Hornets

[buffalorifle]

New here, been following the forums for some time, homeowner been cutting firewood off and on since 1970's.
I recently had a 80-ish foot red oak blow down along the back of my yard and want to cut it up but it is hollow and full of the huge european hornets from break at the stump to roughly half way up. The worst part is I am severely allergic to them. I see no way to treat / kill the nests without splitting the tree which I cannot do. The only option I see is hiring exterminator and not so sure they can do it, or wait till winter freeze to kill them.
Any other suggestions would be welcomed. Every day I look at that tree laying there and start salivating at the thought of attacking it with my saw and splitter.

 

[kenmbz]

I use tempo dust at night for YJ , should work fine for hornets.
As long as you can get some by any entrance it should work.
If you think you will get stung even at night, then call someone.

We have baldface hornets here who leave guards at night. Don't think the European ones do, maybe you can google that just to figure out your strategy.

 

[coffeebrk]

M80 will blow them to smithereens
Or Tempo dust

 

[buffalorifle]

Never heard of Tempo dust... is it available at hardware stores? Mostly used spray but with nests in hollow tree not accessible.
European hornets are active at night and attracted to light so was thinking bug zapper but not sure of getting them all.

 

[Del_]

I would wait until the cold renders the hornets harmless.

And save the money.

I wonder is a 100% kill rate is achieved by the exterminator?

If not...I'd hate to have a few angry ones buzzing around.

 

[farmer steve]

This is a effective bee killer. I use a similar product with the same active ingredient (dinotefuran)as this.
https://www.domyown.com/alpine-wsg-...campaign=surfaces-across-google&utm_term=2876

 

[OM617YOTA]

Spoonful of Sevin dust in the entrance will end them. Make sure they have to walk through the dust to get into the nest.

If you're allergic, I agree with the others saying that risking even one sting isn't worth it.

 

[lone wolf]

Don't go near them, get a person who isn't allergic to spray them at night!

 

[coffeebrk]

Most if not all crawly flying insects dislike diatomaceous earth.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Anything with an exoskeleton will be torn apart by DE. Have to get it all over the critters, though. I've used a cheap Harbor Freight sand blaster to dispense a cloud of DE into wall cavities, worked great. It's near pure silica and can cause silicosis with enough exposure, a respirator is probably a good idea.

 

[Del_]

I use DE quite a bit. In fact I just killed a ground yellow jacket nest along our sidewalk to our main entrance.

For the yellow jackets I used about ten ounces of DE(volume measurement) and would go out each night and push the DE over the newly opened hole the yellow jackets had formed.

After about three days I would poke the whole nest and stir in the hole in the ground.

After five or six days I see no daytime activity.

I would imagine hornets living in a large trunk cavity would be more difficult to control so I would be quite leery, especially if I were allergic.

 

[buffalorifle]

Some interesting advice here I will keep in mind for future needs. In this case due to multiple entrances along the trunk of this large tree, and my allergies to these critters, I am thinking I will wait till we get a good freeze.

 

[lone wolf]

Some interesting advice here I will keep in mind for future needs. In this case due to multiple entrances along the trunk of this large tree, and my allergies to these critters, I am thinking I will wait till we get a good freeze.

Yup stay away!

 

[wildwes]

If you can wait for the cold to kill them in a month or so, that is best. If you can get to the nest, gasoline will kill them.

And as others have said, they still fly some at night, so be careful. Yellow jackets are easy to get at night, hornets are harder. And those big European hornets HURT.

 

[davidprivett]

I have had good luck with ground nests,taking a house fogger and a garbage can ,activating the fogger can under the garbage can over the nest at night. next day no yellow jackets. It is best at night when all the workers are in the nest. I also put a brick on top of the can to keep it tighter on the ground.

 

[Sidecarflip]

I use chlorinated or non chlorinated brake cleaner on them, day or night (prefer night). Kills them instantly and it's cheap. Even blasted them in mid air. They drop like a Houlthi rocket.

 

[fields_mj]

I would try to treat them now (or have someone else treat them) with DE or 7 dust, but I wouldn't cut it until a nice cold day this winter. My experience is that they don't all die in the winter. They huddle together in the nest. Still not something I want to find on accident, even in the winter. Better to take some minor measures now to minimize the size of the colony.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Wish I was close, I'd have run over and dumped a couple teaspoons of Sevin dust in the entrances for you when this thread started. They'd have been dead for days already.

Last time I got stung it was seven times, after I mowed over a ground nest. Not fun, but I'm not allergic, so ultimately not a big deal. The itch afterwards was way worse.

 

[fields_mj]

The few years, my luck has ran out in regards to getting stung. This past summer I got lit up after I made the 2nd pass under a small (new) nest of bald face hornets on the lawn mower. The nest was well hidden in a tulip tree in the yard. I'm not sure how fast they can fly, but I know its more than 15 mph.... Thankfully they only got me 4 times (last one was a delayed hit from one that got in my shirt). That was the first time getting stung by bald faced hornets, and hopefully my last. Last year I found a nest of ground bees (yellow jackets) and got hit 4 or 5 times. The year before that I discovered that wasps are attracted to the arc from a stick welder. I can't recall what I was welding on in my shop at the time, but every so often I'd lay a bead and when I raised my helmet up, there would be a crispy wasp laying on the steel. It was interesting until I had one go in the back of my glove. At fist I though I must have made a hole somehow in the cuff of the glove, and a bit of weld spatter must have found its way in. I just tried to keep my composure so I could finish the bead and stop to find the hole. A few seconds later, it hit me 2 more times and I realized it wasn't weld spatter. Prior to that, I can only think of twice that I'd been stung since I was a kid and would occasionally step on a honey bee in the yard. I've not had any allergic reactions yet, but I'd really prefer to stop pushing my luck.

 

[StihlsawuserMS361]

I've had good luck with road flares on ground bees. Usually there are two entrances, so when you install the flare in the hole, look for escaping smoke.
Pretty hard to extinguish a flare, they usually do the trick