How to get rid of a wasp nest and keep them from biulding agian?

[Arztwolf]

My coops are basically a 10x10 dog kennel with a prefab chicken coop inside, encased in chicken wire and with a kennel cover and two tarps. I have a really hard time keeping the wasps/hornets from building their nests in the corners or the ceiling.

How do I get rid of them without harming my flock?

 

[Bryant Redhawk]

Window screen material (make sure it is metal, I've had wasp chew through the other materials) works pretty well. If they can't get in they can't build a nest. There are also fly catcher birds that love to eat wasps, if you can invite these to nest nearby, they will help a lot with eradication of wasps.

 

[Arztwolf]

Problem is, I keep the coop door open during the day so they can come and go at will, but I'll see if I can figure something out with the screens.

How do I attract a fly catcher?

 

[Bryant Redhawk]

Large Tree:
Gumbo Limbo (Bursera simaruba), with its smooth, reddish, peeling bark, grows in the hardwood forests of South Florida. Flycatchers and other birds feed heavily on its small fruits. Eastern, Western and Gray Kingbirds, along with Great Crested and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers visit during March and early April

Live oak (Quercus virginiana), a stately native of southeastern United States, is a favorite of woodpeckers, especially the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, as well as many other insect-eating birds. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds feed on the pollen. The leaves are the larval food of the gorgeous, iridescent blue white-M hairstreak, a fast-flying native butterfly, while the acorns are eaten by gray squirrels, blue-jays and woodpeckers.

Medium Trees:
Coffee colubrina (Colubrina arborescens) produces clusters of tiny greenish flowers which give off a sweet odor detectable from great distances, attracting an abundance of insects, mainly nectar-seeking bees and wasps. Flycatchers, gnatcatchers and warblers abound during its extensive flowering season, taking advantage of the cornucopia of insects drawn to the flowers.

These are the main attractors, but if you build a small, dense area of bushes you will find that birds will come and make homes there, which can only help.

On Buzzard's Roost, we have clearings surrounded by forest, this helps us with keeping the beneficial animals around quite a bit. This year we had a two month period (April and May) where we had no wasps, now that the heat is here they are coming back, unfortunately the flycatchers appear to have moved on, but we are now starting to see other wasp eating birds begin to show up. I know the problem your having and if I come up with a real solution I will post it for everyone.

 

[centrarchid]

I leave most wasp nest alone unless in a high traffic area where they cause problems. I would not consider them a problem for the birds as mine would eat them if the could reach them. When a nest is problematic I go out at night with a block of wood or shoe and smash the nest with brood and adults all at once. Smash those that fall to ground. Re-nesting will not occur until next spring.

 

[TerryPy]

I live in Texas "the south". No one knows why it works but porches and eaves on old homes including my 100yr old house are a med sky blue. I get wasps on the window frames, etc. but never on my 12 x 34' porch or eaves. Perhaps turning the blue side of a tarp downward? Might be to dark a blue but worth a try.

 

[Arztwolf]

Large Tree:
Gumbo Limbo (Bursera simaruba), with its smooth, reddish, peeling bark, grows in the hardwood forests of South Florida. Flycatchers and other birds feed heavily on its small fruits. Eastern, Western and Gray Kingbirds, along with Great Crested and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers visit during March and early April

Live oak (Quercus virginiana), a stately native of southeastern United States, is a favorite of woodpeckers, especially the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, as well as many other insect-eating birds. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds feed on the pollen. The leaves are the larval food of the gorgeous, iridescent blue white-M hairstreak, a fast-flying native butterfly, while the acorns are eaten by gray squirrels, blue-jays and woodpeckers.

Medium Trees:
Coffee colubrina (Colubrina arborescens) produces clusters of tiny greenish flowers which give off a sweet odor detectable from great distances, attracting an abundance of insects, mainly nectar-seeking bees and wasps. Flycatchers, gnatcatchers and warblers abound during its extensive flowering season, taking advantage of the cornucopia of insects drawn to the flowers.

These are the main attractors, but if you build a small, dense area of bushes you will find that birds will come and make homes there, which can only help.

On Buzzard's Roost, we have clearings surrounded by forest, this helps us with keeping the beneficial animals around quite a bit. This year we had a two month period (April and May) where we had no wasps, now that the heat is here they are coming back, unfortunately the flycatchers appear to have moved on, but we are now starting to see other wasp eating birds begin to show up. I know the problem your having and if I come up with a real solution I will post it for everyone.

I don't think any of those will grow here. I live 300 miles from the Mexican border and our soil is poor.

I leave most wasp nest alone unless in a high traffic area where they cause problems. I would not consider them a problem for the birds as mine would eat them if the could reach them. When a nest is problematic I go out at night with a block of wood or shoe and smash the nest with brood and adults all at once. Smash those that fall to ground. Re-nesting will not occur until next spring.

It really isn't bothersome, I was just worried they might hurt the chickens. It's in the far corner where no one goes. I'll probably weight till the winter and then get rid of it when they're all gone.

I live in Texas "the south". No one knows why it works but porches and eaves on old homes including my 100yr old house are a med sky blue. I get wasps on the window frames, etc. but never on my 12 x 34' porch or eaves. Perhaps turning the blue side of a tarp downward? Might be to dark a blue but worth a try.

The blue side is down.