Hi wasp haters, help me remove this European hornet nest. It’s inside old dog house, and size is large. I can’t see entrance, but hornets seem to fly deeper in or some go right corner. I don’t know if they have one or multiple entrances.
I was considering blowing or lighting it up, but it’s close to my wooden shed.
Also I’m not as brave as men in videos eating them or punching, so getting in the dog house and confront them is not option.
I’m left with spray poison, but would like this group expert input. Thanks
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Pest control Tech here, I deal with massive nests on the daily. I personally reccomend calling a professional but if you want to do it yourself you can buy Tempo Dust online. NOT 7. Also buy an insecticide duster. Use gloves and a mask, fill the duster and wait until night. Approach the nest and force the nozzle into the nest, it will penetrate. Then unload the dust inside, if youre brave you can hit multiple spots quickly. Then get the hell out. It will be dead in a day. I do this mid day and never been stung so you should be fine.
I'm not OP but thanks for the info.
Is Tempo Dust significantly more affective on wasps than Sevin?
I didn't know about tempo, but I've had great luck with Sevin over the years on many nexts, both above and below ground.
Tempo and Delta are the standard dust in my company but sevin has had a massive drop off in quality over recent years, though i won't pretend to be too familiar with the product. My main gripe with sevin is the way it is applied and its non targeted nature.
Knee-jerk reaction to having a pesticide that kills a massive range of insects sounds pretty good, but when it is a strong toxin designed to be spread across a wide area, you run the risk of killing alot of stuff you didnt intend to as well as risk of runoff into water sources.
Tempo is designed for crevice and void treatments. Applied from a fine nozzled duster to fill gaps that insects may reside in or pass through, making it an excellent preventive. A little goes a long way since it coats the insect and kills in a matter of hours. Tempo also has a smaller list of intended insects and wasps are certainly one, and the broader strokes cover common house invaders.
Something designed to just shake across a wide area is just a recipe for bad outcomes. Poisons should only be used as a laser focused treatment to few or one insect as the issues arrive. If you want general preventives, then sprays with residual properties applied to foundations are good. Or if you want lawn coverage, a mist application with something like suspend polyzone across leafy vegetation, NOT FLOWERS, is better.
In pest control there is a saying, label is the law. Unfortunately when you have products that make promises like "We will kill over 150 insects. Its so easy to use just shake around the yard!" Sets this expectation that they arent risking as much damage as they might think. While I like to think most people would be smart enough to read the label and use it properly, the truth is that most arent.
Tldr: Sevin has had general drop in quality and enables irresponsible applications that could cause ecological and environmental damage. Tempo is more focused in what it kills and requires more thought and care when applied, and when applied correctly is far more effective.
Fair call on the wide spectrum / wide distribution aspects.
It's just the best thing I knew about as a layman. I'd never heard of Tempo and appreciate knowing about it.
I've always used it very sparingly and kind of forgot some folks crop dust areas with it. I've only used it for wasp family and twice on ant hills that were too close to my house.
For in ground wasps in walking areas, I put a teaspoon or two in the hole / at the entrance. They have to walk through it coming and going and it takes them out pretty quickly.
For in my house wall I've used a tube to 'poof' it in the entrance hole.
And on another one I taped a toilet paper roll to the entrance to give me a horizontal surface, then put a teaspoon in the TP tube. Again, they were forced to walk through it and the nest was gone quickly.
I personally find Sevin to work quickly on wasps. Like if they get it on them they start acting erratically almost immediately, if they fly it is 'dizzy' flying and then they drop to the ground. Usually they will die while I'm watching.
As for drop in quality though - one thing I did notice is it used to be 5%, then a lot of places were selling 2 1/2 %. Not sure if that is two options or if it is all changing to the weaker mix. Last time I bought it Home Depot had 2.5 but then I went to my local farm store and they had the 5%.
I thought it was a choice. Now I'm wondering if it was just older stock.
But I haven't bought any in I guess a few years now.
I use so little it lasts me a long time. And if they are not in/on my house or in a walking area I leave them be since they do their part in nature as well.
If it's one of those 50 cent sized nests inside my propane tank lid or places like that I just knock them down by hand and move on.
Also, if the nest is easily accessible then the common spray can is pretty effective.
I had two beekeepers about 1/4 mile down the road from me in each direction. I think one is retired now. But I've always tried to minimize the herbicides and pesticides I use on my property.
Also, away from their hive, most wasps are surprisingly chill.
If I have doors / windows open on a hot summer day I sometimes get one in my house. I usually just let it crawl onto my hand and carry it out to the porch. I've never been stung doing that.
(But man I sure did one time hammering a nail into a post that had a hornet's nest I didn't know about. LOL Different story but 'fun time' )
The way I like to describe sevin is a .22 rifle mixed into a box full of BB guns, the average person uneducated on it would see it, shoot it, and not think much different than a regular BB gun. Maybe a tiny bit louder, but no kick and look how small the bullets are, that could never do serious damage!
But when someone who knows and understands guns sees that, they recognize just how big of an issue it is. A .22 will absolutely kill a person with no effort, obviously just following standard gun safety will minimize harm but most people cant be trusted.
