Well that wasn't fun

[Ascholten]

Its in the garage id have to look but it comes in a brown bottle with a yellow cap. What I do is I use a fork to poke holes into the paper seal on the bottle so it's like a huge salt shaker, get to a nest flip the bottle and bang bang bang all over the hill. Next day same thing, for 3 to 4 days until they are finally dead. The number of ants in some of these nests amazes me sometimes. Too bad the chickens won't touch them, but I don't blame them one bit for that TBH. It also never fails either that the moment you goto shake the poison, the wind picks up, ALWAYS aiming for your ankles.

Anyone got an Aardvark I can borrow?

Aaron

 

[3KillerBs]

Its in the garage id have to look but it comes in a brown bottle with a yellow cap. What I do is I use a fork to poke holes into the paper seal on the bottle so it's like a huge salt shaker, get to a nest flip the bottle and bang bang bang all over the hill. Next day same thing, for 3 to 4 days until they are finally dead. The number of ants in some of these nests amazes me sometimes. Too bad the chickens won't touch them, but I don't blame them one bit for that TBH. It also never fails either that the moment you goto shake the poison, the wind picks up, ALWAYS aiming for your ankles.

Anyone got an Aardvark I can borrow?

Aaron

The kind we get comes in a shaker bottle. Very handy.

 

[Brooks_]

You might live in the south if you carry a bottle of Amdro on your lawnmower and keep another next to the front door.

Before chickens I had several bottles placed for easy access. I still keep cans of Off strategically placed.

 

[Isadora]

Thanks! Me, too. Hubby sprayed me off with a hose.

Did you follow @3KillerBs protocol?

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Wasps love our coops. They're non-aggressive, so I left them alone until the side of a hen's face swelled up one day with no other symptoms. I deduced she had taste-tested a wasp and figured they had to go.

Not a fan of pesticides near the birds, but we're beekeepers, so I put on a bee suit and scraped a total of 5 wasp nests from 2 coops into 5 tupperware-type containers, slapping on covers before the wasps could fly out. The few who escaped didn't even come after me, which was a nice surprise. I rubbed peppermint oil where each nest had been.

I wasn't in the mood to kill things so set the containers on a log a few hundred feet from the chickenyard. When I peeled off the covers, the wasps abandoned their tupperware nests and flew back to the coops. Doh! I guess I thought the pheronomes of their brood in the nests would keep them with the tupperware, but that was wrong.

Luckily, they didn't end up rebuilding in the coops. Two groups did move out to build nests in one of the coop runs, but they aren't near roosts, chicken faces, or where we might hit them, so they're still there.

Our chickens hang out with ton of honey bees, but they don't eat them. When the flock was very young, they used to peck at bees but must've decided they aren't worth the bother because now they just co-exist.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

OH lord, that yellow jacket nest brings bad memories of my childhood. Walking through the woods and stepped on an underground nest.

The alcohol, should evaporate pretty quickly and should not leave a residue, but wasps, what if swallowing one a stinger got caught? I honestly don't know, still I think you did the right thing getting rid of them so they didn't try to gobble them.

fire ants, THOSE things!! They should make them the Official State Pest in Florida here ! Yes they will tear you up pretty bad. The initial stings may go away in a half hour or so but a few days later when the bites get all pussy, blistery, or worse if you have allergies to them, then it can get real bad.

Ive seen chickens eat bees before, but a bee is pretty ... harmless, they do not generally go out of their way to sting you, probably because they know it's a death sentence where wasps / hornets, that ilk, don't care because it can whap you over and over again. Maybe bees are sweeter too That honey thing!

Aaron

Good thing you are in North America. As a kid in South Africa I learned bees are not like in the cartoons when they killed our next door neighbors, their dogs and all their chickens.

Don't even get me started on wasps, I see those and leave the scene like the Roadrunner cartoon bird.

Africa is a beautiful place, sadly most things you see can possibly kill you stone dead.

 

[Folly's place]

Michigan is the garden state! No tropical storms, no big earthquakes, horrible droughts, or frequent fires. Only one small, rare pit viper, our only poisonous snake.
Nice varied seasons (sometimes the same week!) and space to move around.
Why people are flocking to the coasts and drought country makes no sense to me. But fine, don't come here in droves...
Mary

 

[Aunt Angus]

Michigan is the garden state! No tropical storms, no big earthquakes, horrible droughts, or frequent fires. Only one small, rare pit viper, our only poisonous snake.
Nice varied seasons (sometimes the same week!) and space to move around.
Why people are flocking to the coasts and drought country makes no sense to me. But fine, don't come here in droves...
Mary

I've visited. VERY beautiful state, for sure! But where I live I can go skiing and surfing in the same day. Or to the desert. Or to big, exciting cities. Or to the forest with the world's tallest trees. Sure, there are fires, but that's the trade off for living among the Sweet Pines.

 

[Ascholten]

Speaking of strategically placed can's of stuffs...
When it comes to wasp spray, I want them DEAD, and NOW!!
This stupid water based or organic crap. Whomever came up with that needs to have a hornets nest placed in their nether regions and THAT is what they get to use to make them go away!!

Wet angry wasps, with you standing there slack jawed wondering what that cloud is forming around your head, as the organic goo jooce is dribbling down your elbow from the clogged can of gomer B gone... NOT what I want on my tombstone....

Aaron

 

[Folly's place]

'Fast kill' is my plan too! Sometimes it's necessary to actually use the really good stuff...
Mary