Three Hornet Nests, One Tree. Time to call a pro?

A couple of days ago, I noticed that the tree in my front yard has a volleyball-sized hornet nest. Fortunately, I noticed this before I mowed the lawn, but unfortunately, I noticed that there are two more nests in the same tree.

I picked up some Ortho ProSelect Hornet and Wasp killer, which seems to foam when it hits something. (I tried it out on a wasp nest I had in my back yard, and it seemed to work well)

Having never dealt with hornets before, I was pretty alarmed by the bottle's instructions telling me to run away after spraying the nest. And now that I've done some research, it looks like hornets will let off an attack pheromone when they die.

So with that in mind, if I go out at dusk and take out the big nest first, am I risking having the other two nests coming after me? There's just no way I can take out all three at once, and I can't recruit my wife to help me, because she's already telling me to call an exterminator.

Assuming I'm (relatively) safe doing one nest at a time, where the heck do I get one of those beekeeper helmets?

 

Even before reading your message my first thought was that spraying any one nest will immediately trigger an attack from the other two. There's no way I'd chance it.

Once temps hit about 50 degrees hornets and wasps become sluggish and have trouble flying. If you decide to take them on do it in the late evening hours when it's cooler and when they'll all be in the nest resting. Concentrate the spray on the entrance of the nest. Have your running shoes on and a camcorder handy to capture any priceless moments of terror.

Or, if you can afford to wait for a couple months they'll start dying off on their own in the autumn.

 

good luck - the wife and tape it!! if you do it yourself consider spraying in teh early morning - maybe 6:00. everyone says to wait until night - around here it's warmer at 9:00pm than it is at 6:00am - i have done that numerous times - but never with a volleyball size nest.

 

I'm going to say something you may never see me say again

You might want to think about calling an exterminator

Not only do hornets release the attack pheromone the scout can follow the air vortex back to the source of the attack on the nest

If you must do this make sure you have a protective suit and have the wind at your back when you attack and run fast into the wind if they attack

Do it when it is cool either late at night or early in the morning, my preference is early morning

I routinely treated yellow jacket nests with no suit and only a hand duster, getting to within inches of the exit holes of the nest

There is no way I would go up against a trio of hornet nests like that