Ground hornets, Not honey bees

[francessca135]

So of course finally get the 1978 wheelhorse lawn mower working and started cutting grass in between the rain only to stumble on 5 different ground hornet sites (over the 16 acres of grass I cut) ground hornets 100's everywhere swarming...I must of bought-out the supply of seven dust cans at tractor supply ( no one carries the big bags of dust anymore) still after 2 weeks they appear to be still active near or close to their original ground hole opening. HELP! any suggestions? :hissyfit:

 

[rekees4300]

Wait till dark then pour gasoline in the holes.

 

[MacLawn]

Wait until dark, spay each hole good with insect spray. Not nary gasoline.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I know gas works but the correct insect spray should work too. You could mow when they sleep too I guess.

 

[SPIKER]

Many methods of killing em, most fun is WEED BURNER (big 20 lb propane tank and torch. ) Funny thing is I have done the gas trick at night and during day lighting it and not lighting it most times it seems to work but is more fun to BURN EM ... Really one of best ways I have found save up one of the small pop bottles, I prefer MT Dew (green so not a sore thumb and hornets dont seem to notice the color so much.) put maybe 1/3 full of gas add a bit of 2cyc oil, shake well. very early am (dawn) or (right after sun down Dusk) tip it upside down & shove it into the hole blocking the exit. Gas Fumes will kill everything inside the hole. If you burn it they often come right back to the hole to eat the dead/grubs/larva and or pull out the building materials? I've tried the Seven Dust, (worthless and takes days if at all.) The NEW stuff just does not work in days past it killed the nest in 3 or 4 days... I say why wait use torch or Gas & bottle...

Also I use a extendable paint roller handle ~12' long and tape the bottle into the roller so I'm not right next to the hole. The odd thing about the Weed Burner is you can walk right up to them and cook em they seem to almost ignore the person and attempt to save the nest? They will fly right in if it is flickering flame & get cooked... This takes more on-site time but can be more fun if one has stung you eheheh.

Mark

 

[AchingBack]

There must be a lack of skunks in your area; otherwise, the nests would be torn apart already. Go out at night and put a piece of liver by each nest. Any near by skunk with a nose will soon show up to take care of your problem. This is not a joke. I've used it with success, every time I've had a problem. Also, you can go out after dark with a flash light, and a can of starter fluid. Spray it down the hole and put them to sleep, for good.

 

[francessca135]

wow some really great and somewhat scary solutions.. THANKS! I am going to have to get my nerve up with the flame thrower. I heard of throwing moth balls down the hole. The one really sad area of infestation is around my huge raspberry patch. I know that gus the groundhog lives under there why is he not keeping the nest away?..Yes so far no skunks..We have dusk=dawn lighting around the house and 3 barns which I believe keep the skunks away. I kinda like the starter fluid idea because the holes rang from multiple nickle size tunnels to grapefruit size holes. I also heard today that I should use a green or red light at night and no yellow clothing during the day. I am an epinephrine pen kidda gal..I got stung by one on my forearm when I found the one nest and my entire arm swelled to the size of my leg..I will update you all tomorrow..Thanks again for all the advice :crossfingers:

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I killed a nest with just plain old wasp/hornet spray. When I noticed no activity around the hole that evening, I crept up, sprayed it into the hole, covered with a piece of plywood, haven't seen one since.

 

[Dingeryote]

Head to the local Ag supply shop, NOT TSC, garden centers or the other Chinamart box stores.

You will have better results from Imadaclorpid. Admire pro, Provado, or Pasada, ground applied and watered in, will take out the nests, and keep them gone...as well as every other nasty larvae and grub, including Jap Beetles.

 

[Pilot]

The easiest method is the gasoline. Cheap, effective, works right away.
Go out when temps are low, below 50 is best, but 55 is OK, late evening or early morning when light is dim and they are all at home. Have a can of about 8 ounces of gas, just dump it on the nest & walk away.

Next spring when temps start to warm to 70+ start putting out commercial yellow jacket traps, the kind that use a pheromone as attractant. You will catch the queens before they start to set up housekeeping and each queen is worth a few thousand workers later in the year. If your taps don't catch any in the first few days, move the trap because as with a business, the secret to trapping yellow jacket queens is location, location, location. It's too late to bother with the traps now; you'll catch a few workers but they are a very small fraction of the total.

I have been using the traps for almost 20 years and the yellow jacket populations here are much smaller than before, the trapping has gradually worn down the population. I did find one nest, gassed it a couple weeks ago and have seen only one yellow jacket since then.

And yes, skunks are great.

