PSA: check for wasp nests

R055

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Messages
579
Just a reminder to take your cover off and search your boat for wasp nests, it's that time when the queen looks for a place and starts to build nests.
I noticed a small wasp in my boat so took the cover off and found they were trying to start a nest at the tip of the bow under the cover. Killed them and their queen.

Easier to get rid of them right now before their give gets big.
 

SDSeville

Lieutenant
Joined
Mar 19, 2010
Messages
1,481
Thanks for the reminder. I freakin hate wasps! Mostly because they have never been too fond of me.
 

Jarcher3

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
May 9, 2016
Messages
113
Good call, i got stung last year taking the cover off for the first time out.
 

Bluepike

Petty Officer 3rd Class
Joined
May 14, 2009
Messages
88
Last year was a real bad year for wasps at my marina. Every time I would go to the boat to get it ready, I would find half a dozen wasps under the cover. A friend suggested a little trick. Take a small, brown paper bag and crumple it up and stuff it somewhere. It seems like the wasps see it as an existing nest and they go away. I put a crumpled up bag under a seat where I have found nests in the past and since then, I still find a wasp occasionally but no where near the numbers that I used to.
 

R055

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 13, 2015
Messages
579
Homemade wasp catchers also work, especially right now when the queen is doing all the work. The reason being is the queen is the only wasp to survive over winter, all the regular wasps die and the queen hibernates. The queen then has to start the colony all by herself and she's constantly looking for food and places to build. Once she builds the nest and was worker wasps she's going to be chilling in the nest the whole time and your chances of getting her with a wasp catcher and extremely low.
 

thumpar

Admiral
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
6,138
Don't forget inside the trailer tubing. I was redoing the wiring on my old trailer a few years ago. When I stuck my hand into the front tube I thought I scraped a metal burr but when I pulled my hand out a wasp came flying out. I went and got 2 of the biggest spray cans I could find. They scare the crap out of me. When I was little my cousin and I got into a nest. He was stung over 30 times and I was stung over 25 times.
 
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