Help...Yellow jackets!!

[GTop]

We have yellowjackets nesting in our hot tub. They're entering between the crack where the walls and the shell come together. I've been spraying them like crazy but cant kill them because the nest is on the inside of the wall. I've tried removing the panels but it disturbs them and they start swarming like crazy. How do I get rid of them if I cant get a direct shot at their nest?

 

[willyslover]

get a bee hood and wear long sleeves

 

[RMcCulloch]

The hot tub should have an access panel.



If it's outdoors, try activating a Raid Fumigator just before placing it inside and then close the access panel.



Go away and come back in ~ 4 hours and re-caulk the crack(s).

 

[GTop]

When I try to unscrew the access panels they start swarming like crazy. Each panel is held on by 4 screws. Guess the noise/vibration gets them mad.

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

Even at night? It sounds nuts but do the hood / duct tape jacket thing in pitch balack nigntness. Then Fog the daylights out of it. Cynoff (if ya have an exterminator buddy) Is THE killer of the century!

 

[Forrest]

I had them in the main electrical box on the house. They used a 1/4" wide by 1/2" tall slot & had a huge next in there. I was surprised how they withstood the bug killers.



Anyway, i waited until morning ... nice & cool & they are slow & rtv'd the crack ... end of problem.

 

[Ncostello]

Just got done with this same situation. The were entering the soffit of my house and getting on the back porch through the attic somehow. I've never had this problem but this year seemed bad for many around the neighborhood.



I drilled a small hole in the soffit and emptied two raid hot foggers in the hole. End of problem. But it took about two days before they all died or went away. I had tried surface sprays on them many times but it didn't get to where they are. This raid from Walmart was Super Concentrated and deep penetrating somehow.



Funny thing was they were not aggressive like most I've seen. They are usually mean and nasty. I could climb the ladder and have 4 or 5 swarming the area and they wouldn't do anything to me. They were actually swarming around the raid can as I held it there. Little did they know it was a container of "VX" for flying bugs!!

 

[TowPro]

they don't get nasty until mid Aug, I think they realize fall is coming.

Originally posted by Ncostello



Funny thing was they were not aggressive like most I've seen. They are usually mean and nasty. I could climb the ladder and have 4 or 5 swarming the area and they wouldn't do anything to me. They were actually swarming around the raid can as I held it there. Little did they know it was a container of "VX" for flying bugs!!

 

[Rogue Ram]

Piece of cake..........

... ..... go to Home Depot, Lowe's, etc and buy one of those yellow metal, telescoping poles. Each section has a plastic retainer that unscrews so you can extend several addtl feet out until you have over a 20 foot long aluminum pole! Buy 3 of the bug bombs that you use for indoor bug control... ... RAID makes them... ... duct tape to end of pole, wait till dark, press plastic trigger down till it locks, and put pole in there from a safe distance.



As back up, have pals or your kids standing by with the "flying insect fogger" cans of RAID or similar stuff... ... ... ... for this application, the wasp/hornet killer stuff is useless since you are trying to hit a moving target... ... ...



Been there done that! And no stings!



Very Rogue

 

[DaveN]

Even easier

find out where they are going in and out, it's normally a small hole. If it's much bigger than 1", duct tape it so that it's smaller. Fire up a shop vac, hold the nozzle next to the hole. Start beating on the side of your hot tub, get them good and angry, and when they come swarming out they get sucked into a hose at 100 miles per hour, then they smack the container of your shop vac. Most of them will die when they hit the shop vac. This works well, I've done it a couple of times.



Just stand still in case some return from outside, they will first go to the hole to check things out. Then you just suck them up.



Last thing you do is turn off the shop vac, as the blower is spooling down shoot some Wasp killer in the hose, and tape it shut. Let it sit a couple of hours, repeat. Remember they cant get out the discharge due to the filter.



After you stop seeing the buggers come out (ten fifteen minutes or so) and you've got them gassed and taped in your shop vac then remove your panel and shoot the nest. Make sure you remove the next because the larvae will hatch in a couple of days then you start all over again.

 

[DaveN]

Forrest-



that works good, you just have to make sure they can't get out any other way, otherwise you get a bunch of the buggers INSIDE your house.



Learned about that the hard way...

 

[BV]

Yeller Jackets

Managed to get a big hive in the wood pile and so on the night of our neighborhood picnic (mid August) after eating lots of god food and drinking way too much beer, I decided it was time to spray the hive and end the buzzing before one of the kids (3yr & 6yr) or I got stung. So - Dressed in a loose short sleeve shirt and jeans and armed with flashlight and a can of bee killer go for 20', the neighbor lifted the plastic and I started to spray when HERE THEY COME - Sorry didn't mean to yell but them bees didn't like me shining the light an spraying poison on their nest.



I ended up with 5 stings/bites and they followed the flashlight over to the neighbors garage where I did the bee dance while taking off my clothes to get to the bees.



Oh - It took 3 more cans of spray over the next 2 mornings of hit and run before activity diminished.



Morel of the story - Dress accordingly and don't think that night or early morning will slow them buzzzzzzzzzards down.



The hive (large softball size) made a nice show-n-tell for my daughters 1st grade class - especially when the larva started hatching again

 

[Doc Tinker]

A carpenter once told me that you can remove the nest while it's raining and the bees/wasps won't come out and get you. He demonstrated at the time and we didn't see a single wasp come out of the nest.



Doc

 

[nickleinonen]

brake kleen works good for killing bee's. anmonia or chlorine work ok too.....