Wasps (outdoor)

I just moved into a new house and have lovely ceder fencing all around the property. Needless to say, the yellowjackets just love the fencing material because they can chew it up and make nests out of it all under the overhangs of my house.

Is there a way to prevent being divebombed by wasps everytime I walk outside? I see a few abandoned nests around the roof overhangs but I dont see any live nests. Do the wasp traps work or do they just attract them?

I even found an abandoned nest iside the tube of my satellite dish.

My wife is also allergic to bees.

 

Old, empty nests can be knocked down. Active nests are best treated after the sun sets when bees are inside. There are aerosol insecticides that shoot a jet stream to reach nests that are up high like under eaves. If you have any gaps or openings, you may discover that wasps may be nesting in wall voids. You will need to puff powdered insecticide in the openings. Check your attic, too, to make sure they haven't found their way in there. Inspect your lawn for underground yellow jacket nests. Mark entrances so you can return at dusk. You will need to inject powdered insecticide in the entry. Six or seven puffs should do the job. Drione Dust is effective.

Yellow jackets have a reputation for being dangerous. Pour 4 to 8 ounces of Cypermethrin insecticide concentrate into your hose end sprayer and attach to hose. Spray the fence, flower beds, bushes, the lawn, and anywhere you think yellowjackets could be. This is best done at dusk after the bees have nested. Repeat applications will be necessary, especially after it rains. Spray the outside of your home 3 or 4 times a year. This will take care of spiders and other bug problems.

Keep bee sting kits on hand for your wife.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG3732.html

 

First you need to establish whether you have bees, wasps or hornets

It sounds like you paper wasps
The best way to treat them is with a longterm residual that had contact kill

Pyrethrins or pyrethroid are the best bet make sure the formulation is WP, CS, or SC for long residual on porus surfaces
Tempo WP would probably be the best OTC


Treat them in the early evening, cooler weather are rain is also a good time

use a compressed air sprayer and stand up wind with a clear escape path.It is much harder for Hymenopterans to fly into the wind and it keeps the overspray from getting you

If you should get stung don't stand there a scream run and scream a pheromone is released that tells every it's brethren to sting
Also if they get near don't start flailing around with your arms
Most people are stung when they trap the insect in the vortex caused by the arm swinging
Also be aware that they can follow the disturbed air flow back to the source of that spray, another reason to be upwind

 

They are paper wasps, I guess you would call them. Yellow and black with yellow legs.

Are these sprays very poisonous to people and pets? How long does it take to kill them after they come into contact with a treated fence?

I have a can of Raid wasp spray in the shed but I dont know where their nest is so I doubt it would do much good.

How far away from the nest do these things go for food and wood material?

Oh, for the first time ever, I clicked on a google ad related to what I am looking for. Support the DIY forums

 

Actually, from reading the descriptions and pics on that google ad site, I think they are paper wasps, not yellowjackets.

 

But, you describe the yellow jackets munching on the cedar fence to make their nests. Did you copy the link in my previous post and paste it in your address bar and click Go. This is a helpful article about identification and control.

Now, copy and paste this link in your address bar and click Go to see pictures that may help you narrow down your identification.

http://www.ento.vt.edu/Facilities/OnCampus/IDLab/id/id-bee_w.html

Once you figure out what you have, let us know. Based on your description, you have yellow jackets and paper wasps. Paper wasps are not yellow and black with black legs.

Now that you have discovered how to Google, you can type in paper wasps, yellow jackets, carpenter bees, bumble bees, and hornets. Look for pictures and read descriptions and let us know what you have.

 

Sorry, I skimmed right over that link, checking it out now. What I'm seeing look most like the paper wasp in the picture on the right on that first link. The upside down umbrella shaped nest is exactly what I have under my roof overhang. Do they hang around their nest much? Because I never see any activity at the nest but I do in the general area of it. That umbrella nest and the dish nest are within 2 feet of eachother. I need to dig out my Raid wasp spray. We just moved here so Im still looking for things.

I also have a (abandoned?) nest inside the tube of an old satellite dish. All I can see is paper honey comb shaped cells inside the tube. Im not sure paper wasps make nests like that. Maybe I have both types. I was about to pull the dish down to replace it with a Dish Network brand dish, saw paper honeycomb cells inside the tube and I got the Heck off that roof. Im assuming it was a dead nest since I was swinging around by the dish without getting stung.

 

After the paper wasp nest season is over the nests are abandoned. I get them all the time at my mountain cabin. I can stand on the deck and knock them off with my hoe. Active ones, I knock off with my hoe after dark and make a made dash into the yard just in case I incite a riot.

Still not understanding the issue re: yellow jackets munching your fence?

 

Yea. Chewing up the wood fibers to make nests out of. It might be the paper wasps I see doing this. They love the old dry wood. You never see them do this?

Im in western Washington if it makes a difference. Ive seen yellow jackets make big football shaped nests like hornets too. Not at this house, but at the house I lived when I was a kid. They were definately black and yellow, not black and white like hornets.

My brother and I loved to torment wasp nests when we were young. Douse them with the garden hose, throw rocks and such. I think karma is coming back to sting me in the @ss

 

You must identify what you are dealing with. Paper wasps are not going to snack on your wood fence.

Black and yellow! That can mean honey bees! Certainly don't want to mess with those darlings! Bumble bees? These black and yellow pests inhabit nests in old rodent burrows, under porches and in wall voids.

Carpenter bees? Looks like a bumble bee look-alike that has a shiny, all-black abdomen but they are solitary and drill little 1/2 inch holes everywhere in wood and bore tunnels deep inside to lay eggs.

Paper wasps can be identified in a snap by umbrella shaped nest. There are many varieties, but the typeical one is about 3/4" long and reddish borown. Nests are usually small, but big ones can accommodate 75 wasps. They abandon nests at the end of the season and may seek shelter inside your habitat.

Yellow jackets are commonly called wasps. They are black and yellow. They can construct paper nests up to several feet across that contain combs arranged like a condo inside a paper envelope which can be outside or inside the ground. They can infest lawns, voids in homes. They are attracted to sweet drinks and sweets in trash in the lawn and trash. Yellow jackets are horrible stingers.

And, there are also bald-faced hornets and cicada killers, which I don't think you have. The important thing is to identify what you have, where they nest, and how to deal with them.

Now that we know where you live, you can contact your local Cooperative Extension Service re: problems in your area and recommended controls. Your Cooperative Extension Service is a wonderful resource of info for everything in your homeowner world of agricultural science. As an old Master Gardener, I can't praise them enough.

 

Oops, I didnt realize there was an outdoor pest section. Think you could move this discussion over there for me?

 

Wasps and hornets make their nest from plant material and saliva so both might chew on the fence

Wasps are slender and make open faced single story inverted nests which will hang under a cover of some sort
Active nests should have a white paper like cover over some or all of the cells

Hornets are thicker bodied close relatives of wasp
The nests are usually enclosed but can be either above opr below ground anywhere protected from rain