These not so little wasps are called cicada killers and have invaded the two lawns next door. The little kids on my street are scared to come outside because they are huge and must go. Today I took a trip to a "Professional Exterminator Only" store and stocked up. I applied the below along with somethings I can not post to to regulations. Since I am the one that is the highly allergic to bees I decided I would take on this task. I know it was not a great idea, but that's why I got the pro chemicals including a super strong knock down spray that kills them in two seconds. I went out to war and layed down a 4 yard assault with double batch of mixed sprays on lawns, plants, powder in the holes, and a double coverage of a strong granular chemicals. Walked away unstrung with at least 20 victims above ground.
We have a very prolific wasp here that are a constant nuisance, but they are not aggressive, so I generally don't mess with them. But, if they build a nest where I don't want a nest, I get rid of them. One tip in doing battle. Wasps go into a somewhat dormant state, or deep sleep, after dark. If you are going to hit them with a stream of wasp killer, do it after sunset using a flashlight. They are too "out of it" to swarm you. Morning and afternoon, don't mess with them. Wait for the sun to go down. CD
I bet Gen. Schwarzkopf would agree with me that the best time to bomb the enemy is while they are asleep in their barracks. :sleep: CD
I know they will not sting but try telling a little kid that trying to play in the yard when 40+ of them are flying all over. Remember they are almost 2 inches long and digging holes all over the lawns.
Wasps are not generally aggressive, but if you accidentally mess with a nest, they get very defensive. I know this first hand -- and first leg, first neck, etc. I am all for "live and let live," as long as they nest away from where I need to do things. Now, down here we have fire ants. Absolutely useless insects that are hyper-agressive. They'll make a baptist preacher drop f-bombs if he steps in them. I keep Benadryl in the house just for fire ant attacks. You can look up pictures, if you so choose. CD
You don't know fire ants. If you poison them, the survivors will divide up and form five new colonies. If they see a bunch of ants dying, they go defensive, and spread out. They are Darwinian super-survivors. Down here, we use a product called Amdro. It is not cheap, but it works. The fire ants gather it up as food, and eat it. More importantly, they feed it to the queen, and future queens. It takes about a week, but they all die. By the time they see ants dying, it is too late, they have all been exposed. CD
Don't hurt the honey bees, they are putting food on our tables.... I gotta have food... Don't bee messing with my food... I mean it... https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/27/leading-insecticide-cuts-bee-sperm-by-almost-40-per-cent-study-shows
Those things are freaking huge! I wouldn't care if they were aggressive or not, I don't want anything that big and nasty looking flying around me. We have fire ants here too and they are nasty little things, you can kill them but eradicating them seems impossible. I might have to try your recommendation out Dave. Yellow flies are the things that get me cussing, wish there was a way to get rid of them once and for all.
Didn't realize there were that many.......:eek6:.article says the females are loners and they are the ones that sting. Males just lounge around and wait for the ladies and no sting.
Neat... Makes me remember my aunt... She loved butterfly's....had them everywhere....walls...etc. Had a butterfly toilet seat...lots of dead ones encased in clear plastic... Anybody want to make one using those bugs? Sell it on eBay? Might make some $$$.
I bought a little truck as a runaround and found 4 wasp nests so far... 2 in the door jam and 2 under the hood. They survived a 100 mile trip on the highway to my house... I used a 2 phase method... First, I blew a bunch of weed smoke in the garage to confuse them. Then, I ran up in there wearing moto goggles and hit em with brake clean. I was going to get a lighter involved but the spray alone seemed to work pretty good.. I think there's more nests on the truck I can't find though, they keep appearing in my garage... I also found some mega spiders residing in the truck and am curious what other animals are living in there...
Yes, you can pretty much eradicate them. Get some Amdro. Use it, be patient, and they are done. It only takes a few days to work, and they don't just build new mounds somewhere else in your yard. http://www.amdro.com/learn/fire-ants/why-ant-bait-is-better-and-how-to-bait-fire-ants CD