My house has given birth to an underground horror.

August 30, 2023 3:15 PM

How do I get rid of a yellowjacket/hornet/wasp nest that is buried in my lawn?

My house has come up with yet another way to drive me crazy. A few days ago, my sister was walking her dog in my backyard and came running in, saying there was a yellowjacket nest buried in my lawn. I'm not sure if it actually is yellowjackets or wasps or hornets. But it's not bees. What do I do????

I really cant afford to pay an exterminator, so I'd like to deal with it myself. I know they are dangerous and I will be extremely careful. There are various sprays on sale and everything says to do it at night while they're sleeping. I will of course cover every part of my self before going near there. I am not allergic to any kind of sting.

Can anyone recommend any techniques/products to use? Please no answers that say "Just hire someone." I really cant afford it right now. I need to address this soon because my lawn is getting real overgrown and needs mowing!

posted by silverstatue to Home & Garden (25 answers total)

Learn from my experience. Do not just cover the hole. They have a back exit, they will use it and they will be angry.

I get the cans of Raid Wasp and Hornet spray from Home Depot/Lowes. 30 foot range. Spray a can or two into the hole and be done with it.
posted by neilbert at 3:21 PM on August 30, 2023 [3 favorites]

If it's overhead it's much easier to deal with, but if it's underground, you cannot ensure its destruction without digging, and that's going to involve its own risks.

Stay far away, covered head to toe, wear ski goggles, tape EVERY opening, and have an escape plan. Clear the area.

Spray, spray, spray, until nothing's moving. Spray some more. Wait a couple hours, do it again. Repeat until 24 hours passed and nothing moved. Dig it up, break it apart, spray some more, repeat, dispose. But sprays are really for aerial nests. For ground nests, you need insecticide DUST, and that's professional stuff designed for wasps.

https://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-a-Wasp%27s-Nest
posted by kschang at 3:30 PM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

My mom has one of these currently and has been pouring boiling bleach water down it. So far she has done two applications and there is still the occasional ground bee in the yard.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 3:34 PM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

If it was me, I might try calling the local government animal control. Just to see if they would handle it, but also they might know best practices.
posted by amtho at 3:35 PM on August 30, 2023 [5 favorites]

Spray, spray, spray is generally not a good idea.

Around here, there are eradication services which use liquid nitrogen, but I’m not sure how efficacious those really are.
posted by jamjam at 3:53 PM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

The local extension office might be able to tell you if these bees will hibernate or die off with the frost.

If they don't, soapy water is a classic, and you can practice pouring and running on another spot in your yard. If you are relatively spry it's no problem, but if you have mobility issues best to have that sister help you out.
posted by Narrow Harbor at 3:54 PM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

Do you have a garden hose that will reach the entrance to the nest? At night, plug that hose right on into the nest and flood 'em out. When they are largely washed out, then dig. Dig dig dig. and fill in any holes or tunnels again. (You can do this part in the daytime probably.)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:05 PM on August 30, 2023

Safe Way to Kill Yellow Jackets With Boiling Water

TLDW: mix soapy water with large quantity of boiling water and pour over nest at night. Stay safe.

(For folks calling these bees, they are not bees. They are yellowjackets. Bees and yellowjackets are not the same thing.)
posted by os tuberoes at 4:09 PM on August 30, 2023 [4 favorites]

i am by no means suggesting this, for obvious reasons, merely sharing it in the spirit of rigor: the traditional southern good'ole boy method of dealing with a yellowjacket nest is to pour some gasoline down the hole at night. for added flair when you tell the story, you can follow that up with dropping a lit match down.

i found a nest of yellowjackets this year as i was attaching my leaky garden hose and they got me on the leg before i could run away. out of laziness and also angry yellowjackets, i left the hose where it landed for days, dripping water right onto the spot and presumably flowing down into the nest. by the time i had the time and bravery to approach it again (3 weeks later 😅) they had either drowned or fled; i know not which but they were gone. cost: 3 units of water usage on my water meter when i normally use only 0 or 1 per month but side-bonus the yard is very healthy
posted by glonous keming at 5:00 PM on August 30, 2023 [6 favorites]

find the entry hole and mark the area so you can find it..(like poke a stick in the ground nearby).
then, at night, in complete darkness, use a flashlight to find the hole and spray an appropriate amount of Raid directly down that entry hole using an applicator tube to really get it down in there. Remember: do this at NIGHT. (im not a huge fan of Raid..but yellow jackets/wasps are a serious danger )
posted by The_Auditor at 5:49 PM on August 30, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure if it actually is yellowjackets or wasps or hornets.

