hornets nest in hen house

[LynneP]

The last time we had one of those in the barn, we eased a black plastic garbage bag up around it and taped it to the sloping boards of the inner roof. Hubby cut a tiny hole into which he sprayed some Raid for wasps. We taped the hole and left it alone overnight and used a scraper to detach it from the inside of the loft roof the next day, sealing it in the garbage bag. I hope your nest is safely accessible, we were lucky.

 

[risurocket]

We are remodeling a shed that was an old coop in the distant past. Discovered that the wasps and hornets have taken over quite a bit inside the old ceiling, walls and stuff (all of which will, of course, be replaced.) So far they haven't bothered my DH who is doing the cleaning out of the junk in the shed.

I am hoping there are some suggestions for natural and/or organic ways to get rid of them? Our landlord who is letting us use the space has organic vegetable gardens all around the coop. I saw the post about professionals and it may come to that if we have any around here.

Since we don't have the chickens yet, can we just use good old RAID and let the stuff air out before we put up the new walls and ceiling? Please help...I am stressing a lot about our chicken prep. Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

 

[Beekissed]

You can use the soapy water thing in a Super Soaker squirt gun. Dawn dishwashing liquid was one of the only things that would work on the "killer bee" swarms some years ago that were threatening the US. The soap kills them on contact, from what I have read. Worth a "shot",

anyway. I would say it wouldn't be enough to coat the nest but would be more effective in the entrance of the hive/nest where the bees exit.

 

[Davaroo]

Hairspray and a cigarette lighter. Whoosh! Wasps terminated.

 

[countryboy]

do you have a shop vac? I've used ours several times and got everyone of them that were at the nest, doing it at night would be a good idea and it wouldn't hurt to shoot a little bug spray in the shop vac after you got them in there, it killed everyone of them when I did it.

 

[risurocket]

Hey great ideas all! Thanks! The supersoaker sounds fun, and we do have a shop vac, although I am not sure it is technically ours...

 

[kees]

The soapy idea is a great one. You might also try a strong solution of salt water and some water in a spritz bottle. That might help to dessicate the. The best time to get this is at night when they're in their nest. No one would help me so I used the spray foam for insulation, waited two days and then scraped the nest into bathroom garbage can with a cover, used the rest of the insulation spray, covered the lid on the can, wrapped it in a plastic bad and saved a lot of money. I carry an Epipen and was really scared but I saved a lot of money.

 

[spatcher]

I was told that a bee sting would kill a chicken. Anyone else heard this or experienced it?

 

[LynneP]

We had one of those in our loft, in a bad spot that could have resulted in contamination of hay if we were not careful. We taped a garbage bag around the nest, to the ceiling. Then we opened a tiny slit in the bag and used the tube on the hornet spray inside the bag. re-sealed it and left it a while until no more buzzing heard. Then we used a paint scraper to drop the nest into the bag and sealed that. Worked a treat!

If we did it again I'd try to use a clear plastic bag so we could see inside.

 

[kees]

Maybe it's time for me to borrow or buy a supersoaker. I found three paper wasp nests today and used a can of the stuff that's supposed to spray 25 feet away. (They only last for a couple of seconds.) I couldn't reach them any other way. I would have waited until dusk but my ladder didn't reach and I no one to hold onto it and almost fell down. My idea was to get that spray foam when they were inside and let them stay i there for a looong time. But alas, I could only reach one nest, and they were MAAAAD and the second nest barely got touched because there wasn't enough spray. I tried to get a spray bottle with saltwater or dishing detergent but most of the spray bottles don't work after a short amount of time. Sheesh. I've removed yellow jacket nests in the ground before and paper wasps nests w/o help but am worried because I carry an Epipen because I'm allergic to them. However, I'm on an extremely tight budget and no one wants to help me with this problem.