# wasps! all over the (inside of the) house?



## Bud9051 (Nov 11, 2015)

Check for signs of them in the attic. If they get in there they usually have access through penetrations int just about the entire house.

Bud


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

I had a bunch of flies one year, I used a vacuum cleaner, it worked great. You could use an insect bomb, that may work but they can also be dangerous to use. But they work.


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## wkd (May 17, 2013)

Bud9051 said:


> Check for signs of them in the attic. If they get in there they usually have access through penetrations int just about the entire house.
> Bud


Thanks Bud. 

Forgot to mention that I don't have an attic, the house is a contemporary. And they seem to be mostly in the basement - went down there this morning and saw yet another buzzing around. 
I've looked all over and its not like there are a bunch coming out of/or near a hole - that's what makes it maddening to try and find.


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## wkd (May 17, 2013)

BigJim said:


> I had a bunch of flies one year, I used a vacuum cleaner, it worked great. You could use an insect bomb, that may work but they can also be dangerous to use. But they work.


Thanks Jim.

So far I've been lucky in that a rolled magazine has so far done the trick - but if I keep seeing more of them in the basement, the old wet vac is going to be put to good use!


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

As soon as the air from Yellow Knife gets there it'll be over but in the meantime to kill them on the wing a _Badminton Racque_t is real sporting. In the garage I use an old dip net. We'd sure like a vid because things are getting a little boring around here. 
*
*


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## ZTMAN (Feb 19, 2015)

Ever use one of those battery fly swatters? Works great on wasps too. 

I gave up on swatting with a newspaper or magazine since everyting seems to be going digiatal, and my laptop is to heavy to smack them with.


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## Colbyt (Jan 27, 2014)

They can enter through a weep hole and find their way to the bsmt.


Two kill methods that mostly harmless to you are hairspray and even better is dish soap diluted greatly in water.


I recently took out a large nest at dusk using a 1/4 bottle of dish soap and sticking the water hose in the nest. 



Smashing them causes them to emit pheromones which can get you swarmed if are a bunch of others in the same area.


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## wkd (May 17, 2013)

Colbyt said:


> They can enter through a weep hole and find their way to the bsmt.
> 
> 
> Two kill methods that mostly harmless to you are hairspray and even better is dish soap diluted greatly in water.
> ...


Hairspray! Tried and true, my 3rd grade teacher used that method years ago.

Good to know about the pheromones, and didn't know abt the dish soap, thanks.


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## More Power! (Aug 2, 2011)

Colbyt said:


> They can enter through a weep hole and find their way to the bsmt.


 It's the weirdest thing, but we have 'em show up in _our_ basement from time-to-time, too. Have no idea where they're getting in. Over the years I've sealed-up every ingress I could find for the purpose of energy efficiency. But still they find a way in.


Rarely on main floor. Mainly just the basement. Not nearly as many as the OP is seeing, though. Maybe a half dozen a year.


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## Dave Sal (Dec 20, 2012)

For some reason I usually get about 6-10 every fall in my below grade family room. Always in the fall, right before it starts to get cold. They're always seen near the exterior wall, so I'd bet that if I tore down the drywall I'd find a nest within the wall cavity. No idea where they are getting in though.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

@WKD, Sorry to hear of your travails.

Sounds like you have a wasp colony that's croaking off for the winter, when the queens fly off and hibernate, and rest of them just sort of roam about and die.

I'd swat as many as you can find.

Do you have a pic of the wasps? That's likely important because some wasps, like hornets are very VERY numerous like a horde of Huns, and much harder to deal with than, say a colony of mud daubers that have a few score members.

I'm in California now, but I lived in Ohio, and most of the time when there was a wasp 
"problem" it happened in the fall when the colonies began to die off and their members scatter, waiting to die, basically. If it's just a few, they'll just go off and die. If there's hundreds or thousands (hornets) you might want to try to find the nest, which is a paper thing. Some stick on walls or on trees, while others are built in holes.

Here's a hornets' nest for illustration.

ASK ANY OTHER QUESTIONS YOU MIGHT HAVE. WE'RE HERE TO HELP.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Here's a mud dauber going after a spider.

Feel bad for that spider.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

here's a very intrepid (looney?) dude holding a bald faced hornet.


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## SeniorSitizen (Sep 10, 2012)

Be careful at entry doors until their cycle passes. Several years ago one of our sons had one of these red wasp fall down inside his shirt collar when he opened the storm door on our detached garage. To this day if he enters that door he looks up before stepping in or out.


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## wkd (May 17, 2013)

Thanks for everyone's responses. My main concern was that I had come back to a nest someplace (nephews are wicked allergic) but if they are dying off ... its all good. 

Wonder what's gonna hit this house next - first swarms of ants (got that taken care of) then the next year was (and still is to a lesser extent) big black spiders (not that a big deal) and now wasps. Next year brings ... locusts? lol.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

wkd said:


> Thanks for everyone's responses. My main concern was that I had come back to a nest someplace (nephews are wicked allergic) but if they are dying off ... its all good.
> 
> Wonder what's gonna hit this house next - first swarms of ants (got that taken care of) then the next year was (and still is to a lesser extent) big black spiders (not that a big deal) and now wasps. Next year brings ... locusts? lol.


Are they dying off?

Might want to keep some epi pens around for your nephews just in case.

Certain kinds of construction seems to draw wasps more than others. 

Have you gotten an ID on them?


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## wkd (May 17, 2013)

DoomsDave said:


> Are they dying off?
> 
> Might want to keep some epi pens around for your nephews just in case.
> 
> ...


Re: epi pens - we've got a fair amount around!

Take a look at my latest victim (#4 today):


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