Household products or solutions for hornet's nest (when stores are closed)

I thought this would be an interesting topic as it came up last night.
During the week, the stores close around 6PM in our small town.
A friend of mine discovered a large hornet's nest under her wooded deck/stairs.

The only can of insect killer I had (not even hornet/bee stuff) was only good to throw at something as the propellant was long gone.

What solution or common house hold product would you guys suggest to use in a case like this?



What we did will not be valid for everyone in most areas (and probably not safe), so alternative solutions would be a good idea.

What we did is use the cool nights to our advantage. Enjoyed a cool beverage or two until the sun went down and the temp dropped below 10'C (believe it was closer to 8'C).
With the cooler weather, comes sleepy hornets. Placed a bucket with a plastic bag under the nest (under the stairs). Knocked the nest off with a shovel, quickly pulled the bucket out and tied off the bag.
Without the cooler temperature, this probably wouldn't have been a great idea.

 

Spray carb cleaner and a BIC lighter?

Just kidding!!!!

 

I can laugh, but hair spray and a lighter was the first thought I had last night.
Hair spay burns a bit cooler I think, so less chance to burn the wooden stairs or making visable burn marks.


^^^ Don't try this at home....

 

Before they came out with the 20' bee spray we used to always cut a soda/beer can in half, fill it with paint thinner, throw it on the nest ....... and run. Real effective if your aim was good. Biggest drawback was having to get close enough to have good aim. Most any solvent/fuel will work.

 

Although paint thinner (or gas as I was considering) would work, the deck offered only about 3ft clearance, so getting out of there in a hurry without knocking myself on the head with the deck was going to be tough.

If you can get the delivery system down to an art without your wife tearing a strip off you for using your son's water gun, definitely a valid options.

 

Actually if you directly hit ALL the bees/wasps - you don't need to run, it pretty much kills them on contact. It was always a challenge to position yourself where the thinner wouldn't rain back down on you .... but it still beats fighting live bees. Since the advent of the 20' bee spray the only reason to throw thinner on a nest is when you run out of bee spray. If you want to have fun with an apprentice, send him up a ladder with the thinner in a styrofoam coffee cup

 

On one hand, if it gets cold enough they shouldn't be too active at night. On the other hand, getting stung several times isn't fun....I say leave it until tomorrow when the stores open up and you can get some traps or spray.

 

Hold my beer and watch this!!!!


Carb cleaner would work well without ignition. Read the label on those cans! They have stuff in them that WE can’t use!

A hornet nest has one round opening at the bottom and about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up you can see where there appear to be smaller, more horizontal vent type openings. That is what they are; vent openings for temperature moderation. We aim our aerosols at both openings. If my get-away access is limited I don’t hesitate to use a two-gun approach. No adult beverages when on the clock though!

Waiting until dark was a great idea; they are all in the nest.

When we remove yellow jacket nests from above a dry wall ceiling I set up a step ladder, use a 5 gal bucket with lid. Put bucket on very top of step ladder. The yj nest can be found and traced with a knife easily as the dry wall is paper thin. Dress well ahead of time. Close all doors to the room you are in. Trace cut the weak spots and remove the thin paint/drywall layer, insulation and nest and put lid on.

 

I never looked close enough to know there was vent holes. Makes sense though. Nature has always been miles ahead of us.
I now have a new place to aim next time around. Always found the bottom hole to be somewhat useless for spraying unless you can pump volumes into it quickly (gravity is not my friend here).

On a bit of a side note, I did a quick google search to see if the Black hornets we where dealing with (and I love to hate the most of that type of insect) existed outside of our area. According to Wikipidia, black hornets (and white?) are actually hornets where the yellow jackets we commonly refer to as hornets are a subfamily of the Vespidae (Wiki on Vespidae).
Kind of a useless fact for most of us, and I would assume common knowledge for pros in the industry.
Rarely have issues with yellow jackets or honey bees here (although pretty common to see). The black hornets tend to be the bigger issue as they are commonly mistaken at a glance for horse flies if you aren't watching how they fly.

 

Pretty much all I use. Great for instant knock-down. I've had hornets come at me after being directly hit with so-called wasp killer. I'm allergic so I'll use whatever kills quickest.
IF you can get the spray up inside the nest AND they aren't active, then the Permethrin pesticide in wasp spray will do a better job of killing off the ones not immediately doused.