Finally Its Pay Back Time - Yellow Jackets

alldodge

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Agree with the bat houses. Installed on on the chimney 15 or so years ago. Had a real bad skeeter problem, couldn't hardly go out at dusk, and even had trouble next to the woods during the day. Took some years, but you can go outside anytime now, I see the shadows flying around, but no worries of skeeters anymore.

Have not seen a lot of guano so guess I don't need to add another house yet, but wouldn't hurt
 

robert graham

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I did the shop vacuum on the ground beside the nest and it was very satisfying watching the little buggers getting sucked into the unit....the hum of the vacuum and the sound of the suction kept them stirred up and flying around....took about 30 minutes or so to suck them all up!....I really hate them!
 

poconojoe

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Got my bat house today. I got the kit, it was cheaper. You really gotta do your research with these. I bought the BCM (Bat Conservation and Management) three chamber. Living in the northeast, I have to paint mine black for efficient heat absorption. I'm gonna use flat black water base.
 

poconojoe

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I like the shop-vac idea for sucking up those YJ! I had some wasps entering the tiny water weep hole on the bottom of my front door sill. I could have used that shop-vac idea. Next time....
 

alldodge

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Have my bat hose painted brown, started with black, but just way to hot.
 

poconojoe

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Have my bat hose painted brown, started with black, but just way to hot.
How did you come to that conclusion?
Did you put some type of thermometer in there? Sounds like a good idea if you did. What would be the ideal temperature? The color chart states black for me in northeast PA. Hope that is correct.
 

alldodge

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How did you come to that conclusion?
Did you put some type of thermometer in there? Sounds like a good idea if you did. What would be the ideal temperature? The color chart states black for me in northeast PA. Hope that is correct.

Didn't use a thermometer, just read it on the site I bought the house. It came black and I left it there a couple years and didn't see any. figuring my southern KY location, the heat would be to hot, so used brown
 

64osby

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Brake Cleaner spray drops them instantly. Ground nests get the two cycle treatment. At dusk pour in gas/oil then light, from a distance. Let it burn as long as it can. Blue flames will pulse out of the ground. Then cover the hole with a rock or a board for a few days. Have never had a nest survive.

Just made it back from a week on a lake and our house sitter pointed out a ground nest that will be taken care of tomorrow. I have found the bigger nest have two entry points. This nest has two.

It took 3 years for our bat house to be occupied. At year 5 the woodpeckers destroyed it.
 

RGrew176

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It wasn't yellow jackets for me but wasps. There was a paper wasp nest way up in a tree that was to close to my home at the time. If you went outside you would get buzzed but fortunately no one got stung. Being that the nest was 50 or 60 feet up the tree there was only one way for me to attack the nest.

I loaded up my .22 rifle, lined it up so that my rounds would pass through the nest and hit the tree trunk behind the nest. I put about 75 rounds through the nest. The wasps never figured out where the attack was coming from. They were definitely pissed off at what was happening as they were buzzing all around the nest trying to figure out what was attacking them. It was fun watching them through the scope from a safe distance away.

A few days later the nest was abandoned. Not sure if I got the queen or they just moved away to a more safe for them location. I've been lucky having lived in several homes in the country that I have never encountered a ground nest of yellow jackets.
 

Old Ironmaker

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We have Mud Wasps where we live, millions. They are dozey though. When we tore the old drywall off the walls to insulate there were nests in between the 2x4's 6 feet up the walls. I am allergic to bee stings, ask me if I remember to take an EpiPen or Benadryl with me on the boat or the golf course, anywhere. The last time I got stung was when I worked security at the Canadian Open, my hand swelled like a balloon. I better get 1, soon. But believe it or not there is a huge shortage here in Canada, I think the US as well.
 

alldodge

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Down here we ( or at least I) call them Mud Daubers, and they are not to territorial so to speak, and unless you actually gab one they won't stink you. I have never been stung by one of them, but they built nest and stick mud in everything. They have put mud in a tire valve stem, why, I have no idea. If my truck sits to long in one place, they will build a row between the doors.

They are neat the way they lay their eggs. They build the mud tunnel, then will sting a spider and place it in the tube, then lay the egg. this way when the new wasp hatches, its first meal is the spider. Cannot say for sure but the old tail is said that the sting only paralyzes the spider so it doesn't go bad before it gets eaten
 

Old Ironmaker

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That's really interesting AD. I know more about the life of a Mud Dauber than I knew 2 minutes ago. I'm going to call them Mud Daubers from now on.
 

bigdee

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Down here we ( or at least I) call them Mud Daubers, and they are not to territorial so to speak, and unless you actually gab one they won't stink you. I have never been stung by one of them, but they built nest and stick mud in everything. They have put mud in a tire valve stem, why, I have no idea. If my truck sits to long in one place, they will build a row between the doors.

They are neat the way they lay their eggs. They build the mud tunnel, then will sting a spider and place it in the tube, then lay the egg. this way when the new wasp hatches, its first meal is the spider. Cannot say for sure but the old tail is said that the sting only paralyzes the spider so it doesn't go bad before it gets eaten

Hard to distinguish them daubers from the evil wasps. Your right about them plugging holes, pipes,hoses. I don't understand why they do it b/c they don't nest in them. My walls are covered in the multiple mud tubes they build....some are over a foot long. I don't think I have ever seen a wasp nest in close proximity to a mud dauber nest though.
 

alldodge

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Did find out if you tear the old down they will build new where the old were. Have about a 1/2 inch gap between the house and upper deck. Found some old mud nest that had been there a long time. Spent some time digging all them out. Well this year I'm hearing the buzzing of them building new ones
 

Old Ironmaker

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The Mud Wasps we have build nests the size of the space they nest in. There are old abandoned gable attic vents on each side of our shack, they are full of hardened mud. My cousin who is a painter and owed me painted our place this year. When he got to the vents he yells to me "This thing is full of wasp's nests." No way I tell him. I filled them full of expandable foam and painted them. He came flying down the ladder as a few flew out of the nests. They won't sting you I told him, he said "I know they won't because I'm not going back up there." Reminds me I have to paint the things.
 
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