Getting yellow jackets out of a hay loft

How do you get these darn things out of your loft? I had only seen them on the ground and used gas, but I don't know what to do in the barn.

Most stores carry wasp and hornet spray for 3 or 4 bucks a can that will spray 20 feet or better. Gasoline works as does a lot of petroleum products. Put a nozzle on your carb cleaner, brakleen, wd40, starting fluid can, etc. to see if it will spray far enough to get them. Any of those petroleum products will make them drop when hit although the lighter stuff like gas seems to be quicker than diesel. Do this at night when they are all at the nest and resting. Have a path to run. Good luck.

What does the nest look like, is it like the paper wasp, kind of round, with all the cells, under the eave or in the rafters ?

I know the ground type they are funny, disturb the nest, they come out and bumble around to find the aggressor, but if you are far enough and watch em, once they realize nothing is there, back to business as usual, though the ground nests are not really prevalent here, I've stumbled on them on occasion, it's funny when you cover the hole, put a bucket over it etc. the traffic jam of bees starts immediately and they work like heck to clear a path, unreal how they work.

If there is enough distance, ones we have here are not overly aggressive, once a large nest is established I'll leave em as they don't bother me if no one can accidentally disturb the nest, our one place is loaded with them and 30 miles south, we don't seem to get that many. I could use 2 cases of spray to make a dent in them up there, but here, it would be rare to use 1 full can per season.

The best thing you can do is get em all at once, early morning, late evening when it's dark, if they are like the ones we have, if you don't get em all, remaining ones will come back, linger and theres a good chance you'll get stung cause they just hang around and are now agitated, sometimes for days, so if I have to get rid of a nest I plan the best time to do it in case I don't get em all, better left undisturbed, cause you won't get stung.

I can't say what is the best spray, we use on that foams up quite a bit, maybe you'll need more distance, theres a variety of ways to get em, you'll get suggestions here, I spray em where they are to close, other wise it's a huge project to rid the place of them. These kind are susceptible, once they first start to nest, get em then and most times that 1 or 2 tending the nest is all there is, and you got em, but the longer they live the bigger the nest and population.

Do you know where the nest is? Often the nest is back in some cavity that the sprays won't reach. If you see where they land and walk in you can knock out the nest by dusting the entrace with Sevin dust. Garden stores have little hand crank blowers with tubes and extensions to blow the dust into hard to reach places. When the yellow jackets land and walk in the entrance to their nest their feet pick up the Sevin dust and carry it into the nest. As they clean themselves and each other of the dust they are killed by it. Good idea to do this at night.

Had bumble bees nest under the floor where I stored hay in the barn. Fought them for several weeks. I got stung numerous times and one of my horses got stung four times on her back. The stings raised welts about the size of pancakes on her back.

I found out where they were coming and going, got up before dawn and dropped diazanon granules in the gap between the walls (there is a gap between the plywood inner wall and the sheet metal siding on the barn), then took a garden hand sprayer and wet it down. Ended the problem.

Unfortunately, you can't get diazanon anymore, but you can still get insecticide granules that would probably do the job if you can find where they are coming and going.

I'm not shure where, but their is only a couple pitchforks left. Would spraying gas outta a bean sprayer work?

If nothing else you can hang a trap. They work well. It will reduce the population while you locate the nest(s).

I had one a few days ago, back under a tool box in some carpet where I couldnt get to them to spray. Ended up planning to roll a can of insect fogger back there. But, when I turned it over, nothing came out. Ruh roh....

Ended up setting the can at the entrance of the carpet and shot it with a .223. Knocked the can back into the nest and opened it up. No more yellowjackets.

You know? I've been lucky this year. Haven't seen one. Bumble and honey bees, yes. Even the regular wood borers that don't sting, just tear up wood. Yellow jackets are both ground and wood borers, and its best to deal with them during the night, absolutely in the dark. When the sun starts going down, they start calming down and go to the nest. That's one way to find them, when the sun starts going down, watch where they're heading. When the sun starts coming up or is up, get yourself out of town. You got any bails of hay up there? They like stuff piled up. They'll track Sevin into their nest, and over time kill it off. Takes a while though. If you go up there, they don't like noise or banging around, and the flash light will give them a target, so carry yourself a can of that stuff that shoots out about 25 or 30 feet just in case, and be ready to empty it at or on the nest. Those cans empty fast, so carry two. They are agressive.

