Wasp nest - unwelcome visitors!

[buzzstar]

Originally Posted by SV Bacchus

Hey, this looks kinda crude but sure seems to work. Make one of these, fasten it close (probably at night) and then let it run all day during daylight. May take several days but BOOM, wasps are gone!

I'll defer to Kenomac, but those look like bees to me. I even printed and saved his soapy water suggestion as a better alternative for wasps.

[bletso]

Looked like bees to me as well. I like bees, hornets and wasps another story. Even an occasional mud dauber I can tolerate.

[trifan]

Late to the thread but seconding the soap treatment. The surfactant in dish detergent allows water to drown the little buggers. I use it as an eco-friendly alternative to expensive and dangerous chemical sprays. Works on all insects I have tried it on and Texas has some rather unfriendly varmints. Yes, wasps are pollinators and with bees being in decline they are increasingly important but that is another reason for using soap instead of chemical treatments and a story for another time.

[toddster8]

There are lots of kinds of wasps - some aggressive, some not. I’d guess it would be some kind of mud dauber nesting in a sail.

I usually just go out first thing in the morning and brush them away while they’re groggy. My spray bottles of regular cleaning solution work as well as any expensive wasp killer. (They breathe through pores in a waxy cuticle, so anything with detergent action will let water in to those pores and suffocate them.)

One summer, hornets built a softball-sized nest in the safari rack of my nasty old diesel suburban. I just let them hang out there for a few months, until I really needed to use the rack. I’m sure I lost a few of them every time I hit the highway, but they would just buzz around the truck while I was shopping in town and seemed to know when it was time to “buckle up” for the ride home. They were like my private security detail.

[Cadence]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have a funny yellow jacket story too.
I was a kid squirrel hunting with my father, I had shot a squirrel with my .410 and was retrieving it and was having a tough time getting thru the thorny vines when the Yellow Jackets hit me.
I was stung over 50 times in the head alone and went unconscious and rushed to the hospital.
To this day I’m allergic to them.

Keep an epi pen. I don't raise a welt my wife goes into shock.

[SV Bacchus]

Originally Posted by buzzstar

I'll defer to Kenomac, but those look like bees to me. I even printed and saved his soapy water suggestion as a better alternative for wasps.

You could be right. I used to have a few bee hives so I am bee friendly.

I just went by the title which said wasps and I liked the idea of a non-chemical solution to the problem.

I also thanked Ken for the eco friendly suggestion he had!

[lfalco]

Almost anything is good with spaghetti sauce!

[ddugger]

I have a large wet/dry Sears Shop Vac. Using its long 3" intake tube - I suck up paper and mud wasps - and their nests around our house frequently - we have a lot. Our nests are usually small with only a dozen or so mature wasps inhabiting them. With the wasp and nest inside the vac, I suck up a little insecticide or alcohol and seal the entrance and exit to the vac for several hours. I have also used WD-40 with the stream straw - on individual wasps. If you use it on you sail, you will want to wash it off with some detergent afterwards. If you have a really large nest with hundreds of yellow jackets - call an exterminator.

[passthetuna]

I get mix Dawn soap and hot water into jar or small bucket and throw it on them, and then run like hell. It kills them very effectively.

[Gypsyjon]

A little puff of SEVIN will do the trick. SEVIN is EXTREMELY toxic to hymenoptera, which is what Yellow Jackets are.

Get some Sevin powder, put some in a bulb baster, (like you use for a roast turkey) and poof some dust up in there. The ones that do not get a direct shot will carry the dust into the nest on their legs and it will wipe out the queen and all the rest.

[Catalacmarc]

One day on my Catalac 9M catamaran, I began to undo the sail cover on my brand new mainsail only to have a dozen or so yellow jackets come out from under it and attack me. I took a flying leap to the elevated pier, caught my foot on the lifeline and fell face first onto the pier. It was a drop of only a couple of feet (nt a drop to a float) and ended up looking like Sonny Liston had punched me in the mouth. To get rid of them, I used a method that I had found very effective on other wasps, ether starting fluid. NOTE, THIS IS DONE OUTDOORS FOR VENTILATION AND AWAY FROM ANY SOURCE OF IGNITION. I use the type of starting fluid that is pure ether and DOES NOT CONTAIN TOP CYLINDER LUBRICANT. Other wasps I have tried this an are an instant kill, the yellow jackets were tougher. The ether saturated the nest and did those in but the flyers did not immediately drop at the first whiff. Those yellow jackets that weren't killed flew away in a hurry.

The tennis ball sized yellow jacket nest left a poop stain on the sail that I never could get out.

[sailorladd]

I had yellow jackets making their mud nests inside my boom cover once, and I merely scraped off the nest and washed off all traces of the mud with a wet soapy sponge...They have never returned.

I also had bees start to build a hive in my garage, and following the old stand by, I made a small fire with twigs and greenish leaves and the smoke drove them out and again, they never returned... I imagine it would work below decks... use a big metal pot and place it close to the nest.... Don't overdo the fire or the duration...they will get the message very quickly and once they have scarpered, clean out the nest and all residue.... the fragrant smell of garden refuse smoke is not offensive and will soon dissipate...

[Wooden Ketch]

Commercial beekeeper here:
wasps do not fly at night. It is presently new moon, good dark nights. Use a red led headlamp. Wasps and bees see further in the ultraviolet, but do not see well in the red spectrum. Soapy water as mentioned works extremely well and safe for sail. Just open it up at night clean it off with soapy water. Wear gloves and maybe a bug veil if you are really nervous, but they can only crawl, not fly on a moonless night.

[zulugmt]

Pyrethrin will do the job. Is a good preventive against bees, mud wasps, roaches, ants, spiders & etc. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrethrin



Cheers!

[CarinaPDX]

The OP's concern about sail damage is a potential reality. A neighbor let a large nest develop under his mainsail cover, and they chewed a hole in his main requiring repair by a sailmaker. I have found nests in folded sails that caused no problems. I suspect it varies with the type of wasp or yellowjacket.

I once had a nest on the inside of the transom of an overturned dinghy on the foredeck. I could see it through a forward 4" portlight. After dark, when they were all in the nest, I opened the portlight and sprayed the nest with insecticide and quickly closed up. The next morning the deck was covered with dead wasps - no apparent survivors so cleanup was easy. I confess I hadn't considered the pollution issue, and didn't know about soapy water - great solution (pun not intended). Next time...

Greg