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Thread: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

  1. #1
    Are we not men? Yachtzee's Avatar
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    Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    What is the best way to deal with an underground yellow jacket nest? The neighborhood kids found one in my backyard, about 7' from my deck. One of them put her butterfly net over the entrance, so when I got out there, I saw a bunch of angry yellow jackets buzzing around it with the neighborhood crew of 5, 6, and 7 year olds watching it. Fortunately, I was able to get the kids away and remove the net without anyone being stung. Now I need to figure out what to do about the nest. I've heard wasp spray can be hit or miss and some suggest pouring gasoline down the hole and covering it. My concern with gasoline is that my yard slopes toward a pond with ducks, geese, turtles and the occasional blue heron. I'd rather not have the gasoline seep down to the pond. On the other hand, I have 3 young kids, plus some of the neighor kids are allergic to bee stings, so I need an effective solution. Is there an effective way to deal with it, or should I call in a pro?
    Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!


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  3. #2
    RaisorZone Raisor's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure

  4. #3
    First Time Caller SunDeck's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    They are very difficult to remove once established. The colony will die off in the fall and only the queen will survive to establish another one next year. She will probably move to another hole in the ground. Yellowjackets will not bother anyone as long as they stay away from the nest.

    http://www.cals.uidaho.edu/edcomm/pdf/BUL/BUL0852.pdf
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  5. #4
    Are we not men? Yachtzee's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    Quote Originally Posted by SunDeck View Post
    They are very difficult to remove once established. The colony will die off in the fall and only the queen will survive to establish another one next year. She will probably move to another hole in the ground. Yellowjackets will not bother anyone as long as they stay away from the nest.

    http://www.cals.uidaho.edu/edcomm/pdf/BUL/BUL0852.pdf
    I wish I could avoid it, but it's close to the deck and in a somewhat high traffic area for the kids. Plus it will be hard to mow a sizable portion of my backyard.
    Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!

  6. #5
    First Time Caller SunDeck's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    Quote Originally Posted by Yachtzee View Post
    I wish I could avoid it, but it's close to the deck and in a somewhat high traffic area for the kids. Plus it will be hard to mow a sizable portion of my backyard.
    Yep, but it's a mature colony by now and it's in a hole created by another creature, with all sorts of nooks and crannies. Try dumping bucket of soil over it after dark, once they are dormant. Then look for the next hole they find to exit and repeat.

    On the bright side, it's been there all summer and no one's been injured.
    Next Reds manager, second shooter. --Confirmed on Redszone.

  7. #6
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    Fire. Gas and a match.

    I have cicada killer wasps in my back yard, those things are huge. I think you could put a saddle on a few of them.

  8. #7
    First Time Caller SunDeck's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    Poor advice.
    NEVER put gasoline into a container (i.e. a hole in the ground) and light it.
    Next Reds manager, second shooter. --Confirmed on Redszone.

  9. #8
    Be the ball Roy Tucker's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    You may want to have a trained.person look to make sure they are yellow jackets.

    We had a ferocious and wicked looking insect colony last year that I swore were yellow jackets. Big nasty yellow amd black things with big stingers. Turned out to be cicada killing wasps (google the picture). They are non-swarming insects and relatively harmlesss. We just left them alone and they left us alone. But they loooked like the bee from hell.
    She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning

  10. #9
    Are we not men? Yachtzee's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    Quote Originally Posted by Roy Tucker View Post
    You may want to have a trained.person look to make sure they are yellow jackets.

    We had a ferocious and wicked looking insect colony last year that I swore were yellow jacketsil Big nasty yellow amd black things with big stingers. Turned out to be cicada killing wasps (google the picture). They are non-swarming insects and relatively harmlesss. We just left them alone and they left us alone. But they loooked like the bee from hell.
    These don't match the description of cicada killers. They're smaller and it's definetly a large hive. When the entrance was covered by a net, there were around 35-50 wasps flying around trying to get in. From what I gather, cicada killers tend to nest in smaller numbers.

    For the gasoline trick, I've read that you pour gasoline in and place a bucket upside down over the entrance. It's the fumes that kill them, so you want to trap in the fumes. If it weren't for the pond, I'd probably try that.
    Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!

