This hornets nest is in a tree next to my house.


These are the critters that live inside:



The nest is 40 feet up in the tree. I haven’t called an exterminator as they are about 60 miles away and I imagine would be pretty expensive even if they could take care of the nest.

The hornets are getting more aggressive and I feel it would be best to have the nest removed. My neighbor offered to lend me his shotgun, and while that might be a momentarily exciting solution, I don’t consider that to be a long-term fix.

Any suggestions for a low-risk removal before I call the pest control crews?

12 gauge No 8 shot, apply until you have destroyed nest. all will be ok the next day, put the dog in the house. O, be ready to enter house and stay insided for some TV time. Apply pemethrin to the doors of the house and also directly under where the nest is located before opening the fireing range.

Yeah, it might be "momentarily exciting" for a moment, but probably not in a way you'd enjoy.

Do not shoot the nest with a shotgun. Don't squirt it with the hose, either.

And don't even think about having a party and pretending it's a piñata.

It might be easier for you to deal with if it wasn't forty feet up, so be smart...call the exterminator. Let a pro handle it (while you watch from a safe distance).

Maybe that drone with the gun on it is available.

We used to wait til it was cold, then use the shotgun. Of course, if it doesn't get cold where you are, then yeah...exterminator.

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1st smiles,lies.Last,gunfire.

How far does that hornet/wasp spray shoot?

I shot a next at night with the spray. I got the guard in the opening of the best. Then flooded the inside of the nest it killed them all. I had white faced hornets.

Or shoot the opening with spray then burn it.

Drone with the ability to spray something on it? I bet they could get aggressive enough to take it down, but it would be cool to watch!

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Mike C

Flame thrower. Runs about $50 for a 500,000 btu model. You hook it up to a propane tank. On turbo mode, the fire reaches 30 odd feet and sounds like a jet engine. Loads of fun. I use it for all my yard work.

I am not an entomologist but have kept honeybees for the past 45 years. During that time many local communities and homeowners have asked me to remove their hornet nests. Here is my advice (free of charge).

Since the nest is elevated and the hornets can come and go without human interference leave it alone until after a frost or two. In the hornet world all workers die, leaving only a handful of queens, some of which will be in the nest, others will have left for parts unknown. They do not reuse that old nest. Then, in the dead of winter shoot it down with a Full choke, aiming at the branch above. If you can get it down intact, there are people who buy them $25-$50. Before you discard it, look carefully at the workmanship of the nest, made of chewed cellulose.

Have a can of wasp/hornet spray handy, douse it and put it in a heavy duty trash bag.
WARNING. Be careful, those buggers can and will sting repeatedly.

As mentioned above, burning is the most satisfying, which I have done with their smaller cousins, the ground hornet or yellow jacket.

Dave

For forty feet:

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

A pair of hand pruners, five bucks, and that obnoxious kid down the road.

Never overthink a simple problem.

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Diddums

Wait for cold weather, or spray the nest with liquid nitrogen.
Cut the tree limb so you can lower it to the ground.
Have this on hand:

I've used soapy water in a fire extinguisher. About a cup of liquid soap in an extinguisher that you can air up. Shoots twenty feet easily . Kills on contact. Now this was on yellow jackets. They dropped like flies. It shot a soapy stream that covered the nest. I shot it and ran.

If they would leave me alone I would leave them alone. If it becomes necessary to remove them I vote for the pro.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

the shot gun and the flame thrower sound like the funnest

Gees,

A Roman Candle (at nite).....hornets don't operate at nite


.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

These I've collected over the years by waiting until the first heavy frost and then slipping a plastic bag over them.

I'd go ask my wife-around here that's her job.

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Forum consigliere

I had one but at a much lower level. I put on my foul weather gear I used on my boat and a face mast with goggles and gloves. I put a garbage barrel under the nest with a plastic garbage bag as a means to remove it later. I had a couple cans of wasp spray lying in the yard for backup. I took my tree trimmer pole with the rope activated limb cutter and stood back ten feet and cut the branch at the top of the hive. All went according to plan except the hive hit the edge of garbage can and knocked over and wasps swarmed everywhere. My gear kept me safe but I did run too.
I waited until after dark and sprayed the nest with a can of wasp spray in each hand and retreated. Did the job and put it in the trash bag next day and disposed of it. I don't recommend this practice for your case though.
Later my neighbor told me she and her kids were watching the whole scene from across the road and thanked me for their entertainment.

I'd recommend maybe you hire the pros since it's so high up.

Who: You or someone else. First thing would be to contact one or more exterminators and get an over the phone or via e-mail quote or rough idea of the cost. If the cost seems reasonable then you have a no-brainer decision.

What: Commercially available hornet spray, shotgun, flamethrower, or high pressure water. A high pressure water spray device looks to be the most practical, safe, effective. Should you wear a beekeeper suit or rig up a similar protective suit?