Wasps and hornets build nest up above; yellowjackets live in holes in the ground. And they eat meat, which leads to this novel eradication method I saw on YouTube involving an open container, soapy water and some chicken. Kinda wish I had yellowjackets so I could try it myself.
posted by Rash at 5:51 PM on August 30, 2023 [4 favorites]

I just eradicated an underground nest this past week with 50/50 dish soap and water. It was surprisingly, quickly effective and is now my go-to method.
posted by chuke at 5:56 PM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

I Just did this a couple of weekends ago...
I used one of those foaming raid cans. Waited until dusk, sprayed the heck out of it until it foamed out the top, then used a second can 2 days later.

Did the trick - and by spraying at night, nothing chased me (that foam stuff is fantastic LOL)
posted by niteHawk at 6:11 PM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

I've dealt with a few underground nests with the water jug method (5 gallon water jug with soap and water). That works OK, one of them took right away and the other took a few tries. The foaming cans might work as well if you can get enough in there. Both are fairly low cost. As mentioned above the dust stuff is great, but you can't buy it direct to consumer in NY and maybe one other state.

If you are where your profile says you are, check your MeFi mail - I may have another suggestion.
posted by true at 6:20 PM on August 30, 2023

Soooooo if you’re still in Kingston you’ve only got a couple weeks left before this basically stops being an issue - they’ll be dormant soon and yellowjackets don’t usually return to the same nest. Unless they’re actually causing a problem, I really wouldn’t bother. Just skip mowing that little chunk of lawn.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:49 PM on August 30, 2023 [4 favorites]

No matter what methods you use, I would wait for the coldest night you can, and the coldest part of the night. This may be around 5:00 AM depending on where you are. It's worth it to get those extra few degrees cooler if you can.

Get another steady grownup to help you. They can watch your back, and help the whole thing go faster.

The boiling water techniques are the safest/easiest/most effective. The backup person(s) could use pesticide spray. I would not rely on spray alone for a ground nest. A third could use a hose to spray them off you and cover your retreat.

If you are in NY then colonies can't overwinter, so it probably won't be a big deal but since you seem pretty new to this and unsure, best to treat it like a big deal.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:33 PM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'd be tempted to find someone who enjoys making YouTube videos of them dealing with yellowjacket nests, and say, "hey, got one for you."
posted by dws at 10:11 PM on August 30, 2023

My former neighbor, a crusty seen it all WW II vet, used the gasoline burn them out method. But, this is the same man who would rub bar keepers friend on his poison ivy and when it got all opened up would rub it with Clorox. I have also seen him use needle and thread to sew up a nasty slice in his left arm.

I think most of methods mentioned will work. The key is night and dress like you are going into a hazmat situation.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:53 PM on August 30, 2023

Came for the gasoline. But the liquid nitrogen sounds like more fun. Raid and the like seem to be to be targeted for species, like yellow jackets would laugh at the roach killer, but when they work are like banned by the UN gas warfare full of targeted central nervous systems acting agents that just make them die in like thirty seconds from complete internal body systems failure. But get the right one, the wrong one will do nothing but annoy them.

Now the little boy and old crusty seen it all me thinks "bet I could suffocate them out with some dry ice"....

BTW, bar keepers friend.... is quite effective in a certain sort of drying out and sterilizing the surface. It's mostly just oxalic acid. Not much different than using soap or some other cleansing product. Just extra exfoliation and a bit of drying out. Good for poison ivy.

Gasoline kills nearly anything....
posted by zengargoyle at 11:37 PM on August 30, 2023

I got stung twice, yellowjackets are a type of wasp and are jerks. They go in the nest at night, so spray them thoroughly at night. A headlamp is a big help. During the day, see if you can see where the entrance is, and the 2nd entrance, mark them. If you can find both, spray both. I used spray that had quite a good range, so I could hose down the nest from 10+ ft. away. Read The Directions.