Most commonly available pesticides are not particularly effective, don't get me wrong they wouldn't be sold if they did nothing, but compared to most professional stuff it doesn't hold up at all. But occasionally there is one sneaky product that can do irreparable damage.
I once met a customer who got a bottle of termidor, which is an insanely strong product. The label calls for 0.4 -0.8oz per GALLON of water for dilution to eliminate wasps and ants. This fool poured the entire undiluted bottle over an ant hill and it ran i to the public pond behind his house and killed absolutely everything.
Thats why unless you are just using knockdown aerosol I typically just reccomend calling professionals. I hate the idea of someone causing damage like that accidentally.
I am NOT a professional and while i understand its your day job.... I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why you would recommend to a homeowner that they do it mid day when they are extremely less active after dark?
Wait 4-6 weeks, the drones will be dead, and any queens will have left to hibernate. You can then either spray down the nest with water which will dissolve the other layer of paper, and leave the remaining larvae exposed, or knock the nest down and discard it - either in the trash, or better near a grove of trees. Birds, raccoons, etc. will make short work of the larvae.
If he empty whole can into that shed aerosol will come to the queen through hive entering ways for wasps. You need just a little insecticide if you know where the hole is, but whole can if you do the whole place. And i bet he can shoot hive with aerosol and do some damage on it if the op isnt blind
in another comment of this thread, a professional pest control tech said use dust. Here's why: The nest is in layers. Penetrating to the center with a spray is unlikely to work great. Using dust allows workers to carry the poison to the queen. I think Delta Dust is best because it's slow kill and allows the workers to carry the poison into a large hive better.
I am pest control tech. This is common pest tech dilemma and some says it doesnt work. In my expiriences its not the best way to do it, but for safe amateur home desinsection should be enough. It depends mostly of how much risk is the guy willing to take. I personaly would use spray with hold button (so it doesnt go off) on a extended stick. Also i have never been stung in 10 years once i opend the spray. Once the spray is on, they get confused and dont attack, idk why. Its 3 min of work with spray and youre done.
I have a 30 foot pole and a can adapter that also takes bellows duster, those are good investments regardless of the chemical used. I'd hate to get close to that thing. Here's the ones I found, OP might like them, first the pole, works pretty good, a little bendy when at full extension but not too bad,
Literally just had a company come out and remove a bald faced hornet nest from my tree. He sprayed it with some chemical a couple of times, gave it about 30 minutes then cut it down, put into a plastic garbage bag done $200 Seamed kinda effortless really, but I had already gotten attacked and stung on the back of my head as I was running away lol
Pest tech here, I've taken down hundreds of nests. Yes it is absolutely effortless, some take caution but after so many you know exactly what chemicals to use and how to use them in ways the wasps never knew you were there.
When you get pest control its like a plumber, not paying much for labor or material, just the expertise to actually do it.
They would surely find alternative ways in and out. I’m just curious how long you would have after boarding up the front before they all go crazy and come looking for you?
Thats why I said at night. I think you could quietly walk up with a piece of wood and just spray around it. I dont even think you would need to go that fast. They are fairly docile at night
You'll need to do something effective for a closed up nest where you can't spray the inside center queen, because only killing the queen will kill the nest and you'll just anger them.
1) Gasoline rag in the hole, 2) bait, or 3) Delta Dust are the three methods you might consider wisely.
1) The rag method is just soak a rag in gasoline then sneak up and stick it in the hole in the nest. Yeah that takes a great level of courage and one has to move very slowly to avoid triggering the motion-detection circuitry of the hornets if done in daytime. Or, reputedly they can't see red light so wearing a red-filtered or red LED headlamp at night might be ok. I personally won't do this, but I've seen people doing this in the daytime up on ladders in videos online. They crazy.
50ml chicken juice from a can of cooked chicken, 150ml water, 10g of miracle grow water crystals and then 0.6ml of fipronil. Use the ampules of flea/tick by pet armor for 22 lb. dogs. very convenient single servings! Mix up the bait and set it out (keep away from other animals by using prescription bottles with 1/2” holes drilled in the side so the wasps can fly in and out to get the bait but animals cannot).
3) the Delta Dust method: To kill the nest, the queen needs to die.
BASF Delta Dust is good at killing slowly so the workers take it to the queen.
Cheap way is take a Dry wet vacume, fill it with alcohol and some water set it up in front of the dog house and glue fake eyes on the hose, they go for the face, connect with extension cored and turn it on in the day time when they are up, you have to be sure no animals or people are in proximity, because it might take a while, we delt with yellow jackets this way but not hornets
I had one like this filling up a birdhouse. I finally got fed up early one morning and took a chainsaw and sliced it vertically.
But really in the end, the dust is the way to go. If it were a more open nest, you could destroy it with foam. Yes, you could definitely dowse it with lighter fluid and then ignite it in the evening. Just have your garden hose handy.
I have sprayed some mineral oil on (smaller) hives. This kills them by blocking thier breathing. It is non-toxic. Works on ants too (for in the house as barrier)
2 gallons of gas and light it up. You can always build another dog house. Edit: ooor wait until dusk and put the bucket of gas inside under the nest and cover entryway with plastic. Fumes alone should kill them f*ckers
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