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

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.