Good Budget way to keep wasps away?

[JAM3]

In previous years we have hired a company to come and spray for wasps. They can get so bad that we end up just avoiding the outside. In hope to save some money we were thinking of doing something ourselves. Maybe even a little more "green" too than their chemicals. They currently come every other month from April thru October. I know it is key to get them before they build their nest so I need to find a solution soon! Anyone have any ideas that have worked for them?

 

[Karenj2]

Are you killing bees??

I thought there was a honeybee problem where bees are dying off?

Where are the bees bugging you? Maybe we can figure out ways to repel them instead of killing them outright...

 

[JAM3]

I am guessing it is more the wasps than the bees, maybe I should change the title. But they make nests in the corners of the house every year and are very aggressive. We can not even step outside during late summer months without being attacked by one in the years prior to hiring the service. I would love to simply repel them. I am looking for ideas to prevent them from making their nest to begin with. I am not looking for ideas to kill an existing nest at this point. Do you have any ideas Karenj2?

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

We get wasp nests each year. The first year the nests were HUGE. My dad went to Home Depot & got some malathian and a spray bottle that sprayed long distance. When evening came we doused the nest with the malathian. After a couple of days of wasps dying we got the hose and put a power spray nozzle (those long thin ones), and sprayed the nest until it fell.

Every year the wasps start building another nest & I just power hose the nest until it falls apart.

We do not have a wasp problem anymore and it costs me $0.

 

[zumbergc]

the first year of getting rid of the buggers is the worst. Your not sure where they like to build or how many of them are.

We just buy the bee and waste can of spray that kills them. We spray the nests, then pull them down. However, now we tend to see them early on when they are starting to build. They were trying to build where the sliding glass door is. So about this time, i watch and make sure they aren't building. The first couple years they would repeatadly try to build there, and we would remove the nests. Now, we just spray them, then later knock down the nests with one of those paint extension poles, or the hose works too if its high up. which this thread reminds me of some work we forgot to do outside.!!

 

[mel63]

Mothballs. Not sure where you have the wasps or hornets. I am a mail carrier and I tell my customers that have a problem with wasps and/or bugs in their boxes to throw a couple mothballs in the back. You can throw some into single socks (you know, the socks that didn't get eaten by the dryer or got up and "walked away" on their own) and hang them under the eaves or near where they build their nests. Then periodically check to make sure there is still some in the sock. In the enclosed space of a mailbox, they last a long time, but in the open, they won't last as long.

 

[d1sneyf4n]

I did the whole moth ball thing in socks bc we had a huge wasp problem in our front pushes and it did nothing to the wasp. They were still there and we still could not walk down our front door path. We do not live there anymore though. But my father-n-law came over and cut the pushes and that helped a tad.

 

[dlstc]

From masterhandyman dot com website:

Fake wasps' nest helps keep real wasps away

Dear Glenn : On your July 29 radio show, you told a caller about a product to make hornets and wasps go away. It was a nonchemical deterrent that is hung where wasps are not wanted. I couldn't find it on the Internet.

Karen, Metamora

Dear Karen: You are writing about the Waspinator, a bag-like thing that folds out to look like a big wasps' nest. Wasps are extremely territorial, and they fight to the death. The big fake wasp nest strikes fear into the hearts of other wasps, and they vacate the premises. It was created by two Canadian sisters, Vikki Olson and Kim Cassar Torreggiani.

You can find out more about the product on their Web site, ....

 

[JAM3]

I just found a place to buy the fake wasp nest last night. Do you have any experience if they work or not?

 

[MyKidsMom1820]

My husband uses that long distance spray bottle of wasp killer. It costs a few bucks.

 

[mombare]

We usually just find something to spray them with, and in a bind...oven cleaner works well. I know, strange, but when you are being blocked from going outside you get desperate!
We have also make "wasp traps" with old pop bottles. Here is a link: http://www.eartheasy.com/live_natwasp_control.htm (hopefully that works). Just cut the top off the bottle and fill the bottom with a sugary water mix. Flip the top upside down in the bottom - they can get down the "funnel", but can't get back out very easily. That does tend to catch a few.
NOW, if we could just get rid of the bats!

 

[semo233]

NOW, if we could just get rid of the bats!

Bats are good for your yard. They eat mosquitos and gnats. We installed a "bat house" on the highest point of our shed (about 15 feet off the ground) and it took a few years for them to move in. The good thing is, they are not living behind the facia board on my house!!

 

[PinkRhombus]

I was going to ask about bats. We were looking at installing one of those in the back part of our yard, but we lost some of those trees during the ice storm, and we ended up missing the best time to put one up anyway. Which I read was February around here.

I saw them for sale at Meijers.


Are the wasps that you have what I call the "kamakazee" ones? I've gotten stung twice in the past couple of years by just walking down the drive. I was no where near their nest.

 

[mombare]

Bats are good for your yard. They eat mosquitos and gnats. We installed a "bat house" on the highest point of our shed (about 15 feet off the ground) and it took a few years for them to move in. The good thing is, they are not living behind the facia board on my house!!

The bats have been a serious issue - we have had about 200 of them living in our attic (we bought in 2006 and they were already here)! We didn't do anything the first year, but then after realizing just how many there were we decided to try to block their way in in the spring and again in the fall. Well.....at the end of the summer last year we had not succeeded, and when the pups start flying, we had 5 bats in our house over the course of 10 days. The first one our cat caught while we were sleeping, and we had to drive it 2 hours away to the University of MN for rabies testing. By the last one, I seriously was swearing at the d*** thing at 5:30 am trying to get ready for work!
Good news - I think we got the job done this year! So far we have not had any in the house, and they have been here for almost 2 weeks! Ahh..the simple things I love - no bats! We can't even be outside when the sun is going down because they are insane. In addition to our lovely colony, there is another roost of them in the implement building next door. We probably won't ever be able to enjoy our yard in the evening, but I will appreciate the good nights of sleep with no paranoia of bats flying around!

