Hornets Everywhere

[Spikes]

We have a small flame thrower/torch for ours (our house is brick)

[Tigeress]

Just call The Professional!!!


Delbert McClintock, infestation management.

You could make ah motion picture out of this!!!

Cnidophobia: The Movie  



TIGERESS

[Xargos]

You sure they don't have a nest in the attic or wall?

Have there been UFO sightings in your area, because I'm not sure if those things are from this planet?


P.S.  You're a braver man then I getting that close to those things.

[Max]

I'd just burn the house to the ground and call it a day

[Irwink!]

Mmmmm. Hornets BAD! Fire GOOD!!

[eskimo2]

I had a stupid encounter with bees once.   After getting stung I tried to burn a bee’s nest, but didn’t have much fuel on hand.  So I tossed a spray paint can on the fire expecting it to blow and make a big enough fireball to incinerate them all.  The fire was dying, however, and the can wouldn’t get hot enough to explode.  So, I pulled out my 22 and a hollow-point CCI Stinger round.  From 50 feet I hit the can square and it burst into a nice fireball.  Something stung me in the ankle, however.  I looked down and my shoe, sock and leg were on fire and I had a nice gash high in my ankle.   I patted out the fire on the leg and surveyed the damage; my leg, sock and shoe were splattered with paint and I had a cut worthy of stitches.  Just behind me was half of the spray paint can.  I wasn’t that surprised that half of an exploded can could fly that far and cut me.  I was baffled, however, that it traveled so fast and so far on fire and that enough paint rode along to spatter me.  The doctors and nurses were in stitches when I explained how I cut my ankle and set my leg and foot on fire with burning spray paint.  They called in other staff members and had me retell the story.

[Halo]

Scary photos, Airscrew, thanks.  That's one of the most serious swarms I've ever seen.  But I still think several cans of the Ortho Hornet and Wasp spray might solve the problem.

Reminds me of some other creative solutions.  Had some wasp nests high under the eaves of my parents' little two-story house in Indiana.  Threw some cherry bombs and TNT firecrackers up at them.  Eventually drove them away.

Imagine lighting those firecrackers in your hand and trying to time their air bursts.  Kids!  Duh!  

More sane solution was against some wasps in hollow cast iron clothesline poles in the back yard.  Waited until sunset when most of them were in the nest.  Lit a cherry bomb, shoved it in one end of the clothes pole, then held a brick against it.  

BOOM!  A cloud of wasps, most smoking or on fire, flew out the other end of the clothes pole like a cloud of shotgun pellets, then spiraled to earth in little trails of smoke.  Glorious revenge for attacks while I was mowing the yard.

[WMLute]

brake cleaner is a great way to kill an afternoon.

2 cases of beer.

2-3 friends armed w/ multiple can's of brake cleanr.

wasp/hornet/bee nest

= great fun.

spent 'bout 4-5 hours at a buddies house killin' a hornets nest like that.  after 'bout hour 3 we'd litterally killed hundreds of 'em, and could approach the nest and shoot 'em w/ the brake cleaner up close and personal.

I don't think any of us got stung.

[DREDIOCK]

Always wait until dusk or dark  when they have all returned to the nest to hit the hive.
other wise you end up with a large group of pissed off whatever hanging out outside the nest at the end of the day.

I come across all kinds of nests when working on peoples houses.
there are various sprays out that kill on contact and the residue will keep killing for days.

Watch where they are entering and exiting and spray the area.  on nests like this one where its obviously inside the house Typically I start at a distance then move in close and flood the entire entrance thoroughly soaking it.

If you have access to the attic you can also set off a bug bomb and toss it up there for good measure.

I used this two pronged approach in my attic. glad I did as after I no longer saw activity I ripped off the piece of cracked outside trim where they were getting in and saw the nest was even beyond that. So I went up to look at from the inside where they were entering from the outside I had a Yellow Jacket nest 3 feet long and about 10" wide on one of the rafters.

