Help with reducing the number of wasps

mamato3 · #1 04/10/11, 11:09 AM

Is it possible to have a smaller population of wasps. To come and go from my house there is a chance to get stung. There are no nest yet there all looking for homes. And this has been a yearly battle every spring i stock up on was spray. There so bad that door to door sells man and the religious people go running from my house. Which is a good thing lol. In the last 3 days ive killed over 20 in and around my house.. Typical when i go outside from the time i leave the door tell ii get to the bottom of the steps i must run into anywhere from 5 to 10 wasps. Is it this bad everywhere? Ive accepted this as the normal. My ML even tells me there bad and i need to do something about it. Ive called pest control places and they said its normal and the only thing they could do is find the nest and destroy them. Well i can do that.
so whats some home remides or maybe chemicals that work to reduce or get rid of the yearly swarms i have. My poor DD spends most of the day Screaming and running this way and that to stay away from them and the wood bees which i like. There neat how they just hover. Well got to go kill a wasp that just got in lol

calliemoonbeam · #2 04/10/11, 11:37 AM

I have the same problem! And I'm extremely allergic, as in I have less than 10 minutes from time of sting to death.

I carry an EpiPen everywhere I go and keep one in the house. I've knocked down all the nests and sprayed up into the cracks and crevices as much as possible with spray.

I even had a professional exterminator out last year, who honestly didn't even do as good a job as I did myself (and charged an arm and a leg)! He insisted his spray was "way better" than anything I could buy, but he told me what it was, and it was just a permethrin type spray, which was what I had already used and bought for less than one-quarter the price at the feed store!

For some reason, they seem naturally drawn to me too. I can be on the front porch talking to someone, and the wasps won't bother them at all, but we both have to keep shooing them away from me. It's a real chore trying to bring in stuff when I've been shopping...hard to duck and run with your arms full of heavy bags and a gimpy leg, lol.

Sorry, I have no solutions, but am sure looking forward to possible answers from someone who does!

6e · #3 04/10/11, 11:39 AM

We're having a really hard time with them too. They are EVERYWHERE! Looks like I'm going to have to stock pile cans of wasp and hornet spray.

kara_leigh · #4 04/10/11, 11:42 AM

I will be watching this thread. We moved here a month ago and just in the past few days the wasps have got out of control! They like to hang out around the doors, so it's hard to get in and out of our house. We bought a bug zapper (not sure if that will work for those, but at least it will help cut down on the moth population at night) and we found some things at the store that look like little lanterns that are full of liquid which the wasps drink and then die.

Is this just a quick phase and they go away quickly, or do we have to put up with them all spring/summer?

MO_cows · #5 04/10/11, 11:51 AM

Paper wasps or mud daubers?? We have both. Allergic people in this house, too. After spending a fortune on the aerosol cans of wasp spray over the years, we learned that dish soap (we use Dawn) mixed with water in a small pressure sprayer works just as well. Not quite as fast but plenty effective. Wasps will not fly after dark, so if you find a nest, go out there at night and spray them. We have destroyed every nest we find but still have a huge population. It is never ending. The eaves and nooks and crannies of buildings provide sheltered spots for them to make a nest.

DryHeat · #6 04/10/11, 12:53 PM

No particular advice, but I'd encourage staying ahead of their nest-building process in houses and outbuildings, for sure. A number of years back, like 30 years ago, I moved by myself to east Tennessee and bought an old wood frame country house on a beautiful several acres. Noticed quite a few very large bright red or orange paper wasps active around the outer walls and was spraying as I saw them... early spring, I think, like now. One day my chore was laying insulation rolls in the attic, so was crawling around there by myself with a big light on an extension, plus flashlight, way back other side from entry hole and shined the flash into the narrower space under the front porch roof, right onto a vacated wasp nest that must have been 3 x 2 feet in diameter, honestly. Biggest ---- nest I've ever seen; I suspect the placement was warm enough that they'd overwintered several years running. Then I thought, "Is there anything *active* that size right up here with me??" Fortunately, no, there wasn't, but I sure wouldn't want to be even outside a house, much less in a darkened attic like that, and rile up a colony that size. That really gave me the willies until I got over to the entry and could take my time inspecting everything very slowly and carefully.

oregon woodsmok · #7 04/10/11, 01:04 PM

You can make a very efficient yellow jacket trap. I don't know if it will work for all wasps or not, but it is worth a try.

It's simply a 2 litter soda bottle with the top funnel cut off and then inverted into the base. Sugar water in the base to attract them in. Or rotted meat or fish for some wasps.

I watch the little blighters to see where they go so I can spray the nest. I get the nests in the eaves and up in the ceilings of out-buildings. I've also had them wedged in between the rain gutter and the fascia. One place I had, they were nesting in the ground.

I've been told that Mountain Dew bottles work the best for traps. Something about the color, I suppose.

mamato3 · #8 04/10/11, 01:40 PM

So sounds like its everywhere. Lucky i don't think no one is allergic. Just a very girly girl who is always running around screaming lol.
What i have noticed is about a month or 2 of them fling everywhere. Then they make there nest there not as bad but there still everywhere. Easier to kill as there all setting on there nest.

ErinP · #9 04/10/11, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oregon woodsmok

You can make a very efficient yellow jacket trap. I don't know if it will work for all wasps or not, but it is worth a try.

It's simply a 2 litter soda bottle with the top funnel cut off and then inverted into the base. Sugar water in the base to attract them in. Or rotted meat or fish for some wasps.

I watch the little blighters to see where they go so I can spray the nest. I get the nests in the eaves and up in the ceilings of out-buildings. I've also had them wedged in between the rain gutter and the fascia. One place I had, they were nesting in the ground.

I've been told that Mountain Dew bottles work the best for traps. Something about the color, I suppose.

