I was putting up some cameras for a wealthy client a few years ago, including a doorbell camera. This house had a brick stoop in the front, but the homeowner never used the front door. The mortar on the stoop had cracked and apparently there were yellow jackets living in there. Now somehow I managed to go unnoticed by them when I installed the camera. I also didn't notice them, likely since it was early afternoon and most of them were out foraging. However, that evening when I finished working, the homeowner walked around to the front to look at the camera (barefoot, mind you). I was by the garage putting my tools back in my car when suddenly I heard him screaming and he came sprinting around the corner. He screamed at me to get in the car, which I did. I could see a dozen or so wasps chasing him as he frantically swatted at them. Eventually he got in the garage and killed the wasps that had followed him in there.
Dude took probably 30+ stings all over his body. I always check for wasps before installing cameras now.
We had like a small concrete sidewalk in the yard of the house I grew up in. There was a part where the walk shifted which created a hole between the walk and the ground.
Nearly every summer, yellow jackets would find this hole and make an underground nest there. It was in a spot that's impossible to walk around without attracting some of their attention. My dad refused to by wasp killer and just told me to deal with it. So after a few summers of trial and error, I figured out that the best thing to do was just run the hose into the hole at night and completely fill the fucking thing with water
yeah ive drowned a couple of hives. you can starve them by putting a glass dish over the hole theyre too dumb to dig another hole because they can still technically get out of it
Soapy water is best too. And diatomaceous earth is good since it gets in their joints and they can’t fly. We have chickens and use it in the coop so I always have a lot handy.
I found a hornets nest in our kitchen vent. Those things looked really mean at an inch long but they're a lot more docile than regular wasps. Good thing the canal wad entirely made of asbestos since I torched the nest with a weed burner
Wasps are very different and they hurt way more than jackets man I'll tell you that. I would clear what I could see in houses always in corners. Much easier and not surprising cause I knew what to look for lol.
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u/RelevantMetaUsername 9d ago
I was putting up some cameras for a wealthy client a few years ago, including a doorbell camera. This house had a brick stoop in the front, but the homeowner never used the front door. The mortar on the stoop had cracked and apparently there were yellow jackets living in there. Now somehow I managed to go unnoticed by them when I installed the camera. I also didn't notice them, likely since it was early afternoon and most of them were out foraging. However, that evening when I finished working, the homeowner walked around to the front to look at the camera (barefoot, mind you). I was by the garage putting my tools back in my car when suddenly I heard him screaming and he came sprinting around the corner. He screamed at me to get in the car, which I did. I could see a dozen or so wasps chasing him as he frantically swatted at them. Eventually he got in the garage and killed the wasps that had followed him in there.
Dude took probably 30+ stings all over his body. I always check for wasps before installing cameras now.