War on the red devils ... (Page 1/2)
maryjane SEP 07, 11:36 PM
I hate the red devils. Mean, fast and mobile. Sherman and Rommel had nothing compared to their capacity.

(sigh.. )
For years, I had a garden immediately beside my cowpen, with a 12' gate leading from cowpen into the garden. Rabbits and crows became a problem, and someone told me (erroneously) that one of those plastic owls mounted up high would keep both away from my vegetables. The one I got, had a round hole in the bottom, so I mounted it on a 1 1/2 x 1 1/2" square stick and a cross member to make it look like it was sitting on a perch (or as my wife said, sitting up there with a stick up his rectum.)
You can see it here, above the stock trailer, with the stick screwed to where a gate latches.



It did no good, as one day when my melons were nearly ripe, there were 2 crows sittin on the perch alongside their new friend Hooty, waiting to swoop down and start pecking while another bunch were already busy on the sweet corn. I quit the garden a couple of 3 years ago but the owl remained. The big problem was, that every year, a band of the red marauders would build a nest up inside the owl, and as it gets hot here a large portion of the wasps congregated on that vertical stick near the entrance hole to buzz their wings to provide ventilation to the rest of the colony and the nest. Every time I went to open that gate, or even went by the post in the now defunct garden to mow or use the weed eater, the winged hellions would attack me. (The Giant was right..The owls are not what they seem)

I had tried unsuccessfully this summer, to mount counterattacks with wasp spray, but could never get enough of it up in Hooty's ass to kill them all. (Gravity was not my friend) That foamy insecticide did make up into the bowels of Mr. Owl but came streaming out the owl's rectum like a barium enema after a lower GI tract xray.

After my 2nd failed chemical assault on them, I had enough. I knew to wait until the cover of darkness had fell, meaning the long range reconnaissance patrols and airborne raiders had returned to their HQ to debrief and rest up for the next mornings sorties, so an hour after sunset, I found an old floor mop, tied it's strings up with wire into a ball and poured some diesel on it. I ignited it, walked up and held the flaming ball up below the hole and did see a lot fall out, wings singed but the diesel soaked mop strings quickly began to fall off and onto the creosoted cross tie the fence post was made of. Not wanting to have to dig another 4' posthole, I quickly extinguished the post fire with the water hose from a nearby cow trough. We (myself and the wasps) each retired from the field of battle for the night, but the next afternoon revealed I had done little damage. A draw at best. A good sized group was already on the upright stick fanning their wings, waiting for orders and a target to materialize. A few were dragging incinerated wasp corpsi out and unceremoniously dropping their fallen comrades on the ground 8ft below.


After night fell, I decide that since I couldn't penetrate their owl shaped bunker, I would call in a fire mission. 3-4 quick rounds of 7 1/2 20ga from 15 ft and it was over. 900 bbs in a couple of seconds was pure carnage on the receiving end. They never knew what hit 'em.
Victorious at last, I picked up the empty shells and felt the deep satisfaction that such a complete mission warrants.



I often sit on the small back porch in the mornings, on a 3' wooden stepladder that is no longer safe to climb on, and drink my first couple cups of coffee, contemplating what (if anything) I will do for the day. (Retirement and 7 decades has it's perks) As the porch is small, the ladder sits right next to one of the railings. I happened to bend out over the rail, look up a few days after the destruction of the owl, and this is what I saw just 4' above my head.



Back to the dollar store armory for more chemical, as shotshell was out of the question at that location. I knew there was another nest high up on the front porch eave, but it was down on one end and not bothersome, tho I intended to get both the same time.
Rain came so I waited a few days and then found the front porch nest had mysteriously fallen to the ground. The wasps tho, in very large numbers were still congregated where the nest had been a few days prior. Lined up as a squadron might be before launching a sortie against a determined enemy. All the cells on the fallen nest were open, so I assumed the new brood had emerged and joined the colony for a big meet and greet at the old home place. A pretty tight group, so I was sure I could get most if not all of them in one fell swope.
I waited for dark again.

I used my led headlight, but as I walked around the side of the front porch, the wasps were gone. Every single one.
To the back I went, and sprayed the whole can and killed them from 17' below. They fell in spiral fashion onto the railing and plummeted on down to God's good Earth.



Next morning, tho you can't see it here, I noticed there were also dozens of maggoty looking larvae laying around too. The chemical in the spray had dissolved many of the cell caps and out they fell. (Gravity is not so bad after all)
maryjane SEP 07, 11:50 PM
You would think after that, I would be granted some R&R but last weekend, as I was getting ready to grill some pork chops and sausage, I learned the hard way that a colony had infiltrated my old BBQ grill. I opened it up and out they came. A man can kill from sun to sun but his and the (red) devil's work is never done. They were fairly easy to deal with. I closed the lid with a long stick, waited for evening to come and squirted 1/2 a quart of charcoal lighter mixed with a few ounces of 89 octane gasoline into the crack around the lid and threw a match at it. The 1/4" thick lid bounced up on it's hinges once and slammed back down in less than a second. Home-made napalm. The colony? Immolated to the last wasp.


I had wondered, what happened to the cluster of wasps that were under the eave of the front porch and yesterday morning, I found out.
The nest and then nestless cluster were previously located here, but they mysteriously had 'flown the coop' so to speak. Vanished. (This, is not good)


Sometime between the time the nest fell and yesterday, they had assembled ed elsewhere.
I had walked by them numerous times and never noticed but as I sat on a bench on the front porch, I saw something dark above the hummingbird feeder. I thought at first it might be one of the big frog eating moths that local folklore here speaks of but a closer inspection showed it was indeed the missing squadron of wasps.