My last stint with them was a couple of years ago after cut some trees up and left piled by a stack of railroad ties that I use for fence posts. My brother was over cutting the trees up for his fire wood and my sister was over helping him. I saw my brother drop the saw and both of them take off running. They both got stung a good three or four times each in a matter of seconds. Most will quit chasing you at a good 50', but there will always be a couple will chase you out a good 100' and they do mean to sting. They don't give up. Meat tenderizer takes most of the sting out, well about 2/3's the sting out quick when mixed as a paste. It's that other 1/3rd it don't take out that hurts pretty good for a while, couple of hours. When they settled down and I saw them going in under a railroad tie, I left them set until about sundown. I took a long log chain, about 30' and gently put it around the tie I saw them going under, drug it out to the Deere's drawbar, climbed on and gave it heck. I'll bet I flew out flippin the tie and stuff about 200' before I stopped, figuring I was ok. Nope...two nests, the one in the ground about 200' back, and the one they hollowed out in that tie which I didn't see until I rolled the tie to unhook it. They were mad at me, mad, mad, mad. They hollowed out in that tie I'll bet big enought to put my whole arm in and built them quite a nest, and they were maaaaaad, mad, mad at the bumpy ride I didn't know I gave them. I got stung several times, and so did that noisy Deere. They hate noise. I got them though, a couple of cans of that long range shooting stuff, and after it got dark, I emptied another in there point blank and left it till morning. The ground nest, and there's always at least two holes a couple of feet apart, so watch where they're going in, cause if you go after only one hole, they surely come out the side and back doors...and they will be mad, mad, mad at you. I ended up burning a couple of gallons of diesel on that, and after I was sure they weren't coming out, heated good, then I made sure to compact the area with an enclosed cab tractor.

I've had my run ins with them guys over the years, and they don't like me much. Don't hex me, none so far this year. You usually don't find them, they find you when you least expect it and offend them. They sure do get offended easily. I figure they've got a Napoleon complex because of their small size.

Good luck, and be ready to run at least 100'. Up in the hay loft? Jump and run 100'. Don't tell them I said "Hi". Oh yeah...have some meat tenderizer paste made up and waiting for you in the house.

Mark

Oh, by the way, just cause it gets dark don't mean they're all back in the nest. Always a straggler or few that don't make it back before dark, and maybe not for a day or two. Watch out for them guys cause if they see you beating up their buddies in the dark, and clobber you from behind. There's no talking to them guys. One second they're happy, the next they got the switch blades out and are ganging up on you and mean business. They're cheaters when it comes to fightin.

Mark

What are yellow jackets?? Wasps? We have European wasps here and they are agressive,yellow and black bands.
To kill these, it must be done at night ,using a red light to see. Vegetable dust with Carbaryl knocks them in no time.. give that a try.Sprinkle it at the nest entrance.Never tried it on bees.

Not sure what to do with them in a loft. In a ground nest, about a quart of gasoline, followed by a match, seems to work. When it goes "FOOOOOOOMP!" and you see smoke and flame coming out of about 3 other holes besides the one you poured the gasoline in, you know you've done some good.

I have found that if you disturb a hornet nest after dark, have a halogen work light on a stand, and they'll commit hara kiri flying into the hot glass and basically cook themselves to death because the bright light is all they can see. After a while fog the nest and bag it up if you can get at it, and you'll be fine. May have to rile them up a couple of times to get them all out into the dark, but once they touch the light, they're toast. (literally)

SEVEN DUST

I had a big problem with them a few years back, I have some apple trees in the back yard so i sprayed the apples with Permectin Found thousands of dead Yellow jacket the next day and have little problem now.
Walt

I had a nest in my hay barn, hanging from the ceiling, right over a stack of hay. A friend of mine said "No Problem"...he put on a jacket, took a 2 gallon bucket about 1/2 full of gas, climed the stack, sat next to the nest, spit some snuff juice "to attract the scouts" and then just put the bucket under the nest, raised it up until the nest was saturated, used the bucket to dislodge the nest, which fell into the bucket and viola, no more yellow jackets and no one got stung. He said spitting the snuff juice is the key, he also said spitting bubble gum juice works just as well.

One way to find the nest is to trap one of the little buggers and tie a small piece of red yard to him. Just enough so he can still fly. The yarn will slow him down enough to follow him back to the nest. He will head for the nest right away. I have heard of them getting nests built in gaps of hay bales among other places. Night time is when to attack the nest and Mark is right about the stragglers the next day. They aren't happy to see their house vandalized.

Don't fool with gasoline, or any flammable, you may regret the results, you atomize that gas and find any kind of spark, static or what have you...... not good LOL !

I went with one of the hanging traps. We'll see how that works.

Have been advised to use hair spray. They won't be able to fly. Never did try it. Paint in a spray can does work. Dave