Yellow jackets in the wood stacks! Eradication.

Go where ever you can buy pesticides in your area, here I get it at the local co-op. Look for Bifen XTS. Mix it two ounces to the gallon. It will kill everything. I spray this chemical on all my wooden porch ceilings. It keeps away wasps, dirt daubers, carpenter bees ect.

How safe is it to spray your firewood with pesticides?

Ashful said:

I've been chased away from my wood stacks too many times over the last week or two, and summer is just beginning. No way can I put up with these hateful bastards all summer, with mowing around the stacks, and such.

How to eradicate a yellow jacket nest from your stacks? I might be calling an exterminator on this one.

... and the obvious follow-up: how to prevent them from going to our stacks, in the first place?

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You don't need powerful pesticides to deal with this. Safer brand has a non-toxic (to anything but wasps) spray and there are store brand sprays that use the same ingredients. I have various wasp problems every year, and I use the Agway brand for them. They work fine and the residue is no problem to burn.

You need to figure out where the nest is first. When I had this problem a few years ago, I went some distance away in late afternoon with my binoculars and watched to see where the yellowjackets were going in and out. Didn't take long to find the entrance hole on the bottom of a stack.

Then comes the scary part. *Wait until dusk* when the insects are logy and mostly inside, cover your exposed skin with gloves, a turtleneck sweater, long sleeves, long pants, socks, tall rubber boots, a hat, a balaclava or ski mask if you have one, get some cheap plastic goggles at the hardware store, throw a scarf around your neck, etc. You'll look totally ridiculous to the neighbors, but you'll be less likely to get stung and you'll feel less vulnerable and therefore less rushed when you tackle the job.

Get a bead on that entrance hole, sneak up on it slowly and blast the bejesus out of it with the spray, a good long blast. (Those cans can shoot a good 15 or 20 feet) and then back away slowly and get out of there-- slowly. Yellowjackets go after moving things.

Then go observe carefully the next day and see if there's any activity. In my case, happily, zero yellowjackets flying around. When I took down the stack carefully, I found the enormous nest on the ground underneath and the huge number of insects was just stunning-- all dead.

.If you've still got YJs, start over and look for another entrance hole, then treat it the same as the other one.

If you've still got them, give up and call an exterminator. But don't pay somebody to deal with this for you until you've tried the DIY with the spray.

I don't think there's any way to prevent this, but I only had the problem that once 6 or 7 years ago and it hasn't happened again.

I've never had them in the actual woodstack but I've had them in the ground under brand new landscape timbers and been able to watch them carefully to see exactly where they were coming and going and come back at night with a flashlight and soak them with spray. I had one nest under a plant pot and found the pot tipped over and the nest dug up one day. Some animal beat me to it.

I had a problem a few years ago with a hive of bees nesting up into my soffit. I called a local bee keeper, and he told me a way to exterminate them without pesticides. He said to get a pump type weed sprayer, and fill it with water and a cup of liquid soap. Then wait until they come out and spray them with the soap mixture. The soapy water does something to their wings and their breathing and they fall to the ground and die. I did this and it worked just like he said. I slowly exterminated the whole hive. This is for bees, do not know if it will work on yellow jackets.

Montanalocal said:

I had a problem a few years ago with a hive of bees nesting up into my soffit. I called a local bee keeper, and he told me a way to exterminate them without pesticides. He said to get a pump type weed sprayer, and fill it with water and a cup of liquid soap. Then wait until they come out and spray them with the soap mixture. The soapy water does something to their wings and their breathing and they fall to the ground and die. I did this and it worked just like he said. I slowly exterminated the whole hive. This is for bees, do not know if it will work on yellow jackets.

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FWIW, if they were actual bees (and around where I live, all large flying insects that look like they might sting are called "bees" indiscriminately), a local beekeeper can some and remove the hive and its queen without massacring the bees. All the worker bees will follow gamely after the pickup hauling the hive away to a better spot.

We need bees of all kinds, you know, and all species of them are declining alarmingly in much of the country.

Yes, but the bee keeper declined to come and remove the hive.

billb3 said:

I've never had them in the actual woodstack but I've had them in the ground under brand new landscape timbers and been able to watch them carefully to see exactly where they were coming and going and come back at night with a flashlight and soak them with spray. I had one nest under a plant pot and found the pot tipped over and the nest dug up one day. Some animal beat me to it.

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In NE, likely a raccoon or a skunk. Yay!

Montanalocal said:

Yes, but the bee keeper declined to come and remove the hive.

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Well, then you are stuck. It's a damn shame, though. Even Yellowjackets are beneficial insects-- if only they weren't so damned short-tempered.

I don't like to kill things, but sometimes it's me or them.

If it's wasps you can traps that work well.

I do all my mowing with a 48" walk behind mower, last summer I found my first under ground nest, my legs alerted me to the bad situation that unfolded.

I'm good with regular bee stings, yellow jackets cause me to swell in the area of the sting and it lasts for 3-4 days, I once took a couple stings to my left hand, and it swelled up like a balloon

Ashful said:

I believe these are yellow jackets, but with so many species of yellow and black buzzy things, it can be sometimes hard to ID. I know we have had several of the "German" or "European" yellow jacket nests, in recent years. You know, propane tank-sized nests in the ground, often next to a walk way or foundation. Those little 1/2" bastards will chase you a quarter mile, and pack a wallup when they get on you.

Will try observing more, but it's not easy to get a line of sight on this stack from any distance, since it's backed up to the woods, and actually blocking my only remaining entrance to the woods. Fun stuff.

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If you can't see where the entrance is, then you probably do need to call in the professionals. You might also want to ask them if they have any idea why you seem to be plagued by these things.

Good luck.

A can of brake cleaner does a great job at killing bees very quickly.

YJs are wasps. When they attack they'll usually go after dark-colored areas like your hair.

I stepped in an underground nest in the yard years ago, probably an old rabbit hole. Those things came pouring out of their hole and chased me round to the other side of the house and through the door, stinging every step of the way. I'm not allergic, thank goodness but it was a painful experience.

Went back at night with a flashlight and a can of spray. Emptied the can right into the top of that hole and annihilated them buggers.

Going after them after dark is the ticket. They're all in the nest at night. Never attempt to mess with 'em during daylight hours.

Can you see the nest ?

Darn bees keep building a nest on my deck I spray them with high pressure hose. It doesn't kill them but it destroys the nest. Stupid bees rebuilt the nest I destroyed it again. You would think there would be atleast one bee smart enough to get the hint and decide to build the nest somewhere else.

I suppose pesticide is the best option ?

woodhog73 said:

Can you see the nest ?

Darn bees keep building a nest on my deck I spray them with high pressure hose. It doesn't kill them but it destroys the nest. Stupid bees rebuilt the nest I destroyed it again. You would think there would be atleast one bee smart enough to get the hint and decide to build the nest somewhere else.

I suppose pesticide is the best option ?

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Killing one batch of bees won't make your deck any less inviting to the next batch of bees.

I stay away from poison, personally. A hose does the job. Just have to be persistent.