I need help RIGHT NOW! Yellow jackets are eating my chicks alive!

[BarredRockMom]

Sugar water or soda in the bottom of a 2 liter. Just need a little. Then put a little funnel at top and boom, you got yourself a trap. You can also cut the top of the two liter off and flip it upside down to create the trap and duct tape it. Yellow jackets can't resist sugary drinks and will go in and drown.

Ok, not to sound too clueless here, but I'm not picturing the mechanism you're talking about when you say "You can also cut the top of the two liter off & flip it upside down to create the trap & duct tape it." I'm taping what to which & turning it how? Filling it with sugar water/soda? Because if you mean that I should cut the top off, flip it upside down & tape a funnel to the soda bottle...do you mean that I should turn it right side up again, fill it with liquid & then the trap is ready? So it's the same principle, just #2 has the funnel taped further down into the bottle, instead of at the neck?

And I'm guessing that I should put enough liquid in the bottom of the bottle to drown them? And that's what keeps them from flying out the way they came in? Because I've watched those little suckers go back into their nests & they are VERY precise. (One of the nests has them landing in TANDEM & they are spot on!) If they aren't dead, I can't imagine that a little funnel is going to stop them from getting out of the trap...

 

[LaynaDon95]

Hey guys! I don't know how many of you are still following this but Phantom is going great! I'm not sure if he's a boy or girl yet (because he's an an Easter Egger and it's always hard to tell for me until they get saddle/tail feathers or lay an egg.) but we'll go with boy for now, considering all the play fighting he does. His face is completely healed, though he doesn't have a left eye. He is living in a tractor currently with 4 other babies not much younger than him. He whipped up on them a little when he was still bigger than him so they don't bother him now. The other chickens still come over and tease him and pick fights. I'm a little worried if he'll ever fit in with the flock.

But he's alive and well! Just thought I'd let you know.

 

[BarredRockMom]

Hey guys! I don't know how many of you are still following this but Phantom is going great! I'm not sure if he's a boy or girl yet (because he's an an Easter Egger and it's always hard to tell for me until they get saddle/tail feathers or lay an egg.) but we'll go with boy for now, considering all the play fighting he does. His face is completely healed, though he doesn't have a left eye. He is living in a tractor currently with 4 other babies not much younger than him. He whipped up on them a little when he was still bigger than him so they don't bother him now. The other chickens still come over and tease him and pick fights. I'm a little worried if he'll ever fit in with the flock.

But he's alive and well! Just thought I'd let you know.

Oh good, thanks for the update! I was wondering how Phantom was doing! For anyone else following the Yellow Jacket saga, we decided to try a 50/50 mix of Dr Bronners Peppermint Soap poured on the nest & in the hole(s). Hubby found a site saying that Yellow Jackets breathe thru their exoskeletons (who knew?) and that the soap is just dense enough at a 50/50 mix to clog their microscopic respiration holes & they suffocate. So if it works, the up side is three fold: suffocation, no pesticide & they die smelling great. Will post a follow up in the next few days letting ya know if it worked. Had to stop hubby from just applying gasoline & a match on the heels of the soap mixture when they stung him tonight. I don't know what made him more mad...getting stung or putting back the gasoline & matches. "But honey, I have to know if it works. Please?" OH the grumbling!!!