Horror show in the house

[johnridley]

OK, K showed me the place where the buzzing things in the attic had tunnelled into the drywall and there was just paint remaining, which could be pressed easily. I got some visqueen, duct tape, wasp killer and a stick. Taped the visqueen to the ceiling, then ripped open the nest with the stick.

Those are NOT carpenter bees, those are wasps. Squirted wasp killer in.

Now it's about 3 hours later. We've sprayed a lot of wasp killer in, and I've used a piece of steel rod to poke through the plastic and rip up their nest. I've pulled out several fist-sized hunks of comb, and there are several hundred dead wasps lying in the pools of insecticide in the bottom of the plastic, besides all the combs and larvae that have fallen out.

I've sprayed a bunch of insecticide up inside the ceiling. There's still a heck of a lot of buzzing, but now it sounds more like a hundred than the entire squadron of bombers that it sounded like before. I'm going to let it sit overnight and see what the fumes do to them.

Eventually I'm going to have to pull down the drywall and insulation, seal up the holes, and rebuild that section. But if I can wait until November or so they'll all be dead anyway except the queen.

K is sleeping downstairs tonight. And probably every night until she goes off to college.

Comments

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

I'm amazed the wasp killer didn't melt the visqueen.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

It actually doesn't seem to be all that active.

I'm trying to decide whether to
A) keep spraying and see what happens
B) try plugging their escape
C) call an exterminator

I was thinking C, but I'm going to do A first for a day or two. I mean, worst case is that I can't knock them down right now, and I just wait until November, turn the heat off in that room, then tear the drywall out and clean them out. Since K is leaving for college in a few days, it's not super critical, though it'd be nice for her to have a non-infested room to visit on the occasional weekend.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

Wrong wasp killer then. Most of the stuff I've used, well a drop will drop a wasp right out of the air. And, IIRC, it's death on plastic.

[jebra.livejournal.com]

Mr. Wayne swears by the shop-vac method -- turn it on, put the business end near the opening of the nest, and leave it there for t amount of time. (I forgot how long.)

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I've tried two brands, one of them spectracide, and neither does this. I know they used to. I wonder if they've sissy-fied them due to toxicity or something.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that, because it was one method I was considering. I do have a really big-ass 5HP shop vac and it has a goretex filter so they won't get back out again.

[tlunquist.livejournal.com]

Man, horror show is right. Sorry you have to deal with that. Yuck.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

It's possible they've sissy-fied them. I see that Raid still claims instant death on the web page though. Wikipedia is usually pretty good on this kind of tidbit, but I came up blank.

If you go with the shop vac method, remember to cap the hose afterwards!

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

I know I'm way behind here, but I can highly recommend InsecTech. They've happily given me or C. advice on the phone, and once come out to take care of a problem. He doesn't kill bees unless they've gotten inside a house and are a problem...

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

These were wasps, and the operative word is "were". We got rid of them for about $25 outlay, at first an additional can of wasp killer, and when it became obvious that this was a bigger problem than that, a bag of diatomacious earth, which I injected with a diabolical PVC device that I built for the occasion (took about 5 minutes).

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, but should you ever find yourself in a situation where you think you're out of your depth, or you just don't have time, my recommendation stands. :-)

(I understood that your pests were wasps, not bees, but my comment was a way to say "I like this guy".)