes. Some crawled into my mouth and got my lips and tongue.


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## ajaye (May 19, 2019)

I don't know what I had, could have been YJ's, they looked a lot like that

For a month, these things were out and about during the day, couldnt go out and if you tried to swat one away, it would charge you.

They were near my and wifes car, in the end I got pissed off, researched and could not find any nest, then BLOODY HECK, wife noticed them more around her car, she failed to give me this nugget

The b'stard had built a nest in the wing mirror, looked closely and there was a small white honeycome in there 

SOOO I got some wasp killer, gave it a good spray in the evening, then took it to the jet wash and sprayed the fquers out.

problem is the unlike bees, the stinger doesnt come out, so you could get multiple stings ! and there not afraid to use them


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

ajaye said:


> I don't know what I had, could have been YJ's, they looked a lot like that
> 
> For a month, these things were out and about during the day, couldnt go out and if you tried to swat one away, it would charge you.
> 
> ...


Hmm.

How long was your wife's car parked?


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## ajaye (May 19, 2019)

During Covid she basically has been staying at home, car is parked all day on the drive, usually there for days at a time, we sometimes shuffle cars so I can get out, but as daughter has been at home, I'm out doing shopping etc.

She did say she had seen the odd wasp near her car but ignored it,

Funny both our cars are the SAME red colour and I noticed wasps around my wing mirror, but mine the gap is tiny, she had a G/caravan and there is a big gap around the wing mirror and the wing mirror glass



DoomsDave said:


> Hmm.
> 
> How long was your wife's car parked?


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

ajaye said:


> During Covid she basically has been staying at home, car is parked all day on the drive, usually there for days at a time, we sometimes shuffle cars so I can get out, but as daughter has been at home, I'm out doing shopping etc.
> 
> She did say she had seen the odd wasp near her car but ignored it,
> 
> Funny both our cars are the SAME red colour and I noticed wasps around my wing mirror, but mine the gap is tiny, she had a G/caravan and there is a big gap around the wing mirror and the wing mirror glass


Yike a rooney!

:surprise:


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## Missouri Bound (Apr 9, 2011)

I have used a product called Bonide with great success.
It comes in a plastic "puffer" bottle. 
I had a yellow jacket nest in the ground near my sidewalk.
At night, you "puff" the powder near the entrance hole when all of the little bastards are inside.
As they leave and come back they track it in. In one day the traffic was almost gone. Two days later no trace at all.


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## 99 wirenuts (Sep 8, 2018)

I looked for Bonide at Lowes , but didn’t see any.
Just a final update on my situation. I fessed up 2 bills and had an exterminator come out the next day(8/29). I’ve used an exterminator about 6 times over the last 20 years, and only once did the guy kill them all almost immediately with one good soaking. Well, this last one was the 2nd time it happened. Weird how sometimes they die right away, and sometimes it takes 3 days.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

My dad played games with them. Near ponds, they burrow in the ground, with two holes. One for entrance, and one slightly hidden for emergency egress. Dad would find both holes, put some gasoline in a wine bottle, invert it in the egress hole, wait......wait......wait, then light a match at the entrance. Once the gas fumes reached the entrance, BAM, flames would shoot out with burning YJ's and the wine bottle would be catapulted out 10' or so. No YJ survived that, for sure.


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## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

Just to note, a good nursery shop will usually carry all of the good products, it is part of their business.

Bud


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## Old Thomas (Nov 28, 2019)

I duct taped a shop vac hose by a bee hole and ran the vac all day. Every bee coming or going got sucked in. It didn’t kill the hive, but it was fun to watch. I got several inches of dead bees in the vac.


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