Wasps

The red wasp that Ravenlost and gone-a-milking are talking about will bite just because they feel like it. They are nasty little varmints, prairie rattlers are more friendly then they are.

back in my younger years when I used hairspray, it attracted bees, they attacked my head and got stuc k in my hair, where I could brush them out easy. I no longer use smelly substances on my body. Since hubby keeps bees I get stung on occasion, a slice of raw onion takes care of pain and swelling. the Onion juice dissolves the poison.
Those gray paper wasp nests are susceptible to water. We got rid of a really huge one in our attic by putting a tub under it and then running a hose to it and filling it with water. The nest absorbed it in no time, got too heavy and fell into the tub, drowning everything. Things that I can see I do not worry about, but those yellow jackets that build nests in the ground I do not like. One year we had so many we had an ongoing bet who got stung the most and DH won, with over 20 stings. Not at the same day of course. Everytime you turned around you hit another nest. Bush hogging, weed whacking, you name it. Never saw the like.

I blogged about my recent wasp encounter:

http://noodlevilleadventures.blogspo...-death-of.html

Was not bothering it....was aware wasp were out & was keeping my distance & got stung. Been stung a million times & never was it as bad as that sting! It BLED & caused bone pain in my hand for 5 days!!

We are heavily plauged by wasp & I hate them!!

The bees & bumble bees are not aggressive.... I've never been stung by a bee that I didn't accidently bother or provoke.....Wasp (the yellow jackets & red wasp) are blood thirsty lil boogers & will go out of their way to sting you!

Never had a problem with dirt dobbers....even when I have accidently given them just cause to sting, they don't.

The wasp swarm & take over the goat's water trough.... poor Sabrina got stung 6 times that I could count yesterday, poured some benadryl in her & now have multiple water buckets set out for them.

Going to try one of those meat traps...... I've been hunting up nest every few days now & spraying them but it seems no matter how many I kill, there are still lots of wasp...Hopefully a trap will help.

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Best Wishes,
Crystal
http://noodlevilleadventures.blogspot.com

Keep up with Noodleville Goats on Facebook!
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I once found a yellow jacket nest inside an overhang on the house. It was still partly enclosed and I needed to remove the overhang to put on an addition. I got one of those 25 foot, environmentaly safe wasp killer cans and sprayed the whole thing onto the hive as well as I could. It didn't kill the yellow jackets but did disable them. They couldn't fly but wandered around like they were drunk. They found their way into the house so for a few weeks we had drunken wasps showing up all over the place. You had to check the chair before you sat down, the bed before you went to bed, and your clothes before you got dressed. If you pinned one against your pink stuff it would sting. It lasted for a week. If you go to kill them with spray, get the nastiest stuff you can. I am all done trying to be environmentally correct.

I have been putting off cleaning some mildew off the boat cushions and went out to start and didn't see a wasp nest . He got me on my ankle through a sock before I ever saw him. Then he tried to come back for another attack. He got me on my same foot that is healing from a break a month ago. Try jumping out of a boat with a broke foot.
Couldn't find meat tenderizer or baking soda (had used the last up) and didn't
know about the onion trick.

If this sting made my foot swell & turn red does that mean I might be becoming allergic to them .

Grocery List
meat tenderizer
wasp spray
baking soda

I ordered 10 of the traps to set around outside.

Then I dragged the shop vac onto the back deck. There is a nest over the dining room window that I have to walk under every time I go up the ramp. I think I got the queen with the vac. That was several hours ago and this is the "quietest" it has been in weeks. I then sprayed the nest with rubbing alcohol till it was saturated to kill the vermin inside. I'll leave it in place to deter other wasps though.

I've used the shop vac to empty ground dwelling yellow jacket nests too. You have to know the location of course.

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I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

The sting on my ankle bled too. Have never had that happen before and the stings were worse than any I remember...even worse than that big hornet sting.

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I'm running so far behind I thought I was first!

http://hickahala.blogspot.com/

When I worked with asbestos we always had spray glue on hand for building enclosures. Worked good to immobilize wasp nests.

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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi


Libertarindependent

When you disturb the nest try to stay still It is the motion they go after. I dug up a yellow Jacket nest with a Bulldozer that had a lose muffler all of them went to the muffler and left me alone. It took a while but they all turned to blue smoke.

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God must have loved stupid people because he made so many of them.

