I've been putting it off, but I've got a large swarm of bees living underground in my front yard. The crew handling the mowing says they're done until the bees are gone.

I'm going to use a combination of Palmolive dish soap and Cutter Backyard Bug Control followed by an immense amount of water. The mission will take place after dark, and I'll be wearing a Petzl headlamp and my track shoes. Your prayers will be appreciated. My wife says she plans to stay in the house but promises not to lock the door on me.

If anyone has a better deterrent than said soap & pesticide, feel free to offer your suggestions.

I had a small hive under the earth in a cement crack near my front yard (yard is 6x12).

Fence guys show up, core drill for the posts, everything is OK, they start pounding in the post and the bees started coming out.

thankfully a can of spray took care of them.

If they're in the ground, they're either bumble bees or yellow jackets. The old fashioned way is to pour a couple of quarts of gasoline down the hole but don't tell the EPA or anyone else.

I can't recall the name, but there is a common pesticide/fungicide, available in most lawn and garden stores, that is clearly marked, "Do not allow exposure to bees, it kills them" or similar, and it does. A mixture of that, mixes with water, will kill wasps or bees dead as a hammer. Good for spraying those high nests under eaves, etc.

Your local lawn and garden store will surely have something to get rid of them permanently. Yellow jackets are very dangerous to have around.

Definitely not bumble bees.

I've got a 20 oz. can of Spectracide Wasp & Hornet Killer that should reach out to 27' according to the label. I may use that as my insurance shot after trying Plan-A. There are always five or ten coming and going during the day, and when you get within about a dozen feet they seem to feel the vibration of your steps and start emerging from the hole in mass.

quote:

If they're in the ground, they're either bumble bees or yellow jackets. The old fashioned way is to pour a couple of quarts of gasoline down the hole

Please tell your wife to remember the camera. Always fun watching the bee dance, especially at night.


And if you are going to use a petroleum product, better make it kerosene. Less likely to flatten your house should it find an ignition source. Maybe tell your wife to stand outside your house with the camera - just in case.

Good luck with all that.

The old fashioned way is to pour a couple of quarts of gasoline down the hole but don't tell the EPA or anyone else.



This

I just had it done and the fellow who did it wasn't stung. The pesticide kills on contact and the residual killed any straglers.These were yellow jackets. After spraying dig up the hole and destroy the combs.

I did hear about a guy who had rats in the area behind his apartment house . Got the gas , poured it into the hole . But he forgot the matches so he ran for them.The match ignited the gas fumes that collected in the whole backyard --it had been made with fill. rocks , bricks ,and it made a series of tunnels. The whole backyard blew up !!! Police and fire were not amused .
Want to hear another story ? Certain people on this forum might be interested .Amateur radio types like to experiment with antennas.You could attach an antenna to a helium filled balloon.That pulls up the antenna. These guys [ in NJ ] didn't have helium but had lots of hydrogen.Got the antenna up , were transmitting when suddenly it went BOOOMM ! Woke up lots of FDs !

I've factored-in all the advice given here. I appreciate it. Mission launch is 2230 hrs tonight. I've got all my gear ready; full camo. I noticed those little flying bastards have Petzl headlamps and gas masks too. I can see that there is not going to be any quarter given, by either side.

My wife wants Jessica Chastain to play her in the movie about this mission. I was going to call it Zero Dark Thirty, but some insignificant event in some piss-ant country already stole that name.

Your wife's position should be on the porch NEAR the door but with video camera rolling just in case there is a youtube moment during the execution of your mission.

No use wasting all of that pain and suffering.

Well....are they gone or are you lumpy and bumpy planning assault #2?

BTW, you don't LIGHT the gasoline, you just pour it down the hole.

Step one: find the entrance.
Step two: pour a pint or so of gas down the hole.
Step three: put a brick or heavy plank over the hole and leave in place for a few days.

we have wasps that build those cute little paper nests all over. They love the eaves of my house, and the fence cross rails. We have Spectracide Patrol every Friday. The foam mist is nest-accurate at 15 feet and it is 100% fatal.

Hope your midnight raid went well...

It ain't over 'til it's over I guess is the best way I can put it.

I launched the attack at 2130hrs last night, one hour earlier than I'd stated on this thread, just in case the little bastards followed this forum. I laid the end of the garden hose right next to the hole (valve in the OFF position). I looked down the hole with my Petzl lamp and saw a dozen or so sentries around the opening, sleeping apparently. Fools!

I then got my mixture of Cutter/Palmolive/water, checked the back door to make sure it was unlocked. Snuck around the side of the house and approached their bunker. I unscrewed the cap on my cocktail, threw the cap to the left so I wouldn't trip over it on the way out. I then inverted and jammed the snout of the bottle down the 2" bunker entrance, peeled-out to my right and only stopped long enough at the side of the house to turn the water faucet on, and streaked towards the back door. My wife was inside the house looking out with an evil look on her face, but maybe that is normal for her, because the door was still unlocked, and I nearly ran through it getting in. The wife did a quick once-over to make sure I didn't have any hitchhikers.

This morning I belly-crawled back to the bunker entrance. All quiet except for three of those commie bastards (wearing red cross insignia, no less) removing their dead and wounded, and apparently trying to re-establish a second HQ about ten feet from the first. That ain't happening. Tonight, me and my wingman, Mr. Spectracide, are going to pay them another visit.

I'm trying to convince my wife that she can take out those damn things now since there are only three of them left, and I can guard the back door. I'm walking with a limp around the house, telling her I may have pulled a muscle sprinting last night. I'm not sure she's buying it. She just kinda got squinty-eyed and didn't say anything.

