Hi Ryan, Certain yellow jackets are aerial while others are subterranean nesters. You have the void one and maybe it’s the introduced German yellow jacket since it’s very common to find in walls. There are plant oil-based products, too, for control. Some powders can be puffed in or injected with an electric unit to get the material deep into the void. You could suit up in a bee suit if you had to open up the wall to remove the wasps and nest. Not sure how extensive the nest is or there could be a pathway from the outside wall entrance to the nest proper. It’s late in the season now to use any trap systems, but have these on hand for next year/season. Lou
Louis N. Sorkin, B.C.E. Entomologist, Arachnologist, Myriapodologist Division of Invertebrate Zoology American Museum of Natural History Central Park West at 79th Street New York, New York 10024-5192 sor...@amnh.org<mailto:sor...@amnh.org> 212-769-5613 voice 212-769-5277 fax The New York Entomological Society, Inc. www.nyentsoc.org<http://www.nyentsoc.org/> n...@amnh.org<mailto:n...@amnh.org> From: pestlist@museumpests.net [mailto:pestlist@museumpests.net] Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2014 11:12 AM To: pestlist@museumpests.net Subject: [pestlist] Yellow Jacket dilemma Group, Most of you know that the southern United States and many other regions are notorious for yellow jackets in the fall. I have run up against a problem that is very complex in nature and could use some advice. Here is the situation: I have a yellow jacket nest in the attic void of a historic house that serves double-duty as a residence. The resident’s wife is taking chemotherapy treatments, and is very concerned with the use of pesticides in this building. Yellow jackets have been getting into the 2nd floor living quarters and are congregating at the windowsills. The resident says he is killing approximately 5-10 per day, and has been stung at least once. Last week, I was able to treat the nest from the exterior entry point (I used Alpine dust in hopes of avoiding repellancy /scattering of the workers), which we found outside of a dormer by the bathroom. No activity was noted over the weekend, but it started cropping up again mid-week. Yesterday, I went into the attic and pulled up insulation to have a look at the nest from the back. Though I found no activity, I retreated the nest with petroleum-based wasp spray to ensure thorough coverage. At a certain point in the late fall, yellow jackets release a barrage of reproductives. These are loners and, after mating, look for a solitary place to overwinter. Unfortunately, this surge of reproductives has already occurred. All of the specimens I have found indoors are extremely large, a clear indicator of this caste. These continue to get in and hover by windows, and I suspect they are scattered intermittently throughout the attic. It seems to me that I have two options: 1. Fog the attic heavily to kill the remaining reproductives 2. Install a light trap in the attic and clean up the mess using that medium. Obviously, fogging the attic is out of the question. To make matters worse, all points of the attic are not accessible, so getting the fog to permeate would take a lot more product than normal. I have an insect light trap on order that will be here in a day or two. Is there anything I am missing by way of potential solutions? Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this. Ryan Jones Integrated Pest Management Specialist [Colonial_Williamsburg_Logo.jpg] P.O. Box 1776 Williamsburg, VA 23187 (757) 220-7080 rjo...@cwf.org<mailto:rjo...@cwf.org> Thanks, Ryan Jones Integrated Pest Management Specialist [Colonial_Williamsburg_Logo.jpg] P.O. Box 1776 Williamsburg, VA 23187 (757) 220-7080 rjo...@cwf.org<mailto:rjo...@cwf.org>