When: No matter what you do you will "stir up a hornet's nest" but the hornets will be much less active at night or after the first frost. You either have no frosts where you live or you don't want to wait till the first frost. In that case a nighttime plan is likely your safest bet.

Where: 40' up. The most significant obstacle seems to be the 40' height. How do you safely get that high without disturbing the nest or how do you get your intended kill device that high? A ladder seems like a terrible idea with horrible consequences if you panic and fall. Cherry picker? I do not like this idea. Personally I would not want to be stuck in a cherry picker with hornets swarming me even if in protective clothing.

Why: Duh!

If, for some reason, you decide to fix this problem with a shotgun, in the night, in a beekeeper suit ...... PLEASE POST PHOTOS.

Good luck.

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Scoundrel & Ne'er-Do-Well

A good damp morning at around 6 am and then a good dose of #8 shot. If possible get a small smudge pot going before hand to help out. Then apply birdshot liberally. Aim for the top of the nest so when it comes down it hits the ground, a couple of shots into after that will thin the herd. Then get to a safe distance and then the next morning again about the same time have a couple cans with you of Hornet spray and get the rest.

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Vaya con Dios

have your neighbors come over with their lawn chairs and charge admission. you could also serve drinks as this should be fun to watch from a distance

Malathion!

Just sayin...

Hose it down at night, PRN.

Done.

The best I have seen is only 29 ft, so it looks like you'll come up short.....

I had one in a tree that was within spray distance, and bigger than a basketball. I sprayed the heck out of it a couple nights, waited a couple more days, knocked it down by throwing rocks, sprayed the remnants, bagged and pitched.

I think the 40' problem make the practicality of solving your own problem disappear. I don't think you can do that, and I would expect to simply suck it up and pay the cash. The checkbook is a universal tool.

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NHI, 10-8.

We used to use a shotgun, but since I can't run as fast as I used to, I have given up on this method and don't recommend it to anyone else, especially if there are other houses and neighbors around.

Either call a professional or leave them alone with the knowledge that they will be gone after the first good hard freeze.

The old Yankees used to say the height of the nest was an indication of snow depth the following winter. It that were true you should be look for a really big snow blower. :-)

I'd wait till the dead of winter and cut the limb its on. Insert some moth balls into it and plug the entry with cotton balls.

If you have no desire to keep the nest the farm stores sell spray that shoots a good 20 feet.

or in the words of world famous philosophers, Moses and Jerome Horowitz..........

Moe, get some dynamite, we need to blast.
Curly, oh no.... not that!
Moe, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
curly, I'd blast

Some great suggestions, thanks!

I can’t wait for the first frost. When I came home this afternoon, the hornets were having a party on the front porch. Apparently they found a little niche in the roof corner next to the front door and were very busy. I knocked over a dozen down with the 20 foot wasp spray, but there are lots of them left, and they have got to go. They are expanding their territory, and that is not acceptable.

On Monday I will call in the pros!

Dang, I sure liked the shotgun idea

An entire can of raid with some kind of a protective suite on. Then beat it down once they have all died or left it.

At dusk when the hornets are inside, get a stick and put a large rag soaked in gasoline or something else that will flame like crazy on the end. Light it and hold it under the nest and hold it there long enough to guarantee total extinction. Have an escape route planned and a place you can drop the torch in case things 'go bad'.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I can tell you how not to do it...was helping my uncle pour a sidewalk a few years back. The neighbor was mowing his lawn and I kept seeing him get off the mower and run to his house. He did this several times.
Later he comes walking up and asks my uncle, "what's the best way to kill a bunch of hornets???" Good ol' uncle George says, "simple, gasoline...aint no gettin' back up and stingin' ya...they cant take gas."
15 minutes later we are eating dinner and the windows kind of shook. I looked out just in time to see his entire garage door blow right off the house and land in his driveway!!! Then a few seconds later hear the "whoomp."
Here comes the fire dept., ambulance and sheriff's deputies, so we walk over to see what now looks like the house on fire....
....well, he didn't tell us the rest of the story when he asked about killing hornets. Seems he used a shop vac to suck them all out of the nest. Figuring that alone would kill them he puts the vac back in his garage. About every few minutes he said one would get out and be in the house...that was when he came over to pop the question. He goes back home, pours gas in a bucket and sucks it up in the shop vac!!! When the gas fumes hit the brushes in the running motor...boom!!!!! He blew the garage door off the house, caught the house on fire, suffered some pretty bad burns and was hospitalized. He did kill the hornets. Don't do it this way!!!!!