Sounds a lot like "mission accomplished"to me!
Did your wife get any pics or film?

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
Step one: find the entrance.
Step two: pour a pint or so of gas down the hole.
Step three: put a brick or heavy plank over the hole and leave in place for a few days.

Mr Former Bee Man and I use the same method, just a cup or so of gasoline down the hole and a board on top will kill the entire nest overnight.

Don't do anything during the day, not because of getting stung but a bunch will be out flying around and grouchy.

I've completed my second mission a couple of hours ago, and the war rages on. I used my Spectracide can on the three survivors, and just as I wasted them, my can jammed, and wouldn't you know it, another one of those suicidal bastards crawled out of the grass about a foot to the right of HQ-2. I tried again and just blew air on him as far as I could tell; out of ammo. I slowed him down but didn't stop him. I threw the can at him and took off. Tomorrow I'm going to Home Depot, buy the equivalent of Saddam's WMD, and end this thing.

HQ-2 appears to be under the cover over one of my irrigation system valves. I'm going to have to stick my finger in that hole in the cover, remove it, chuck a grenade in there, and hope for the best. I explained this to the wife, and mentioned that if she would stick her finger in the hole in the cover and remove it, I would have a better chance of reeking havoc on any combatants under said cover. Again with the squinty-eyed look.

I've always used Sevin (vegetable dust) for these occasions. Take the duster and remove the spreader tip from the discharge tube and stick the tube directly into each hole and give it a few pumps. The stuff is deadly to bees of any kind and safer than gasoline. Also works on above the ground nests.

Game over!

I got the lid off the lawn irrigation system valve and there was their nest, a huge one loaded with dead and dying wasps, and larvae in all stages of development. I think I could have filled a gallon bucket. I dug out what I could and carpet-bombed the area with Spectracide. I'm thinking it's over.

Pretty ingenious having their main entrance four feet to the right of the nest.

Kensco, a medal for you -- A gold granade with oak leaf cluster !

no purple heart?

I know this is an old thread, and i just happend to stumble upon it.., but any help would be appreciated. I have a similar problem, but with literally hundreds of yellow jackets that have been pissing me off now for a couple of weeks. They are on my front porch, ate a hole through a 4x4 column, and are under the soffit.., paid to have a exterminator come out, stated that he had never seen anything like that..but would take care of it, he used a "dust". Worked for a little bit, but they are back. Keep in mind that I have used 5 or 6 bottles of spray, and have been killing lots of them but doesnt seem to be slowing them down.Unfortunately, It is not soffit that i can just pop off, the pieces are 4'x8', and would be alot of work to get off..sorry for the long ramble

It seems like the hotter and dryer it is the more we are invaded by yellow jackets and bald face hornets. You'd think it would be the other way around.

Yes, you would, this is my first summer in my house..getting to see that they will be a problem, yearly. The exterminator knew exactly what house i was at,next to what field, and down which lane. Made me laugh, for a second.

In the British detective stories it usually gardener uses cyanide, but the plot is usually further development.

I had this trouble two years ago and they were inside the brickwork of my house, going in the drain holes in the mortar. I tried foams, I tried sealing the drain holes, I tried everything and they just kept finding different entrances. By winter I'd managed to reduce the problem but not eliminate it as they were right inside the exterior wall and there was no way to get enough foam in there to get them all.

Over the winter I found one of these: http://www.gardeners.com/buy/f...epellent/36-561.html and in the spring hung it right near where the wasps were going in and out. Haven't seen a wasp since.

Wow, have never heard of those..I will definitely be trying them. Thanks!

quote:

Originally posted by A/C guy:
I've always used Sevin (vegetable dust) for these occasions. Take the duster and remove the spreader tip from the discharge tube and stick the tube directly into each hole and give it a few pumps. The stuff is deadly to bees of any kind and safer than gasoline. Also works on above the ground nests.

Sevin Dust is deadly on Yellow jackets and other typs of bees.

Yes , including honey bees !

Also, good to know, My wife happens to have about 5 cans of that in the mudroom..I know that they have a large nest also in one of my barns, in piles of old lathe from the house. If i were to go out at night and simply dump the Sevin, around the lathe and on top of it, should that get the desired results? When he told me that he would dust them, i never put 2 & 2 together that it would be that simple!

A shop vac will work too.

I had a wasp nest on my patio. After a few beers, I took aerosol Remington Gun Oil with a lighter and burned the hell out of them.

I hope the fire brigade arrived quickly?

I have a friend, who makes art works out of ant hills and underground wasp and bees nests, by pouring molten aluminum in them, 800deg. C he claims. Once solidified, dug out and pressure washed, pretty impressive. Like this.

https://www.google.ca/#q=molte...minum+ant+hill+video

Grizz

Cool. I hope no animals were hurt?

Here is the discussion wasp problems with one Russian site, literally translated, Russian grammar saved but, I think, clear. Incidentally, the method with the yeast is not working.


XXX: Remember how poisoned the hornet's nest syrup with yeast. Wasps on feet brought fungus into the comb and all. Beautiful fermentation. However I then became too lazy to wait for the death of adult individuals and I burned it off by Napalm.
YYY: AND you don't explain in greater detail what was the method? All the honey begins to ferment and wasps die?
ZZZ: Yes, bought from bees honey ferments and becomes intoxicating drink. Wasps first, drink a little, then sit down, drink too much, lose their job, family, apartment, begin to wander and go to live in a heating main.
The method is lengthy, but entertaining and with a strong teaching effect.