Ground Hornets

My friend piles her compost (grass, kitchen scraps) in the corner of her garden, and that's her compost pile. It has recently become infested with Ground Hornets. I have two questions:

How do you deal with these once you get them?

What can you do differently to prevent this from happening in the future?

Thanks!

Here is a good video with a different how to.

http://youtu.be/XF42nrZvb-g

I've embedded that youtube video below.

Thanks! I passed this along!

I've always used rubbing alcohol. I find the hole, sneak up at night, dump about half a bottle down and slam a smooth rounded rock over the entrance. I've never been stung and it almost always works. Occasionally they have another exit/entrance, but rarely in my experience. It's non toxic, cheap, effective and safe... so far. I think the fumes must just suffocate them.

Maybe best to just leave them alone and start another pile--they're beneficial insects.

Personally I have no objection to the ground hornets as long as they don't set up housekeeping where they get in the way. I know of two hives on my 20 acres and both are in ok spots. But in the past I have had two nests that I had to destroy. Because I didn't know of a safer method, I used flea bombs, setting off the bomb down in the entrance at night then shoveling dirt over the hole and bomb. So I'm really glad to hear of a more environmentally friendly method that works.

I think that we have at least two different species of yellow jackets in my area. One targets fruits and the other goes for meat. Their markings are a tad different so that's why I think they are two different species. I've watched the meat hunters catch flies. They will sit on my flycatcher bottles and ambush a fly. Quite interesting to see how they do it.

I agree about living and let live. However things that are poisonous, aggressive or just plan hurt like hell need to stay on their side of the plot or face my wrath. Hornets get aggressive and attack for almost no reason at all. Bad tempered things. When I was in the service stationed in S. Korea and a short stint in Japan I seen those giant hornets. Those things ware just pure evil with compound eyes. To make matters worse they get as big as 3 or 4 inches. They were big enough that we would shoot them for target practice.

Joe, I agree with you that I don't like things that attack me with little provocation. Thus I work to eliminate or keep out mosquitoes, stinging centipedes, stinging caterpillars, little fire ants, biting flies, and cane toads. But I'm not all that concerned about the Yellowjacket wasps here. Unless I approach their nest or swat at them, they leave me alone. In the past 12 years I've only been stung when I've been near a nest. I use to be insanely terrified of wasps, but learning how to keep bees got me over my fear. So now I can co-exist with the yellowjackets with little problem. We also have a large yellow hornet here and a mud wasp of some sort. Neither seem very aggressive.

I've had good success by placing a clear glass bowl over the entrance to the nest at night. With the clear glass the hornets don't bother to try to dig their way out and they just sit in there all day and die. It usually only takes a few days and the nest is wiped out. I will generally leave them alone as well, but (in the words of Seinfeld)"I am the master of my domain" and if they cause problems they must go!

Dave Redvalley wrote:I've had good success by placing a clear glass bowl over the entrance to the nest at night. With the clear glass the hornets don't bother to try to dig their way out and they just sit in there all day and die. It usually only takes a few days and the nest is wiped out. I will generally leave them alone as well, but (in the words of Seinfeld)"I am the master of my domain" and if they cause problems they must go!

That is a slick idea. Next time there is a troublesome hornets nest where it should be, I will try that.