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Post by Albertabuck on Aug 10, 2021 13:55:47 GMT -6
Sounds like its a widespread issue this summer, an over abundance of wasps and hornets due to the dry weather. Wondering what everyone else is doing to deal with them. Had lots of bumble bees earlier which was nice, but now, holy crap, I have never seen wasps like this before, they are everywhere. And the nests sometimes are a mere few feet from each other which is really strange, as they are normally very territorial. Lots of hornets too. I think things going to get ugly as we head into fall, not much for them to source for food, I can see them becoming much more aggressive. I am already running into issues with them harassing livestock. I get rid of them when and wherever I can. This is my main line of attack. Been using it for years, though its getting harder to get hold of these days with all the restrictions and more being imposed on chemical products. My local Coop stocked it several years ago, but could still get it for me special order a few years ago. After asking why I specifically wanted this product, some of the staff wanted a can as well, so they ordered a case of it, I got half of it for myself. Most powerful bug killer in a can you can buy. Its expensive, well over $20 a can, but it works. Also a few second shot cleans out the shop of flies in the fall every day as well. I use it on ants and everything. Need to be careful though where you use it, not something you want to be breathing in. Like if you go back in the shop after spraying for flies, a quick trip to the tool box and back and you'll be tasting the crap on your tongue and believe me, its disgusting and stays with you for a while lol. I don't recommend using it in the house. Where I first seen it, was years back my dairy neighbors used it to control flies in the milk parlor and their body shop. Ten seconds of spray into a football sized nest and most times end of problem. Occasionally might need to give a bit of a second puff.   |
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Post by SWMan on Aug 10, 2021 21:31:56 GMT -6
I usually put a bag over the nest and take to a pail of water and poke a hole, little bit un-nerving hearing them get mad inside the bag and definitely want to be quick about scooping them up!
Don't notice any different for wasps this year but flies are particularly bad, could be because we have livestock now I suppose. Using regular Konk in the barn, gave it about 30 seconds this evening because we are butchering chickens in there tomorrow....hope it don't make us pass out when we go back in...ha ha
And it's ridiculous how all this stuff that actually worked is impossible to get anymore, I can think of Lindane seed treatment on canola being another example.
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Post by garyfunk on Aug 10, 2021 22:09:19 GMT -6
I'm not brave enough to use the bag method. Got some kinda wasp killer that works good. So far the can has done 3 nests and should be good for a few more. Hornets are nasty buggers!  |
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Post by victory on Aug 10, 2021 22:19:21 GMT -6
Our local co-op has been sold out of wasp/hornet killer for a while already. At least the mosquitos are not bad this year, at least not yet. I know wasps and hornets are nasty guys, but think I would rather deal with them occasionally than have to deal with mosquitos half the summer.
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Post by northernfarmer on Aug 10, 2021 22:41:32 GMT -6
I have never seen that particular product AB, probably because I haven't bought that type of thing until later years as per wasp foaming spray as one product. The product I have used a few times ( not so far this year ) had a straw on the can and the idea is to stick the plastic straw into the opening of the nest and then spray it full of this chemical foam, seemed to work well. The problem though is getting it done when they are not active and so I have worn a head net and jacket and gloves just to be on the safe side and done the deed and got the heck out of there. Years back I would use a pressure type canister which was actually your typical lawn and garden sprayer and you pressure it up and spray weeds. I adjusted the nozzle on it so it would spray a straight stream and would fill it with a mix of gas and diesel and stick that in the bottom of the nest and drown them out and the diesel would certainly ruin the nest and stick around. The problem was my sprayer didn't like that mix and it failed after a while. Lately I read something someone local had posted about her husband using some spray "on" the bee nest and how well that went when he had to run for his life, some people just don't have a clue !.
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Post by garyfunk on Aug 11, 2021 8:14:22 GMT -6
I guess the stuff I use is called Wilson One Shot. It's good for nests around the house but for around bins/equipment we use a two gallon sprayer filled with a diesel malathion mix with the nozzle set on stream. We always have some of that around to spray down the cows out on pasture when the horseflies get bad (works amazing by the way).
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Post by Beerwiser on Aug 11, 2021 11:09:13 GMT -6
I switched over to canola oil and malathion. Mineral oil works well too. Costs a bit more but I don't have to worry about the cows spontaneously combusting lol. I just don't like the smell of diesel and cows, seems wrong. It has just been the last week that the wasps and hornets have been bad here. A couple of days ago I was washing out a culvert and those black wasp bastards were all over me. Same on the cherry trees, cherries are almost ready to pick but half of them have holes in them. I have only seen one nest so far, close to the ground. Full choke shotgun with bird shot from the safety of the truck is the most fun.
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Post by garyfunk on Aug 11, 2021 12:59:28 GMT -6
Haha, when I was a kid I thought shooting a wasp nest with my pellet gun was gonna be lotsa fun. I remember (like photographic memory) that wasp comin' straight for my eye. I was looking for some mud to put on my eyelid pronto, lol.
