Thread: Any Entomologists here?

Originally Posted by Consultant

Here's a wild ass idea.

Call a professional willing to guarantee their work and call them repeatedly until the problem is gone.

A good pest control firm will not only take care of the bee/wasp/hornet problem, but they will also take care of every other insect that crosses your property line for years to come.

haha, yea, I called a couple companies, one big and one small, they both pretty much said the same thing, they said, unless I knew where the nests were, there's not much they can do.

Originally Posted by moving-target

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!

Attachment 1755

best idea yet!! What store can I pick up this item at?

its a DIY kit go to the liquor store by a bottle of whiskey or 2 or 3 go to bed bath and beyond by a set of nice pillow cases 700 thread count go to the gas station buy a gallon of gas premium works better and a bottle of oil non of that synthetic crap good 30 weight will do

Originally Posted by loki2158

Check all high dry areas around your house. They will also use dead trees and ground borrows as nests if it offers a good deal of protection. If I can ever find my entomology books I can give you a little more detail on where to look for your area. Are you having issues with all three types or are you unsure which species you are dealing with? Each one acts differently (Hornets are territorial while wasps tend to be solitary or social insects) and knowing which one you are dealing with will help you know how to combat them.

I'm honestly not sure of the species because I've found many conflicting things between what I've read, what people tell me, and what I've seen.

Lets start here, a yellow jacket is not a wasp and a wasp is not a yellow jacket, correct?

But a hornet is a wasp, correct?

I've read that yellow jackets usually build their nests on the ground or just beneath the surface.

I've read that some hornets look somewhat like yellow jackets. I've read that the difference between the similar ones is that the mid section of the body of a yellow jacket is black, while a hornet has a reddish-brown coloring surrounded by black.

I've seen two types out in the yard: I've seen the hornet looking ones that have the yellow stripes with a reddish-brown mid-section and I've seen the huge gigantic red wasps. The yellow striped ones had their nests up in a couple trees while the bid red wasps have a nest that I can't see since it's beneath the pool deck. (I'm not going under there). The nests that I've killed already were the yellow striped ones, ... but I still see some flying around....

Originally Posted by Tick

According my pest control friend, people usually use the term wasp to refer to the vespidae subset family, which includes yellow jackets, hornets, and paper wasps, whereas an actual wasp refers to a type of insect which preys upon a particular pest insect in a parasitical manner, including those little fuzzy red ants you may have seen around.

Yellow jackets and regular paper wasps are black and yellow and are often mixed up, and the only easy way to tell them apart is by their nests. Yellow jacket nests look like blobs of dirt, whereas paper wasps have honeycomb looking nests. Red paper wasps are, as you'd expect, those nasty red things, and a lot more aggressive than normal wasps. Hornets are much smaller than yellow jackets, and typically build their nests in trees, which look like a yellow jacket nest but with exposed patches of honeycomb.

As for getting the run around by pest control companies, my friend suggesting simply telling them you have a hornet problem in the yard, and if they ask you to be more specific, say in a couple trees. Once they get there, they're basically obligated to find the nest, as that is, or at least should, according to my friend, be part of their job.

Anyway, good luck with your was against the insects, brother. I've hated wasps ever since I was 10 years old and a swarm of them tore me up on the playground.

Yup, that pretty much describes them.

This may also help. It's a pest removal service but has a good description of each of the wasp types and some pictures to help ID them.

http://www.18669nobugs.com/wasps

I think what you have is a ground hornet they look similar to a yellow jacket but are smaller and far more aggressive and yes they love meat, I had trouble with them where I lived once I was trying to bbq and the little bastards was fighting me over the meat not typical yellow jacket behavior. So I went looking for the nest just as you did and found none but there were dozens of them around so I just keep looking in the general direction they were flying and moved that way as I did I noticed more of them so any way I found their nest in the side of a drainage ditch it looked like a huge weathered old piece of cardboard in the ground and they were swarming in and out of it, I got some gas in a can and threw it on the nest and set on fire after about two days I didn't see anymore.

Originally Posted by deputyfestus

I think what you have is a ground hornet they look similar to a yellow jacket but are smaller and far more aggressive and yes they love meat, I had trouble with them where I lived once I was trying to bbq and the little bastards was fighting me over the meat not typical yellow jacket behavior. So I went looking for the nest just as you did and found none but there were dozens of them around so I just keep looking in the general direction they were flying and moved that way as I did I noticed more of them so any way I found their nest in the side of a drainage ditch it looked like a huge weathered old piece of cardboard in the ground and they were swarming in and out of it, I got some gas in a can and threw it on the nest and set on fire after about two days I didn't see anymore.

thas da way ta do it !

Originally Posted by jmw_man

what did yall use to attract them to it? or was it simply the water itself that they were attracted to?

I think the smell of the soap did it.I read it in one of those "GREEN" articles.