Yellow jackets...

About a week ago, I was outside pulling up grape vines and their attendant root network when apparently one of the roots went through a yellow jacket nest. Luckily only one of them got me, but still, not exactly an experience I want to experience very often, if at all, again. So I broke out some general insect spray we had sitting around and sprayed the nest. Must have worked, because I haven't seen any more yellow jackets around there.

So today I was putting some sections of watering hose together, and noticed some yellow jackets in back of the house flying into a hole right next to the house foundation. Damn... The hole is in through rocks that we had bordering the foundation wall, so spraying poison into it and sealing the hole so the suckers don't come at me will be a bit more difficult.

I've heard that tackling them at night is the best bet, as they can't see very well at night, but then again, neither can I. I don't think having bees pouring out of a nest and me and them running around blindly in my back yard would be a whole lot of fun.

The spray poison I used wasn't really designed for bees, as they seemed to keep flying around quite a while after being sprayed. Don't think I would want to get stung by bees also carrying around a load of insecticide besides their sting. I think that sucker that got me also bit me, as when I saw him on my forearm, at first I thought it was a yellow fly hunkered down taking a bite.

Anyone tried any yellow jacket nest removal that worked well for them? The nest is in the ground, obviously. I've read people using boiling water, gasoline, even flour, to do the job. I've read that the nests can get VERY large by the Fall months, so I don't want to wait until I have some huge colony of these suckers to have to deal with. I wouldn't be real keen on neither Connie or myself getting stung multiple times if they just get aggitated over something. Years ago I had a few sting me apparently because they got aggitated over the weather. Stong winds from an approaching hurricane seemed to get them as concerned as it did us.

I think I would hire a pro just to be sure.... suppose you turn out to have gotten allergic for them by now? Even if not, multiple stings can be life threatening or at least cause serious problems.

call Billy the exterminator (A&E TV) They use Pyrethrin - no more Yellowjackets

The state park where I did my research would use gasoline or spray. Both worked fairly well. I have always used the wasp/hornet spray and that works okay after a couple sprays after a couple days.

Night is for sure the best time as they are more subdued and can't see was well. Also, their sentinels aren't as active....those are the little guard yellow jackets that usually hang out at the entrance of the hole and release a hormone if danger is near and that alerts the rest of them. If you can nail those sentinels, then you have an extra 5 seconds or so before the others release the hormone.

use that and you will kill EVERYTHING,plus contaminate the ground water!! BAD IDEA!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrethrin

Originally Posted by kgmax1228

use that and you will kill EVERYTHING,plus contaminate the ground water!! BAD IDEA!!

We're not talking a tanker full here.....

Florida is porous limestone rock-ANY amount of toxic substance ends up in the water-from there, into all living things-NO GOOD!!!

I'm glad all the wasps I have around my house aren't aggressive.

Originally Posted by kgmax1228

Florida is porous limestone rock-ANY amount of toxic substance ends up in the water-from there, into all living things-NO GOOD!!!

So are you telling me Pyrethrin is non-toxic?