Yellow Jackets, hornets and other cuddly creatures (Sandpoint, Spirit Lake: buying, campgrounds)

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by aiden_is

Many of us do.

I'm interested in the fly predators you mentioned. I love the idea of fighting nature with nature. Is there an effective equivalent for the hornets / wasps as well?

Not that I've ever heard of. But we can always dream!

[brokencrayola]

I took my 10 yr. old to The Healing Garden and we just got out of the car and a yellow jacket stung her.

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by brokencrayola

I took my 10 yr. old to The Healing Garden and we just got out of the car and a yellow jacket stung her.

It is a beautiful garden though, isn't it?

[cliff949]

I live in Spirit Lake. Up until a week ago we've had a mild yellow jacket problem. Then all heck broke lose in our backyard. Swarming and more aggressive and the spray doesn't kill them on the spot. Usually when I spray a nest they fly out half die immediatetly the rest slowly fly away. Not these guys, not one of them drops (the pest control guy said if I sprayed them that they would die even if not immediately but still it's very strange to not have any hit the ground after a direct hit of wasp spray? They were really going after my bbq that I had recently cooked on which again is strange cause previous wasps had no interest in it. Wasps can't be defensive and offensive at the same time so if you're sparyin them they generally aren't coming towards you and the spray but these buggers are. Local stores out of the traps/attracterant.
Does anybody else have trouble reaching hives way up in the eaves with the aerosol? I'll climb high on a ladder (in my bee suit..) and still can't reach them. I've been searching for a pump sprayer that could reach (haven't found a true wasp concentrate yet although tempo says it kills wasps?) When I get back home I will buy an insecticide that attaches to your hose to see if that will work. Any other idea's on reaching very high nests? Also has anyone noticed a different behavior in these wasps then previous yellow jackets we've had?

[dcisive]

My wife has been the proactive one as I'm deathly afraid of the buggers. She uses a wasp and hornet spray that is a foam. So when she shoots the nest it is completely encompassed in the foam which grows even larger once it's hit the nest. She said she has seen a few just drop all covered with the foam, but not ONE ever flew away after a foaming. You may want to look for a foaming spray. It also has a excellent range (I'd say about at least 20ft. Our honeybees are wonderful here they don't chase you down, but you're right, those damned yellow jackets are no good unless DEAD. The paper wasps with that huge rear stinger hanging down scares the bejezzus out of me

[brokencrayola]

Originally Posted by mistyriver

It is a beautiful garden though, isn't it?

Yes, it is very pretty, but it was much more buggy than normal for this time of year. Maybe it is a bad bug year in general.

[Cinebar]

I'm in Washington, not Idaho, but I have dealt with those vile and nasty yellowjackets for years and years.

Hate them. Hate, hate, hate them.

They're aggressive and mean and they will attack you; they can also sting over and over.

Where I used to live, they were horrible in the late summer and into the fall.

Some years ago, I decided to try my hand at keeping bees. A guy I was dating at the time, who had been a beekeeper for years, was helping me and he set up a gallon of honey in a feeder to help my new hive make it through the winter because the hive was new and the bees hadn't had time to establish their own stores for the winter yet. The yellowjackets decided they wanted that honey and they killed every single one of my honey bees. I would go out there and watch them attacking and killing my bees and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it.

Over the years, we were stung so many times. I learned to always have Benadryl on hand - both oral and topical.

Luckily, where I live now, while we do still have them, for some reason they aren't as plentiful as they were where I used to live. My youngest son (18) did get stung on the neck a couple of weeks ago and he took a couple of Benadryl right away.

Hate 'em.

[mistyriver]

And they've gotten even worse. We were up at Hill's Resort last night and they've had to stop serving food entirely outside because the yellowjackets are so aggressive and so plentiful.
Bring on fall and a good frost!

[Clark Fork Fantast]

We thought it was bad in Clark Fork--a yellowjacket trap 1/4 full after 1 day--until we saw a trap in Sandpoint: full after only 4 hours! Incredible. But no mosquitos! I'll bet the yellowjackets ate all the skeeter eggs! We were a little surprised that everybody calls them "bees," because to me a bee is a good little critter which we can't do without, not a vicious, meat-eating predator. Big difference! But after a while we started calling them "bees," too. I guess it's easier than saying "yellowjackets"! Next spring we'll see if we can trap some queens and prevent a bunch of yellowjackets from hatching...

[brokencrayola]

Originally Posted by Clark Fork Fantast

We thought it was bad in Clark Fork--a yellowjacket trap 1/4 full after 1 day--until we saw a trap in Sandpoint: full after only 4 hours! Incredible. But no mosquitos! I'll bet the yellowjackets ate all the skeeter eggs! We were a little surprised that everybody calls them "bees," because to me a bee is a good little critter which we can't do without, not a vicious, meat-eating predator. Big difference! But after a while we started calling them "bees," too. I guess it's easier than saying "yellowjackets"! Next spring we'll see if we can trap some queens and prevent a bunch of yellowjackets from hatching...

I think in general many people refer to all of them as bees unless they need to be specific.