View Full Version : War Has Been Delcared
Bailey Guns
08-23-2018, 17:15
On yellow jackets. They are especially abundant this summer and lately seem to be very aggressive.
If you've ever seen a propane tank in the summer, you know that's prime nesting area for these little stinging bastards. I kill them by the hundreds, maybe thousands, every day during the summer with a little shot of cool, refreshing liquid propane, fresh from the delivery hose. I've been bitten and stung by yellow jackets more times than I can remember. They like to bite first to get a good grip...then they sting. Unlike bees, yellow jackets can sting multiple times. They don't loose their stingers.
Up until today the conflict between the YJs and me has been rather low intensity. I have several traps around the house that keep a constant, fresh supply of yellow jacket souls populating yellow jacket hell. I haven't actively sought them out for termination. But today, one of the yellow fuckers stung my little girl Corgi puppy on her paw.
Shock and Awe time. My favorite weapon is a little MAPP gas torch. Find a nest bulging with larvae and incinerate it. It's also quite rewarding to nail one in flight and watch him fall out of the air. Pulled the trigger on the torch once trying to get a few that hadn't quite made their way into the trap and it didn't ignite. Second trigger pull ignited the gas that was left inside the glass trap from the first, failed ignition attempt. Blew the cork lid right off! But, it also killed the live ones still buzzing around inside and swimming in the vinegar/sugar water. For locations where fire isn't appropriate the foaming spray works fine. Fire and mini explosions are more fun, though.
I found a large, underground nest but couldn't did it up and destroy it because of all the rocks in the ground. No problem. A 1200 pound bucket of dirt from the front end loader right on top of the entry hole will keep them digging for a while. Plus I can amuse myself with the torch on the others that are buzzing around wondering where all the damn dirt came from.
I'm estimating I've killed at least 2500 of the sons a bitches today, including the larvae. Probably hasn't made a dent in the population around here but my little Corgi is laughing her ass off. Mrs BG is wondering if I'm having some sort of PTSD episode but she hasn't called the cops on me. Yet.
Time to have a cool one and contemplate other creative ways of killing them.
Madeinhb
08-23-2018, 17:16
Damn those Assholes With Wings. Kill them.
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Have/had a nest under the deck this year. I live on the deck in the summer. No way to get to the hive. Sat there with a drink in one hand and a can of brake cleaner in the other. Hours of entertainment.
Since it's a war and not a police action, will Bob Hope be coming to provide comedic relief?
Bailey Guns
08-23-2018, 17:53
I think Bob is booked for...a while.
Grant H.
08-23-2018, 19:05
I've gone through 2 cases of spray poison this summer.
As you might imagine, running around an O/G pad with a torch is frowned upon, and O/G pads have a metric ton of them (lots of little nooks and crannys that they like)
Worthless assholes. Kill them all.
Batteriesnare
08-23-2018, 19:14
Video or it didn't happen...
SideShow Bob
08-23-2018, 19:17
Shoulda pumped some MAPP gas down the underground nest and tossed a piece of lit wood on the hole from a short distance away in case was some back blast.
They were loading up in my gutter helmet this year.
Ordinary trigger spray bottle filled with a mix of Dawn dish soap and water.
Easy, cheap, and doesn't harm nearby surfaces.
Kill them. Kill them all.
Took out a nest when I was visiting the folks in WA about a month ago. Bought an Ortho can of killer that travels a good distance. It was the foaming stuff and was pretty amazing how it completely foamed over the entire nest. After the captive foam subsides, it kills the bastards that weren't home when they arrive back at the nest.
Seems like prime time to hit them is after the sun has gone down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUAdgt5Glk0&app=desktop
Flame thrower would be fun, just saying.....
Did you okay this with Congress?
Did you okay this with Congress?
He is the Congress. I read that he already cleared this with the Executive Branch.
Bailey Guns
08-23-2018, 21:34
Rules of Engagement from the Executive Branch are pretty straightforward. "Don't burn the house down."
I can live with that. She obviously has no idea the options that leaves on the table.
buffalobo
08-23-2018, 21:59
Rules of Engagement from the Executive Branch are pretty straightforward. "Don't burn the house down."
I can live with that. She obviously has no idea the options that leaves on the table.That only works til you blow out a couple windows. Exec nearly had a kiniption, cost me $375.
Quickly revised ROE.
Wasps for us.
Lots of fun footages on "war against yellow jacket" when I searched YouTube. :D
Weed burner works well and is quite satisfying. Got mine at HF, with the push button igniter. It'll throw a ball of fire the size of a beach ball. Burns their little nuts off.
