Anybody know how to evict yellow jackets from compost heap?

[dreamshark]

Richard went out to turn over the compost yesterday, and guess what was living in it? Ouch. Fortunately he got away with only 3 stings, but he wasn't happy. Now he's trying to figure out what to do about it. The usual methods (e.g., pouring kerosene down the hole and setting it on fire) would result in destroying or poisoning the compost. He's wondering if soaking the pile with water would flood them out.

My suggestion is to wait for the first frost. But I think he was hoping to use some of the composted material before then. Any ideas?

Comments

[guppiecat]

Drench it with water after the sun sets. Then drop a block of dry ice on the top.

Never done it, but if you do it during one of those "40 degree low" nights, that might force an early frost in the vicinity of the compost pile.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Plus, spooky effects! Bonus!

Actually, I haven't any idea how to solve this. It cannot hurt to try water. You can trap them with various 2-liter pop bottle creations, but that wouldn't kill off a nest. Maybe burn something else not as poisonous as kerosene? Paraffin?

K.

Wasp Traps

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Wasp-Trap

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I like guppiecat's suggestion.

Some internet searching led me to a clever solution to shop vac the little buggers all up and then spray wasp killer into the shop vac.

I don't know how wise that is.

[carbonel]

Wouldn't it make more sense to (possibly as an additional step) spray wasp killer into the shop vac first?

[pameladean]

Either way, you then have wasp killer in your shop vac, which will exhaust it out for quite some time. Unless your shop vac is disposable, as mle292 says, not necessarily a wise step.

P.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I think a major component of the effectiveness against flying insects is the airborne quality of the spray, but at worst, it would just waste a can of wasp killer.

I still wouldn't try it. I think the best case scenario involves cleaning a lot of dead bees out of a perfectly good shop vac.

[pameladean]

Ow ow ow. Very sorry to hear it.

I have read that applying diatomaceous earth to the opening of the nest will do it in. I'm not sure how this gets the queen, though. Mostly one is just recommended to wait, as you suggested, for the first killing frost. Yellow jackets don't nest in the same place from year to year, so next year should be all right.

P.

Yellow Jackets

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Unless you need to work the pile before winter, just wait. The colony will be abandoned soon.

Re: Yellow Jackets

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

And thus we come full circle, back to the last line of my original post.

Re: Yellow Jackets

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Unless they're behind on their reproductive cycle, I think they'll leave soon. The new queens mate and fly off to try and live through the winter and the current nest dies.

Yellow Jackets Swarms?

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

I think they're starting to be kicked out of the nest. At least I noticed a bunch all over at the Farmer's Market. I'll guess they'd be gone in a couple of weeks, if that works for you.