How to get rid of Yellowjackets?

[Sally PB]

I had two small wasp nests in my run. I waited until after lockup (dusk) and drenched the nests with a 10% permethrin spray. Any that fell into the run were crushed underfoot, scooped up and removed.

I have a yellow jacket nest in my garden (I thought YJs nested in the ground?). I will try dumping a 10% permethrin solution on the opening. My thought is to put a bucket with holes drilled in the bottom over the opening and dump a gallon of the solution into the bucket. And then run.

 

[lagrange chicks]

I have been using seven dust for garden plants, I put it where the yellow jackets go in a hole or where they have gaps getting in a shed or building. The dust gets on them and they carry it to the nest and it kills the nest also. Be careful at night they have guards that watch the nest at night and do attack, found out the hard way.

 

[Tunie B]

I have been using seven dust for garden plants, I put it where the yellow jackets go in a hole or where they have gaps getting in a shed or building. The dust gets on them and they carry it to the nest and it kills the nest also. Be careful at night they have guards that watch the nest at night and do attack, found out the hard way.

Oh my, this is my fear

 

[Tunie B]

I had two small wasp nests in my run. I waited until after lockup (dusk) and drenched the nests with a 10% permethrin spray. Any that fell into the run were crushed underfoot, scooped up and removed.

I have a yellow jacket nest in my garden (I thought YJs nested in the ground?). I will try dumping a 10% permethrin solution on the opening. My thought is to put a bucket with holes drilled in the bottom over the opening and dump a gallon of the solution into the bucket. And then run.

I looked into permethrin, but it is very toxic to cats and I have several that follow me into the barn daily.

 

[Apis mellifera]

At night, tie wire or duct tape the end of a vacuum hose next to the nest entrance. Use an extension cord and turn the vacuum on but dont plug it in until the following morning and sun is up. Let it run for an hour or so and the yellow jacket will be dead in the vac.

 

[HeritageFan]

I really like the orkin wasp foaming spray.... our local Home Depot stocks it.
It goes where you want it to go. Foams up sort of like shaving “cream” once you hit your target. Any wasps that come out, get coated in the foam and die pretty quickly. And has a good 15-20’ reach from the can. We have a lot of nests in the eves of our house, wood shed, barn, and coops. The spray also works well for nests in trees, and may need a second application for ground hives but is still by far the best I’ve found.
The traps do nothing this time of the year IMO.
And my pools for the ducks, and water founts for the turkeys, are completely innundated rn. Idk where you live- but this is a horrible year for wasps and hornets in the PNW

If anyone has any thoughts on how to discourage the little pests from coming to the open waterers that the turkeys and ducks need, please speak up!
I’m so frustrated!
The birds don’t seem to be particularly bothered yet, but I also know that yellowjackets and bald faced hornets (our most frequent “visitors”) become more aggressive in the fall as the nights get more cool

Also. To the OP
I’m not clear on where exactly your nests are....
if they are outside the coop- I suggest the spray, and then hose the area down well before letting them out in the morning.
if they are inside the coop area....I’d wait for a cool night,leave the birds in the run later than normal (and ignore their protests!), hit the wasps w a solid stream from a sprayer nozzle on a hose.... with long pants, boots, and a long sleeve short on, and kill the stunned a**holes w a boot or the wide side of a broom.

Or. Option 2 if the nests are in the coop-
Put your crew out early in the am.
Spray the nests with your birds outside, let the bees fall down and the foam stop dripping, and then scrape out the coop well (to clean up dead wasps and and residual spray), and hose it out/ close them out for the day.
Add heavy bedding before bed time just to be safe.

At least. That’s what I would do...
Horrible little angry things.... I’m always happy to dispatch them

 

[Sally PB]

At night, tie wire or duct tape the end of a vacuum hose next to the nest entrance. Use an extension cord and turn the vacuum on but dont plug it in until the following morning and sun is up. Let it run for an hour or so and the yellow jacket will be dead in the vac.

The yellow jacket nest in the garden is past the reach of any extension cord, unfortunately.

I don't have any cats, though there are a couple (?) ferals around. The garden is well fenced, and I have never seen a cat inside, so they should be safe from permethrin.

 

[lagrange chicks]

This time of year the yellow jackets are looking for meat, you can make a trap with a cake pan type tray and a board with chicken or fish afixed to the board. The board would be turned upside down on the tray with the tray filled with water about 1" from the meat. When the yellow jackets come for the bait they land on the board and crawl to the bait but after feeding they fly off into the water and they drown. The board should be a couple inches narrower then the tray.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

We have yellowjackets, underground Hornets that are like 1 and a 1/2 inches big if no bigger, normal bees, and paper wasps.
My dad is severly allergic to bees so when we moved in we found the only way to get ride of the underground bees was dumping gallons of bleach on them. We dont have as many now but we do have some.
We have some bee traps from a local hardware store they work good for the normal bees. But not for anything else.
The paper wasps you can wait till it gets colder outside and then just remove them from the location then spray them as the bees could still be alive just its so cold they dont move.
For the yellowjackets we have tried everything, traps, sprays, a powder, bleach. It just seems like nests rebuild and rebuild. Somebody told us to try and smoke them out, but we haven't tried it yet.

You could spray the nest and then clean out the coop well. But they will rebuild elsewhere.

 

[lagrange chicks]

Years ago (before knowing about seven dust) I would kill yellow jacket ground nest with gas and wait a minute after pouring in the hole and light it. Do not need much gas as the fumes go and fill all voids and burns them up. The seven dust is much easier, just pour in the hole and your done, re-apply if the dust gets wet. A day or 2 and the nest is dead.