Yellow jackets

are swarming in my yard. Best way to get rid of them?

Ah but are they really yellow jacks or are they honey bees??? If honey bees then you do not want to hurt them we need them or people will suffer. That said see if there is any local bee keepers in your area and I'm sure he would help you with your problem. Here in Missouri conservation will hook you up with bee keepers in the area

find the hole they are nesting in usually in the ground
wait till late evening when they have returned for the nite and if you are not near any building pour kerosene down the hole and cover it. Only need a few ounces of kero.
Chuck

Definitely yellow jackets.

Gas or diesel down the hole.

Thank you Chuck. Now I have to find their lair.

I have seen the yellowjackets build paper nests in trees or even on a large weed. Then you gotta burn them out with some gas or lighter fluid and toss a burning paper on them. Yellowjackets I am talking about are wasps sometimes seen around trashcans. Those big fuuzzy bees are what we call bumble bees and they live in the ground sometimes. They call for a quart of gas like the others said.

Gasoline and/or kerosene works good, but.....brake cleaner in a spray can works wonders, instant death.

as Chuck said it has to be completely dark as the one that stays on the outside doesn't go in till it's real dark take a flashlight and pour gas in the hole then I light it .

i heard either will knock them out long enough to gather them and get rid of them. they make a spray for killing those things.

You have to find their hangout. If they are below ground, there will be at least two holes, so be careful because if you are standing between one and the other with your back to one, trouble. Best time to deal with them is at sunset. Most will be in their hole, or nest, and will only have to deal with straglers. I've used diesel and lighter fluid for ground nests, but the tree huggers don't want to hear that. Yellowjackets are wood borers (eaters) too. I use railroad ties for fence posts, and had some buzzing around some ties I wanted. I took my time putting a chain around them, hooked up to a tractor and tore out a good 100' or so before I stopped, because an upset yellowjacket, and it takes nothing to upset a yellowjacket, will chase you 25' easily. When I got those ties where I wanted them and got off of the tractor, I got stung big time because they had hollowed out one of the ties and built part of their nest in it, part of their nest under where it was setting, below ground. Something that holds them at bay, is that wasp spray that sprays a solid stream about 25', but have a couple or few cans if you do that because they empty fast. Find them, douse and stun them, then go after them. I had some last year that even got into our siding, then found their way into a balcony sitting area, and then were working their way out around the recessed lighting. That's hard to deal with, but sprayed the heck out of the outside, which meant that you could hear them going nuts inside, a nest, and then sprayed real good around the fixtures that they had been twisting to squeeze between the tight metal decorative covers. They did it, just like mice...twist and squeeze, twist and squeeze, next thing you know, couple of yellowjackets in the house. Nest died off though after a few days.

Yellowjackets hate noise. Diesel tractors make noise.

Have meat tendorizer ready because although it doesn't take out all of the sting, it takes out most of it very quick.

Good luck.

Mark

The meat tendorizer, have it ready in a paste form to smear on your stings.

Mark

As others have said - if in the ground, beware and find all the holes. Best to watch them at dusk. You"ll see a bunch of them making their way back underground. Around here, they dig a tunnel to the chamber and the tunnel usually has a p-trap (j or u turn in it) to help against flooding.

I mix up gas/oil and pour a lot of it down there. Then light it. You need it to get hot. I do this as I have found (the hard way) they will many times have more than one chamber connected by tunnels and although the nest looks dead the next morning... they"ll be back. After the burn, I dig it up the next day. That"s how I found the second chamber the time I didn"t really use much mix.
Good luck.

A couple of weeks ago I found a queen yellow jacket starting a nest in a folded up old throw rug I use to lay down on when working on something. I hope she was discouraged. The queen is about twice as big as the workers. Don't know about her temper.

KEH

Carburator cleaner will knockem out of the air dead then gas in the hole doesn't matter if lit or not gas fumes kill them too. Watch the hole if they are back the next day hit it with gas again. After a couple days you'll get all the straglers. The carb cleaner sprays 10 feet so you don't get stung. They stung my son 2 years ago 50 times or more other son got him in the house and the yellow jackets in his clothes stung both of them and my wife. Then we took him to the E R . He stood on the hole while playing in the back yard they swarmed him and went up pants leg.

Gasoline will do it DG.I hit a nest a few years back bushogging. Not a good thing to do. Now I carry a can of starting fluid on the tractor.

I will add another option to the gas/diesel treatments that I saw a pro use at my building at work. The nest was far enough inside a cavity from the entrance hole that the spray stuff wouldn't do the job. The pro used a dust puffer thing to dust insecticide in and around the entrance. When the yellow jackets enter they pick up dust on their feet and legs and carry it into the nest. They ingest it trying to keep the nest clean and they all die. Most garden store variety dusts are up to the job.

brake clean or carb clean knocks them right out of the air, i believe carb clean melts their wings

Mix chlorine bleach and ammonia cleaner. This produces ammonium chloride gas which is poisonous. Pour some in any hole you find. The gas is heavier than air and will penetrate to the bottom of the tunnels. DO NOT mix this inside. Works good on groundhogs, moles and gophers too.

As a bonus, the ammonia really makes the grass grow good around the holes.

Gene

if you find the nest, pour some Sevin powder over the entrance. Then step back and see what happens. They get the powder on their bodies and feet, track it into the nest, and kill all the occupants. A couple tablespoons of powder will kill a small to average sized nest in about 15 minutes. It will also kill any stragglers that return to the nest later.

It's not as fun to watch as a gasoline fire, but safer and more effective.

We had yellow jackets as a return problem in the roots of a cedar tree that we had cut down. I had good short term results with gas in the hole, but they would eventually return. I don't know if your nest location would allow for this but I waited until dusk and put a garden hose over the entrance. Set the flow at just above a trickle, you don't want to collapse the opening with the water flow as they will just dig a new exit. But slowly fill the nest with water and drown them. I then poured loose sand down the hole and they haven't been back for two years.

I'm confused... yellow jackets live on paper nests in trees... bumble bee live in the ground and are larger. at least around here.

(quoted from post at 14:41:20 05/06/11) I'm confused... yellow jackets live on paper nests in trees... bumble bee live in the ground and are larger. at least around here.

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Around here too.

(quoted from post at 23:18:42 05/05/11) Mix chlorine bleach and ammonia cleaner. This produces ammonium chloride gas which is poisonous. Pour some in any hole you find. The gas is heavier than air and will penetrate to the bottom of the tunnels. DO NOT mix this inside. Works good on groundhogs, moles and gophers too.

As a bonus, the ammonia really makes the grass grow good around the holes.

Gene

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Gene, I have a lot of gophers in my yard.
After I make a hole into their run, how much ammonia/bleach do I mix for each gopher hole? And is it a 50/50 mix?

Thanks

ammonia and bleach produce Chlorine gas. I personaly wouldn"t mess with such a concoction, very dangerous stuff.

You are right about the brake cleaner. That is the ONLY product I have found that dries fast enough with no residue to kill wasps, hornets, cockroaches, and spiders that want to make a home in peoples mailboxes. DOUG