Well as has been mentioned. We've started trying to clean up the garage. In the process of doing this I've found a problem. A corner by the front door seems to have been claimed by both some flavor of bee and 2 or 3 different kinds of wasp. If you try to do anything at all that makes noise down there you stir them up and somebody is getting stung. So how does one deal with this problem short of burning the place down? I'm pretty certain that wouldn't take them all out anyway.
Buy this at Home Depot and wait until dusk.
Then strike!
I hear CRC makes a pretty great wasp n hornet killer spray that won't hurt paint, plastics, or electronics.
The problem with the normal spray can attack is these little E36 M3s apparently like to attack in numbers.
Pump up sprayer, HF or whatever, full of some nasty insecticide from the tractor store. Pump it up, set it for stream, stand back 20-30ft and nail the whole area. Repeat until they're gone.
In reply to Chadeux:
Wait until dusk, set flash light on floor AWAY from you. Go to town with the spray, keep the hole to the nest under the stream.
If they do come for you they will head to the flashlight.
One problem is finding the nest. It's buried under a pile of Kohler tins and other junk.
In reply to Chadeux:
three cans then 
and helpers.....
Get a smoker from a bee supply place (online sites have them cheap), smoke the area gently but thoroughly while you remove obstacles from around nest site. You don't want to force the smoke out so fast that it heats up the area. Once you can see the entrances (I can almost guarantee there's more than one) you'll be better able to formulate your plan of attack.
It's a stretch, but could you set up an aerosol fogger, stir them up and run like hell?
Last week, I found what I thought were giant anthills that sprung up on my lawn in about an hour. It turns out, they are Cicada Killer Wasps. They are about the size of my thumb.
java230 wrote: In reply to Chadeux: three cans then
A: Don't ever cross the streams. 
B: Be careful of who you choose for waist gunner on this one. Getting sprayed in the eyes by an overzealous comrade sucks. (Worse in a lift basket 60' in the air)
Before throwing a bunch of chemicals, figure out what. Kind of bee your dealing with.
I keep bees. Don't kill the good ones.
Powder killer filled 1/2" pipe pointed anywhere near the nest full. Other end hooked to 1/4 turn valve to compressor. Open valve, shoot powder all over in one blast, close valve and run.
We have lots of bees and wasps down here and I'm mildly allergic to them.
A few weeks ago, we had a problem with our 2.5 year old a/c system, stupid Lennox crap. Anyhow, until that happened, I didn't realize that bees had built a nest underground right near the a/c units outside. I didn't even know bees did that. So in order for the a/c guy to come, I had to get rid of them. Damn things had made a nest that was not only under the pine straw, but dug about 6" down into the ground. So I put on my old racing fire suit, helmet (face shield down), gloves, long socks and shoes and wrapped something around my neck. Went in armed with a several cans of bee/wasp spray and a shovel. Emptied one can on the surface, where bees were hovering/flying around. Then started digging and spraying. 3 cans later and a E36 M3 load of digging, they were all gone, and I didn't get stung once.
However, doing that in August heat in Atlanta is not something I'd recommend for someone who is out of shape.
I was skeptical, but soapy water does the trick. I made a very soapy solution using regular dish soap in a pump sprayer and used it on a few nests. The soap breaks down the surface tension of the water and allows it to get into the wasps pores where they breathe, drowning them. Works fast too, they never got up after being sprayed.
For commercial stuff, I've used the foaming kind, which works great at holding them in place, or keeping them from escaping the nest.
There's always the professional route too, and with a job that big, I might do that.
I suggest making the garage a no-insect zone. Maybe post an eviction notice. Problem solved.
RX8driver wrote: I was skeptical, but soapy water does the trick. I made a very soapy solution using regular dish soap in a pump sprayer and used it on a few nests. The soap breaks down the surface tension of the water and allows it to get into the wasps pores where they breathe, drowning them. Works fast too, they never got up after being sprayed. For commercial stuff, I've used the foaming kind, which works great at holding them in place, or keeping them from escaping the nest. There's always the professional route too, and with a job that big, I might do that.
I recently had a meeting with the pest control contractor here at Kennedy Space Center. We have a pretty substantial wasp and hornet issue since we are in the middle of a large wildlife refuge. Our pest control contractor uses the soapy water method exclusively with great success.
For youtube entertainment value...
Get a wolverine. Starve it for a couple days. Show it the nest(s). Also release a few hungry bats at the same time to eat the escapees in mid flight.
I've had best luck with Raid wasp and hornet killer. Avoid anything water based, it doesn't work very well for whatever reason, they don't die very quickly even if you drown them in the stuff. Maybe I got a bad can or something but I also didn't like the Spectracide Pro mentioned above, the stream didn't stick together very well.
And as mentioned, know how to identify bees. Don't kill bees, they have enough problems already.
lnlogauge wrote: Before throwing a bunch of chemicals, figure out what. Kind of bee your dealing with. I keep bees. Don't kill the good ones.
Extremely territorial, fuzzy yellow with black stripes and apparently it didn't leave a stinger in my arm when it stung me. This concludes my knowledge of bees.
I'm aware that bees have a job in life while wasps just exist to ruins people's day.
In reply to BrokenYugo:
I didn't realize some wasp spray was water based now, but guess I should assume everything is going that way. I had noticed a lot of the spray doesn't work worth a E36 M3 any more. Years ago I used to inspect Southern Bell buildings for asbestos and would come across a lot of wasp nests and occasionally a hornet nest. Ma Bell had their own version of spray that was AWESOME!!! It would shoot a long way and the wasps would drop straight off the nest.
Chadeux wrote:lnlogauge wrote: Before throwing a bunch of chemicals, figure out what. Kind of bee your dealing with. I keep bees. Don't kill the good ones.Extremely territorial, fuzzy yellow with black stripes and apparently it didn't leave a stinger in my arm when it stung me. This concludes my knowledge of bees. I'm aware that bees have a job in life while wasps just exist to ruins people's day.
Bumble bees? They aren't social insects, but they will make a cluster nest in the ground. Since that is the way they roll and queen bees don't have barbed stingers...each female may be a queen...I'm thinking to myself.
Chadeux wrote: One problem is finding the nest. It's buried under a pile of Kohler tins and other junk.
I would think finding the exact location of the nest would be the first step. You might try to clear the debris (at NIGHT!) as a first step. Be careful. I've seen yellowjacket wasps build a nest inside a garden hose reel, so the nest isn't necessarily in the ground.
1988RedT2 wrote:Chadeux wrote: One problem is finding the nest. It's buried under a pile of Kohler tins and other junk.I would think finding the exact location of the nest would be the first step. You might try to clear the debris (at NIGHT!) as a first step. Be careful. I've seen yellowjacket wasps build a nest inside a garden hose reel, so the nest isn't necessarily in the ground.
Sheeeeet. There is a You Tube video of a huge yellow jacket nest built under a chair inside an abandoned home.
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