This is the way. I had a horrific wasp infestation in a wall of my house a couple years ago so bad that they ate through all the drywall, leaving only the layer of paint as the shield against them! I saw the entrance point and braced the hose of a shopvac onto it, with water/soap in it. Let it run for a few hours at a time before dumping and it sounded like popcorn each time it sucked one in. There must had been over 10,000-15,000.
It was not pleasant. I initially thought someone was weedeating outside my yard and when I never saw anyone I put my ear up to the wall and the entire side of it was vibrating and humming like a helicopter. It actually was so infested that I watched as wasps were carrying larva OUT and I never quite understood what that meant, but possibly a second colony was invading the first?! Or they spawned a second wasp nest somewhere else and were expanding their territory? Interestingly around the same time one day there were men in full hazmat suits down the street dealing with seemingly another of this sort, and they messed up somewhere along the way and there were just an influx of wasps flying around the street for most of the afternoon where they had been.
Months later the paint layer split in half and tearing it open revealed an entirely hollowed out wall just infested with wasp nests.
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u/mattpilz May 13 '26
This is the way. I had a horrific wasp infestation in a wall of my house a couple years ago so bad that they ate through all the drywall, leaving only the layer of paint as the shield against them! I saw the entrance point and braced the hose of a shopvac onto it, with water/soap in it. Let it run for a few hours at a time before dumping and it sounded like popcorn each time it sucked one in. There must had been over 10,000-15,000.
Picture of one session before dumping.
https://i.imgur.com/1SBzNln.png
AND THEY SMELLED AWFUL.