CobaltSkink
08-24-2018, 06:11
This was posted on SurvivalBlog today:
https://survivalblog.com/guest-post-wasp-control-works-patrice-lewis/
Hamburger baited with wasp attractant and flea/tick poison
Oddly, this is the first summer we didn't have any. Typically they go after our hummingbird feeders and chase the birds away. Probably be back next year with a vengeance
Bailey Guns
08-24-2018, 08:42
They're really bad here this year. And they seem unusually aggressive...maybe because cooler weather is near and food is a priority.
ChickNorris
08-24-2018, 09:28
This past weekend I nuked a nest in the base of my neighbor's crap-apple (you read it right). Took 3 applications (7 cans of chem) before the tree stump finally stopped vibrating. The last of those jerks trying to escape were as big as my thumb.
Yay, I've had an entire humming bird family frequenting my feeder this year. Before this, never had more than one passing by in the spring & fall.
sellersm
08-24-2018, 14:50
This topic was covered today in the Survival Blog post: https://survivalblog.com/guest-post-wasp-control-works-patrice-lewis/
The author mentions that this is an especially 'bad' year for these foes!
There are other solutions in the comments of the article, mostly variations on the same themes.
thvigil11
08-24-2018, 16:21
Its no joke, I'm sitting on a fire just south of Ol' Bailey Guns. (Rattlesnake Creek Fire). We have had more medicals due to bee and wasp stings than anything else. At least a half dozen a day and that's on a fire with 350 personel. Its been hot as hell around here too (I mean Hells Canyon is just a few miles away). The main power pole here at the ICP (base camp south of White Bird), swarms with those damn buggers every day. It's also where port a potty row is, so you have to run through the swarm just to take a dump.
Bailey Guns
08-24-2018, 17:26
Oh, yeah...you're not far from me at all. Maybe an hour and ten mins. Be careful!
thvigil11
08-24-2018, 17:37
Oh, yeah...you're not far from me at all. Maybe an hour and ten mins. Be careful!
10-4, pretty country up here and not an IKEA in sight. Have to drive a long way to get some rancid meatballs.
ChickNorris
08-24-2018, 22:19
..
I killed some wasps tonight. Three nests right next to each other in my gutter.
Just saw this on the news.
https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/contact7/aurora-great-grandmother-seeks-out-contact7-after-city-told-her-hornet-nest-was-her-responsibility
Aurora great-grandmother seeks out Contact7 after city told her hornet nest was her responsibility
Jaclyn Allen
10:03 PM, Aug 24, 2018
AURORA, Colo -- Contact7 is getting results for an Aurora great-grandmother who was being terrorized by hornets in her front yard. The insects built a nest in a city-owned tree by her garage, but the city told her it was her responsibility to hire an exterminator.
Eleanor Ware says she is worried she is about to be stung by one of those hornets.
"I had grandchildren and great grandchildren here this summer," she said. "Getting in and out of my car, I have to make sure I park a certain way because if I don't, I end up with bees or wasps or whatever they are, in the car."
But things really started buzzing when she saw the large nest in the tree outside her house.
"I looked up and said, 'Oh my goodness, It's really big,'" Ware said. "I couldn't ignore it anymore after I saw that and said, 'we need to do something.'"
She said she called the City of Aurora, because about two decades ago, the city planted that tree and most of the trees on her street.
"Any time I need to have the trees trimmed, I call, Aurora comes out and trims them," said Ware.
But this time, the City told that the nest was her responsibility.
"I have a granddaughter that's (sic) Down Syndrome that I take care of, and just having to add another fee to my income would not be very good," said Ware. "And I told them I'm set income, I'm soon to be 75-years-old. And I said my climbing a ladder is not going to be the best thing for anybody."
So she reached out to Contact7, and we found an exterminator willing to come out for free next week.
But we also reached out to the City of Aurora, and a spokesman responded, saying, as a city tree, they will take care of the nest, and that Ware was given incorrect information. Someone with Forestry will be at her house on Saturday.
"They never would have done it, if it hadn't been for Contact7," said Ware. "Thank you so much!"
She doesn't have neighbors? I usually offer to knock down nests when I get onto the roof of people's houses. Often I don't even ask.
BladesNBarrels
08-25-2018, 08:45
Get that Nest!
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SideShow Bob
08-25-2018, 09:28
Finally found the nest of buggers that have been terrorizing my front door.
