Wasps in Soffit

woods

woods

I probably did it wrong.
Joined
May 22, 2020
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Couple weeks now we've been inundated with wasps. They're everywhere. Can't be outside without getting at least six that are buzzing around your head. They're mostly flying in and out of the soffit above the garage. I tried about ten cans of wasp spray, but it barely works because once the can is tilted upwards the spray dies off. Its also at the peak of the roof, and I have to be up on a ladder to spray. Its a real shit show.

I could call a pest guy, but I have an idea.

Could I connect a few lengths of PVC to the end of a leaf blower, notch a hole at the bottom where I'm standing, turn it on, and dump in the drione powder crap in it? Think that would work?

There's this thing:
https://www.amazon.com/Dustick-Duste.../dp/B003ORY5ZM

but I'm too cheap when I think I could knock this out with a few lengths of PVC and a tapered exit.

Will I die? :laughing:
 
Early in the morning knock the nest down with the pvc pipe then soak the wasps and nest with spray. Ymmv.
 
M92PV4U said:
Early in the morning knock the nest down with the pvc pipe then soak the wasps and nest with spray. Ymmv.
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Nah, these are ABOVE the soffit. No visible nest. Behind the vinyl.
 
Dawn dish soap in a weed sprayer. Mix about a quarter cup per gallon of water and hose the FUUUUCK out of the area so the soapy water soaks into the nest. The wasps will drown and/or suffocate in the foam.
 
Get comfortable on a ladder, set soffit vinyl on fire, and stab wasps with a fork as they fly out :flipoff2:



Have you tired pheremone wasp traps nearby?
 
87manche said:
remove soffit at night when it's below 60
murder nests
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I'm not 100% sure I really to get in there. Especially on a somewhat tall ladder at night on a sloped dirt driveway. :laughing:
 
woods said:
I'm not 100% sure I really to get in there. Especially on a somewhat tall ladder at night on a sloped dirt driveway. :laughing:
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well you're not gonna get the problem solved by piece meal killing a few here and there.

the soffit will just pop out if it's vinyl.
 
That's why I was thinking PVC and some air power. Blow that Drione stuff from a distance.
 
woods said:
That's why I was thinking PVC and some air power. Blow that Drione stuff from a distance.
Click to expand...

except you'll still have no guarantee of actually getting it where they'll walk on it.
if you're going to try that just put it around the hole you see them using. It needs to get on their body so they take it back to the nest.
 
Carb cleaner kills those fuckers dead. The liquid doesn’t even need to touch them if you use copious amounts.
 
If you have no idea where the nest actually is and are to much of a bitch to get up there and find it, use your pvc to extend the shop vac hose and rig the end up right at where they are coming and going. Put about an inch of soapy water in the base of the shop vac. Turn on shop vac and start to bang on building / soffit or roof to agitate the nest. Wasps will start to come pouring out to defend the nest and if you didnt screw up positioning the shop vac, they will get sucked into the vac and hit the soapy water and not be able to fly and drown. This will take several applications over a week or 2 but you can do enough damage to the numbers the hive will not be able to sustain itself and die. You may also get a little while after where other wasps come by to eat the dead.

This is about the easiest way to remove an unknown nest while maintaining enough distance that none fly up your skirt. Otherwise get up there at night while they are sleeping / dormant and do some investigation to locate the nest. You can then best determine how to remove it.



https://youtu.be/IDJPRjn4-Fs
 
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woods said:
Couple weeks now we've been inundated with wasps. They're everywhere. Can't be outside without getting at least six that are buzzing around your head. They're mostly flying in and out of the soffit above the garage. I tried about ten cans of wasp spray, but it barely works because once the can is tilted upwards the spray dies off. Its also at the peak of the roof, and I have to be up on a ladder to spray. Its a real shit show.

I could call a pest guy, but I have an idea.

Could I connect a few lengths of PVC to the end of a leaf blower, notch a hole at the bottom where I'm standing, turn it on, and dump in the drione powder crap in it? Think that would work?

There's this thing:
https://www.amazon.com/Dustick-Duste.../dp/B003ORY5ZM

but I'm too cheap when I think I could knock this out with a few lengths of PVC and a tapered exit.

Will I die? :laughing:
Click to expand...

I don't know if this will work or not and didn't click on the link until now but for $300 this is something I would definitely be trying to build.
 
Well. That was fun.

So behold the problem areas:

qekH3fM.jpg


This one actually has a nest on the outside:

zWePxH0.jpg


Here we are at version 1.0:

YG8cCmD.jpg


Thought we'd be fine with 3/4" PVC. Not a chance. Went full limp mode at 10'. At 20' that shit went full on pushing rope. Hooked it up to the 20 gallon compressor and it just didn't have the balls.

pfz36Ln.jpg


So we upped the caliber.