Gasoline isn't packaged in an easy-to-spray container, if you use it, be careful. Soap and water sounds like it could work, worth trying.
posted by theora55 at 12:09 AM on August 31, 2023

Growing up we would fill the bottom quarter of a Pringles can with Seven dust, sneak up on the entry at dusk, and rapidly invert the can right onto the hole then run like hell. The goal is a pile of the dust that entirely covers the nest opening and falls slightly into the hole. They will carry it with them into the hole over the next day or so and the nest will be eradicated.

I cannot vouch for the environmental friendlyness of this solution, my gut it's better than pouring gasoline in the ground but worse than soapy water. I can say the same methodology helped me a few years ago when a nest appeared next to a busy sidewalk in my neighborhood (albeit a Solo cup was used, as I hadn't had Pringles in years).

Edit: this will kill a Pringles can diameter of grass around the hole. If you have an immaculate lawn, try something else first.
posted by token-ring at 4:31 AM on August 31, 2023

Mix up a liquidy batch of peanut butter... probably at least a cup, and dump it down the hole in the early evening. This will attract your friendly neighborhood trashpandas and skunks to come dig it up for you.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 5:38 AM on August 31, 2023

I had a similar problem in a flower bed and in doing (frantic) internet research, I remember a lot of articles/videos recommending a shop vac with a really long extension and some sort of dish soap solution in the receptacle. Or maybe they just plugged the extension end and let the vac sit out for a week or two? I ended up not doing it — we steered clear of the flower bed for a bit and then 1) soaked it with water multiple times daily and 2) smothered it with a bunch of landscape cloth and mulch. I keep watering it and they haven't returned yet, but it feels like luck or coincidence.
posted by pepper bird at 7:36 AM on August 31, 2023

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere in a place with cold winters, and if it's possible for you to avoid disturbing the nest (if its location is not near entrances to your home, and is in a place where you can avoid doing loud or disruptive things like mowing the lawn or pulling weeds near the nest for a while), you can potentially do nothing and have this problem go away on its own. A few nights in a row of freezing temps will kill every wasp in the nest except for the queen, who will almost certainly fly away to seek a new nesting place in the spring (yellowjackets prefer not to reuse old nests).

If you have pets or kids who will inevitably disturb the nest, or if it's in a place where people will regularly have to do loud or disruptive people things, though, it will be safest to destroy the nest, as yellowjackets are very aggressive defenders of their home and will attack en masse if they think it's threatened.

If it's in a place where you can safely avoid disturbing it, but the wasps are still being annoying (which can happen-- they get more aggressive in autumn because their death from cold is imminent so it's not like they have much to lose) there is a middle ground option, which is buying yellowjacket traps that use a scent attractant to lure yellowjackets. This will gradually reduce the population until winter takes care of the rest for you. (If you do this, be sure to set the trap up in a remote corner of your yard where people usually aren't, because you don't want to attract MORE yellowjackets to a place where you spend time often. )
posted by BlueJae at 7:39 AM on August 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yellowjackets have been a big problem for me, and my normal method is the expanding foam spray at night method. Always at night, and usually one application has worked. However, I ran into a huge nest last week that was too big for the spray to work all-at-once so I devised a truly "with extreme prejudice" method. You see, I have some old mortar fireworks that I haven't had the opportunity to use, so I pulled together my materials - two 2-break 2" mortar shells, a 3' tube they fit through, and a huge sandbag. At night(!) I laid the tube so one end was over the hole, then covered the hole up with the sandbag. Both mortars went into the other end of the tube with the fuses tied so they could be lit together. Then they were, the tube was tilted so they would slid into the hole, then the tube was removed leaving a "fire in the hole" covered by the sandbag. Then 6 strong, very satisfying explosions. When I returned in the morning I found that the explosions had blow out the underside of the sandbag and the hole had been filled by the sand flowing into the hole.
posted by achrise at 8:05 AM on August 31, 2023 [3 favorites]