Killing Ground Dwelling Wasps (homes, live, getaway)

[dcisive]

I've had one heck of a time trying to eliminate some ground dwelling wasps on my property. Right where the back lawn area where I have a rock perimeter meets the back concrete deck, there seems to be a underground nest as a number of them continue to hover over the area.

One night my wife poured several buckets of hot soapy water over the area. The following morning we saw about 20+ dead wasps on the deck. We thought maybe we'd won. NOT. They've continue to hover at times in the same spot. We then utterly doused the area with 2 full cans of foaming ACE brand wasp spray. NOTHING. The following day a full can of the spray followed by dousing it with a full container of dish soap and then with high power drowned the area for like 10 continuous minutes with water. Next day.......there a few were hovering again. What in the heck can completely obliterate them for crying out loud. This is nuts. A neighbor said he's had perfect results of spraying WD40 on the site and they won't return. That may be my next step.

[banjomike]

Ive heard WD-40 works too, but I've never tried it. I'm pretty sure it's the oil, not the smell they dislike.

The only way I got ri of an infestation was to discover the nest (in a rotten log in the middle of a log pile) and bombard it several times with spray wasp killer.

Unless you are able to make a fast getaway I wouldn't recommend this; sometimes they went after me, other times not, but when they did, I was stung one time pretty badly. The wasps always hung around my back door after chasing me for some time.

I should properly call them yellow jackets, as that's what they were. They sure were devoted to their nest!

[dcisive]

It is well known that Yellow Jacket wasps are by far the MOST aggressive and are known to sting for NO good reason. They are simply feisty and are always looking for trouble. They love to hang around barbecues and gatherings especially where there is any meat or sweets and will alight themselves right on your soda or lemonade cans with impunity. The only good yellow jacket is a dead one. These I'm dealing with are a ground dweller and don't appear to be yellow jacket in variety. But nevertheless I need to clean off my back deck and they are keeping me from my efforts. I just don't want to chance it and tick them off getting attacked. Tonight we're going to do another soapy water attack and see if it works as well as the very first time we did it. I may follow up with a dousing of the WD40

[gemstone1]

They do not fly at night, that is when you need to search out their burrow entrance and flood it with wasp spray (or gasoline), then cover the entrance.

Regards
Gemstone1

[dcisive]

Happy to report some good progress. We used a combo of wasp killer and my neighbor's idea of spraying the area afterward with WD40. His experience was spraying the WD40 caused the wasps to never return to that spot. So we heavily sprayed a foaming Hot Shot brand wasp killer in the entire area on the ground. Then followed up with heavy spraying of the WD40 and put down several sticky boards. Today there was NO activity seen in the area for the first time in a month or more. Also my wife noted there were 8 wasps dead on the sticky board, so I guess if they had been remaining alive or came to visit they met their demise. We'll be keeping an eye on it but hopefully this is the END of it so now I can clean off my back deck without concerns of them attacking me

[banjomike]

Outstanding, dcisive!

the wasps I had didn't give up all at once. Every day there were fewer hovering around the nest area until there were none.

You may have the same experience.

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Gasoline in their hole at night when they all come back (not a ton either, just 'enough'). You'll never have a problem with them again.

[nowhereman427]

Attack their nests at night.

[homestead123]

9 pm 1 gallon of gas and a match. Tons and of fun

[nowhereman427]

Originally Posted by homestead123

9 pm 1 gallon of gas and a match. Tons and of fun

: PUFF!