The bastards chewed a hole through one of the upstairs window screens and built the nest in the shadow of an upper corner.
Hosed them down good with foaming spray and waited until the next day to knock out the nest and vac up all the carcasses, there was about 30 of them and half the nest filled with grubs.
When we had a nest under where we keep the trash can next to the garage, I didn't screw around, I doused those bastards with malathion and then sat there with a can of brake cleaner (mostly methanol), and propane torch to deal with any that tried to escape. 1 treatment, done. Didn't even set fire to the garage...much.
eddiememphis
08-25-2018, 13:25
Poor lil' Popcorn took one in the rump this morning. She jumped in the air, tried to bite it and ran over to hide between my legs. She has a small bump where it got her.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Popcorn/i-kQvMDXj/0/d7229cfc/L/IMG_7180-L.jpg
Now she's laying around like a good girl, just not on her left side.
Grant H.
08-25-2018, 14:21
When we had a nest under where we keep the trash can next to the garage, I didn't screw around, I doused those bastards with malathion and then sat there with a can of brake cleaner (mostly methanol), and propane torch to deal with any that tried to escape. 1 treatment, done. Didn't even set fire to the garage...much.
Much...
This is funnier than it probably should be to me. But I completely understand the sentiment. We've had to re-define our vernacular for "fire" since we started doing all the fab stuff in the last few years.
Poor lil' Popcorn took one in the rump this morning. She jumped in the air, tried to bite it and ran over to hide between my legs. She has a small bump where it got her.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Popcorn/i-kQvMDXj/0/d7229cfc/L/IMG_7180-L.jpg
Now she's laying around like a good girl, just not on her left side.
Poor puppers. Looks like she's thinking "leave me and my sore butt alone, please"...
We've had SOME yellowjackets, but after addressing the wasp issue early in the year, there has been a major resurgence in Ft. Fun lately. It's like Springtime all over again.
Bailey Guns
08-28-2018, 13:44
My problem could be worse, I guess. Huge European hornet nest inside a car in Ohio:
75890
So not just hornets, but illegal hornets?
Bailey Guns
08-28-2018, 17:21
So not just hornets, but illegal hornets?
They're just stinging people normal, ordinary American hornets won't sting.
Poor lil' Popcorn took one in the rump this morning. She jumped in the air, tried to bite it and ran over to hide between my legs. She has a small bump where it got her.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Popcorn/i-kQvMDXj/0/d7229cfc/L/IMG_7180-L.jpg
Now she's laying around like a good girl, just not on her left side.
Usually that's what mine looks like after the benadryl. Stupid assholes with wings!
My problem could be worse, I guess. Huge European hornet nest inside a car in Ohio:
75890
https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-05/21/17/enhanced/webdr08/anigif_enhanced-14054-1432243593-7.gif
Poor lil' Popcorn took one in the rump this morning. She jumped in the air, tried to bite it and ran over to hide between my legs. She has a small bump where it got her.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Popcorn/i-kQvMDXj/0/d7229cfc/L/IMG_7180-L.jpg
Now she's laying around like a good girl, just not on her left side.
Poor lil' sweetie.....
When our first Beagle was only a few months old she got hit by a hornet. I was getting ready to start grilling, turned around, and she was unconcious on the porch steps. I thought for sure she was dead. Cost me $400 at an emergency vet clinic to find out you can just give 'em Benadryl......
ChadAmberg
08-29-2018, 12:23
Growing up, Dad was a lineman for the phone company. Had many bottles of the freon spray that would reach a nest 30 feet up from the ground with a stream of pure liquid cold. Fun stuff! Of course, so completely outlawed now.
However I have not given up... those electrified tennis racquets are so much fun!
DenverGP
08-29-2018, 13:08
I suspect my pup got stung last weekend, face was swelled up, some spots/hives visible thru the fur, and very itchy. 2 benadryl and she managed to be able to sleep, swelling was gone by the next day.
https://i.redd.it/iq0gq8qgfoa11.png
Bailey Guns
08-29-2018, 17:59
Just when you thought wasps couldn't get any creepier:
It sounds like something out of the "Alien" movie series, but wasps that lived during the age of dinosaurs laid eggs inside fly pupae, with the wasps eating the flies from the inside out.
