We have a serious AYYYYY! situation here
By Never teh BrideI used to hate bugs. Then I became a vegetarian, learned all about beneficial insects, and developed a live-and-let-live attitude toward nature. Now I still hate bugs, but I have to tolerate them so I don’t look like a damned hypocrite!
To a point, that is. My touchy-feely philosophy falls completely apart when it comes to anything that is going to damage my house, destroy my garden, or hurt me and The Beard. An animal that fits any of the previously listed criteria is gonna get schooled by yours truly.
There is something…or perhaps two somethings…building a nest in our modest little shed. The same somethings built a nest last summer, which we found the remains of this spring. The Beard has knocked the nest down a few times, but these somethings are extremely determined to start a family.
Why can’t I be more specific about what they are? We’re obviously not sticking our faces right up near the nest so we can compare them with pictures of flying black and yellow bugs we find online.
Suffice it to say that we’re very sure that the somethings are either paper wasps or yellowjackets. I’m hoping they’re paper wasps, because paper wasps are fairly unaggressive. Yellowjackets, on the other hand, are mean little bastards who are always on the lookout for some opportunity to throw down.
The Beard had this to say: “Yellowjackets apparently nest underground and will also whisper incorrect lotto numbers to you in your sleep, resulting in inevitable poverty. They’re jerks.” Sounds to me like the fit the gonnagetschooled criteria to me! If it does turn out our somethings are paper wasps…well, they’re still going to have to go because their preferred nesting spot is right over our shed door and when paper wasps do attack, it’s typically because their nest has been disturbed.
When it comes to striking the killing blow, Jonathan Hatch of How to Get Rid of Things has this to say:
The safest way to get rid of paper wasps is to purchase a can of pressurized wasp killer and spray the nest in a sweeping motion during the night. It is best to treat a yellowjacket nest in the late evening with either a dust insecticide like Sevin or Dursban, but usually an aerosol will do so long as the poison reaches the nest. Hell, try two cans.
Oh my goodness…please, please, please let the things be paper wasps…
May 30th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
A good wasp killer has a range of 15 to 20 feet. If it’s close enough, quickly spray from the back door and then run inside. Those bastards will attack in gangs! Keep the nests knocked down before they get big because it’s a bad scifi movie when you have 20 of them chasing you…
May 30th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
haha, just spray it with raid — its not a big deal. Unless they are white faced hornets they are too dumb to follow the spray back to the can and wont have any idea why they are dying.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I hope they are wasps too! Yellowjackets are indeed a nasty bunch.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Do not fear, it’s not that bad, most of those sprays are truly formidably deadly. We have a quaint post-war urban rowhouse with a bathroom skylight, one of those semi-pyramidal kinds with a little tilting trapgoor to the vent. One summer we pulled the wire, opened the vent, and were treated with a perfectly centered and sizeable yellowjacket nest in the vent cover!
We opted for the “earth options” wasp spray from Big Name Bug Killer Company (menthol & clove oil & Pine-whatsit, whatever). After much trepidation and checking of medical insurance, I closed the bathroom door, opened the air vent, sprayed & ran! Most, surprisingly, died immediately. The few stragglers IN THE BATHROOM were groggy enough to be finished off with my flip-flop (a fitting use for flip-flops).
So take heart! They are mortal, and you can run away before they can orient to the source of their discomfort! I managed to, even in a small indoor space. Good luck!
May 31st, 2008 at 10:15 am
Thanks for all the advice, folks. We’re just now heading off to the store to procure some deathspray.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:57 pm
You guys might also want to invest in a wasp decoy nest (lots of hardware/home supply stores carry them) Wasps are really territorial and they’ll avoid areas that already have a nest in them.
June 1st, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Wow, Chloe, that is something I’ve never, ever heard of, but it sounds like one heck of an easy solution!
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 am
Hi NtB-
We just got rid of a wasp nest that was in our garbage can hutch. Given that we’re in the same city, I’m guessing you have them too. The husband got rid of them with a couple of applications of Raid (after planning his escape route). The trick was to spray at dusk/night for some reason that now escapes me.
Keep a lookout for another nest after you get rid of the first one, just in case.
Good luck!
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:27 am
I hate stingy things.
That is all.