  11. #10
    Mailing it in Cyclone792's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    I just removed a paper wasp nest from inside the railing on my second floor porch. I did buy wasp spray, but I never used it since the only way to hit the nest was to literally spray straight up in the air and I wasn't interested in soaking myself in wasp spray. Eventually I just rigged together a long curtain rod to knock the nest down. I dressed in heavy, winter clothes, beanie hat, hoodie w/hood up, gloves, etc. and just went after it around sunset. It did the trick and I didn't get stung.

    Anyway, when researching how to remove wasp nests I read some interesting advice about using dish detergent. Apparently if you mix in dish detergent with a hose sprayer it can be quite effective at killing and slowing down wasps. If you've got a hose with some nice water pressure, you might be able to drown the nest out by mixing in dish detergent, firing the mixture in the hole and flooding the nest out. If you're worried about the environment, that might be safer than gasoline.

    Might try Googling dish detergent and seeing if it might work. If you try it out, load up on clothing and give it a shot around sunset on a cooler night.
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  12. #11
    Are we not men? Yachtzee's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    Quote Originally Posted by Cyclone792 View Post
    I just removed a paper wasp nest from inside the railing on my second floor porch. I did buy wasp spray, but I never used it since the only way to hit the nest was to literally spray straight up in the air and I wasn't interested in soaking myself in wasp spray. Eventually I just rigged together a long curtain rod to knock the nest down. I dressed in heavy, winter clothes, beanie hat, hoodie w/hood up, gloves, etc. and just went after it around sunset. It did the trick and I didn't get stung.

    Anyway, when researching how to remove wasp nests I read some interesting advice about using dish detergent. Apparently if you mix in dish detergent with a hose sprayer it can be quite effective at killing and slowing down wasps. If you've got a hose with some nice water pressure, you might be able to drown the nest out by mixing in dish detergent, firing the mixture in the hole and flooding the nest out. If you're worried about the environment, that might be safer than gasoline.

    Might try Googling dish detergent and seeing if it might work. If you try it out, load up on clothing and give it a shot around sunset on a cooler night.
    I did some research on that and it seems that method isn't as effect on underground nests because you aren't guaranteed to hit all the chambers and the soap needs to actually come in contact with the wasps. So far it seems the consensus on the net is to pour gasoline down the hole and cover it with a bucket to trap in the fumes because its the gas fumes that kill the bees. Definitely don't want to light the gas because trapped pockets of gas could explode, sending live bees, soil and rocks everywhere. Plus I don't want a crater in my yard.
    Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!

  13. #12
    First Time Caller SunDeck's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    I wonder if you could drop a bug bomb down the bole and cover it? That might not have the residual effects on the soil that fuel would.
    Next Reds manager, second shooter. --Confirmed on Redszone.

  14. #13
    Be the ball Roy Tucker's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    I'd bite the bullet and call in the pros. They know how to deal with them. All you're to do is really make them mad.
    She used to wake me up with coffee ever morning

  15. #14
    KungFu Fighter AtomicDumpling's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    Personally I would leave the nest alone. Since the colony has grown so large it has obviously been there a long time, and nobody has been stung even though the kids have been playing there and you have been mowing around it all summer. It is generally pretty hard to get a wasp or bee to sting you.

    You have five options to choose from:

    A. Soak the entire area thoroughly with water to make it extremely muddy way down deep. Cover the whole area with a large tarp, then cover the tarp with dirt to make sure it is in hard contact with the ground so the wasps can't move around between the tarp and the ground. Leave it there for two weeks. Eventually the wasps will starve unless they dig a very long escape tunnel through the mud.

    B. Get a big Shopvac, attach a large funnel to the hose, place it over the nest entrance and let that sucker suck from dawn to dusk until you get all the wasps.

    C. Get some firewood and have a campfire cookout on the spot. Roast weenies and wasps at the same time.

    D. Rent a bee suit and dig up the nest with a shovel or rototiller.

    E. Or you could just pave the yard.
    Last edited by AtomicDumpling; 08-21-2013 at 02:35 AM.

  16. #15
    MLB Baseball Razor Shines's Avatar
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    Re: Yellow Jacket underground nest advice

    Clearly pave the yard is the most practical.

    "Hey, Yachtzee, I'm a little curious why is that cement truck dumping tons of cement into your yard?"

    "I'm surprised you even have to ask. DIY yard work 101, pave your yard to remove a bees nest."
    "I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings."

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