And FWIW, gasoline works on carpenter ant colonies. Not when they are in your house, of course, but when you find the colony outside.

 

[Midniteoyl]

diesel

 

[PhysAssist]

Hey Francessca,

Sorry that you're having problems with the yellowjackets, ground bees or hornets, as you say.

I had the big reaction called anaphylaxis that requires the epi-pen when I was in my early 20's, and have avoided them since.

You should probably do the same, because even though it is actually fairly normal for the stung extremity to swell as you describe, no one can tell for sure how bad or how fats your next time will be.

In addition to the epi-pen, it is good to keep some of the OTC antihistamine Zyrtec (generic= cetrizine) because it lasts longer, and faster than benadryl, and is also much more aggressive at blocking the reaction and even reversing it.

My epi-pen had expired a couple of years ago, and I keep forgetting to get it refilled, so when I got stung while clearing the pad for our barn last year, I immediately took 2 of the 10 mg zyrtec and some prednisone we had left over after my wife had poison ivy.

Within 5 minutes of being stung I was already starting to itch all over and get blotchy, but within about 15-20 minutes of taking the pills, it all began to fade, and except for a sore bump on my leg, I never had any further problems.

I did repeat the dose the next AM to keep any late reaction from occurring.

We used the Blackflag Wasp and Hornet spray that sprays 20 feet out and foams to cover the entrance in the late evening when most of them were already back in the nest and they died quickly as it kills on contact and residually.

We used the wally world brand on another nest under and in a hollow cedar tree trunk and it took about 3 applications to finally kill them all.

Please avoid all the up-close and personal methods, we don't want to find out how it went by having an obit posted here.

Keep tractoring in good health!
Thomas

 

[Ken45101]

When i have encountered them, it was bush hogging taller weeds. Too rough to find the holes. I just dont mow that hillside unless i get it early in the year. Last time i treid mowing it i got stung nine times.

 

[francessca135]

Update: last night 3 of the 5 nests sprayed with BF hornet and wasp spray, another with diesel and yet another with moth balls...it rained during the night. This morning hot and humid..no signs at all 5..will wait and see when the sun comes out later. Thanks for all the advice. I agree I would rather not have to do the epi-pen, and we have the meds.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

When i have encountered them, it was bush hogging taller weeds. Too rough to find the holes. I just dont mow that hillside unless i get it early in the year. Last time i treid mowing it i got stung nine times.

The sting of those little devils is the worst. I got stung on the ankle twice; my foot swelled up such that I couldn't get my shoe on. The point of the stings ended up making a couple large scars, with deep pits. Bad boys, those hornets. Been stung by a bumble bee; it's bad enough, but can't compare to the hornets. Oh, BTW, juice from an onion will stop the pain from a bee sting almost immediately...no joke. Won't do anything for the swelling, but it does take care of the pain.

 

[Tdog]

What you describe would be yellow jackets around here, not hornets. I have found at least one or two nests a year for the 20 summers I've lived here - - happily, most of the time I see them 1st. It's not at all fun when you mow over them! The worst I've encountered was 12 stings. They can definitely out fly a BX-22 at full throttle.

And, there's no waiting for temperatures at 55 degrees or below to treat them, unless you want to wait till October. I treat them as soon as it is dark with a quart or two of gas. Usually works with one application. if it doesn't, that probably means there is more than one entrance.

Good luck.

Jack

 

[EMcPhee]

Diesel is much safer then gas, and it wipes them out.

 

[tcreeley]

I parked my lawn tractor over a yellow jacket's nest in the lawn, with the mower on. After a few minutes there a weren't any left alive. No stings, no chemical, no gas.

 

[Coyote machine]

Recently got stung once in each leg by what are referred to as white face or bald faced hornets. They can sting multiple times and only the females sting. I was out in shorts cutting a path for a new pasture electric fence with my Dr. mower with HD string trimmer line and must have hit a nest. They got me at the same time one on my left sock and the other on my right calf. OW!
Went back a day or so later to retrieve the mower which, I had abandoned when stung, and sprayed two Black Flag large cans from as far away as possible. Moved the mower ahead by hand then started it after it was far enough there was little risk of any strays getting me. The google info says they can swarm as an entire 100-400 hornet sized nest and that's not anything I ever want to see or experience. Gas is NOT the way to go. It is best to use a spray that is designed to get the ones in the nest and any that come back to it.

 

[TomSeller]

I parked my lawn tractor over a yellow jacket's nest in the lawn, with the mower on. After a few minutes there a weren't any left alive. No stings, no chemical, no gas.

Well, a lot less gas anyway, unless it is electric. Creative, I like it. Pull it over the top with a rope?