# Yellow jackets nest hidden in walls



## EdLank (Apr 23, 2010)

We started getting yellow jackets in the house, first one, then two, then a dozen. They are not aggressive in the house and would fly around before tiring and eventually dying on the carpet. We found where they were entering from outside, with easily a dozen present on the landing zone all the time. After dusting one evening with Drione, the activity almost stopped so I treated another evening and it stopped. Inside, meanwhile, we got 50, 200, and then ~400 a day dying inside. I cannot find where they broke through into the living space. There is no one place where they seem to be originating, and once in the living space, they head for windows and die mostly there.

We began smelling something like rotten potatoes in a room 2 weeks ago, and it did not smell like a dead mouse (done ask). Now that I am collecting hundreds of yellow jackets, I understand it was them I was smelling. If this indicates the next is in the walls or ceiling of this room, I do not know how they got into the living space. The distance from their outside entrance to the house and this room is about 10 feet. While possible, that is curious as to why they would travel so far.

Today the number coming into the living space is again very small, so it seems that most are dead.

How do I find the nest? The smell is diminishing, but is still only in this one room. Again, I have no idea how they are getting into the living space. With that many a day, it would seem that there was be an obvious path of heavy traffic, but there is no obvious one. I tried an IR camera to see if I could see any warm or cold spots, but no such luck. I have also never heard any noises in the walls, even using with a stethoscope.

Suggestions?


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

EdLank said:


> We started getting yellow jackets in the house, first one, then two, then a dozen. They are not aggressive in the house and would fly around before tiring and eventually dying on the carpet. We found where they were entering from outside, with easily a dozen present on the landing zone all the time. After dusting one evening with Drione, the activity almost stopped so I treated another evening and it stopped. Inside, meanwhile, we got 50, 200, and then ~400 a day dying inside. I cannot find where they broke through into the living space. There is no one place where they seem to be originating, and once in the living space, they head for windows and die mostly there.
> 
> We began smelling something like rotten potatoes in a room 2 weeks ago, and it did not smell like a dead mouse (done ask). Now that I am collecting hundreds of yellow jackets, I understand it was them I was smelling. If this indicates the next is in the walls or ceiling of this room, I do not know how they got into the living space. The distance from their outside entrance to the house and this room is about 10 feet. While possible, that is curious as to why they would travel so far.
> 
> ...


Nice to meet you!

Yellow jackets make big paper nests in cavities near the ground.

The good part is that you're near the end of their life cycle season and that colony is disintegrating and the workers are wandering off to die. Once it gets really cold, it's over.

The bad part is that the ones you have now will leave pheromones which will mark that as a good site for a future nest. 

Short of tearing open walls, I can't think of anything by way of methods to find a nest, but perhaps others here will have thoughts.


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## notnew2diy (Sep 1, 2017)

Work on the outside while it's still warm enough for a proper fix.

Inside... check around outlet boxes, light switches, gaps in shoe molding around the floor. Doesn't need to be a big hole.

HTH...Don.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

@EdLank it might also be a good idea to move fairly fast so you'll have an easier time finding the nest. As @notnew2diy noted, even a relatively teensy hole will do it for the wasps, and it'll be a helluva lot easier to find if you can catch them in the act of using it. Note that there may be more than one.

It's made of paper, so it will burn, if you want to. Never heard of them having an odor, but it makes sense, since the adults feed "ground flesh" to the grubworms, all of which is now rotting.

Let us know how it goes!


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## EdLank (Apr 23, 2010)

I have dusted 2 underground nests last summer and then excavated the nests so know how large they can be. I had no idea they were there, very close to my seldom-used front door. I dusted them and had complete response. I did the same with those entering the house from the siding/brick interface, so I can see how small the hole can be. But inside, if there are now many hundreds that have entered the living space, I would expect a continuous flow of yellow jackets somewhere.

I actually minimized the issue with the lack of any warm spot. There was one in the other room about 30 feet from the outside entrance, but I assumed it was not from the yellow jackets. Now I am not sure.

See that thread at 
Warm spot in wall

I see a place inside closer to the outside entrance that is at the drywall/chimney interface. Some have crawled there but it appears no where near the many hundred that we have collected, dead and alive. Again, that space is 10 feet from where we have noted the "rotten potato" smell.

Thanks.


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## EdLank (Apr 23, 2010)

Now I hear the buzzing between the outside entry site and the chimney, where there is a small gap, and where they are probably entering the living space. It is interesting that I could not hear them before now.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

EdLank said:


> Now I hear the buzzing between the outside entry site and the chimney, where there is a small gap, and where they are probably entering the living space. It is interesting that I could not hear them before now.