About 4 years ago My wife was trimming some forsythias that we had along our property and came inside saying something had stung her and wanted me to finish up.
Since the forsythias were about 6 feet high I had one of my  picks set up across two sawhorses so all I had to do was walk across with the trimmer.
in doing this I saw alot of weird looking bugs start swarming around from the other side.
So I jumped off really fast and backed away.
After they calmed down I got in closer  and looked into the bushes. Sure enough there was a nest no smaller then a basketball on the other side and about two feet from the top .
so I figured something really stupid. Since I had gotten away with it once. all I had to do was run over the top real quick with the rake to get the loose clippings off.
I reasoned that since I had gotten away with it once. and I was going to be moving much faster with the rake then I was with the trimmer.
I could get away with it.
This part I did from he ground so I could see the nest.
UNFORTUNATELY it seemed they could see me as well this way.
As I saw a bunch fly out of the nest and to the other side just as before. One obviously spotted me as I saw it do a U-Turn and fly at me like a bullet.
I backed off and raised my hand to block it but missed, it landed and got tangled in my beard and  stung me on the left cheek before I was able to rip it out and away.
Yellow jacket stings are much worse pain wise and last longer.

I got a good look at one of them and went inside and looked them up on the net.
Bald/white faced hornets.
recognizable by their white heads
Typically they nest in the upper trees and are actually beneficial as they are less aggressive as some of their more aggressive cousins and will attack and kill of any yellow jacked and wasps nests in the area.
BUT are occasionally known to make nests in bushes
while less aggressive. Which is a good thing as kids play in my year all the time. They will protect their nest if disturbed.

So since it was mid day .Knowing I couldn't spray the nest until dusk, and I was pissed about being stung.

I did the only logical thing.

I antagonized em By throwing rocks and firecrackers at the nest form a distance getting em all stirred up, Id go back inside for 20 then come back and do it again.
That night I soaked the nest and a week later cut it out.
 scored some pretty good direct hits on it based On the large gashes in the hive.
Wish I'd had saved it.
I could have hung it on the tree in front of my house in plain sight as a sort of welcome sign LOL

BTW Yellow jackets are not hornets. They are considered wasps.

[Curval]

Originally posted by eskimo2
So, I pulled out my 22 and a hollow-point CCI Stinger round.  From 50 feet I hit the can square and it burst into a nice fireball.

Yea, whatever.  

Eskimo did a "Serenity".

That is the perfect "fish tale" name for stuff like this.

[eskimo2]

Originally posted by Curval
Yea, whatever.  

Eskimo did a "Serenity".

That is the perfect "fish tale" name for stuff like this.

Just because I shook “hands” with one of the bees and they ended up stealing my apples doesn’t make this a fish tale!

[Airscrew]

I didnt get them all but theres not as many as there used to be..

Red, I guess they are wasps, I always called them hornets.  they are kinda of peculiar though.  Some are red/brown but some of them have yellow eyes and small yellow bands around their legs.  I gotta look them up and see what kind they are.

Iron, when I sprayed the second time, one of them flew right at my face, I almost broke my neck I turned my head so fast... then I went to the other end of the house and sprayed those and one fly at me and landed on my hand.  A lot of flaying going on trying to get it off my thumb, he wouldnt let go, finally flicked it off...

[Airscrew]

looked them up...

Common Name: Paper wasp
Scientific Name: Polistes sp.
Order: Hymenoptera
Description: Paper wasps are 3/4 to 1 inch long, slender, narrow-waisted wasps with smoky black wings that are folded lengthwise when at rest. Body coloration varies with species: Polistes exclamans is brown with yellow markings on the head, thorax and bands on the abdomen; Polistes carolina is overall reddish-brown.

Paper wasps should not be confused with yellowjackets (Vespula squamosa Drury) and baldfaced hornets (Dolichovespa maculata (Linnaeus)). Paper wasp nests are open and cells are not covered with a cap (in an envelope).

I wonder if the two mix... because it looks like I had both

[63tb]

Airscrew,

Call in the pros. We had a large hornet nest in an outer wall. They got in through a tiny hole in an eave. We didn't know about them until they started showing up inside a room near the eave. The exterminator sprayed some kind of white powder around the outside opening. Apparently the powder sticks to them and they carry it back to the nest. After a week he came back and he removed a small piece of sheetrock and out dropped a bunch of dead ones. He kept removing sheetrock (with me watching from a safe distance until the whole nest was exposed. It was the full width between the studs and about 3 feet tall. They had pushed all of the insulation out of the way! I was so glad I didn't try opening that wall myself.

63tb

[Coshy]

A guy at work has the exact same problem. A hive of yellowjackets between his dining room wall and the exterior wall. He said they had eaten(?) the drywall and left just the paper backing. He called in an exterminator today, the charge was $75, but I'm not sure if that was just the service call charge or the total extermination cost.

Best advice is to call a pro.