OT Yellowjacket Shop Vac

My back yard is swarmed with yellowjacket wasps every August and
September. It can make it tough to sit by the pond with a drink or eat
dinner on the deck. They are attracted by the flowering silverlace
vines on the fence and deck railing. I have set traps for them, put out
borax ant-bait and swatted them with no real effect on the population.
I never used a hornet blaster because the poison in those is extremely
toxic to fish (and the rest of the world). Rather than cut down the
vines I set out to take the battle directly to the wasps themselves. I
found their nest, it was actually in a hole in the bricks of my house.
I got my wet/dry shop vac and vacuumed up about a gallon of soapy water
and then set the crevice tool of the vac beside the entrance of the
nest. Over the space of 10 minutes it sucked up every wasp on their way
in or out of the nest. As soon as they were flying within 5 inches of
the nozzle they would dissappear down the black hole. I let the vac sit
on the deck for a few more minutes to make sure the wasps had drowned
in the soapy water and then emptied the contents out into some fine
netting. I had killed almost 2 cups full of yellowjackets in the space
of 10 minutes without poison and never got stung.
I'll continue with the traps but any time I find a wasp nest I'm going
to get the shop vac out again. It really worked.

Cam

Cam wrote
I had killed almost 2 cups full of yellowjackets in the space
of 10 minutes without poison and never got stung.

Wow! I'm impressed!!
We were having dinner out at this place in Oregon last week. The yellowjackets
showed up
so we started setting traps with our coffee cup saucers, put down a piece of
turkey, waited for the insects to arrive and then put the coffee cup over them.
The teenage waiters thought this was most amazing. Entertained the little kids
too.


kathy :-)
algae primer
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html

My guys found a nest in a knot hole that had fallen out of the fascia, 2.5
stories above the ponds. They too got out the shop vac, putting it on the
roof and using the hook attachment for gutter cleaning. Once they had got
many, they filled the hole with expanding foam. Sealing in the queen and
whoever had not left, and sealing out anyone who hadn't arrived.
Interestingly, over the next 3 days wasps would be found outside the hole,
and from the deck with many long wand attachments, son would suck them off.

I guess great minds think alike. ;o) As I thought we were stuck with the
nest till fall. ~ jan


On 12 Aug 2004 06:58:52 -0700, "Cam" wrote:

My back yard is swarmed with yellowjacket wasps every August and
September. It can make it tough to sit by the pond with a drink or eat
dinner on the deck. They are attracted by the flowering silverlace
vines on the fence and deck railing. I have set traps for them, put out
borax ant-bait and swatted them with no real effect on the population.
I never used a hornet blaster because the poison in those is extremely
toxic to fish (and the rest of the world). Rather than cut down the
vines I set out to take the battle directly to the wasps themselves. I
found their nest, it was actually in a hole in the bricks of my house.
I got my wet/dry shop vac and vacuumed up about a gallon of soapy water
and then set the crevice tool of the vac beside the entrance of the
nest. Over the space of 10 minutes it sucked up every wasp on their way
in or out of the nest. As soon as they were flying within 5 inches of
the nozzle they would dissappear down the black hole. I let the vac sit
on the deck for a few more minutes to make sure the wasps had drowned
in the soapy water and then emptied the contents out into some fine
netting. I had killed almost 2 cups full of yellowjackets in the space
of 10 minutes without poison and never got stung.
I'll continue with the traps but any time I find a wasp nest I'm going
to get the shop vac out again. It really worked.