The picture I took today shows more of them have climbed down the chain and are now on the feeder as well but they are not eating from the feeder.


They are not aggressive. I have been very close to them and none have ever flown out off their cluster, and I have seen only a couple even move. Haven't decided how to deal with them yet, but deal with them I shall.
This, is something I've never before encountered in warm weather.

blackrams SEP 07, 11:53 PM
Trees and wildlife do have a few challenges in that part of Texas it does appear.

Rams
maryjane SEP 07, 11:56 PM
Looking into it, I have learned that once a colony has hatched it's young, they will not make a 2nd brood the same year and will often chew the stem of the old nest to get rid of it to prevent another colony from taking it over. The cluster above is known as a pre-hibernation cluster. They are not aggressive because they have nothing to protect. No nest, no brood. As it gets cold tho, they will move off to somewhere that offers protection from the cold. They are all "bred heifers" if you wish. Bred females, foundresses, each capable of founding their own nest. I've seen red wasps in hibernation before, usually under the loose bark of a pine stump. I pushed up some stumps like that off an old fenceline a few years ago in deep February when it was very cold and the inert but still alive wasps just tumbled out on to the ground. Didn't even try to fly.

These? All it took was a leaf blower (I have absolutely no idea when, why or how I acquired such a leaf blower, since I have no real trees in my yard but off the wasps flew without a fuss at all. (It was probably better than my other plan, which wasto affix a wide funnel to my shop vac hose and suck them all up but I wasn't sure how I would ever get them out of the shop vac afterwards.)

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 09-08-2021).]

cvxjet SEP 08, 01:35 AM
I have had some experience with both wasps and plastic owls. I realized after a while that you have to move the owl every couple of days or else you look out and the crows, etc are SITTING on top of it!

As far as wasps- I usually have some trying to build a nest on my back porch every spring- at first I used the wasp spray...But once I did not have any on hand- but did have a spray bottle with dog shampoo (For testing the gas lines for leaks) and sprayed the wasps.....Worked almost as good; They dropped on the ground and most died but a few I just stomped on (With SHOES!!!) Later, I read on-line that using shampoos or other thick soaps is well known to work at killing wasps.

Back to the owl; Once I went outside and heard a noise followed by a shadow passing across the ground in front of me- Looked up and a HAWK was sitting on the telephone pole, giving my Owl what for....then zooming by to try to scare it away- I said "Hold on- Hold on!" and grabbed it and put it in the garage and the hawk seemed much happier.
maryjane SEP 08, 02:19 AM

quote
Originally posted by cvxjet:

I have had some experience with both wasps and plastic owls. I realized after a while that you have to move the owl every couple of days or else you look out and the crows, etc are SITTING on top of it!

As far as wasps- I usually have some trying to build a nest on my back porch every spring- at first I used the wasp spray...But once I did not have any on hand- but did have a spray bottle with dog shampoo (For testing the gas lines for leaks) and sprayed the wasps.....Worked almost as good; They dropped on the ground and most died but a few I just stomped on (With SHOES!!!) Later, I read on-line that using shampoos or other thick soaps is well known to work at killing wasps.

Back to the owl; Once I went outside and heard a noise followed by a shadow passing across the ground in front of me- Looked up and a HAWK was sitting on the telephone pole, giving my Owl what for....then zooming by to try to scare it away- I said "Hold on- Hold on!" and grabbed it and put it in the garage and the hawk seemed much happier.



I have heard of the detergent trick and have witnessed it tried 3 different times locally (twice with Dawn dish soap and once with liquid laundry detergent) and it failed each time when used on red wasps. It does work well on yellow jackets, hornets and other wasps, but not on red wasps. The detergent itself doesn't usually kill them but does interfere with their ability to fly.. some of the time.


Owls may rule the night, but crows reign over the daylight hours here. There is a main flock of about 100 nesting area in the national forest about 1/2 mile from my house and each morning, it splits up into 4-5 different murders and spread out in their own areas. My acerage is one of their areas. I've seen them run hawks and buzzards completely out of the locality.

cvxjet SEP 08, 12:06 PM
I had approx' 100 crows congregate near my house- I notice a group fly over...then another- then more...I was a little worried that they were plotting something but an hour later they were gone.

Talking to a neighbor about it, he mentioned a joke about crow "Murders" A murder is a THREE or more crows together....So 2 crows is......an Attempted Murder!


The only other thing I know about wasps and such is, if you are going after them, do it early in the morning when it is cold and they are less active.....And maybe the RED wasps just have their act all cleaned up so soap doesn't affect them......

(I'll shut up now)
LitebulbwithaFiero SEP 08, 03:37 PM
I used to always get red wasps in the Blazer. I never seen too big of a nest from them. Like a quarter diameter "honeycomb. Maybe 5 wasp worth. I'd just shoot them with an airsoft pistol. They were not too aggressive or smart.
2.5 SEP 08, 03:46 PM
We get wasps / yellowjackets, the ony thing I've ever really done that worked was spray a nest if I find it. The spray supposedly has an ingredient that repels them from building in the same spot any time soon. We also have native bird species that will eat wasps, we have some bird feeders I oput seed in every once in a while. Not sure if that makes a big diff or not.
blackrams SEP 08, 04:48 PM
The only successful method of dealing with wasp nests I've ever had was with a lighter and a aerosol can of brake clean or hair spray. Spray, light and hold the line as long as you can. Doesn't hurt to wear heavy clothing in case you don't get a direct hit.

Ya gotta be accurate and prepared to evacuate like a Democrat on the southern border. But, it's always worked for me. I'm still here and they aren't.

Rams

[This message has been edited by blackrams (edited 09-08-2021).]