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rcyung
Junior Member
Posts: 85
Likes: 87
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Post by rcyung on Aug 11, 2021 13:04:01 GMT -6
I only spray wasps when necessary. Whatever Canadian Tire sells has worked, Raid brand I think. When I was young my dad had a steel rod about 10 feet long with a rag tied on the end that was soaked with diesel. He’d light it up and burn them out. Usually first thing in the morning before they get too mobile. Hold the flame under the hole and when they come out the flame burns their wings off and down they go. There’s a wasp nest on the house by our back door this year. We’ve been getting along so far…
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Post by Albertabuck on Aug 11, 2021 22:48:26 GMT -6
Me and wasps go back a ways...I'd have been maybe five or six, had been riding with my dad on the Owatonna swather while he was cutting hay at his folks place. Like any kid got tired of sitting there in the heat, so Dad sent me to their house, always enjoyed hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. Cut thru the pasture to get to the yard, and in the process come across the Massey Harris binder sitting in some trees, well as a kid I had a facination with anything mechanical, and had to climb up on the seat and start pulling levers and more, imagination was was rampant in me lol. So there I sit and look down and there is the twine canister between my feet, reached down and pulled open the lid and well thats when all hell broke loose. I bailed off, got hung up on the hitch and powershaft, finally got to my feet and I guess I was still making some noise when I come running thru the barnyard, Grandma was outside and knew something wasn't right, I remember running to her but not much after that really, well regarding them stupid bees. I don't remember exactly but I had gotten stung a lot, especially around my neck and face.
Was over 40 years later when that quarter got sold by family, my brother and I went to load up a few things still there. I knew it was the last time I'd have any right to do so, so brother and I went for walk and took him back to where the binder still sat, and to that day there was still residue of that wasp nest stuck to the top of the lid on the inside. Never did climb back in the seat, so never relived that part, remembering was sufficient.
Around the yard, I get rid of any kind of bees other than bumblebees. Brother and others are allergic, and they are a PITA. I have a rather crowded yard, stuff parked all over and more, so it ends up I often find hives simply during day to day operations, like hooking onto a machine or opening the hood on a truck. Any I see ahead of time I deal with so they aren't messing me up later.
Not sure how this bag trick works, like for example in my pic, thats a wasp nest in the rear arch frame for the conveyor on the back of the tubgrinder, not much I would think you can do there other than spray it. I know about the burning trick, used oil or diesel, but I have heard way too many times of even buildings getting set on fire from trying to burn a hive, and when I was kid, the can full of oil on a stick worked on the smaller ones, but them big ones not so good, and oh so messy. Old man just used to smash them up, that works sometimes, the bugs will disperse, but often they simply rebuild.
I've been at other's places and have helped them with a nest, and thats how I know most of the so called bug killer sprays sold are like a fart in a windstorm compared to that commercial Konk, as far as I am concerned Raid should stick to making repellant cause thats about all their spray acts like IMO lol.
Also, its in the drought areas that are really seeing the wasp and hornet issues, last year with the flood there were none, this year is nuts, I have never seen them this bad ever.
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Post by Albertabuck on Aug 12, 2021 14:48:28 GMT -6
In keeping with the bee thing....
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Post by northernfarmer on Aug 17, 2021 14:41:16 GMT -6
It seems my bee nest luck ran out this year and I bet there will be more I will run into, hopefully not literally. They were not there just over a week ago or so and spotted three of the hornets nests, one under the eave of the house right by the front door that isn't often used and two just inside a steel quonset that is fully open on one end ( no doors ) . I was moving a combine into that shed and happened to see something swarming around and it was those bastards by their nest then looking again I spot another one way higher up. I parked the one combine with the ass end under the higher nest in preparation to reach it at night. So last night about 11:30 I donned the head net, coveralls and gloves and used up a can of the foam type spray as I was able to reach each nest and I am sure I use way more of the product then probably needed but when it comes to those bastards more is better rather then come back and have some escape death and I had sprayed on the outside of the nests like the instructions say after I had filled the internals but that is probably a waste of product. I stick the nozzle into the hole and spray and the foam pukes out and also the foam tends to prevent bees from being able to get out of the hole since it plugs it off momentarily until the foam shrinks down. One of them I had done internally plenty I thought and gone to the next one and then checked on the first one and heard buzzing inside so poked the straw right through the nest in different spots to make sure they were wiped out. Then today I checked them out and there was no life flying around the nests so ripped them all down. Definitely the foam works as I have found out before but pretty much have to be right face to face with the nest to get it inside properly. I think sometimes I have done it too early in the evening and was still light and those bastards can see and react faster and maybe not all at home yet vs if its dark although I had to use a flashlight but shone it just as I had the nozzle ready to do the deed. Don't know how early they get going in the morning, probably would work as well when there is just enough light to see and still cool out. These nests were about 2/3 the size of a football.
The brand I had was Wilson but I see it has the same wimpy ingredients that the Raid has. I wanted to have more on hand so did some looking at the store websites and calling and places like Canadian tire, two Home Hardware locations, Home Depot were all totally sold out so that shows how much of a problem its been lately around Grande Prairie and area. However I was able to get some Raid brand in the stream spray can at Greggs but that is the only type they had. AB, I saw the Konk brand on the Home Hardware website but when I called sounded like that wasn't something they even stocked though it showed they would so maybe only some locations bring it in. So just a heads up for anyone else thinking they need some this fall, start shopping around to see if you can actually get any.
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gleanerl
Junior Member
Posts: 97
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Post by gleanerl on Aug 17, 2021 20:33:07 GMT -6
Cutting torch worked very well while coming across a nest stripping down a combine for parts. Mosquitos have been just unbelievably bad this year, worst I've seen in my 51 years. Crop scouting has been very difficult no matter what time of day I try.
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Post by garyfunk on Aug 17, 2021 22:16:33 GMT -6
Ha, if I've killed ten mosquitoes this year I'd be exaggerating.
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Post by northernfarmer on Aug 17, 2021 22:59:24 GMT -6
Mosquitoes were bad last year and had crop drowned out, this year some came along in the spring and then very little after that and even in the couple of rains that did come it dried up so quick that no puddles were left in ditches and had no issue with them. Its the driest I can remember in the yard grass wise, no wonder the bees are active as this hot and dry seems to be there thing.
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