Cam

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

"Cam" wrote:
My back yard is swarmed with yellowjacket wasps every August and
September. It can make it tough to sit by the pond with a drink or eat
dinner on the deck. They are attracted by the flowering silverlace
vines on the fence and deck railing. I have set traps for them, put out
borax ant-bait and swatted them with no real effect on the population.
I never used a hornet blaster because the poison in those is extremely
toxic to fish (and the rest of the world). Rather than cut down the
vines I set out to take the battle directly to the wasps themselves. I
found their nest, it was actually in a hole in the bricks of my house.
I got my wet/dry shop vac and vacuumed up about a gallon of soapy water
and then set the crevice tool of the vac beside the entrance of the
nest. Over the space of 10 minutes it sucked up every wasp on their way
in or out of the nest. As soon as they were flying within 5 inches of
the nozzle they would dissappear down the black hole. I let the vac sit
on the deck for a few more minutes to make sure the wasps had drowned
in the soapy water and then emptied the contents out into some fine
netting. I had killed almost 2 cups full of yellowjackets in the space
of 10 minutes without poison and never got stung.
I'll continue with the traps but any time I find a wasp nest I'm going
to get the shop vac out again. It really worked.

You probably should toss some wasp nerve gas into the hole now. I've used the
shopvac method in the past, and while it does a great job of knocking down the
worker population, it doesn't do a thing for the queen, the newly-hatched
workers (who are still hanging out on the nest) or the pupae. You'll soon have
a thriving nest going again unless you do something about those guys and gals.

Andy Hill wrote:
"Cam" wrote:
I got my wet/dry shop vac and vacuumed up about a gallon of soapy
water
and then set the crevice tool of the vac beside the entrance of the
nest. Over the space of 10 minutes it sucked up every wasp on their
way
in or out of the nest. As soon as they were flying within 5 inches
of
the nozzle they would dissappear down the black hole. I let the vac
sit
on the deck for a few more minutes to make sure the wasps had
drowned
in the soapy water

You probably should toss some wasp nerve gas into the hole now. I've
used the
shopvac method in the past, and while it does a great job of knocking
down the
worker population, it doesn't do a thing for the queen, the
newly-hatched
workers (who are still hanging out on the nest) or the pupae.
You'll soon have
a thriving nest going again unless you do something about those guys
and gals.

You are right, the nest started to make a come back. But I wanted to
avoid using any pesticides if I could. Commercial hornet blasters
contain a chemical that is very toxic to fish, even in very small
doses. Why take the risk?
I bought a bottle of "Ant & Roach" powder (80% diatomaceous earth, no
poison) and shot puffs of the stuff into the holes in the bricks. After
a couple of minutes I had blocked all the entrances completely with the
fine powder. It is now 4 weeks later and the holes are still blocked
and I'm claiming victory.

Cam

FYI:
For yellow jackets in the ground it sometimes works to put a glass jar
or pot over the hole. Because they can see light through the jar they
won't tunnel out but just keep trying to fly through the glass.
Just make sure the neighbor kids don't come to investigate and it has to
be heavy enough so that they can't just crawl under. (The wasps not the
neighbor kids.)
Mark B.

Cam wrote:
Andy Hill wrote:

"Cam" wrote:

I got my wet/dry shop vac and vacuumed up about a gallon of soapy

water

and then set the crevice tool of the vac beside the entrance of the
nest. Over the space of 10 minutes it sucked up every wasp on their

way

in or out of the nest. As soon as they were flying within 5 inches

of

the nozzle they would dissappear down the black hole. I let the vac

sit

on the deck for a few more minutes to make sure the wasps had

drowned

in the soapy water


You probably should toss some wasp nerve gas into the hole now. I've

used the

shopvac method in the past, and while it does a great job of knocking

down the

worker population, it doesn't do a thing for the queen, the

newly-hatched

workers (who are still hanging out on the nest) or the pupae.

You'll soon have

a thriving nest going again unless you do something about those guys

and gals.

You are right, the nest started to make a come back. But I wanted to
avoid using any pesticides if I could. Commercial hornet blasters
contain a chemical that is very toxic to fish, even in very small
doses. Why take the risk?
I bought a bottle of "Ant & Roach" powder (80% diatomaceous earth, no
poison) and shot puffs of the stuff into the holes in the bricks. After
a couple of minutes I had blocked all the entrances completely with the
fine powder. It is now 4 weeks later and the holes are still blocked
and I'm claiming victory.

Cam