Ideas for Removal of a Hornet's Nest?

David LaPell · Aug 8, 2015

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.

steveno · Aug 8, 2015

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

Snapping Twig · Aug 8, 2015

Malathion!

Just sayin...

Hose it down at night, PRN.

Done.

M E Morrison · Aug 8, 2015

BigBill said:
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.

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

Doug M. · Aug 8, 2015

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.

Exiled Cheesehead · Aug 8, 2015

Not recommended, but what we used to do

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.

Gaffer · Aug 8, 2015

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.

meaneyedcatz · Aug 8, 2015

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

AKtinman · Aug 8, 2015

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

amcline82 · Aug 8, 2015

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.

rwsmith · Aug 8, 2015

The 'fun' way.....

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'.

msinc · Aug 9, 2015

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!!!!!

Kinman · Aug 9, 2015

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.

dave holl · Aug 9, 2015

AKtinman said:
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

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

rwsmith · Aug 9, 2015

Um...I meant.....

msinc said:
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!!!!!

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

snake803 · Aug 9, 2015

msinc said:
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!!!!!

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......

ChattanoogaPhil · Aug 9, 2015

Two M200s tied to an arrow.

wbraswell · Aug 9, 2015

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.

Franklin · Aug 9, 2015

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

Bugkiller99 · Aug 9, 2015

g8rb8 said:
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.

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

Ideas for Removal of a Hornet's Nest?

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