Wasps everywhere...help!

[FairClaire]

I don't know how we didn't notice them earlier in the season, but three members of my family have been stung in the past couple of weeks.  After the second person was stung, we discovered multiple nests in different locations around our house.  We sprayed and then knocked them down, but we keep seeing wasps everywhere.  Is it too late to deal with this ourselves?  What kind of resources does an exterminator have that we wouldn't?  DH doesn't want to pay for this if we can handle it.

[ElizabethB]

You could try knocking them down every night for a few weeks, that's my current strategy, we just moved somewhere where there are wasps.  The next escalation is ammonia, that is also a recommended self help strategy.  (They sleep at night, it's easy to knock their nests down at night.)  

 

It's mostly working, but I forget sometimes...

[kwickimom]

We start at the first sign of a wasp and check every few days for nests all summer. I agree with knocking them down at night. Ours make nests everywhere- any electrical outlet, light fixture, corners of the house, in the soffit, in the outside electrical box, under the slide on the swing set, under wood piles, in trees, under tables, under the patio umbrella......you name it. Just check everywhere or watch and follow them to their nest. They have one somewhere :-)

[kwickimom]

oh and I do t think there is a need for an exterminator unless you can't get to a nest for some reason or there is a gigantic one you don't want to mess with. As long as you have spray and knock down their nests they should leave.

[kwickimom]

*don't- sorry posting from my phone

[Mabeline]

We recently used one of those yellow traps from Walmart and combined with spraying, they are mostly gone. It catches the stragglers that might try to build again. We were very surprised to see how fast the trap filled up.

[readinmom]

chrysanthemum oil

[mom2bee]

SMOKE! I say get some frank incense the kind that gives off a lot of smoke. Once the smoke has them down/disoriented bug spray, knock them down and put them in sealed containers and destroy the nests. Burn them if you can and then dowse the nests in water before discarding it. We had a problem with wasps a while back and we thought that a doused down nest was inactive and we got a nasty, painful surprise.

 

There are also traps, but I don't know how well they work...

[FairClaire]

I think we could take care of the smaller nests that are low to the ground, but there are a lot of nests way up high.  If he stands on the top of a tall ladder with a broom he has a shot of knocking the nest down.  I don't think it's practical for him to do this every night though.  Sooner or later he's going to fall!