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Like bringing a knife to a gun fight.
We had an Orkin guy come to take care of a nest in our shed, where Yellowjackets make their way through the wood flooring and set up shop inside of a folding lawn chair.
He dropped his arsenal on them, and then managed to get stung several times while wearing full protective gear.
No goddamn way I'm going to do the same with a bottle of diluted Dawn! LOL
Yeah, I've done the soap thing a couple of times on smaller issues. The second there is any real worry, I'm bringing in the aerosol foam that I can soak the nest with from 20 feet away
Bullshit. When I'm dealing with wasps I want poison that acts super fast and can fire like freaking 30 ft away.
Oh now everyone wants a flamethrower robo-dog, but when they were first introduced it was all 'late stage capitalism.'
Agree. Fuck wasps, fuck yellow jackets.
Apparently in parts of Europe residential use of pesticide in this manner is not allowed. But, like, how do they handle aggressive wasps? Natural methods like the original post do not work on those bastards.
You can apply to be allowed to remove, or most likely only relocate, the wasp nest, if it is a protected species. For that you need to prove that the wasps are a danger (eg located near a bedroom, a resident has a wasp allergy etc). Just being inconvenienced, eg you can’t use the attic or a part of your back yard or you can’t open certain windows, is not enough.
In general, here in Germany it is always forbidden to hurt or kill an animal without reason. Some endangered species have special protections though, and that is what can make killing certainly wasps without permission very expensive. If you are caught, that is.
Of course you can always go the the hardware store, pay 20€ for a can of very effective wasp foam and get rid of them without permission. People do that all the time. Just don’t get caught.
Do people get arrested for stepping on ants when they walk down the street?
Wait till he learns that wasps are a protected species (at least in parts of Europe) and killing them is technically illegal.
Do people just cede territory? Are wasps just not a problem? It's not like I enjoy killing them, and only do to the ones trying to take over my deck by murdering me and my family because they're aggressive assholes.
Edit:
I do appreciate all of the information people are giving about how they are handled in Europe. For what it is worth, we do have someone in the home with an allergy bad enough to have an EpiPen always with them. We only clear their nests from the deck (outdoor platform attached to home where we eat/lounge outside during nice weather) or around the front door. I will look into finding a service that will remove them humanely in the future.
Do people just cede territory? Are wasps just not a problem?
No to both. It's illegal to kill them without good reason. A good reason would be if they build a nest under your roof, but not to make a youtube video where you test your home-made flame thrower.
Okay, I think we are running into a language problem here. A wasp is what you muricans call a Yellowjacket, what do you mean when you say wasp? A hornet? Something completely different?
No matter: both wasps and hornets are protected. Why would you cede territory? I mean, they can be aggressive but they won't like murder you. Anyway, if you got a nest of those bitches on your property, you call either a specialist who will relocate them or the fire department. They will do the same.
They're different names for slightly different but similar animals like the Germans using Kaninchen Vs Hase for rabbit vs hare
Wasp, colloquially, is a general term for stinging insects including yellowjackets, bald face hornets, and paper wasps. I have all 3 around my home but primarily yellowjackets and admit I revert to the general term often. It could be a regional dialect habit, my apologies.
I do appreciate all of the information people are giving about how they are handled in Europe. For what it is worth, we do have someone in the home with an allergy bad enough to have an EpiPen always with them. We only clear their nests from the deck (outdoor platform attached to home where we eat/lounge outside during nice weather) or around the front door. I will look into finding a service that will remove them humanely in the future.
When we in swedeb talk about hated wasps it's usually
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_hornet
Or
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespula_vulgaris
Which are usually hated with a burning passion by many people. I'm allergic to their sting (enough to make me a bit dizzy by only one sting and a trip to ER if I accidently mess with a nest) so I really don't want them around but they are so common it's hard to combat.
Edit: The European Hornet is less of an issue since they are mostly a danger when you are close to the hive, but the other one is a bother all summer
"Wasp" is an entire family of insects; there are a bunch of them. Where I live, we do have both yellow jackets and hornets (and call them as such), but when somebody says "wasp" they're typically referring to a red paper wasp (this or this -- I was unaware there were two different kinds until just now, BTW).
Wasp as pollinators, please don't kill them, almost all of them will not attack you unprovoked.
Maybe a .22 connected to a robotic arm and a high def camera connected to an image identifier for wasps and locked in a fire arc where you got a bullet catch shield (don't know English term) and a small speaker warning when active?
No need for poison that might hurt you or beneficial insects
No.
Headline is not exactly wrong, but if you read the article, hand and dish soap is not recommended because they’re not formulated as pesticides and efficacy can be hit or miss.
efficacy can be hit or miss.
So can my aim
I've heard rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle works great for killing most bugs, but I've never tried it on a hive so they might get big mad before they're immobilized/die
Adding one or two drops of dish soap to a large spray bottle of rubbing alcohol can make it stick to bugs better, making it more effective. Far safer than poison based pest control too!
We had ants once, and alcohol was just about the only good option for a house with pets. It does it’s job and then it goes away!
Remember how ghetto napalm is gasoline and dish soap.
Go with that.
Did you just suggest that OP napalm a wasp nest on his house?
For hives just pour a canister of the stuff over it.
Shock and awe tactics! /S
This is insufficient in most residential applications. The dwelling must be burned, razed, and re-built.
I agree that's the right course of action for many residential areas.
Lol, not while I'm holding the bottle.
But seriously, where are the drones made specifically to spray stuff on wasp nests? I wouldn't feel the need to use the foaming, bad stuff that hurts the bees if I could try a robot applying something like this. Or at least if it sprayed foam, it could be in significantly smaller amounts, much closer the the nest of trouble.
Get a newspaper, roll/scrunch up a bit, light it on fire and hold it beneath the nest. Then when they try to fly out their wings immediately singe and they drop to the ground. Then you can step on them with boots. I don't know yellow jackets but that's what I use in Australia for paper wasps (which are very aggressive).
I can appreciate that approach. But the biggest problems I have are when they nest in the railing of my little wooden deck. Every year it's the same fight. So I'm a little leery of using fire.
If it's just passing the fire over the nest it shouldn't catch the wood on fire, but it could damage the paint. You don't need the heat under the nest for long though, just long enough to burn the wings of the adult wasps
Soap will still kill the bees.