Jul 26, 2011 – Hornets In The Holes
QUESTION:
I have hornets in a brick dust pile. Once I chase them off with wasp and hornet freeze. How do I keep them away?
ANSWER:
I am not forming a perfect picture in my mind of this brick dust pile, but am assuming that it is what you call it - a pile of dust. This would not seem like a great location for paper wasps to be building their nest and colony, so I wonder if you are dealing with solitary wasps that are using this pile to create their burrows in. Many solitary wasps are burrowing wasps where the female digs a tunnel down a certain depth, and then digs side tunnels off this main tunnel with a small chamber at the end. Within this chamber she then stocks food in the form of a paralyzed insect and deposits an egg on it, and at this point the female is done with her role and she seals the chamber and never returns. Thus, the period of activity of the adult wasps can be relatively short.
Solitary wasps also are very unlikely to sting anyone, so the combination of their non-threatening presence and the benefits of their preying on other insects we should welcome them. I say all this because my hope is that we can educate our customers to understand that many insects should be tolerated and appreciated in the landscape, rather than killed simply out of an unreasonable fear of them. Controlling them can be difficult, but there are both chemical and non-chemical options. Certainly, one non-chemical option is to take away their access to this pile of dust. Since they are active only during that period of tunnel digging and egg laying if the pile can be covered with plastic or eliminated entirely this could encourage the wasps to look elsewhere for the appropriate soils for their nesting. If the dust pile is damp it offers a better substrate for digging than dry dust will, as dry soils may collapse as the female wasp attempts to create the tunnel.
If you cannot get the customer to tolerate the wasps, and you cannot control the presence or condition of this pile of dirt, then you are left with trying to kill the wasps chemically. Hopefully this is a small area without too many entry points, and again my inability to picture exactly what it looks like leaves me at a disadvantage. But, if you can access the openings the wasps are using you could treat them with a residual material of some kind, such as a dust or liquid spray. This would provide a lingering active ingredient that the wasps may pick up as they move back and forth into that pile. If you do this you obviously need to be pretty close to the entry areas, so it would be good advice to wear protective clothing to prevent an angry wasp from getting to you. A dust might be the better formulation as this can be pushed further into the pile and openings with a pressurized duster, and the dust clings to the body of passing wasps. However, dusts work best when they stay dry.
Trapping and baiting generally are ineffective for any wasps other than yellowjackets.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
I have hornets in a brick dust pile. Once I chase them off with wasp and hornet freeze. How do I keep them away?
ANSWER:
I am not forming a perfect picture in my mind of this brick dust pile, but am assuming that it is what you call it - a pile of dust. This would not seem like a great location for paper wasps to be building their nest and colony, so I wonder if you are dealing with solitary wasps that are using this pile to create their burrows in. Many solitary wasps are burrowing wasps where the female digs a tunnel down a certain depth, and then digs side tunnels off this main tunnel with a small chamber at the end. Within this chamber she then stocks food in the form of a paralyzed insect and deposits an egg on it, and at this point the female is done with her role and she seals the chamber and never returns. Thus, the period of activity of the adult wasps can be relatively short.
Solitary wasps also are very unlikely to sting anyone, so the combination of their non-threatening presence and the benefits of their preying on other insects we should welcome them. I say all this because my hope is that we can educate our customers to understand that many insects should be tolerated and appreciated in the landscape, rather than killed simply out of an unreasonable fear of them. Controlling them can be difficult, but there are both chemical and non-chemical options. Certainly, one non-chemical option is to take away their access to this pile of dust. Since they are active only during that period of tunnel digging and egg laying if the pile can be covered with plastic or eliminated entirely this could encourage the wasps to look elsewhere for the appropriate soils for their nesting. If the dust pile is damp it offers a better substrate for digging than dry dust will, as dry soils may collapse as the female wasp attempts to create the tunnel.
If you cannot get the customer to tolerate the wasps, and you cannot control the presence or condition of this pile of dirt, then you are left with trying to kill the wasps chemically. Hopefully this is a small area without too many entry points, and again my inability to picture exactly what it looks like leaves me at a disadvantage. But, if you can access the openings the wasps are using you could treat them with a residual material of some kind, such as a dust or liquid spray. This would provide a lingering active ingredient that the wasps may pick up as they move back and forth into that pile. If you do this you obviously need to be pretty close to the entry areas, so it would be good advice to wear protective clothing to prevent an angry wasp from getting to you. A dust might be the better formulation as this can be pushed further into the pile and openings with a pressurized duster, and the dust clings to the body of passing wasps. However, dusts work best when they stay dry.
Trapping and baiting generally are ineffective for any wasps other than yellowjackets.
View past Ask Mr. Pest Control questions.
