How to get rid of Yellowjackets?

[Evadig]

We blasted ours out with a Roman Candle and gasoline

 

[DLA]

That sounds so satisfying! I would have loved to do that but I didn't want to burn my run down.

 

[LittleSilkieFarmer]

I have a crappy pre-fab coop that is within a cow shed that I have put doors on and renovated. There’s a Yellowjacket nest on the pre-fab—as I discovered when I opened the egg door and got stung on my neck/face/arms.

I want to knock the nest down at night and then drag the pre-fab coop out in a few days when the little jerks wander off. It’s not a big nest, but it doesn’t take many to really **** up your day, lol.

How hard is this?? I do not relish the idea of getting stung more/again.

RESCUE! WHY Trap for Wasps, Hornets, & Yellowjackets – Hanging Outdoor Trap - 2 Traps https://a.co/d/45ARkPqThe smell of peppermint is a yellow jacket repellant. Combine a few drops of pure peppermint oil, a few tablespoons of dish soap and warm water in a spray bottle. Locate any active wasp nests and carefully spray the concoction around the entrance. Reapply every few days until the wasps have left the nest. That's what I do! Wasp traps also work well! I use these traps! They are reusable and have worked really well for keeping wasps,yellow jackets, and even carpenter bees away! They can be found on Amazon Here! Hopefully this link works! They are a little pricy but they have worked for me for over a year without needing to be replaced.

 

[R Wind]

Thinking out loud ... I wonder how the reverse would work. If one were to keep a high-powered fan blowing across the nest, would that make it impossible for them to return to the nest and force them to relocate/die/whatever?

Sorry I didn't see this before, and need to read the rest of the thread after my post. At first, just blowing the insects away seems attractive. No killing of insects. ( Are yellow jackets at all beneficial? Dangerous to have around a home, though.)

Second thoughts:

...Would the ones still in the nest find another way out?
...Also, the "fan" would have to be run 24 /7 for how long? If you stop it, the ones left outside will then return to the nest, and meanwhile will be angry and swarm around the area?

With the way my spouse did it, vacuuming up as they try to leave or enter, we only ran the shopvac for a time around dawn and dusk when they enter and leave, collecting any who try to use the entrance. They just never come home...

(Btw, can you feed the yellow jackets collected in the vac to the chickens once they are dead? New Chick'n owner here.)

 

[R Wind]

Spray wasp killer on them and run away quickly thats our expert method here in wasp country we recently took out a giant Yellowjacket nest with the same method

"Run Away! Run Away!"

Admittedly, this is our method for wasp nests that are in the open on porch and house eaves where the poison will be extremely localized. At dusk. And making sure of our escape path before spraying!

We only used the shopvac method on the nest that yellow jackets built in the walls of our house, via an outdoor power outlet, and only after trying multiple other methods including poison at the entrance, for 2 years. The nest was too deep in the walls, guess it stayed intact with live wasps or had a second entrance we never discovered.

The shopvac on a timer worked when all else failed. I think I remember we left it for more than a week? Covered onr detached the vac from the long pipe run once for rain, then back in the job again. Will ask spouse how long it was, but practically, just leave it set up until there are no more comings and goings.

 

[DLA]

"Run Away! Run Away!"

Admittedly, this is our method for wasp nests that are in the open on porch and house eaves where the poison will be extremely localized. At dusk. And making sure of our escape path before spraying!

We only used the shopvac method on the nest that yellow jackets built in the walls of our house, via an outdoor power outlet, and only after trying multiple other methods including poison at the entrance, for 2 years. The nest was too deep in the walls, guess it stayed intact with live wasps or had a second entrance we never discovered.

The shopvac on a timer worked when all else failed. I think I remember we left it for more than a week? Covered onr detached the vac from the long pipe run once for rain, then back in the job again. Will ask spouse how long it was, but practically, just leave it set up until there are no more comings and goings.

Sorry I didn't see this before, and need to read the rest of the thread after my post. At first, just blowing the insects away seems attractive. No killing of insects. ( Are yellow jackets at all beneficial? Dangerous to have around a home, though.)

Second thoughts:

...Would the ones still in the nest find another way out?
...Also, the "fan" would have to be run 24 /7 for how long? If you stop it, the ones left outside will then return to the nest, and meanwhile will be angry and swarm around the area?

With the way my spouse did it, vacuuming up as they try to leave or enter, we only ran the shopvac for a time around dawn and dusk when they enter and leave, collecting any who try to use the entrance. They just never come home...

(Btw, can you feed the yellow jackets collected in the vac to the chickens once they are dead? New Chick'n owner here.)

Yellow jackets are omnivores so they help cleaning up dead animals and they can also do some pollination and I'm usually into letting nature do it's thing whenever possible. I draw the line at two things and opt for the kill them before they get me or my flock option - raccoons or possums trying to get into my coop/run and yellow jackets. I had a fan blowing all day right on where the nest I recently got rid of was and it did nothing to stop them. Neem oil dumped on the nest (which is safe for use around chickens) killed them within 24 hours. If the nest wasn't next to my run I would have gone for the scorched earth option like @Evadig recommended by using gasoline and a roman candle and enjoyed watching them burn. I was recently stung and while the severe pain has subsided I am still suffering the intense itching that nothing seems to help for long so I have zero tolerance for yellow jackets right now!
btw - I wouldn't feed dead yellow jackets to chickens, that venom in their stings could still be active. They might not eat them, mine seem pretty keen to avoid bees of any kind.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Curious about the neem oil. Is the neem oil specific, or could possibly any oil do, like cooking oil or mineral oil? Is neem oil specifically toxic to wasps or is it a mechanical thing that the oil coats their wings or suffocates them? Anybody?

 

[DLA]

Curious about the neem oil. Is the neem oil specific, or could possibly any oil do, like cooking oil or mineral oil? Is neem oil specifically toxic to wasps or is it a mechanical thing that the oil coats their wings or suffocates them? Anybody?

Neem oil kills a variety of insects, it's a natural pesticide. I'd never used it on wasps before but it kills just about every other insect I've used it on and it's not harmful to chickens so I figured what the heck, why not try that since the nest was at the end of the run.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Thanks.

 

[Suzz]

"Run Away! Run Away!"

Admittedly, this is our method for wasp nests that are in the open on porch and house eaves where the poison will be extremely localized. At dusk. And making sure of our escape path before spraying!

We only used the shopvac method on the nest that yellow jackets built in the walls of our house, via an outdoor power outlet, and only after trying multiple other methods including poison at the entrance, for 2 years. The nest was too deep in the walls, guess it stayed intact with live wasps or had a second entrance we never discovered.

The shopvac on a timer worked when all else failed. I think I remember we left it for more than a week? Covered onr detached the vac from the long pipe run once for rain, then back in the job again. Will ask spouse how long it was, but practically, just leave it set up until there are no more comings and goings.

Sounds like a pain in the a_ _ that was a good solution