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poisoned hornets. Posters have alternative options

pollinator

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Location: North Central Michigan

posted 15 years ago

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Well I love baldface hornets i really do..generally i won't bother their nests and let them live and let die..as they are great predators ...however we were bad..

We were letting them alone in the greenhouse until the thing got bigger than a football and was threatening the vent and threatening a possibly child walking in to pick some cherry tomatos...or whatever..so it had to go.

Hubby sprayed it last night..he left me a sad face note..yes we do honestly love the little critters..and have one on the front of our house that is safely left alone..but this one..well it just had to go.

Brenda

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Leah Sattler

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posted 15 years ago

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hornets and other stinging insects can be dangerous especially to small children or those with severe allergic reactions! and even adults. I have heard of farmers mowing hay and hitting a large nest and being over come by them. I do just as you and as long as they are not in a problem area then I leave them alone. we went to pick up a roll or fence the other day and discovered a nest of some sort and lots of angry something or anothers! I didn't stick around to figure out what they were! I have had an allergic reaction to wasp stings, not awful anaphalactic shock or anything but doc said to avoid them as my body obvioulsy has an overeaction that could prove worse next time. I ran for the house! as did my hubby at first but then my knight in shining armor went back out and took care of the problem. I just didn't ask how, I'd rather not know

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Gwen Lynn

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posted 15 years ago

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Must have been difficult, trying to avoid the wasps or hornets in that suit of armor that he has.

I imagine it offered him some protection though!

Make sure he doesn't wear it his armor in the rain for very long. Otherwise you'll have to build a scarecrow, wear a lion suit & dress your daughter up as Dorothy to keep him company!

Mango would have to be Toto, of course!

Brenda Groth

pollinator

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Location: North Central Michigan

posted 15 years ago

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well we haven't removed the nest yet, instr said wait 24 to 48 hours..but it will come down..

i do feel better about it..but still hate killing the innocent little things..they didn't know.

also spraying in my greenhouse wasn't something i wanted to do..we have food growing in there..sheets over it but still you don't know about that stuff !!

Brenda

Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

paul wheaton

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Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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posted 15 years ago

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Brenda,

I wish you would have asked here first for alternatives.

I have had great success with a variety of traps. Traps can eliminate 80% of the problem within a few hours. The key is the right kind of bait.

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Jocelyn Campbell

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posted 15 years ago

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I thought I'd heard that bees and hornets (?) can't move as quickly at night, in the cold, and that it's possible to remove the nest--probably while small--without any real danger or sprays. I can't recall, but I think we've done this in the past, and either burned, smashed or drowned it.

Sometimes you miss it when it's small, and allergic persons really can't do the removing, that's for sure! So while I understand the resorting to spray, I'm also curious. Has anyone on this forum removed a large nest naturally?

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paul wheaton

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posted 15 years ago

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While I have not done this it does seem like you could go out at night and plop it into a large paper sack and then fold and staple the sack closed, then take that sack far away.

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Brenda Groth

pollinator

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Location: North Central Michigan

posted 15 years ago

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tried a hornet trap and it didn't work and guess what..greenhouses don't get cold at night !!! duh..if they did it would have made the job a LOT easier..and surely can't burn it when it is in my polycarbonate greenhouse !!

Brenda

Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

paul wheaton

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posted 15 years ago

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Just a week ago I saw a yellow jacket trap that was not working so good. Fortunately, they had two. I rebaited the second with what I thought was a good bait and it started catching everything.

In other words: what did you bait it with?

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Joel Hollingsworth

pollinator

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posted 15 years ago

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If you know where they live, you may not even need bait. The machine described below may even allow for moving the nest:

http://www.sentex.ca/~mwandel/built/wasp-sucker.html

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Leah Sattler

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posted 15 years ago

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I have small knocked wasp nests off the house at night without any trouble. I have also went to start up my old car and red wasps had built a nest in one of the fenders! unfortunatly they had to go asap because they were making their way into the interior and no way no how was I going to drive that thing to work full of ticked off wasps!

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"One cannot help an involuntary process. The point is not to disturb it. - Dr. Michel Odent

Brenda Groth

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Location: North Central Michigan

posted 15 years ago

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well the 6 x 8 greenhouse needed serious mesaures..sorry if i offended those that would have just babysat it until it got the size of a beachball and then not been able to go in and care for or harvest the crop inside.

myself..the trap didn't work with the bald face hornet bait i used..so therefor the spray was the only other way out for me at the time..there were several hundred hornets in that nest..

Ron and I were not afraid but a 6 year old girl was waitinig for her maters to ripen so she could pick them..not safe for her..or strangers who come and go in our greenhouse

Brenda

Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

Joel Hollingsworth

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Location: Oakland, CA

posted 15 years ago

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I didn't mean to sound judgemental at all. I think you made the right call. I mostly wanted to share the link to the vacuum contraption, because it's a fun contraption and an interesting story. It was only a secondary hope of mine to possibly insipire someone in a situation similar to yours, but who has more time on their side (i.e., no young child involved).

paul wheaton

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Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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posted 15 years ago

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What kind of bait did you use? Commercial stuff?

