Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : BS Bar & Grill - Open 24 Hours A Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (1205)	8/21/2001 4:14:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6901

Very strange coincidence, Crow. A couple of weeks ago my younger son, Nicholas, told me that there was a crack in his wall, and he could see legs coming through the crack. He has a centipede phobia and thought it was a centipede. I sent to see what he was talking about, and there was a damp spot on the wall, roughly oval and maybe 10 inches at the longest spot, with a small crack in the center. I touched the wall where it was damp, and could feel that there was nothing behind the paper. So I called for my husband to get the bug spray, and I got a single edge razor blade, and when Chris came in with the bug spray I started to cut the paper. Yikes! A bunch of yellow-and-black stinging things, not sure if they were yellow jackets, hornets or wasps, came flying out. Thank God it was almost night!!!! So most of them were probably asleep or settling down for the evening. Chris started spraying as they came out, and I closed the bedroom door and opened the window so they could fly out. Chris sprayed all the spray into the hole, and then he folded up some aluminum foil until it was very thick, and duct-taped it over the hole, and we went outside to see whether we could see a hole in the wall, and we saw maybe a dozen flying by the chimney, and a hole in the caulking between the siding and the chimney. So we went to the hardware store and got another couple of cans. The lady at the hardware store said she had heard maybe 15 similar stories about wasp-type insects inside the house this year. When we got back, we peeled back the foil, and opened the hole a little bit more, and a couple more came out, so Chris zapped them, and we covered the hole again. The next day, while Chris was at work, I peeled back the foil and cut back the paper some more, and it was really gross - maybe a dozen layers of nest, sort of straight across, more visible beyond the hole. No wasps were flying but some of the larvae were wiggling around, so I zapped everything again, and closed up the hole. Later when he came home, we looked in the attic, and saw two big nests in the attic, too. We also got the shop vac and opened the hole and sucked up everything we could reach, then threw the bag into the garbage can. I spent the day researching on the Internet - the most likely culprit was yellow jackets. Terminex wanted several hundred dollars to kill them, and did not want to clean out the nest. I called Virginia Tech entomology department and the guy in the Insect lab told me it was probably yellow jackets but since we had already killed them we could clean it out ourselves. So we waited a couple more days and then opened up the wall and cleaned it all out. Most of the layers were old and dried out, thank God. They put the nest in a cavity between two joists, with the chimney on one side and the wall on the other. They ATE all the sheetrock insulation in the walls, and all the plaster around the hole. This is not at all uncommon. It was only about 15 inches at the largest part. I have seen much, much bigger ones on the Net. And yellow jackets are extremely dangerous, mean and aggressive. The one thing I learned is that you should NEVER spray the outside hole until you have killed them ALL otherwise they will COME INTO THE HOUSE and it will take days, even weeks, to get rid of them. This could be a new species of wasp that just came to the US maybe a decade ago, and has been spreading slowly. I am going to send a photo to Virginia Tech and see what they say.

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (1205)	8/21/2001 6:57:39 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 6901

The talk of all the creepiecrawlers is going to make me search for hives...But crow, here's a story you might enjoy...someone else has had the type of experience you have had....Your poor sister and folks!!! I panic if ONE comes close to me....let alone MANY....yuk! beer.org Dealing with Hornets A few years ago my parents had a hornets nest in the apple tree in the back yard. I think they were hornets since a friend of mine said "Oh look, you have a hornets nest in your tree", but I didn't consult any special bug books on the subject. No one had actually been stung by this batch of hornets, but I knew from past experience that they did sting. The hornet nest had to go. My parents were away at this time, and my sister and her husband were down for the weekend. We were sitting around playing some game and the subject turned to the topic of hornets - specifically the hornets in the apple tree. None of us had any experience with getting rid of hornets, but some of the rumored methods of dealing with hornets seemed to be rather questionable at best. We started to discuss the various methods we had heard. A friend of mine had told me that a method that works is to take a can of RAID or other powerful insecticide and simply spray it into the hole in the nest. Someone else suggested that the nest could be simply set on fire. The RAID method seemed to be a bit foolhardy, since the hornets don't die right away when they are sprayed, and they could get a few good stings in at least. The gasoline method (take a garbage can, put some gas in it, chuck the nest in, set it on fire) seemed much more dramatic, but since we were in a residential area, and I had no particular desire to recreate a scene from Apocolypse Now, this idea was rejected. We decided what to do after a period of much debate. We obtained a foam cooler with a tight fitting lid, and put a window in it (you know those plastic report covers? One of the amazing properties of this plastic is that it's hornet proof) and a hole with which we could pump industrial pesticides into the cooler. The theory was that we could carefully cut through the branch that the nest was on when the hornets were sleeping, and put all the hornets in the cooler, and deal with them then. My sister had noticed that the hornets went back to the nest and stopped buzzing around when it was dark. For some reason, I was elected Person to Deal with the Hornet Nest. My sister and her husband helped me get suited up in several layers of winter clothing. The headgear consisted of a garbage bag with a report folder window and a screen to breathe through. I had a cowboy hat on underneath this so there was some space between the garbage bag and my face. I had some rather heavy gloves on as well, and a heavy winter coat and ski pants. All the places where hornets might get in (sleeve to glove, coat to pants etc) were taped up. Needless to say, I was getting rather hot. We brought the dog inside, and Jan and Ron watched from inside the screen door while I went to deal with the nest. I carefully went up to the nest with my cooler, and looked into the nest hole. Regardless of what we had previously thought, the hornets were NOT sleeping. There was a hornet at the entrance sort of watching but not doing anything. I took my clippers and gently started to cut through the branch. My theory was that the hornets wouldn't notice that at all. My theory was wrong. As soon as I started to cut through the branch, hornets started to boil out of the nest. Since at this time I was pretty well committed to dealing with the hornets, I simply dropped the nest into the cooler. Most of the hornets stayed with the nest. They probably weren't expecting quite a wholesale attack on their abode. Approximately 15 of the hornets were flying around. trying to sting me. Some of the hornets actually went to the screen door and tried to get in. Hornets are tough, but are not terribly resistant to pesticide, so they were sprayed. There were some that were chewing at my gloves, and I sprayed them as well. Bug spray doesn't work instantly, but it works pretty well. So now I had a cooler full of hornets. Having a cooler full of hornets is kind of interesting. The hornets sounded pretty mad in there, and when we shone a light into the cooler the buzzing intesified. Then we noticed a problem developing. Styrofoam coolers aren't really all that hornet resistant. As we looked inside the cooler, it was pretty clear that the hornets were starting to chew through the cooler. We had some industrial strength coolant and we gave them a shot of that. Interestingly enough, this stuff worked instantly, and that was the end of the hornets. My sister said that some more hornets hatched a few days later, but she dealt with them as well. My parents were glad to be rid of the hornet nest, but my dad was a bit annoyed that we had toasted a cooler to do this.