Been about 12 hours. Went to look-see. Lots (dozen or so) hanging and landing on entrance, flying off and replaced by others, but there is now a second hole about 8 inches from original and they seem to be using it. It appears to tunnel laterally for a bit. Really can't get a good look at original hole without major risk and can't see if they have cleared it, so hoping the original dusting will do them in, but I will risk it tonight and try to treat second hole and maybe get a better look at original entrance.
Second night strike. First hole pretty well covered except for small corner with insecticide. Bombed the additional hole, but unlike last night no guards appeared. .SHRUG.... Well, will check in the morning.
The powder takes a few days as they walk over it and track it into the nest. When I "Sevin" powdered my yellow jacket ground nest, somewhere around day 4 there was zero outside activity. A few days later I got brave and dug, but had a can of wasp & hornet spray ready to go. The nest ended up being about 2' from where I saw them going into the leaves (the hole) and about an inch below dirt. It was ~6" diameter and 3 layers deep. There were several still alive at the bottom, including the queen. The spray took care of that.
Here see some pics of a now dormant nest, I kinda knew was being built as I could see the insects gathering the clay mud from a wet hole I'd dug in the backyard a few years ago. The reason I didn't see it for several months while the bugs were working as that best was the seeky devils built it above the garage doors and with the door up, when I was in there it (the nest) was out of site. When I finally pulled down the door while I was inside the garage I looked up and low I beheld the project in all it's working glory. I sheepishly closed the door and went online to see if I could figure out what to do about it. The one bit of advise that I took away from my search was "if you don;t want them to return next spring, just leave it where it is" and luckily in my case that is how it turned out. eeasy peesy ...
Well, some 18 hours after my second overnight attack on the wasps and I see no activity at all near the nest. As mentioned above, it should take several days to dispatch the critters...so? It is unseasonably cool here today with a nice marine layer, so maybe they are staying warm below ground. Anyway, wifey will be disappointed as she was laughing quite a bit at my sliding down the hill after my treatments. OPPs, just saw one fly out. Looked to be more of a White jacket ... The color of the insecticide.
For anyone interested...rain today ...so no yellowjacket activity this morning. Luckily the Delta Dust insecticide is waterproof. It is also available as a generic which I did not realize for about $10 cheaper...$17 USD vs $25 USD per pound. My dog did show up with a swollen lump on his snout three days ago, which i assume was from the yellowjackets. It has cleared up as of this morning.
There are some interesting videos on youtube for yellow jacket nest removal, etc. Fun to watch every now and then. Learned a lot!
I found a rather disturbing combination of ant nest(s) in my attic a few years back complete with fliers at least 1 unseen Queen with a nest of sawdust below one of the two attic windows and two other Queens that wandered out form somewhere while I was sleeping and a massive carpenters group that overflowed after detecting and finally fully exposing the general congregation. It wasn't fun, especially since I still had the original 100 year old cedar shingles on the roof under 2 layers of asphalt shingles with a layer of rolled asphalt between them. To make things twice as hard for myself I tried my best to coral the fliers when I found them so they wouldn't populate the neighborhood as I think that is what the fliers do. I found the fliers first by chance while learning about how this old house was built so I could be more effective with my HVAC choices, mostly in this case how to best ventilation from basement to attic, with all the advice one gets while doing that sort of thing. I'll leave out the gory details of what I believe is a near full eradication of this houses ant issues, and save them for some other day, maybe.
Last Fall I was splitting sone firewood and the yellow jackets took offence with the vibrations and came after me. Declaring war on me was an error as i still have some outlawed insecticides in my garage, After letting their upset die out, I gave the in ground nest a dose and the war was over. JeffD
Well, maybe success on getting rid of the YJ nest. When I first noticed the nest, there had been a "few" of the wasps making a nuisance of themselves, buzzing around when I was outside in the patio area and as mentioned, I think one may have stung my dog. Yesterday. late afternoon -- prime yellow jacket time -- I was outside repairing a chainsaw for one of my wife's friends -- yes, a 70-something lady who does her own work with a saw. Of course, she knows nothing about them and bought a Ryobi 40 volt 16" bar at a garage sale. She could not put it together, so took it into the local saw shop, where they did her a favor and put it together for her and sharpened the chain and sold her a new chain for the grand price of $12 and told her not to bring it back. They installed the new chain, which of course stretched while she was using it and it ended up being thrown off the bar -- lucky she was not hurt. I put it back together for her, showed her how to adjust tension and gave her a basic course on saw safety and told her all of the safety equipment she should wear, so when she ignores it all and slices off her leg... Anyway, I digress. Worked outside some 20 yards from the treated nest for a couple of hours and nary a yellow jacket to be seen. Watched the hole this morning for a few minutes, none to be seen. So, if they are gone, it took the three or four days as the literature, as well as other folks on this board have mentioned.
First three things I checked for today: Iranian retaliatory strike. Whether or not there's been a POTUS sighting Stevewoods war on yellowjackets.......
The war on yellow jackets has been going on longer than everything in the middle east added together!! Maybe even pre-dinosaur....I'm pretty sure a fossil has been found that had a t-rex with a can of wasp/hornet spray in his little hand...
I'm here for that! One of the benefits of a Socialized medical system is health care rationing, meaning there is a necessary cost-benefit analysis for the distribution of care. As horrible as this is for some forms of R/D and the overall health of healthcare - it's good for others - like insulin, and.......eppy. -tis an ill wind.
My father always related the counterculture version: Ill wind that blows no minds. Speaking of ill, I severely sliced open my left hand ring finger. It needs a few more days and then I will attempt one or more of the many solutions offered on another thread for drilling in a round tube. kris