I have found canned cat food to be the most effective.

What sort of trap did you have - do you have a link to something that shows what the trap looked like?

If nothing else, we can leave you well prepared for the next time.

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posted 15 years ago

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Does anyone know how to get a wasps nest out of a compost bin?

I only set it up last week and they've moved in! I can't see the nest and I don't want to pollute the soil with insecticide. Any clever ideas to clear them out?

paul wheaton

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posted 15 years ago

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I had two summers where every square foot of 80 acres was covered with dozens of yellow jackets. As far as the eye could see, the ground was moving with little yellow and black insects hovering an inch off the ground. It turns out that the surrounding forests were plagued by something, so yellow jackets were released by the billion as a biological control.

So I learned a lot about yellow jacket traps.

I found that this kind was the best. And I would put in canned cat food at the bait. I could fill one of those in half an hour.

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Leah Sattler

Posts: 2603

posted 15 years ago

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alyssa wrote:
Does anyone know how to get a wasps nest out of a compost bin?

I only set it up last week and they've moved in! I can't see the nest and I don't want to pollute the soil with insecticide. Any clever ideas to clear them out?

what kind of wasps are they? the reason I ask is that there are some wasps I have found that, although scary looking, don't seem to bother anything or be territiorial. the red wasps are the ones I worry about as they seem pretty agressive.

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"One cannot help an involuntary process. The point is not to disturb it. - Dr. Michel Odent

Brenda Groth

pollinator

Posts: 4437

Location: North Central Michigan

posted 15 years ago

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i have a bald face hornets nest on the front eaves of my house and i'm leaving it..generally i would never kill them..but in the greenhouse it was unavoidable..

Bald face hornets are wonderful predators..and i particularly love them..but..not around a 6 year old child in numbers that were in the greenhouse.

i'm not looking to trap or kill any of the other ones..they just gotta stay their distance from the kiddies

Brenda

Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

Posts: 9

posted 15 years ago

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Leah Sattler wrote:
what kind of wasps are they? the reason I ask is that there are some wasps I have found that, although scary looking, don't seem to bother anything or be territiorial. the red wasps are the ones I worry about as they seem pretty agressive.

I'm pretty sure they are paper wasps, though I haven't caught one and identified it with a key! One already stung my husband on the head as he was walking past! AS for being great predators, I have my doubts. My brocolli plants (mere feet away) have just been devoured by caterpillars!

Brenda Groth

pollinator

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Location: North Central Michigan

posted 15 years ago

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wasps eat flying insects not caterpillars....bald face hornets like i have are great predators..ive seen them snatch a bug off of a dog

Brenda

Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

Posts: 9

posted 15 years ago

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Brenda Groth wrote:
wasps eat flying insects not caterpillars....bald face hornets like i have are great predators..ive seen them snatch a bug off of a dog

Many species of wasps actually do eat caterpillars- they store them in cells for their larvae to eat. The adults like sweet foods to top up their carbohydrate intake and use this as their primary energy source once their larvae for the year are all provided for.

Leah Sattler

Posts: 2603

posted 15 years ago

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sooooo...caterpillars are sweet?

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"One cannot help an involuntary process. The point is not to disturb it. - Dr. Michel Odent

Brenda Groth

pollinator

Posts: 4437

Location: North Central Michigan

posted 15 years ago

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sorry i was not aware that they did..i do however see them catch flying bugs all the time

Brenda

Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

Gwen Lynn

Posts: 736

posted 15 years ago

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Anybody ever heard of "Spider Wasps" or (also in the wasp family) "Tarantula Hawks"?

What do you think they eat...you guessed it...spiders! A few years ago we had a beautiful black & yellow garden spider spending the summer in our backyard. One morning...she was gone. A gaping hole was in her web. At first I figured a bird got it, but this dang shiny black wasp kept pestering & pestering us and the area beneath her web. I finally saw that blasted wasp stinging the crap outta that poor spider who was on the ground. We rescued the spider (dh loves spiders, see pic on "spider nest" thread) and kept it in a cup which was lying on it's side so the spider could crawl out. That was hubby's hope, anyways. He was hoping the venom would wear off. I wasn't so sure.

That wasp was so infuriated, it wouldn't leave the area, kept searching for it's prey. Finally, it left. Spider wasps stun their prey and drag them off to their lair & lay their eggs on the "host". When the young hatch, their 1st meal is very handy.

Anyways, that poor, stunned spider laid in that cup all evening. Next morning it was gone. Dunno what happened to it, but it didn't return to it's web site.

Just a few weeks ago, I spot a Spider wasp, dragging this poor, hapless grass spider across the patio. Well, (and I realize it was spiteful!) I stomped that wasp...just because! One of it's kin had the last laugh though. Somehow, it got in the house & stung me on the inside of the thigh. OUCH! You know what they say..."It's not nice to fool with mother nature!"

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