Growing up on the farm as a girl I remember the red wasps would build many nests on the farm house. The wasps can't fly when their wings are wet. I would take the water hose and get it going full blast and wash down the nest and the wasps. I would stomp on the wet wasps and kill them. Never once did I get stung doing that.
Recently, I noticed a red wasp nest above my back porch. I wondered about my logic as a child and how to kill them. I decided to give it a go anyhow and it worked just as well this time too. Nest gone, wasps dead, no chemicals involved.

I can speak to the trouble of the red wasps at Cyngbaeld's place! I was there visiting a few weeks ago and got stung by the same red wasp 3 or 4 times all in a 3 inch radius on my forearm. Immediately HURT bad, I iced it right away and the area still swelled into a big knot. And I'm not allergic to the things!
Took over a week for the area to return to normal size, and I still have a bit of a scar where the worst of the stings was.

Last time I got stung by a red wasp was three years ago on my front porch. Sucker dive bombed me and stung me between the shoulder blades. Hurt like someone had stabbed me

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"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy

That is what got me I think ..
A Red Devil Wasp !!

Looked just like this one..

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...:429,r:14,s:31

Ok you all have scared me into never leaving the house again.

__________________
Blessings,
Jean

I've been killing 2-3 a day in the house.

__________________
I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

__________________
Blessings,
Jean

Yes I have one of those traps and it works. I had a wasp nest on a joist under my back porch in a place I couldn't get to it with spray without laying on my back right underneath the nest. So I put some fruit punch in the trap and it caught many wasps. Mine has a transparent yellow top, so I don't know if that would make a difference. I found the trap at the dollar store. Good luck! The wasps have been particularly aggressive here in N FL this year. I've been stung 4 times so far this year and hadn't been stung for nearly 10 years before that.

Kitty

As a kid when we were visiting my grand mother down in Missouri I remember getting stung by mud daubers several times.
I sure do feel bad for you southern folks that have to deal with those red wasps. It is very rare that any of us get stung by the wasps up here in Michigan.
BTW, I did just buy four cans of Wasp & Hornet Spray.
None of that safe for the environment stuff for me.

I feel sorry for you all with your wasp problems, but really folks - read up about this because it just might help keep them away from your houses and gardens.
http://www.urbannaturestore.ca/shop/...&idproduct=275

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A wise person speaks when they have something to say but a fool speaks just to say something

The bleeding shocked me too!!

My finger dripped about 8 drops before it stopped.....have never seen that before!

On the wet wing thing.... I have sprayed these yellow jackets with the hose before &, even drenched they are only slowed down for a millisecond, then they are up & going again!

Love the planet, try not to use chemicals when I can, but in regards to wasp, I use wasp spray & don't feel bad about it

__________________
Best Wishes,
Crystal
http://noodlevilleadventures.blogspot.com

Keep up with Noodleville Goats on Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/NoodlevilleFarm

A reader submitted wasp trap from a 1998 edition of Countryside magazine is not only effective, it recycles 2 liter soda bottles and busted garden hose.

The design requires a 6 inch long piece of garden hose with 1/4 inch or so hole cut in the side of the hose at the center so that the two end holes of the hose and the added hole are in a "T" formation.

Then you take the 2 liter bottle and cut two holes in it just below the bottle top dome large enough to slide the garden hose through the bottle with no gaps around the hose and the center hole on the hose pointing down into the bottle toward the bait. It also helps to punch a few air holes in the dome to help let the bait scent out better.

Then fill the bottle with a few ounces of Sundrop , Mountan Dew or sweetened fruit punch and cap it and tie a string around the neck for hanging. If ants are any concern greasing the string with powdered cinnamin suspended in vasaline will repel the ants (the cinnamin vasaline grease works on humming bird feeders also to repel ants I found out a few years back )

The secret to the trap is that the wasps and yellow jackets smell the bait through the pin holes in the dome and find their way to the hose ends and as the smell of the bait strengthens they crawl in the hose ends and proceed to the hole in the center of the hose over the bait and crawl through the hole and fly to the bait.

Those that don't drown and try to escape fly past the garden hose to the vent holes because its brighter than the hole in the entry hose they originally crawled through to get to the bait.

Wasps act the same when in a car and they wont leave a window facing the sun even if they flew in an open window in a shadier area of the vehicle.

Clear two liter bottles seem to work more effectively than the green tinted ones.

It may not be as pretty as a store bought trap but it works and only costs a little time equity while also recycling.

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"