The study, published in the scientific journal Nature, revealed that four new wasp species were found inside fossil pupae that date back to the Paleogene period, approximately 65 million to 23 million years ago. The female wasps would lay their eggs inside the fly pupae and as the wasps grew, they would harvest the flies' bodies as nourishment.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/08/29/ancient-alien-wasp-laid-eggs-inside-fly-pupae-ate-them-from-inside-out.html
thvigil11
08-29-2018, 20:55
Anyone ever watch the series Fortitude? Ice age wasps scare the hell out of me after that show.
Just when you thought wasps couldn't get any creepier:
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/08/29/ancient-alien-wasp-laid-eggs-inside-fly-pupae-ate-them-from-inside-out.html
There are some species of wasps that were introduced to kill invasive species of bugs. They do the same thing today.
BladesNBarrels
08-30-2018, 15:53
Well, according to the Post, we are importing wasps to kill the Japanese Beetle:
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/08/28/japanese-beetles-colorado/
...shipments of live predatory wasps were mailed this year from North Carolina to Colorado researchers, who released them into the wild with an assassin’s mission: Sniff out Japanese beetle larvae known as white grubs, burrow underground and lay eggs on the grubs that will eventually hatch, eating the infant beetles.
“Yes, it’s that crazy,” said Larry Hurd, supervisor of the horticulture department for Centennial-based South Suburban Parks and Recreation.
The infestation that stuck and spread originated in Arapahoe County’s Cherry Hills Village area.
“The Cherry Hills Country Club is historically where we became aware of them in the Denver/Englewood area,” said Laura Pottorff, who manages the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s quarantine program for Japanese beetles. “There are a lot of rumors about where it got its start. It may have been the golf course that brought in trees with the beetle. It may have been a nursery down the street. It doesn’t matter who brought the nursery stock in. It’s here.”
They did something similar to try and kill some stinkbug that was introduced from Asia. There's a tiny wasp that lays its eggs inside the egg casings of the stinkbug. The wasp larvae consume the stinkbug larvae and hatch from the egg casings as adult wasps.
Those damn yellow jackets are why I carry an Epipen whenever I go outside. They head straight for me, too. :(
I've actually found a bottle of Aqua-net works wonders. Last year we had a yellow jacket get into the house and after I was done panicking, I grabbed the canister of cheap hair spray and got him with a cloud of aerosol. He stiffened up, mid-flight, and landed with a bouncing 'thunk' in the bay window. The hair spray froze that little bastard, and I hope to god he was still alive when I dropped the Denver Phone Book on him. And beat it with a fist. And slid it up and down the wide sill. No such thing as 'overkill' to something that can put me in the hospital.
Bailey Guns
09-04-2018, 05:52
Aqua-net coupled with a lighter works even better than plain Aqua-net. Mind the curtains, though.
DenverGP
09-04-2018, 10:34
Was walking the dogs last night, wasp stung me on my ankle right thru my sock.
Found an in ground nest on my landscaping. Right where the HOA says I need to clean up. It was exciting trimming the bush and picking the weeds, and running like a little biotch everytime they swarmed out.
Put a trap out, but thinking a torch and flamables are in order.
People must have different body language, or pheromones or something. I see people who even see a flying insect absolutely lose it. The flying thing isn't even interacting with them, and they act like it is a life and death fight. Meanwhile, I can walk through, or reach into a garden, or lialac bush or something absolutely swarming with bees and wasps and have no issues. I've been stung exactly zero times by doing something that isn't directly agitating an insect.
Bailey Guns
09-04-2018, 14:10
That's what I always told my wife. Leave them alone and they won't hurt you. That's worked for me up til now. We both got stung on the same day using that approach though it was very reliable in the past.
For some reason lately they're very aggressive and will sting without provocation. Late in the season looking for food, maybe.
ChickNorris
09-04-2018, 15:17
I have no problems with bees or wasps, similar experiences as Irving. It's the Hornets that pick the fights.
That's what I always told my wife. Leave them alone and they won't hurt you. That's worked for me up til now. We both got stung on the same day using that approach though it was very reliable in the past.
For some reason lately they're very aggressive and will sting without provocation. Late in the season looking for food, maybe.
I think it's because they're bastards. It's bees that leave you alone.
Hornets/wasps will sting you just for looking at it wrong.
The time I was bit/stung, was when I was using a sawzall to cut a branch off a tree. There was a nest somewhere on the tree and I was vibrating the whole thing. Only got two bites though.
Had a asshole with wings fly down my shirt in HS. GF at the time counted 11 stings, needless to say I'm not a fan of the little bastards since.
Bees have skin in the game. Yellow jackets will sting you because that's what they do. They can certainly screw up a good picnic.
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