Getting rid of a Wasp nest

[jtraf]

Was having a chat with my mother last night and she advised that she has a wasp nest in the back yard of her house.  Now they have an acerage so it is some distance from the house but right next to her chicken coup.  The last time we got the Pro's out to get rid of the last nest it cost $400+ to do the job.

Does anybody have any home grown ways to kill the in ground wasp nest off.  short of pouring deisel and Petrol down and lighting it as there a safer way to do it.  At the moment may be an expensive option as the cost of fuel is HIGH just in case you haven't already noticed.  Obviously it has to be done at night when they are dormant otherwise they will attack.

PM if you dont want to post.

cheers
James

[Manjimike]

Hi James, with the wasps in a paper nest, I wait as you say 'til night and then give them a full on burst with a surface spray,

 
Mike

[Mace]

Ive used Bayer Ant/Wasp dust.

http://www.yates.com.au/products/pest-control/insects-ready-to-use/bayer-ant-wasp-dust/

Done at night with a full layering of clothes/gloves and a bit of netting over the head with a cap on!!  Got a couple of small stings thru the cotton shirt I had on, so wear a thick jumper as well. Looked like a stalker.  Colder night the better.  Use a torch with red cellophane over the lens.

Blow the dust down the entrance and around it.  The wasps take it deeper into the nest when they come and go.

European wasp time is a bit delayed this year due to lower temps, they have not been very active.

 

[MDS69]

OK so it's not the safe way to do it but I had a paper wasp nest about the size of a golf ball under the plastic seat on the kids swing. Fly spray and a lighter. Didn't melt the seat. It was just enough to singe the wings of the fast ones and roasted the slow ones.
I had another one next the the alarm/screamer box under the eaves and in front of a fly screen. Just used surface spray on this one through the fly screen as it was on the 2 storey part.

[austastar]

Hi,
  did it with the dust, at night, didn't get many flying around. Lots of 'guards' at the entrance but they didn't fly. (it was cold)
I also covered the torch with red cellophane as an additional precaution, not sure if it was needed or not, - never tried it any other way.

Next morning - insect carnage, dead and wounded lying every where.

The nest was totally dead the next day.

cheers

[Mace]

Yeah, the stuff works well on Euro's.

The only reason I got stung was that I was treating a nest behind weatherboards.  Whilst I was busily squirting the powder in an entrance up near the eaves, 100's of the little critters were flying out of another entrance near my crutch!!  They were not happy.

Luckily no important appendages were stung 

See this also:

http://www.mansfield.vic.gov.au/Libraries/Documents/EuropeanWasps.sflb.ashx

Euro Wasps are pretty agressive, not like other paper wasps and native ones.

EDIT:

$400 is a blatant rip off, Id travel 200k and do the job myself for that!!

When we had the business in Mansfield (which has a chronic Eoropean Wasp problem), the local pest controller used to charge High St businesses $30 each and then spend 3 or 4 days & nights finding and treating nests along Fords Creek, that ran behind the main shopping strip.

I think from memory one year (2006?) he found 48 nests.  Cost the businesses somewhere between $1000 and $1200 each year.

[morcon]

Not sure about wasps in the ground but the paper nests that hang from branches, eaves etc - I just use fly spray - day or night they don't seem to attack as they are too busy getting away from the spray.

[Mrs smith]

Had a nest of angry European wasps in the wood shed and fixed them with a flea bomb. Got a long peace of timber put three nails in it at one end to hold the can upright and in place cracked the can and slid it into the area (during the day) were the nest was and got out of there, even though in an open area killed them all (hundreds) My wood shed has two walls, sort of a lean two.

[duggie]

OK so it's not the safe way to do it but I had a paper wasp nest about the size of a golf ball under the plastic seat on the kids swing. Fly spray and a lighter. Didn't melt the seat. It was just enough to singe the wings of the fast ones and roasted the slow ones.

X2 any aerosol can and a lighter will do the job (test drive first). get the spray going first and then ignite the spray with the lighter and aim at the nest. gone in 0.60 seconds

[Dion]

We use a specific wasp killer product at work as wasp nests on our outdoor equipment is quite common.  It shots a jet quite a distance (not a mist like most spray cans) and kills them instantly.  No chance of getting stung and very effective.  I'd use that as a first pass and give it a few hits over time, or do that to at least neutralise the nest before adding the dust.

[Mace]

We use a specific wasp killer product at work as wasp nests on our outdoor equipment is quite common. 

Euopean wasps are not present in Northern Australia, they are restricted to TAS/Vic/SA and southern NSW.

These suckers build large nests in wall cavities and underground, not readilly accessible.  All you can see if you are lucky is an opening hole. A nest can be a metre or more wide and contain thousands of wasps.

Treatment of large nests by aerosols is not an option.

