Best time to spray hornet nest(s)

[SuperHero]

I'm now the proud owner of 3 hornets nests under my front porch - one of them directly over the door. It doesn't bother me since I don't bother them, and they don't bother me. But friends coming to visit are terrified by the 1.5" flying beasts. I've bought the spray, it's deciding when to do it... I remember someone saying it's best to do it at evening... or was it morning? Anyone remember?

Are there other ways of getting rid of them without actually killing them?

 

[Mrmyke709]

In reply to:

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[tropheus]

just before dawn or just after dusk. Be ready to move once spraying commences. Those 1.5" beasts will try to show you what they are made of.

 

[dustin_c1]

I'm no expert, but I can tell you from experience that if you just hose it down or knock it down, they'll build another nest in the same spot. Every time I used poison they left (or died) and didn't come back.

 

[Mrmyke709]

That hive will only get bigger and they will become more aggressive.
I am a flaming tree hugger but around my casa my credo is, "If it Stings and Flies, It Dies".

 

[SuperHero]

Good, I don't want those things back. I knocked down a nest last winter when they were hibernating or doing whatever they do in winter. But they came back in the spring and brought friends. I'll spray 'em on Thursday when I get home at a decent hour.

 

[hornimal]

hornets are not endangered, nor do they provide a valuable resource (honey), so non-lethal removal would be a waste. you will either get stung doing it yourself, or will have to shell out a lot of money to have a beekeeper dispose of them for you. so kill 'em all.

 

[flaco]

My dad just reaches up and knocks them down with his hand and never seems to get stung. Or if he did he wouldn't tell you.

He is a hard-core sob.

 

[LosIllini]

No problem.

 

[badexcuse]

wintertime - when they're half frozen and don't move very fast!

 

[UTinBigD]

spray the nest then when they fall down you need to step on them.

 

[WooHorn]

The reason they say dawn and dusk is so that you will catch them in the nest. It is no fun to spray while they are out.

In my OLD house, we just took some aerosol spray and a lighter to the nest. That took care of EVERYTHING!!

 

[SuperHero]

Yeah, I don't want to be the next person in the newspaper who burned their house down while trying to get rid of wasps.

 

[arroyo]

When I was a kid I usd to wrap a towel around a long stick, light the towel on fire and then briefly hold it up to the wasp nest. It was cool. The wasps looked like little planes on fire spiraling down to the ground.
I really don't ever mess with nests now. Wasps eat a bunch of small insects and I'll take any help I can get in that department. That said, if a huge nest was right over my door and I had to get rid of it, I'd probably just spray it with some wasp spray in the evening when they're all settled in for the night.

 

[Orange&White]

Get youself a can of 3M spray mount (adhesive for mounting pictures to poster borad or foam board) and douse those ********. They will not fly an inch, they'll just stick. Then, if you still feel like a pyromaniac, light it up light a candle. It ends up being easier, cheaper, and safer than using wasp spray.

 

[Longhorn Al]

I'm not sure what wasp spray I used last, but it worked like a charm. Those ******** dropped like a rock. The burning towel and 3M solutions sound fun.

 

[accuratehorn]

The best time would be right after you go to RunTex and buy some new running shoes.

 

[SuperHero]

Haha. I have 2 new pairs of running shoes that need breaking in. Tonight might be the night to try them out.

Nah, since they're immediately overhead, I'm planning on cracking open the door, spraying, and slamming the door before they figure out what hit 'em. The back-up plan is to wave my room-mate's electric fly swatter around, and screaming like a little ***** if one gets into the house.

Gonna take care of the big nest tonight, and do the other two tomorrow.

arroyo,
When I think of the stick/burning towel, I think of the flaming biplanes falling in the original King Kong movie.

 

[Hayden_Horn]

oh, man. **** hornets and fire ants. wasps at least eat other insects. Douse those ******** and get the sniper spray. The sniper spray knocks them right down.

 

[Hayden_Horn]

so....how'd it go?

 

[SuperHero]

Got 'em ********. I got home around 11PM last night, changed into my sneakers, put on a long sleeve shirt, gloves, and bee keeper hat. I then quietly opened the front door, stuck out my arm, blindly pointed the can in the general direction of the nest, and pressed the button. The carnage that followed was incredible. The hornets, 7 of them, came crashing down. I could see them through the transom window, falling like banished angels. I opened up the door, intending on putting them out of their suffocating agony by crushing them with my new running shoes. But in my days of preparation and observation, I failed to notice that there were actually 8 hornets, and the newly orphaned one was waiting for me outside the door at eye level. With a few yelps and swings of the electric fly swatter, I electrocuted the last one to a medium crisp.

Taking out the other two nests was easier since they were smaller and further away. I parted the bushes behind which I was hiding, and nailed them both between the eyes. Two shots, two kills, like Tom Behringer dispatching rogue Columbian colonels from long distance. I am the shiznit. This weekend I will take on the fire ant colonies in my yard. I will write more when I have fully conquered the beasts terrorizing my kingdom.