Nature tends to have thrown us a few curve balls in the last 12 years living here. First it was furry creatures in the attic at least twice and the bug man came both times to spray in the attic and set traps. I asked Brad to close up all the holes where they might enter. 2 years ago it was an invasion of carpenter ants, same company, different fellow. They haven’t shown up again since. Now a new invasion, this time yellow jackets making a nest in the porch roof. I had bought some wasp spray because the wasps like to make nests under the eaves of the porch roof. It takes a few times, then they get the message.
They love to use the corners for the nest.
There are nice little corners on both sides of the eaves.
Unfortunately the yellow jackets were undeterred even though I sprayed a lot around the place they were going in. Since they were inside, I couldn’t really reach them. Lately there has been a soft crackle around that area. Now I did my best to block up the hole with wood putty; those little buggers just ate through it and continued with business as usual. I ran out of putty and have tried to think of something they couldn’t eat through. They are certainly determined. Then I saw them going in on the other side – I knew it was beyond my knowledge, experience and power to chuck them out permanently.
This is the corner the yellow jackets were going in. You can see the putty and also where they had chewed through.
This is the other side of the porch, not as many went in there.
It was across the porch underneath that we heard the soft crackle.
Nacho sprayed all along the other side as well.
I called the bug people and Nacho, who took care of the mice, came and used his spray gun with a powder and sprayed it into the crack. Man, you have never seen such cranky yellow jackets – there were as many trying to get out as trying to go in. It didn’t seem a good time to be on the porch. Things as quiet now, I think they are gone. or dead. If I see any more, I will call him to come back.
I didn’t think to check the ground to see if there are corpses. All I’m interested in is to see them gone.
Tags: bug man, carpenter ants, furry creatures, wasps, wood putty, yellowjackets
Gift of RA 
September 12, 2014 at 10:39 pm |
Oh, great…you sure didn’t need That!! Glad you got someone out there to do a thorough spraying. Here’s hoping that’s the end of them!
September 13, 2014 at 10:06 am |
If they return, the bug people are going to hear from me! I am finding I am responding to things like this calmly rather than getting all panicky. The last 3 or 4 years with Mom and dementia has helped me have a lot more confidence in handling situations.