You're witnessing their annual "end of the world" as the colony disintegrates. The colony no longer exists as a colony and workers are biding their time before they die. Instead of working for the colony they just fly around, visit flowers then die when it gets cold.

This might be a good time to try to spot where they're coming and going and make a note and seal off holes to keep them from coming back again. Based on what you've said before, it looks like you've had them around awhile, and it appears they like your house and will come back again.


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## EdLank (Apr 23, 2010)

I have found where they were entering the house from outside...it was where the siding meets the bricks at a house corner. Unfortunately, that is not only one spot. At every mortar joint for much of the 20 feet, there is some space, so I had to dust almost all of those gaps. I did that 3 nights with Drione, and they stopped all such activity outside. Maybe the "buzz" around the colony is that it is dangerous to go out that way, so they stopped emerging there, and are left stranded in the wall, unless they find their way into the living space. A very few were entering the living space even before I dusted the entrance, and the numbers rose, so that was the reason I looked to find their outside place of entry. After dusting the entrance gaps, the numbers entering the living space continued to rise, but their ability to fly has gotten progressively worse. They briefly fly in the house, crash, and then can barely even crawl.

By the way, I have a lot of streaks down a lot of windows and a few light grey spots on a leather sofa and window sills. Is this their cargo of digested cellulose they use to make the nest, venom, or what? I never see them make the spots, but the spots reappear every day as we find more dead on the carpet.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

EdLank said:


> I have found where they were entering the house from outside...it was where the siding meets the bricks at a house corner. Unfortunately, that is not only one spot. At every mortar joint for much of the 20 feet, there is some space, so I had to dust almost all of those gaps. I did that 3 nights with Drione, and they stopped all such activity outside. Maybe the "buzz" around the colony is that it is dangerous to go out that way, so they stopped emerging there, and are left stranded in the wall, unless they find their way into the living space. A very few were entering the living space even before I dusted the entrance, and the numbers rose, so that was the reason I looked to find their outside place of entry. After dusting the entrance gaps, the numbers entering the living space continued to rise, but their ability to fly has gotten progressively worse. They briefly fly in the house, crash, and then can barely even crawl.
> 
> By the way, I have a lot of streaks down a lot of windows and a few light grey spots on a leather sofa and window sills. Is this their cargo of digested cellulose they use to make the nest, venom, or what? I never see them make the spots, but the spots reappear every day as we find more dead on the carpet.


Everything you describe is par for the course as the workers continue to die. Aside from not having enough to eat, they just eventually reach the end of their life span and croak, to use a non-scientific term. Soon (I suspect not soon enough for you and your family/housemates) they'll all be gone, and you'll clean up the last one.

That said, truly sealing off your place might be a big, but worthwhile job.

Exactly how to do that, I'm not sure. Maybe an experienced "sealer" will join us. Meantime, I did a quick YouTube search, and some of these videos may be worthwhile. sealing a house from bugs - YouTube The big problem, from what I can see is that if a house is full of openings, getting them all will be tough.

On the other hand, be aware that if you do miss an opening and they come back, sealing off the others will help by reducing the number of entrances by that much. It may take more than a single season to do the job. Pain in the rear, but the way it goes.

The bigger point is to expect the likelihood of a long battle for a while, like dueling glaciers. If you manage to whack 'em in one shot, do tell us! We'll be glad to hear!

Though I'm in California now, I'm from Ohio, so I'm all too familiar with yellow jackets and all the other critters up your way. Here, honeybees like to nest in the joists in people's houses. Back about 35 years ago I managed a garden shop and a couple of customers had bees in their joists they were able to kill off; trouble was, new colonies came and located in the same places because of the pheromones. So, they had to seal, too.

So, I hope this helps, and do, please keep us apprised of your efforts, and what works and what doesn't. Yours is, unfortunately, a very common problem that pops up right around now in the northern US. In the south, colonies often don't die, but get bigger and bigger as they survive in the same place for year after year. (Not your problem, but I put it here to provide information.)

Best of luck!


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Any updates @EdLank ?


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## oldhard47 (6 mo ago)

In Pierce County WA, when would I expect wasps living in a house wall (entering and exiting near the corner trim where it meets the first/lowest course of siding)? As of a couple of hours ago, even in 43 degF and rainy weather, they were flying in and out of their entrance hole every 3-7 seconds.

I am waiting for the seasonal death/migration of the colony (I don't want them chewing into the living space) to plug up the holes but these buggers are still going strong.


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## notnew2diy (Sep 1, 2017)

I split firewood last week. I found many yellow jackets in holes in the wood.

I have apple and pear trees along my driveway. Temps have been in the low 70F, way above average for my area. Still have hundreds, maybe thousands, of YJ and wasps trying to get 1 last meal of the downed fruit. I was surprised at the number of flies. 

FWIW...Don.


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