Xbmb5lA.jpg


frtTiTg.jpg


cMP5IIS.jpg


Version 2.0:

Ic6wjEd.jpg


Works great when horizontal, but the hopper was 180º when raised at the roof.

And here's the Blower Thrower at v2.1:

e4y9uaw.jpg


I also have a Howitzer version that I can thread on another 10'. But that's a two person jobber.

There is a bit of blow-by though. I'd hold off on using anything that you can't get on yourself. Filled the hopper up with diatomaceous earth and went to town. I looked like Tony Montana by the end of it.

I guess the diatomaceous earth takes a few days to take effect. It powdered up awesome and I had the entire roof line clouded out. We'll see what happens.
 
D Nelly said:
This. Vacuuming bees is practically a hobby of mine now. Get a six pack and go hunting
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Not sure how well it would work where this is. Right at the peak of the garage. Unless I took the PVC, leaned it against the soffit, and rested the shop-vac on the ground. Its like 25' so not sure if it'll still have the vacuum from that distance.
 
woods said:
Not sure how well it would work where this is. Right at the peak of the garage. Unless I took the PVC, leaned it against the soffit, and rested the shop-vac on the ground. Its like 25' so not sure if it'll still have the vacuum from that distance.
Click to expand...

I've used a shopvac to suck a wire pulling mouse 700 feet through conduit.
it will work.
 
87manche said:
I've used a shopvac to suck a wire pulling mouse 700 feet through conduit.
it will work.
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Did it really? huh. well, we'll see what happens with this powder stuff. Wife's coworker swears by it.
 
I had a different situation at my place they were going in to my basement at first I thought they had a ness behind the siding but I was wrong. I found there nest it was between the floor joists in the basement behind some insulation where there is a kick out for the laundry room one the main floor. I still refer to that day as opening Pandora’s box once I pulled the insulation out from there nest it was on I hit the deck and hauled ass up into the house garage to get my bearings straight.

I put on a painters suit and went back in to the basement to find them attracted to the only light on down in the room where there nest was. I had some of the sticky fly traps the long ribbon style in the garage well because I can’t leave the trash can outside due to raccoons. My next step was to install these sticky flytraps next to the light so off with light and spray and pray and attach next to the light with my headlamp on not the best idea but it worked I keep those fuckers in that room for a week adding new flytraps then blasted and removed there massive nest .

This may not help in your situation unless you want to hang a light off your roof at night with shop vac in one hand and your flavor of brake clean in the other. Pray and spray brother don’t forget your go-pro
 
woods said:
Did it really? huh. well, we'll see what happens with this powder stuff. Wife's coworker swears by it.
Click to expand...

absolutely it did. common practice.

Mudslinger99 said:
What size Shop Vac ?
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a rigid one?
wasn't even mine. literally what was on site.

finally talked customer into running fiber between buildings. Wireless bridge wasn't gonna get it for VOIP PBX. Too long for ethernet. Order 215M worth of pre terminated ifber, tell customer to put conduit in the ground, and to install pull tape.

customer puts conduit in ground, does not have his guys put pull tape in.

I show up. make mouse out of plastic bag and a random object. blow minds by pulling 700ft of poly pull rope through conduit with shop vac.
lube it all up, pull my fiber, hook up transceivers and plug my shit in.
 
87manche said:
I've used a shopvac to suck a wire pulling mouse 700 feet through conduit.
it will work.
Click to expand...

Same, I was floored when an old boy showed me the mouse trick. If you have a good seal vacuum pressure will be fine for wasps. Or be an irate and weld up some scaffolding then climb up there with a few well positioned GoPros and 4-5 cans of carb cleaner and a propane torch. Light said torch and then bang on the soffit. As they come out introduce them to the BBQ you brought along. The torch really helps prevent lighter failures. If your worried about stings then just wear a few lawyer and drink a 6er before hand. Post footage of the BBQ for us to judge your form.

Edit: carb cleaner will need to be cleaned off before shitty paint can be applied for touch up as needed.
 
Closing in on 80º today. Holy. Shit. They're everywhere. The soffits are LOADED. Tried spending some time outside today on the porch with the boy, and we just keep getting swarmed by them.

Called Terminix. $250. 30 day guarantee. I'll let them deal with this crap. Afterwards I can get up there with a ladder or something and load the holes up with the Drione or something to stay ahead of it. But this first call it outside of my wheelhouse.
 
Have you tried some of the common wasp traps. Like a bucket with soapy water in it and some meat suspended in a nylon over the water. They eat until the cant fly, fall down and drowned
 
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