I agree.

I bait them all summer and fall. Just make sure to set your bait stations away from your doors! (It took me a while to figure that one out. lol)

MO_cows · #10 04/10/11, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oregon woodsmok

You can make a very efficient yellow jacket trap. I don't know if it will work for all wasps or not, but it is worth a try.

It's simply a 2 litter soda bottle with the top funnel cut off and then inverted into the base. Sugar water in the base to attract them in. Or rotted meat or fish for some wasps.

I watch the little blighters to see where they go so I can spray the nest. I get the nests in the eaves and up in the ceilings of out-buildings. I've also had them wedged in between the rain gutter and the fascia. One place I had, they were nesting in the ground.

I've been told that Mountain Dew bottles work the best for traps. Something about the color, I suppose.

Glad that worked for you. It didn't here. Tried both the home-made version and a one-way entrance device that sticks in a pop bottle (bought at the feed store). Tried sugar bait and fish bait. Caught gnats and flies but the wasps were not attracted to it.

copperpennykids · #11 04/10/11, 05:13 PM

Go ahead and spring for the yellow jacket traps at the store. You can buy more "attractant" so they are good for years.

Best to set out at the beginning of the warm-up. Every queen you catch is something like 1000 baby yellow jackets/wasps that don't get hatched.

Now- get that wasp foam stuff that sprays 20 feet and spray the buggers just at dusk (that way almost all of them are in there).

Guineas are also great at reducing yellow jackets, wasps, and mosquitos. Ours even eat our Stink bugs (ours are actually a pine beetle). Our stink bugs fly and ooze a toxic green stink and guts when smashed. It will literally stain your walls green if you smash them on the wall with a fly swatter. we have learned to knock them to the floor - stunned - and then send them to "stink bug hell".

You would understand the sheer loathing if you ever accidentally brushed "something" on your face when you were asleep and ended up with the green toxic spray in your eyes or mouth. Burn your eyes right out of your head, even 30 minutes after rinsing and rinsing with cold water. But the guineas eat them! They eat them - spit them out, shake their heads (here comes the entertainment) and try again. Eventually the stink bug is gone - just a 3 step process. Love my guineas!

Maura · #12 04/10/11, 06:09 PM

A couple of years ago on this board someone suggested vaseline. You brush some vaseline where they are coming or going, if you can find the holes. They won't go in, they won't come out because of the sticky stuff on their feet. Our hornets were in the attic part of the porch roof, getting in and out via the holes cut into the eaves/roof for the posts. I painted the posts and around the opening with the vaseline. I could even see the hornets at the openings wanting to get out. No more problems.

Chickens and guineas help if the hornets are near the ground (great for ticks and fleas).

Old Vet · #13 04/10/11, 06:24 PM

I don't know about wasps but bees are easy to kill. I use to use Malathion but to keep from killing bees I would call the be man and give him a chance to remove them before spraying.

arabian knight · #14 04/10/11, 06:32 PM

Yes those spray cans that spray 10 feet or better is the way to go. I spray all around the edges of the eaves and under the deck railing.

bja105 · #15 04/10/11, 08:01 PM

I work on commercial HVAC, which is usually on the roof, and always has angry wasps living where I need to work. There is wasp spray, but I don't like working in poison. If it kills a wasp instantly, it can't be good for me.

I always have soap bubbles, for leak checking. It is effective, with any soap I have tried. Douse a wasp with soapy water, and it can't fly. Then I step on them and crush the nest, too.

Beeman · #16 04/10/11, 08:08 PM

We've got them all wasps, bore bees,hornets,yellow jackets mud daubers and just to keep it interesting i keep honey bees. Right now along with all of that we're fighting ants. There's no winning the battle they've got us outnumbered and surrounded.
I was in my local Wal-Mart, there's enough poison in that one store to wipe out the town!

barnyardgal · #17 04/10/11, 09:12 PM

I am having the same trouble with wasps here,they are everywhere flying all over,was on the tractor a couple days ago and they seem to be following me and even on the 4 wheeler...I got stung by a red wasp this morning as i opened the shed door...

My dad says they looking for places to build nests...my gosh though i have never seen them this bad in my life...if thats the case i am waiting for the nest building then spraying 'with something' to get rid of them...

had trouble with them last year building in my bird houses and some one said to use vaseline on the inside of the roof so thats what i done this year when i cleaned them out so will see if that works...

Will be watching this post to see what everyone does to get rid of the nasty critters...

salmonslayer · #18 04/10/11, 09:33 PM

They are thick here too this year and most of what every already said is correct as far as we have learned. I do think they are attracted to water so getting rid of standing water around the house is a good idea but other than that just spraying them with soapy water or wasp spray is about the only thing we have found that works. But those red wasps will come after you when you spray them if they can still fly for a few seconds and wasp spray is very caustic so you need to wear eye protection and be careful with it. I have also heard that squishing the little buggers releases some type of scent the other wasps can detect and gets them all riled up.

10kids · #19 04/10/11, 10:23 PM

I found something last year that really worked for us. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name of it, but I got it at Home Depot. It's a spray, during the coolest part of the day you drench their nest, it kills everything inside and any who come calling after that. You leave the nest, and the directions say how long you leave it for, because others will not begin a new nest anywhere close to the one with the dead wasps. We sprayed late last spring and were not bothered all summer. I will keep looking for the name of it.

Twp.Tom · #20 04/10/11, 10:50 PM

I have used WD-40,PB Blaster,any other aerosol lubricant.It stops em fast.Seven dust(Carbaryl) works well.I made a dusting shotgun,that I hook up to the small air compressor.It is made out of 3/4 pvc pipe( ABOUT 3 FT. LONG),it has a small bottle(dust holder) and a T at the handle. I don't like using the chemicals,but they seem to work the best.