Wasp Nest in the Ground?

[MountainGoat]

Yikes - being allergic to their venom can be a scary thing.

It's not really anything life-threatening. I've been stung many times sometimes multiple bees, lots of wasps around my cabin and one stung me in the head a few years back.

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[DukeCanBuildit]

It's not really anything life-threatening. I've been stung many times sometimes multiple bees, lots of wasps around my cabin and one stung me in the head a few years back.

My brother has a bad reaction to them as well and keeps antihistamines handy, just in case. I’m lucky - if I get stung, all it does is make me cuss.

 

[Motorpsychology]

Yeah, Yellow Jackets are one type, but there are other ground wasps. They are quick to anger I think they are from the hood.

No, that's rainwater.

 

[NotBudule]

Dad used to take the old school road side flares and spark one up and stick in the hole upside down , no explosions, but effective ...

 

[Murphie]

I got 22 stings from a ground nest cutting the grass before.
My neighborhood skunks, raccoons, and bears don't dig them up.
Wish they would because you don't know where the buggers are coming from when you get swarmed and stung. running in circles didn't help.

Years ago, I was mowing around a pond and disturbed some ground hornets. Nasty, nasty buggers. Luckily I was not stung.

 

[Texasota]

A ground nest is easy to get rid of. They don't dig there own holes, instead they nest in an existing hold created by a ground squirrel or other creature. Go out at night (they are much more docile at night) with a shovel and place a couple scoops of dirt into the hole and tamp it down. They can't get out and will soon die.

 

[Markubis]

I wait until dark when they are all back at the nest and drowsy....then I load up the hole with one of those jet spray hornet and wasp sprays.

 

[KNI]

I just use 0.1-0.6mm dried sand (blasting sand). Just dump the sand on all openings and keep pouring until the piles don't sink anymore. Top again daily for few days.

Most likely will not kill them (and you should not kill pollinators), but they'll just move away.

 

[DukeCanBuildit]

A ground nest is easy to get rid of. They don't dig there own holes, instead they nest in an existing hold created by a ground squirrel or other creature. Go out at night (they are much more docile at night) with a shovel and place a couple scoops of dirt into the hole and tamp it down. They can't get out and will soon die.

I wait until dark when they are all back at the nest and drowsy....then I load up the hole with one of those jet spray hornet and wasp sprays.

I just use 0.1-0.6mm dried sand (blasting sand). Just dump the sand on all openings and keep pouring until the piles don't sink anymore. Top again daily for few days.

Most likely will not kill them (and you should not kill pollinators), but they'll just move away.

Thanks for the tips! Whatever dug this one up seems to have taken care of the wasps for me. They were repurposing an abondoned vole, screw, or mouse colony - not really sure which. I’ve covered the area with some available dirt - the rodents had several entrances to their burrow. I now know to fill these up wherever I find them in my lawn so wasps can’t move in.

The rodents also destroyed the grass in the area above their burrow, so I’ll be putting down top soil and reseeding or laying sod there in the Spring. That should take care of things.

For now, there is no more wasp activity, but it was quite a discovery for me. I also got to hear about the experiences of others and their solutions to this problem, while learning something new and even having a few laughs. ?

 

[Chris M]

The rodents are likely after grubs in your yard. Kill the grubs and the rodents move on to greener pastures. I don't recommend the "kill with fire " method for the grubs, just to be clear.
There are fertilizers with the proper chemicals for that kind of thing, as I seem to recall.

 

[Tracy Bowman]

Not wasps or yellow jackets, but some kind of ground nest hornets settled into my brother in laws yard. He tried different pesticides, failed, called a several pest companies and all said they did not and would not take the job. Finally youtube to the rescue. Turns out this particular pest has an oily protective coating. Dawn dish soap poured into the hole, then a bunch of water to create the suds. As the pests flew out through the suds, they would get coated, lose the oil and fly a bit more then crash and die.

Dawn is amazing for so many things.

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