Forty feet up a tree is pretty much out of range for just about anything I've ever used on hornets, outside of the shotgun idea. I have used a very strong stream of water from a small fire extinguisher type nozzle that fits on my garden hose to reach up into the eaves of the upper eaves of the cabin which is nearly at two story level, you have to keep your eyes peeled or have a buddy to watch your back, they can be vindictive little buggers.
A method you are unable to use but the best I have ever seen at absolute death of the entire tribe was while looking in an old wrecking yard at an old '46 Ford pickup. I opened the door and there right where the driver sat was a hole in the seat the size of a basketball, it was entirely ringed with guards and swarming with an entire colony of thousands. I held my breath as I carefully closed the door and backed out of there. The guy that owned the lot asked me if I found anything interesting, I told him about the tribe of yallerjackets. He said "I'll settle their hash", he walked back into his shop and came out with a 5lb. CO2 type fire extinguisher and we walked over to the truck, he opened the door and just blasted the hole for a good 5-10 seconds, waited about half a minute and repeated the process saying, "There all done for, have your look." I looked in the cab and there wasn't one moving yallerjacket, there were a few coming back from foraging but nothing else to worry about. I don't know if they thaw out and come back later but they sure was dead looking while I was there. He claimed that with all his old cars out there it was the sure fire method of killing off the entire tribe.

The hornets in your elevated nest will not ever leave their home to form a new nest elsewhere, that is, until cold weather kills them, then, all workers die and the female queens survive the winter in leaf litter or in the nest itself.
That being said, the insects you see flying in and out of your roof area ARE hornets, but a different variety....smaller, but just as protective of their home as the big ones are. This time of year hornets are frantically collecting food and raising queens in order to continue their species. You are dealing with two different nests.

Definitely call the pros to get rid of them. They, unlike honeybees, or even the big hornets, have the ability to chew through drywall to gain entrance to your house. Spraying the vicinity is futile. You have to either bore small holes in the siding through which to spray sevin, or another suitable insecticide, or remove that part of the siding to expose the nest. You'll find a tiered nest made of chewed cellulose similar to the big one in the tree.

As a beekeeper I have removed hundreds of hornet nests of all kinds as favors to friends and neighbors, in my younger days when I was foolish and bulletproof.

Please let us know how it works out, and if we need to visit you in the hospital.
Dave

My method is only recommended outdoors and AWAY FROM BUILDINGS. Some people would be better served calling in a professional.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

If you use a shop vac...Put a dozen moth balls in the bag / can... dead insects...., on a much lower nest, go out at dark 30 and wrap the nest in a plastic cleaner's bag, and spray hornet killer thru a very small hole in the bag, tape it up and they'll be dead..if not, put some more spray in the next day...repeat as necessary...
JIM......

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SWCA # L-1911

Two M200s tied to an arrow.

I think some didn't read how high up this nest is. If you shoot at it from 40 ft, you're just asking for trouble. I'd wait for winter, let them die off.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Check out the hornet nest removal videos on youtube, you will learn how NOT to remove it!!!!

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I am the Majority
How about u

No, don't post photos. We want VIDEOS. With a sound track.

And if you do, don't be surprised if they try and say you are not mentally stable enough to buy guns..... not sure I would disagree

home movies with sound - even better!!!

Lots of fun suggestions!

The professionals will be here Wednesday afternoon to powder the new nest by the front door.

The nest in the tree may be beyond his "reach"

And only a minor dent in the checkbook!

I inadvertently destroyed a ground-level hive with a weed-whacker. If you do it that way, wear long pants! Each sting, and there were many, felt like a lit cigarette burning through my legs. I try to keep acts of stupidity to a minimum, but I've lived a long time, with a lot of hard-learned lessons along the way.

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Why, I aughta.....

Use your gun laser, get back about 25-feet, cover your head with a military surplus type mosquito net, thick work gloves taped to your long sleeve 'floppy' shirt, wear a pair of loose fitting pants, tape your pants cuffs to your boots, focus that laser on that nest and let em' burn. If the heat produced by those lasers will kill black widow spiders and scorpions, they will sure as heck singe that nest and the critters hiding inside it. Oh, laser beam in the face/eyes works just fine on angry pitbulls and their owners too!

Would tracer ammo work to light it up?

I was wondering if that would work. Good idea.

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Diddums

Too bad it is so high up. A good dusting of powdered Sevin at the opening very early in the AM when the little buggers are resting works fairly well. Throughout the day as they come and go from the nest they drag a little bit of sevin home with them. It usually takes care of the whole next. It may take a day or 3 but it works.

bob

I'm getting impatient waiting for the video of the inevitable!

In my younger, dumber days, I waited until night and VERY CAREFULLY slipped a trash bag over the entire nest. I duct taped it up, cut the limb off, and waited several days. I then carefully cut a tiny hole just big enough for the nozzle of the wasp spray to fit in, and dumped a can of it into the trash bag with them. When i didn't hear any more buzzin in the bag, I took it off, and clear coated the outside of it. Don't take my advice though..after all, I'm the same guy that thought it would be a good idea to poke an alligator with a frog gig to see if it was alive.

Load a 12gauge shotgun shell with fine dust.