Richard Jones' Log: European wasp invasion
We've been noticing more wasps than usual out the front of our house lately. Rachel spotted the nest today, so I'm up for some wasp-nuking action tonight. Strangely, the instructions for killing a wasp nest that she found online were at the Museum of Victoria. It's actually part of a set of pages about how European wasps were introduced to Australia back in the mid-20th century.
This is kind of timely, given recent discussions here about removing some of our restrictive quarantine barriers.
(Yes, that last link is to the personal weblog of one of our independent Federal senators. Neat eh?)
I know of at least one person that uses WD-40 to take out wasp nests, and while it does appear to be effective, I don't think that is great stuff to be spraying around.
When I used to do maintenance around apartments during the summer back in my youth, the guy I worked with always used freon to kill the wasp nests that built up around the air conditioners before we charged them up. That sure was good for the environment, NOT, but it sure took out the wasps like a champ.
Heh. I've previously used WD40, oven cleaner ... actually pretty much anything that had nasty chemicals in it that would spray. But that was only aver against individual critters.
Turned out to be an OK experience. Anticipating the worst, I wrapped myself head-to-foot in clothes. I think my nose was exposed. I waited until a couple of hours after dark, climbed up the rocky garden and *liberally* sprinkled the dust around and in the hole. Geez there was a lot of the buggers crawling around there. None of them seemed to take flight though, so I didn't feel that worried at all.
I have used 3 cans of baygon flee bombs, 1 lire of thinners during the daytime and boy was there alot of those buggers flying around, tonight i have just poured 4 litres more of paint thinners down the hole, going to add another 5 litres of 2 stroke, light it up and destroy the nest. I hope this does the job and will keep you all posted as to the success of what i have now called "Me vs Wasps Episode 3".
I know this is a bit after the last entry, but with summer back, the European Wasps are active again. You may be interested to know that there is a product now available at hardware stores including Bunnings, called NGA Wasp & Nest Killer. It is an aerosol but has a 4 metre jet-stream spray profile which means you can attack the nest with some relative safety.
I find a two pronned approach is good>
1. Hit em up with a liberal dose of Carbaryl - mix a solution in a watering can and tip it down the nest.
2. Get an old sheet/blanket/tarp. Throw it over the nest area. Throw a "flea bomb" under there. I've had two in ground nests in my back yard, and this really works a treat.
Previously I've had wasps in the back yard using yabby holes to nest in - I poured citronella oil down the hole, filled the entrances with cardboard soaked in the citronella oil too and lit it up - did a great job and looked great in the dark of night.
Two years or so later I have the little blitters in my eaves and figure the same solution is not relevant as it may be considered by some as arson - I'm gonna have to try some of the suggestions from this page.
'Do not light the liquid'? Where's the fun in that? I bet they don't recommend using a spraycan flamethrower to make little-escaping-wasp-comets either. killjoys.
Hope you haven't been badly stung.