Killing a bald-faced hornet nest

I came back from a vacation to find I have a hornet nest the size of a basketball hanging off my pump control box 10' from my grill, kids area, etc. One of the dogs got stung pretty good sniffing around it so - time for a waspy mass murder.

Last night I went out with a can of Ortho MAX Foaming Nest Killer and blasted it - first in the entrance hole and then I emptied the can onto the rest of the nest. I went to bed satisfied that I had executed a genocide. This morning I went out with a shovel to knock it down and it's business as usual out there. Hundreds of motherberkeleying hornets flying around like they are impervious to neurotoxins.

Tonight, it ends. But... ummmm... how? Deadly chemicals were my whole game. I can't shotgun it since it's attached to stuff I need. I can't cover it in a bag because of how it's attached. Do I have to nut up, and spray chemicals while busting on it with the shovel? That sounds terrifying.

Could you burn it with minimal damage to the pump box?

Can't offer any advice on how to kill them, the spray has always worked for me, but...

...Whatever you do, film it.

Kill it with fire?

eastsidemav wrote: ...Whatever you do, film it.

Nothin' but support around here, eh?

moar toxins and fire?

Fire. Specifically, fireworks. Fountains and such work great for this sort of thing if the nest isn't on something that you don't ming getting hot. Weedburner should oughtta do the trick as well, but you haven't run out of chemical weapons. Brakleen will drop a hornet midflight in a wingbeat.

Fire would be a bad idea. It is attached to the pump control box for my well and sewage systems, which, in turn, is attached to my wooden house.

I got swarmed by a yellow jacket nest once (the underground kind, the defensive nasty don't give up even once you run away kind), so this thread is making me shiver.

A can of Raid took out the underground nest, I can't imagine how your hornets are still alive! The bug sprays are pretty well figured out at this point. Maybe try a different brand?

Some sort of Liquid Nitrogen Freeze Spray stuff?

Freeze'em, knock down the nest, shovel it directly into fire.

ooo almost forgot...

crack a beer.

Half a case of the spray stuff? Caps off all, lined up for fast "reload" action and start spraying. Add a long stick to agitate them after starting the spray? Besides calling a professional exterminator, that's all I got.

Gasoline and not fire.

At a certain point, I would hire a specialist.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Fire would be a bad idea. It is attached to the pump control box for my well and sewage systems, which, in turn, is attached to my wooden house.

Where is your sense of adventure?

I like the freeze 'em idea. A big ol' shot of liquid nitrogen and a big trash bag... as others have requested, video or it didn't happen.

Kerosene? Or a different brand of Hornet killer. I'd be emptying the local stores of alternatives if I had a nest that big around.

I had a huge one in my back yard in a stack of tires. I tried to fight it with conventional weapons with no luck. Finally I took about a 12ft lenght of 1/2 chrome moly tubing that I had laying around, then I took and old garden hose and hose clamped it to one end of the tubing and hooked the other end to the faucet. I jammed the tubing into the nest and ran like hell, then I turned on the water and let the nest flood for a few hours, and that was the end of that

Dr. Hess wrote: Half a case of the spray stuff? Caps off all, lined up for fast "reload" action and start spraying. Add a long stick to agitate them after starting the spray? Besides calling a professional exterminator, that's all I got.

This is the plan. I'm going to recruit a brave soul (woo'd with promises of unlimited Octoberfest on tap). One person with a pointed stick, one two fisted with cans of a different brand of 20' nest killer.

I am not looking forward to this at all as a Friday Happy Hour replacement but I can't hire a professional. That goes against everything I am almost certain I stand (or run away screaming) for.

alfadriver wrote: At a certain point, I would hire a specialist.

I just blanched and thought a little less of you. There is nothing going to happen here that can't be fixed with a syringe full of Epinephrin. Where is your dignity?

How high up off the ground is it? Can you get a coleman cooler or a garbage can with a lid under it?

My plan:

• light a tiny little oil fire in a small metal bowl - say maybe only 3-4 tablespoons of dirty motor oil, sufficiently small that the flame doesnt really come out of the bowl, and place it under the nest - the smoke should calm the buggers down.
• Once youve smoked them out for 5-10 minutes, place a container with a tight lid - i.e. cooler - under the nest
• take a samurai sword (or snow shovel...whichever is closest) and lop off as much of the next as possible, allowing it to fall into the waiting container.
• seal that mother up toot-sweet, and run like a little girl, arms flailing, crying, peeing a little, into the safety of your home, close the door, and hide under the covers.
• a week inside that cooler, the bugs in the cooler will suffocate/dehydrate to death, the bugs outside the cooler will die of exposure.

Alternate ending:

• spray the loving daylights out of the thing before you close the lid.
• nut up and hammer at the rest of the nest still hanging on with the rest of the 9 cans of spray you brought out to this back yard bug brawl

I've never met something Black Flag hornet spray couldn't kill. I once took out a big nest of cicada killers (google them - they're scary) with several cans. It was mostly a matter of standing my ground and nailing the bastards one at a time as they came out of the nest.

OK, how does this sound. 6.5 HP Shopvac. Place suction tube near the hole... taunt insects. When they stop coming out of the hole... spray death into suction stream. Poke new hole in nest with pointed stick... fill with bug spray.

It's got everything - power tools, danger, stupidity and ample glory.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: OK, how does this sound. 6.5 HP Shopvac. Place suction tube near the hole... taunt insects. When they stop coming out of the hole... spray death into suction stream. Poke new hole in nest with pointed stick... fill with bug spray. It's got everything - power tools, danger, stupidity and ample glory.

Don't forget the camcorder. Helmet-mounted GoPro gets you bonus points.

Brake cleaner. Best hornet/wasp killer there is bar none.

I have left the sand hornets alone this year outside of running over their nest holes with the mower. Yes, they are about 2" long and nasty looking, but they don't harm humans in the least little bit.

I killed a bunch of yellowjackets that had a nest in my apartment dumpster with brake cleaner last week. Turns out they are highly allergic to the stuff.

I used high pressure water on the nest at my moms place after one of those little bastards stung me on the back of the neck right where it meets the base of the skull yeah that hurt a bit. I drowned them little bastards until the nest fell and then some.