Paper wasp nest

[ChellesBees]

Here's one for all you bee-evictors out there. My son just noticed tonight in the Maple in front of the house two humongous hornet nests. (Think over grown basketballs) You know, the grey paper ones. They appear to be occupied by large black hornets. The question is, how do I get rid of them? Tried to spray them tonite- talk about a circus. Waited till after dark, then went out with the spray can that is supposed to reach 20 ft. Not far enough, needed the stepladder. When they started to divebomb me, I jumped and broke the flashlight. Spent the next hour in full bee gear swatting them with the flyswatter. Can't reach the second hive, even from the stepladder. Any suggestions?

[BULLSEYE BILL]

#9 Bird shot in a twelve gauge, semi auto, high capacity, rapid fire.

Bill

[ChellesBees]

I think I might need to pass on that one. We are in a pretty suburban area, and the neighbors wouldn't appreciate it, and don't think I can outrun the ones I miss. Any other ideas?

[Michael Bush]

Are you in the country or town? I'm not against the shotgun approach to open it up with.

I've taken down and moved many wasp and hornet nests. I had a friend when I was in Jr High who collected them. (maybe the whole bee thing is his fault). We sprayed them with a hose. The hornets can't fly when they are wet. Then we would take down the nest and set it in a jar and wait for them to comb dry out and come back the nest. Then we would put the lid on (which had air holes) and take it to his house and spray them with water again and tie the nest up in his eaves.

If it's one of those enclosed kind of nests you may need to get it opened up where you can get the hornets inside wet. I suppose you can just use the hose and if they stop coming out, throw some rocks and use the hose some more until none come out. Then step on all the ones on the ground.

I've also found that using a spray bottle of vegatable oil or a can of pam knocks them down by making them too heavy to fly. Then you can step on them.

[beekeeper28]

Use a water hose with a garden fertilixer attached and fill the firtilizer with dish soap, spray on wasp and next the soap will kill the wasp.

[Karl]

Sounds like a bald faced hornet nest. As a rule they are pretty non-aggressive. Unless they are creating a problem I would try to leave them alone. Winters will kill off the population with the queen being the exception. She will burrow under ground and hibernate. Regardless of what you decide to do, good luck.

[mnist]

>Winters will kill off the population with the queen being the exception

Exactly what we found; the neighbor waited until late December then broke the branch out of his tree and destroyed the nest.

That late in the year there weren't any wasps and the absence of an old hive seemed to discourage the queen from coming back to her old location the following spring.

[ChellesBees]

That is pretty much what we have decided to do. Even after messing with them, they are leaving us alone, they have been there this long, my husband will just have to learn to ignore them. He really hates anything that flies and stings. But he is learning.