[jtraf]

Will go buy a couple containers of the dust and give it a whirl tonight. Will feel all commando like with long overalls, net face protection and red lens torch. They won't know what hit them!!!

Thanks guys.

[Redback]

Just a bit of info, the reason it's best to get them at night, is because wasps and bees can't fly at night, because they can't see.

WD40 works well.

Baz.

[GGV8Cruza]

Will go buy a couple containers of the dust and give it a whirl tonight. Will feel all commando like with long overalls, net face protection and red lens torch. They won't know what hit them!!!

Thanks guys.

Just remember,

 

[Brettscrew]

Growmaster ant killer dust will do the job. Make sure you do it at night though and if you have something red to put over your torch light put it on apparently they can see white light but not red.

[Moto Mech]

When I was a kid up on the farm there was a very large colony of wasps in a rabbit burrow. I took a 10lt drum of petrol and poured most of it down the hole and left a little to make a trail well back from the burrow. Let the fumes spread out a bit then lit it. And that my friends was the end of the wasp problem, and it looked pretty good too

[kiwipete]

x2 for Petrol

It is the cheapest and the best IMHO 

If have killed quite a number of European Wasp Nests and I have only ever used about a litre of petrol...  Works everytime...   But's gets ackward when they are in the roof or under floor boards, when I was in NZ'd I got rid of one under floor with a Borer Bomb but that was a while ago now so I don't know of another product that would do the same....   Another one under house took about a week to get it,  the only access to it was the vent in the brick work,  but I used Petrol in a small container that I set near enough to their entrance that I either killed them or they gave up....

Methanol Does not work..  Pesticides   arruuugh    Only let the experts use those 

These wasps are extremely dangerous as the sting repeatedly and people can be allergic to their sting just like bee stings so be careful.... 


As a young Boy a a school hostel I was on detention for smoking (gave that away) and we had to dig a garden after dinner, it was getting dark when I put my spade into a wasp nest.  I was luck I only got one sting on the ankle but as I ran the other boys where hitting them off my back...  When we returned the spade was completely covered in wasp...  Needless to say the manager took to it with Petrol and it was gone the next day... 

[loshde]

Got a couple of small stings thru the cotton shirt I had on


Mate,   you obviously just weren't running fast enough. 

We normally spray them very as much as we can as fast as we can, all the while getting ready to bolt.  Very few times we've been caught, but they really do need a fair dose of spray (makes it harder for them to chase you).  And yes, of course it hurts like hell if you get caught, but it's no worse than getting caught by them unsuspectingly.

Good Luck

[markymark]

I've destroyed 2 nests (european wasps) over the last 2 summers and tried a different way each time and both worked. Both nests were in the ground near a dam.

The first nest I used a normal can of fly spray and a pack of Mortein surface spray. Did it at night and used a normal torch. I sprayed the fly spray first knocking the guards back into the nest and just kept it going until there was liquid goo everywhere. Then I started pumping in the surface spray until it was empty. Took a while and I could hear the angry buggers in the ground, I'm glad there was only one entrance! The next morning there were quite a few dead ones in and around the entrance but the majority died under the ground.

The second nest I used a jerry can of petrol with spout attached and metal pipe about a meter long. Had the fly spray handy but didn't need it. Gently placed the pipe at the entrance and started pouring in the petrol as soon as the pipe touched the ground. Not one wasp escaped and I put around 10 litres in, then covered the entrance with soil. Didn't light it, no need to as the fumes do the job.

The next day there was nothing, no dead ones, no buzzing, no more nest!

There's another nest this year but I'm about to move house so I'm too busy.

Mark.

[meimarocu]

We get the paper one's from time to time.
I just give them a squirt with bug spray and remove myself from the area asap(read "BOLT").
Give it a bit (15mins) and go back. Generaly there gone and i snip nest away.
If their still there i repeat.Never had to do it more than twice.

Cheers Ian

[fuji]

What Mace has suggested and others. Works a treat!
Wayne

[fishfinder]

paper wasp nests i tie a rag on the end of a broom handle soak it in petrol set alight and place it under the nest just before sunset first things that burn are their wings so no chance of attacking you and I like the noise they make as the hit the ground

[Campfire]

This forum thread would be a lot more fun to discuss if we were all in the good old US of A.

Over there flame throwers are legal.........


Campfire 

[Kit_e_kat9]

paper wasp nests i tie a rag on the end of a broom handle soak it in petrol set alight and place it under the nest just before sunset first things that burn are their wings so no chance of attacking you and I like the noise they make as the hit the ground

This is also my dad's method, passed from generation to generation.  Dad's allergic to them so he doesn't like to get close.  I'm allergic to actually getting bitten so I don't like to get close.  Works for us.  We prefer any time of day they are spotted to remove them immediately.

Kit_e

[Stormchaser]

The perfect solution...............