 

[TaraPA]

The wasps/yellow jackets/hornets are really getting bad here in NE PA today (at my house anyway!) We always just use the long distance spray & knock the nests down, like most others have said. HOWEVER...last season we noticed them hovering constantly around the corner of some of our copper roofing. We couldn't see a nest but did spray every week. Well fast forward to early fall - I go in my walk-in closet one evening & see what looks like a wet spot on the ceiling. Curious me, stands on a chair & pokes at the wet spot. What happened next is seriously like something out of a horror movie - a huge hornet's nest falls through the ceiling & get's stuck halfway (it was wider in the middle than the ends) - and tons, and I mean tons of hornets come swarming out!!! I got off the chair FAST and slammed the door shut. There were hundreds if not thousands of bees in there! I could hear them slamming themselves against the closet door all night long. Of course DH was out of town. Every piece of clothing I own was in that closet, and all my shoes - I had no idea how to get an outfit for work the next day! I called the exterminator but they were closed for the night. I stuffed towels by the closet door & just prayed they'd be gone in the morning (ok, seriously, where would they go??)

Next morning they were still all there. And angry. My DS11 put on his paintball mask & gear & ran in to grab me the 1st shirt, shoes & pants he could find for work! The exterminator came at 3pm & sprayed. What a mess. Dead hornets, spray & drywall dust all over everything in my closet. He wouldn't remove the nest either - he said that'a not part of his job, and that they won't ever go back to where an old nest was...so I shoved it back up into the ceiling & put contarctor's tape over the hole! I would have had to damage more drywall to get it out. It was the size of an elongated basketball. The exterminator said they chew the wood & drywall in the ceiling & spit it out to make the nest, that's what the wet spot was from, all their spittle. UGH!

 

[DisneyDizzy]

The wasps/yellow jackets/hornets are really getting bad here in NE PA today (at my house anyway!) We always just use the long distance spray & knock the nests down, like most others have said. HOWEVER...last season we noticed them hovering constantly around the corner of some of our copper roofing. We couldn't see a nest but did spray every week. Well fast forward to early fall - I go in my walk-in closet one evening & see what looks like a wet spot on the ceiling. Curious me, stands on a chair & pokes at the wet spot. What happened next is seriously like something out of a horror movie - a huge hornet's nest falls through the ceiling & get's stuck halfway (it was wider in the middle than the ends) - and tons, and I mean tons of hornets come swarming out!!! I got off the chair FAST and slammed the door shut. There were hundreds if not thousands of bees in there! I could hear them slamming themselves against the closet door all night long. Of course DH was out of town. Every piece of clothing I own was in that closet, and all my shoes - I had no idea how to get an outfit for work the next day! I called the exterminator but they were closed for the night. I stuffed towels by the closet door & just prayed they'd be gone in the morning (ok, seriously, where would they go??)

Next morning they were still all there. And angry. My DS11 put on his paintball mask & gear & ran in to grab me the 1st shirt, shoes & pants he could find for work! The exterminator came at 3pm & sprayed. What a mess. Dead hornets, spray & drywall dust all over everything in my closet. He wouldn't remove the nest either - he said that'a not part of his job, and that they won't ever go back to where an old nest was...so I shoved it back up into the ceiling & put contarctor's tape over the hole! I would have had to damage more drywall to get it out. It was the size of an elongated basketball. The exterminator said they chew the wood & drywall in the ceiling & spit it out to make the nest, that's what the wet spot was from, all their spittle. UGH!

That is seriously creepy. I would probably have had to move.

 

[DwarfMaster]

I was just trying to sit outside & got run out by the wasps! They're early this year & I think they're taking a liking to my new deck.

I'm gonna make a special trip out for some spray....I will not be kicked off my brand new deck! As much as I would love to be earth friendly, I'm desperate right now.

 

[TaraPA]

That is seriously creepy. I would probably have had to move.

For some reason it didn't freak me out - thankfully no one in my house is allergic to bees, and I'm not afriad of them either...it was more the mess & clean-up that I was really mad about!

But let me tell you - once years ago I had a snake in my living room - I almost had the for sale sign up that night!

 

[Scrapfriend]

If you want to spray a nest, and be environmentally friendly, use the product that is made from mint oil. Not only does it kill the wasps, but it won't hurt anyone from chemicals. I found this when we had a nest in our exhaust fan duct in the bathroom. I did not want to spray chemicals into the bathroom, but needed to kill that nest. Bonus, it leaves a nice minty smell! Do where gloves if you use this, as the mint oil is concentrated and will sting if you get it on your skin. I have used this in two homes, several times and it works great. Use traps, be diligent about destorying small nests and you can win this battle.

Oh, and I just discovered that wasps will hibernate. I painted our deck railing last summer and accidently disturbed a small nest under the railing. The wasps got white paint on them and flew off mad. Well, two with white paint on them are back. Guess I will have to keep a look out for a nest!

 

[tink_n_pooh]

We are getting infested with wasps here too They are hanging out around the sliding glass door in our dining room. I don't know where they are coming from or why the like our door so much, I can't see a nest anywhere