--by Dr. Raymond Cloyd Insecticidal soaps are classified as biorational or “reduced risk” insecticides and are used in certain situations because the...
We had an Orkin guy come to take care of a nest in our shed, where Yellowjackets make their way through the wood flooring and set up shop inside of a folding lawn chair.
He dropped his arsenal on them, and then managed to get stung several times while wearing full protective gear.
No goddamn way I'm going to do the same with a bottle of diluted Dawn! LOL
Yeah, I've done the soap thing a couple of times on smaller issues. The second there is any real worry, I'm bringing in the aerosol foam that I can soak the nest with from 20 feet away
Apparently in parts of Europe residential use of pesticide in this manner is not allowed. But, like, how do they handle aggressive wasps? Natural methods like the original post do not work on those bastards.
You can apply to be allowed to remove, or most likely only relocate, the wasp nest, if it is a protected species. For that you need to prove that the wasps are a danger (eg located near a bedroom, a resident has a wasp allergy etc). Just being inconvenienced, eg you can’t use the attic or a part of your back yard or you can’t open certain windows, is not enough.
In general, here in Germany it is always forbidden to hurt or kill an animal without reason. Some endangered species have special protections though, and that is what can make killing certainly wasps without permission very expensive. If you are caught, that is.
Of course you can always go the the hardware store, pay 20€ for a can of very effective wasp foam and get rid of them without permission. People do that all the time. Just don’t get caught.
Maybe a .22 connected to a robotic arm and a high def camera connected to an image identifier for wasps and locked in a fire arc where you got a bullet catch shield (don't know English term) and a small speaker warning when active?
No need for poison that might hurt you or beneficial insects
Headline is not exactly wrong, but if you read the article, hand and dish soap is not recommended because they’re not formulated as pesticides and efficacy can be hit or miss.
I've heard rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle works great for killing most bugs, but I've never tried it on a hive so they might get big mad before they're immobilized/die
Adding one or two drops of dish soap to a large spray bottle of rubbing alcohol can make it stick to bugs better, making it more effective. Far safer than poison based pest control too!
But seriously, where are the drones made specifically to spray stuff on wasp nests? I wouldn't feel the need to use the foaming, bad stuff that hurts the bees if I could try a robot applying something like this. Or at least if it sprayed foam, it could be in significantly smaller amounts, much closer the the nest of trouble.
Get a newspaper, roll/scrunch up a bit, light it on fire and hold it beneath the nest. Then when they try to fly out their wings immediately singe and they drop to the ground. Then you can step on them with boots. I don't know yellow jackets but that's what I use in Australia for paper wasps (which are very aggressive).
I can appreciate that approach. But the biggest problems I have are when they nest in the railing of my little wooden deck. Every year it's the same fight. So I'm a little leery of using fire.