Yellow Jacket MF’s

Raise your hand if you like Yellow Jackets? Just what I thought, no hands. I have four active nests. Of course they are near entrances so they can buzz you going in and out. Mine are in my soffits and spraying the entrance doesn’t reach the hive. I’ve tried dust but it doesn’t seem to have a lasting effect. When I lived in Colorado, I was a beekeeper with twenty hives. Honeybees are a completely different insect. Yellow Jackets are wasps and can sting multiple times and when agitated, they seem to enjoy it. Honeybees are docile, unless you have the bad luck of meeting up with Africanized bees that some call Killer Bees. So how do you kill a nest of YJ’s if one decides to make your house a home? I’m not talking about the in ground bees. I’m talking the ones that get into an eave or soffit.

Can't remember how many cans of wasp killer I sprayed into a soffit nest I once had. I'm thinking it was on the order of 3. I just kept spraying the crap out of the crack they were using as an entrance every evening until they were gone...

I saw the yellow jackets going in and out of a tiny opening of my rear porch light and cedar shakes. I kept spraying the tiny hole. Then I got the bright idea to remove the porch light after the traffic continued. I saw a whole bunch of faces staring at me when I did. I ran like hell. Spraying the huge opening did the trick after a few days.

Another story. My dog came running over and was in distress. She had yellow jackets stinging her. I found the ground nest and it was very busy. I took my bug zapper and tied a knot in the cord so it wouldn’t disconnect. I dragged it over the hole in the ground. They got very disturbed and came out. All I heard was the buzz of the zapper getting louder and louder and smoke coming from it as they tried to sting the zapper. The next day I sprayed what few yellow jackets remained.

I tried the spray routine. Seems they get in the hole and once in, they travel to the hive. I don't think the spray is getting to the hive. Once the spray dries up, they are back at their daily routine using the hole. The one hive is really big and I'm not putting a dent into their numbers. Frustrated, yesterday I tried something different. I got out my shop vac and hooked it up to an 1 1/2" PVC pipe. I put a Tee in it with a cap. I remove the cap when done sucking up the bees at dusk. With the vac still running I give the capped opening a spray of Raid and turn the vac off. I haven't opened the vac but watching it in action I must be catching over 90% of those entering and leaving the hive.
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Try hanging a brown paper bag out side the entrance. Sometimes, they will think it's another hive and not even
try to mess with their old on

I saw a few going into an opening in my brick over my front door. Turns out the entire wall over the door was infested. I waited until dark blocked the hole and them drilled a few holes in my sheetrock on the inside of the wall and gassed the bastards.

I tried a different method. Didn't eradicate them but put a big dent in the population. I'm using my shop vac and when done sucking them in I remove the cap in the photo and give them a spray of Raid. I tried to post a video. It was fun watching them get sucked out of the air and into the pvc pipe. At least 95% entering or leaving the hive went into the vac.

"It was fun watching them get sucked out of the air and into the pvc pipe."

That would have made a great video!

It's really good. As they make their straight line final approach to the opening, they make a quick 90 degree turn and get sucked right in. Below is a photo of my wife. She used to go around and collect honeybee swarms and we would make bee hives. I built the coolest bee vacuum that would suck the honeybees in and they would be captured in the box near her feet. This box is the "dust bag" of the vac system. The design of the "bag" took some time to come up with the cover. Used a piece of masonite and had the rough side in. This way the bees could hold on to the top and hang instead of just lying on the bottom of the box. Only a handful would get hurt out of tens of thousands bee sucked in. This swarm was on a limb that could easily be cut off and then she shook the bees into the box and closed the lid.

Great pic and sorry! There is zero chance that you would ever see my wife in that photo!

What are the yellow jacket imitators that come around whenever I clean fish?
you can swat them away and they never sting.
they just buzz around the fish.

This was when I lived in Colorado. She never wore her bee suit when we first started. When swarming, as these bees are, they are docile for the most part. Unfortunately, I came across a swarm of "killer" bees that looked like a normal swarm and they went from zero to 100% pissed in about five seconds. I was lucky, only got stung about thirty times. Mostly my face, neck and hands. After that, we wore out suits for all swarms. I had a hive that was Africanized bees. The moment you went near it, It buzzed like a chainsaw. But, like they were bred for, they produced the most honey. I wound up getting rid of it for safety reasons. This all happened in early 90's when I was based in CO. I still to this day have honey from my hives. My favorite honey is buckwheat. It was produced in the late summer by the bees. It's dark like molasses.

those Chinese Lantern 🏮 Flies were swarming a park tree I was visiting today… gave me great pleasure smashing dead a few dozen or so… gave me greater Joy seeing the cleanup crew ( Yellow Jackets 🐝 ) sucking up some protein for a juicy treat… yum…
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They are all over out here.

We are seeing more and more in the Islip area. We now have Chinese Lantern Flies, the China Virus and Chinese Fentanyl.

those Chinese Lantern 🏮 Flies were swarming a park tree I was visiting today… gave me great pleasure smashing dead a few dozen or so… gave me greater Joy seeing the cleanup crew ( Yellow Jackets 🐝 ) sucking up some protein for a juicy treat… yum…
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