Outdoor Pest Control - Wasp removal

Got a problem with wasps? Yep, we did. Got rid of them without getting stung too.

I don't like killing anything, not even insects. I have a few pet spiders in the basement as they are natural pest control... This many wasps are dangerous tho, got the small dog and 2 kids.

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, i've noticed more and more wasps in the back yard. A few are ok but this morning they started swarming. There were two nests, one in a crack in the concrete deck at the house, and another in the brick retaining wall. Hundreds of the bloody things swarming in the back yard.

Got a shopvac? Yep, a shop vac... I put a gallon of water with a bit of soap and bleach in the bottom. Cut the top off a small pop bottle, leave about 4 inches from the neck so you have a funnel. The neck should squeeze in nicely into the end of the hose. Get a couple of hoses if you can, the farther the shop vac is from the nest the better.

Place your funnel an inch or two from the entrance, rig something up if you need to to get it there, I used a curtain rod with a hook at the end :) I didn't get stung, they didn't even come close to me.

Turn the shop vac on after you place the funnel and let it run. As the wasps swarm the funnel, they will disappear. You can watch them getting sucked in. My shopvac has at least 500 of dead wasps in it right now.

After the carnage is over, throw some whole cloves around the entrance and leave it. They won't enter, I watched them, they apparently don't like the smell.

I just foam bombed both nests with a raid wasp killer and there's not one left to be seen now. Just got through with it so i'm guessing over the next day or two the stragglers will leave.


Good luck.

I read this with great interest, as hundreds of others have, but it won't work for my wasp/yellow jacket problem.

My nest is in the ground; within or under a juniper bush. I "discovered" it while preparing to dig a hole about 3 feet away, where I want to transplant a hydrangea. I was attacked before I knew what hit me, but only got 4 or 5 stings.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/eddieo45/1001081201.jpg
The wasps are in/under the juniper on the right, and I'm trying to dig a hole in the upper left. I still want to plant that shrub, and now's the time, so I've got to deal with the wasps. My old-school, non-green dad, who got stung 111 times after stepping in a nest years ago, suggests pouring 5 gallons of gasoline into the nest. I'm not gonna do that. I've emptied two full cans of Spectracide wasp killer spray (Prallethrin, Lambda Cyhalothrin) into the opening in the juniper and all around it (at night), but I still see quite a few buzzing about during the day. Anything I can do that won't kill the juniper and the nearby hydrangea?
Oh, and the stings were all in my left hand, arm, and shoulder:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/eddieo45/0930080849.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/eddieo45/0930080849a.jpg

the problem with yellow jackets is as you have discovered that they nest underground. you will have to trap them, most farm stores sell yellow jacket traps, you can make one from 1, 2lt pop bottle, cut the top off of about where the sides are and insert the top upside down to form a funnel, then simply bait with some fresh sweets down inside, use some pins to secure the top so it will not come out and place close to the nest. they will go inside and can not come out again. if you place a 1" of soapy water in the bottom they will drown quickly.

Murphy was an optimist

the problem with yellow jackets is as you have discovered that they nest underground. you will have to trap them, most farm stores sell yellow jacket traps, you can make one from 1, 2lt pop bottle, cut the top off of about where the sides are and insert the top upside down to form a funnel, then simply bait with some fresh sweets down inside, use some pins to secure the top so it will not come out and place close to the nest. they will go inside and can not come out again. if you place a 1" of soapy water in the bottom they will drown quickly.
I know the type you mean:
http://www.eartheasy.com/live_natwasp_trap.jpg
I actually bought some fancy ones, for use around my patio:
http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/248/38435/6h/www.improvementscatalog.com/images/en_US/local/products/248x/262494zz.jpg
...they mostly filled with flies! Not very appealing or appetizing on the patio....isn't there a way to destroy the nest and kill them in it? (short of the 5 gallons of gasoline my dad wants me to use....)

As I understand, wasps and yellow jackets like rotting meat and fresh fruit.

Something my father always did was sprinkle the powdered version of sevin around the opening. It does not kill immediately so the yellow jackets keep going in and out of the nest. However, everytime they go in they drag a little bit of poison with them down deep in to the nest. We got rid of several nests each year this way. It may take a week or two for them to die but it works well and will not harm nearby plants.

We actually had these little wasps that looked like yellow jackets swarm inside our house this weekend. They had been building a nest outside and got in behind siding and into the wall. They finally broke through in our dining room. Thankfully all my kids were dressed at the moment (they are 6 and under so that is not always an easy task) and we got them out of the house in maybe 15 seconds. I ended up curtaining off the dining room so they wouldn't get out and used the Spectracide to kill them. I sprayed a liberal amount in to the wall and then used that expanding foam you can buy in a can to seal off that part of the wall. I then went outside and doused them there. 5 days later and still not wasps in the house...yeah!

Jim