Squatters

[FinsnFur]

Suspected some squatters living in my fire wood stack this summer.
It's been so dry here that I bet I only mowed the yard a half a dozen times if even that. So i had no real reason to be out by the wood pile until recently.
So many yellowjackets buzzing around that thing, it's insane!
I went out with a flashlight one night and look between a couple logs and was greeted with a pair of guards looking back at me.
One glimpse of the flashlight and they took flight.....so did I!
I went out Friday night again and drug the canvas tarp of the top as fast as I could. left it lay next to the stack and ran back to the house.
Today I sent the drone out there and hovered about a few feet away as I slowly glided down along side each row looking in between for a hive. Found nothing but pissed off swarming yellowjackets.
Then I got above the stack and dropped down to about a foot above it and started combing back and forth looking between the rows and spotted it.






Ya think everything in there will die off as the weather cools to where I can get at that wood?
I dont know if I'm going to be able to wait that long.
I also need to start bringing in wood and splitting and stacking for next year and these things wont let me near the stack lol

[Okanagan]

That looks plum hazardous!  Our wasps/yellow jackets are not as fierce as yours I don't think, but we have had to kill them out of attics and roof eaves.  I bought some of that long distance wasp killer spray in a can from I think it was Home Depot.  The stuff shoots a tight stream a good 25 or 30 feet.  I went out at night and sprayed the nest while holding a flaslight on it to see them come out. I stayed back 20 or 25 feet.  I kept the spray stream on the entrance and tried to wet each one as it emerged, though when they were swarming out I may have missed some.  Also tried to soak the paper nest with the liquid.  Piles of dead wasps the next day.  A lot of them fell right after coming out of the entrance.  Not sure whether that was from having their wings wet or if the poison worked that fast.

[nastygunz]

Them things are vicious! Throw some gasoline on them and let it rip   

[Todd Rahm]

That's nice sized too. Put the tarp over and fog it out!!

[nastygunz]

Dry ice

[FinsnFur]

I cant really get high enough to spray anything on it. The wood pile is 5 foot tall and that thing is in the middle. I absolutely am not even going to climb up on top if it with them in there.

I did think about foggin em, but I dont think there's anything that could fog intensely enough to do any good. Especially being outside and the canvas only covers the top portion.

[bigben]

drop a quarter stick down in the middle and relocate them.  LOL  honestly I got zapped through a leather glove by one of those bastages.  Id try to get some hornet spray into them somehow.  Find some young teenager and pay him a cpl bucks if you have to.  or pull the old man approach and bet him he cant do it.  build it up like its some sort of right of passage. 

[Hawks Feather]

Have you thought of starting a fire in the pile? 😉

[FinsnFur]

Have you thought of starting a fire in the pile? 😉

I have actually lol. But I'd prefer to do it a few splits at a time over the winter instead of all at once in the yard   

[Todd Rahm]

Eh, just wait them out until cold weather.

[nastygunz]

Shoot them....22 rat shot, don't waste a good wing shooting opportunity!

https://youtu.be/2R-LirLnvOQ?si=eP_xB5ADEPQCRVFZ

[msmith]

If you can, go out at night and cover the nest with Sevin dust. It shouldn't stir them up much and will get rid of them in a day or two.

[FinsnFur]

Nasty that look fun but incredibly expensive.Especially since I'm reading there could be up to 3000 bees in this thing.

If you can, go out at night and cover the nest with Sevin dust. It shouldn't stir them up much and will get rid of them in a day or two.

THATS EXACTLY what I did last night Mike. 
I've been reading articles about how well it works. I had to try it but didnt want to go near the nest to do it. I taped a jug of Sevin Dust to a 10ft 1x2 last night and I'm not gonna lie...It took me a while to get siked up enough to go out there and approach them. And the whole process out there rattled me pretty good.



It's rained here for three days straight. And since I already took the canvas off the pile to expose this hive I was hoping the rain did some damage to it. And to my surprise it did beat it up pretty good. The drone video shows it all rough and gouged up and porous now with many flapping pieces etc.  Hopefully this gives the Sevin Dust an added advantage.
This pic is a screen shot of the hive after the three days rain and a couple hours right before I dumped the Sevin dust on it.
 

[FinsnFur]

Here's a short clip from the drone of the rain drenched hive a couple hours before I dumped the seven dust on it.

[Hawks Feather]

I seen clips where drones are attacked by wasps and the blades just chop them up. But 3,000 might be a bit much for one drone.

[FinsnFur]

Well, it's been 5 days since the Sevin Dust Apocalypse. There's still some pretty good activity around there during the day.
The is the first chance I had to shoot the drone over there and check it since. Not much going in the vid, but there was maybe a hand full of agitated bees show up to investigate the commotion. Didnt realize until I downloaded the footage that I stopped recording too early.
There's a chance for rain tomorrow. IF WE do get any I wonder what the impact will be on the Sevin Dust. Hopefully it milks it down through the tattered hive

[MI VHNTR]

Some cool mornings are coming later this week. Wait until early morning and use some Brakleen. Kills them on contact and eliminates the problem. It's much better than wasp and hornet killer.

[nastygunz]

https://thebusinessjournal.com/state-regulators-take-aim-at-popular-pesticide/#:~:text=The%20chemical%20was%20introduced%20in,to%20properly%20dispose%20of%20it.

[FinsnFur]

That article was from California 4 yrs ago, Nasty.
Isnt EVERYTHING illegal in Commie Cali? 

The ban must only effect those wierdos cause I bought mine a week ago.
I'm thinking about getting more and sprinkling it out on the ground where I'm going to start stacking up next years splits to dry. I read on a Hearth forum where a guy has been doing it for years and he says he doesnt even get spiders, let alone bees, in his wood stack. 

[nastygunz]

Try whispering to them, it works on horses....