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oh god.. bees.. BEES!
Thundyrkatz
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Well, not bees, wasps actually... sorry if I mislead you with the whole bee thing, wasps just didn't have the same ring to it.
Anyway, now that we are loosening the death grip that winter had on us here in New Hampshire, and I am told other places also. Soon my house and my deck will be the site of the construction of tiny new homes for wasps. In years past we had a sort of understanding, where I stayed away from them and they stayed away from me... mostly. But this year is different! Now I have a 18m old little boy, and he is ignorant of our wasp covenant!
So, I come to you fine people for advice. What can I do that will keep the wasps from setting up shop, while also not make the area a toxic waste dump for my little one whose sole life pursuit is to put the world in his mouth?
I have seen people mention Wasp Traps like this... Wasp Trap or more fancy glass versions of the same...
I saw somewhere that you can spray surfaces with soapy water, or even set up fake wasp nests with crumpled paper bags hung from string to deter the buggers.
Anyone ever use any of these with any success, or perhaps have some sage advice on the topic?
Anyway, now that we are loosening the death grip that winter had on us here in New Hampshire, and I am told other places also. Soon my house and my deck will be the site of the construction of tiny new homes for wasps. In years past we had a sort of understanding, where I stayed away from them and they stayed away from me... mostly. But this year is different! Now I have a 18m old little boy, and he is ignorant of our wasp covenant!
So, I come to you fine people for advice. What can I do that will keep the wasps from setting up shop, while also not make the area a toxic waste dump for my little one whose sole life pursuit is to put the world in his mouth?
I have seen people mention Wasp Traps like this... Wasp Trap or more fancy glass versions of the same...
I saw somewhere that you can spray surfaces with soapy water, or even set up fake wasp nests with crumpled paper bags hung from string to deter the buggers.
Anyone ever use any of these with any success, or perhaps have some sage advice on the topic?
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Best solution. Under the deck in a hard to reach place? Get an exterminator.
However I was hoping to prevent them from setting up shop in the first place.
Unfortunately, they only work as preventative measures... if you've already got wasps there you'll need to go the exterminator route.
The reason the fake nest works is that wasps are super territorial and would rather not fight another colony while setting up shop. So if they're cruising into a place and see a big, established nest already there, they basically go "Oh shit! Those guys can fuck us up, let's go elsewhere"
Maybe make some spiderbro friends? Spiders eat wasps, right?
Perhaps you could attempt to obtain a hungry skunk?
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Its still early in the season, so no nests yet. But assuredly that will not last. We have been in the house for 5 years now, and last year was the worst with like 5 nests popping up. They love to make a nest under the railings where I cant see them until its too late!
I am going to give the fake nests a try and see how that goes. If that still does not work then maybe the spider skunks.
Be sure to actually hang the wasp traps up if you go that route. The spider skunks racoons will get in to them otherwise.
A mix of soap and water in a spray bottle will kill individual wasps non-toxically, but won't do much to the nest.
If you can locate nests, you can poison them, but those suckers can be hard to find. They can be up in the eaves of your house, even inside the attic.
I generally know where the nests are. Its the deck out back, they like to set up under the hand railings and some under the overhang.
As for the soap thing. I saw somewhere that spraying the surfaces with soapy water would discourage them from starting the nests in a treated area. Does anyone know if that is true? Or if there is another thing i can spray like mint extract or something like that? That would be ideal if i could treat the desk so they never set up shop in the first place.
I would douse the thing with poison, but my son touches all things.
I'm sceptical about the fake nests. Or at least it probably depends on the species of wasp. Our old summer house had a massive wasp population, and they'd often build nests right next to each other in the attic, close enough that they'd merge into one big nest as they grew.
I've tried all kinds of DIY wasp traps, and while this resulted in some dead worker wasps, I can't say it did anything about our wasp problem. The insecticide will probably kill the workers before they bring it to the nest, and apparently wasp colonies are smart enough to stop coming to the trap once word gets around that nobody ever returns. Not that the traps were ever super popular to begin with it. It turns out wasps prefer to catch insects throughout most of the lifetime of the colony, because wasp larvae are able to efficiently metabolize chitin into sugar, which they then regurgitate back for the adult wasps.