Yellow Jacket Nest in Apiary

[Ben Framed]

Two things you can do, place a shop vac at the entrance at night if you're worried about getting stung.  Then plug it in the following morning.  Or if you have a large clear salad bowl place it over the entrance.

I'd have to run a long extension cord, but that could work.  I guess the question is, how big is the nest, and does my shop vac have a strong enough suction?  The bowl is a good idea too, but I'd have to be sure the dogs didn't mess with it.
 

Posted by: beesnweeds
<<on: Today at 11:16:30 am >>

"The idea is to place the end of the vacuum hose at the entrance of the nest and walk away.  You can weigh down the end of the hose so it doesnt move.  As the yellow jackets come out from being disturbed by the noise they get sucked up into the vac and die.  It doesnt take long.    Most vacs have plenty of suction to pull in insects.  Leave it for a couple of hours and it will be all over.  The salad bowl works great because the yellow jackets see light and dont try and dig out and die.  Both nonchemical solutions.  But hey, gasoline, mustard gas, explosives all will work too.  You could pile highly radioactive waste next to the hole and place a lead box over it.  That will probably work."




Ah ha ha ha! Love it! 

Philip

[The15thMember]

Take a piece of #8 hardware cloth about 12"x12" and stake it down over the yellow jacket hole with long nails or whatever you have. Once you place the hardware cloth over the hole the yellow jackets can't get at you. Now get a 5 gallon bucket and fill with water and dawn soap (dish soap) and just sit there slowly pouring the soap water mixture into the hole. Have everything ready before you start because the yellowjackets will try to crawl out from under the hardware cloth but once you start pouring the soapy water it stops them. Good luck.

That's a great idea!  I think we have some of those landscaping pins laying around, they'd probably work great for this application. 

But hey, gasoline, mustard gas, explosives all will work too.  You could pile highly radioactive waste next to the hole and place a lead box over it.  That will probably work.

More great ideas!  I'll see if I have any more radioactive waste drums in the closet!   I used a couple up for a mutation experiment a couple of weeks ago, but I might have some left over.     

[Michael Bush]

>Wait until dark and pour some gas in the hole.

A tablespoon or so is plenty.

[The15thMember]

So I did the deed last night, and I'm not sure if it worked.  There were still some foragers coming in and out last evening, so I know I didn't get all of them.  It was pretty simple, just poured the soapy water down the hole.  I tried the hardware cloth idea, but I couldn't get it nailed down well because there is leaf litter all around the entrance hole, so I just scrapped that part of the plan, and it ended up not being necessary.  The incoming foragers seemed confused by the soap at the entrance, but this morning they are going in and out just the same.  Now obviously the hope for this strategy is to flood the brood nest, so it's possible that it's just a matter of time until the forager base decreases.  I'm going to keep an eye on them for several days, maybe hit them again tonight with another gallon of soapy water, and we'll see what happens.   

[Kathyp]

Evil buggers.

Their underground nests can be quite large.  You really need to soak the whole thing if you are doing the soapy water bit.  It never worked for me, but we get gigantic nests here.

You might try running a hose on it on low and drizzle some dish soap in every few min.  After that, cover the entrance and hope that it is the only one or that you didn't leave enough of them behind that they make a new one.

Or nuke them.   

[The15thMember]

Evil buggers.

Their underground nests can be quite large.  You really need to soak the whole thing if you are doing the soapy water bit.  It never worked for me, but we get gigantic nests here.

You might try running a hose on it on low and drizzle some dish soap in every few min.  After that, cover the entrance and hope that it is the only one or that you didn't leave enough of them behind that they make a new one.

Based on the entrance traffic, I don't think the nest is extremely large.  It's like maybe one jacket every 3 seconds.  The hose is a good idea, but I'm not sure I can get the hose all the way up there.  Maybe I should just do a COUPLE gallons of water.  We tote gallons of water around all the time for our animals, so that might be more convenient than trying to wrangle the hose. 

Or nuke them.   

Or that. 

[mark]

a clear glass or plastic jar over the entrance does the trick for me.  a few days and they are starved out. cost....nothing

[The15thMember]

Well, this situation has come to a surprise conclusion.  After supper, as soon as it was dusk, I went up to the yellow jacket nest armed with two more gallons of soapy water, and to my utter shock, the nest was dug up and all the yellow jackets gone or dead!    I just stood there, dumbfounded, with the gallons in my hands, speechless, my mouth agape, I couldn't understand or believe it.  They were there yesterday!  Based on the damage, I'm guessing it was a raccoon, which according to Justin Schmidt (of the Schmidt pain index fame, I happen to be reading his book right now) are the most common predators of yellow jackets in North America.  The nest wasn't very large, somewhere between a softball and a volleyball in size.  I'll inspect it in more detail tomorrow when it's light.  So, I guess that's it.  My advice to anyone else with this problem is to pour 1 gal. of soapy water down the hole and wait for the predators to do the rest! 

[Ben Framed]

When I was inspecting one of my hives today, I noticed yellow jackets coming and going from a hole in the ground about a yard behind my hives.  They weren't bothersome, since the weather is nice and warm and there is plenty of prey for them to find, but I imagine they will become trouble once fall hits.  Since the nest is in my apiary, right next to my hives, I'm not really comfortable using a hard chemical insecticide on the entrance, as my bees are right there.  How can I destroy the nest in a way that is safe for the bees?

Yet another way to avoid chemicals around bees is to use a vac as beesnweeds pointed out in an earlier post. Clear the ground hole of the yellow jackets as shown in the following video and then simple dig up the nest with no chemicals involved. ( I do not know if this guy is using a bee vac or shop vac. You can probably use a regular shop vac for this.)

Phillip

https://youtube.com/shorts/yy9mIhbEHXY?feature=share

[Michael Bush]

You have that can of old gas that you don't dare put in your gas tank.... it has to go somewhere.

[Ben Framed]

Gas is my preferred method as well Michael, as pointed out in reply 1.  I try to be aware, not letting gas get too old even in a can. But it happens.

[paus]

This reminds me of some fun I had even though I did not get to see it.  I had a nest of bumble bees near some hives and I had been baiting hog about 150 feet away  so I left a trail of corn to the bumble nest then poured about a half gallon of corn on the entrance then I left at high speed on a golf cart.  The next morning there was a hole where the nest was.  Hogs have never bothered my hives.

[Ben Framed]

Now that was a smart move!