Yep...we have had a few wasps (paper wasps) in the house this winter...1 or 2 here and there. The kids have each been stung once now...fortunately the wasps are pretty lethargic and easy to kill. We have been thinking that sooner or later we would be able to narrow down where they have been coming from...they have to be "inside" as we have seem 'em even on the coldest of days...but they are not actually inside the house...gotta be in the walls or something. I have given everything a pretty methodical inspection and found nothing...no sign of 'em. Even spent time in the attic with no luck. I am now thinking (guessing) that they are inside the chimney...as in, between the insulated SS liner and the clay flue. Makes sense since it is probably somewhat warm in there from our 24/7 wood heat...and even though I have a block off plate on the liner for the fireplace stove...I would not say that it is sealed up well enough to be bug proof...probably how they are getting into the house. Now then...without spending a ton of time dismantling the stove, chimney, etc...any ideas on what kind of treats to give them? Its too cold out for them to be coming and going much (outside) so I'm thinking that I need something with residual effect since I am just guessing on where to put it, and don't easily have "direct" access to the inner cavity...leaning toward using Sevin dust, or some long lasting foam spray. Just gotta figure out how to get it to where it will actually do the job. Suggestions...ideas? Oh, and I don't keep any firewood inside the house...so they are not from that. FYI, brick house, so they cant get in just anywhere...
I wish I had a good suggestion for ya As noted, I HATE wasps, yellow jackets primarily. Have noticed some wasps in my stacks, but fortunately none in the house. The Sevin dust may be the ticket if you can keep it out of reach of any kids & pets. Wishing you the best of luck here.
Assuming there is a cap on the top to prevent water ingress between the liner and flue tiles I’d doubt they made it in there. More likely a void in the flue tile to exterior brick/block
Its possible that they are going through the brick somewhere...but I had the chimney tuck pointed summer 2017...so a lot less possible cracks to go through than there was before, for sure. The chimney has a custom stainless steel top cover that wraps around and down the sides of the brick probably 5-6"...then when I installed the liners (2 flues) the top plates that came with them were attached to the existing cover...its sealed up water tight. If I had to guess, they are getting in under the original SS cap...around the edges...it looks like there may be enough of a gap for them so squeak through...maybe. That's my best guess...
entering from the attic? are your eaves sealed? screen over any attic vents? they can come in thru light fixtures in the ceilings.
Doesn't appear so. Yes. Yes. Possible, but that's one of the places I checked while I was up there...no sign of 'em anywhere...
We've gotten wayward hibernating lady bugs and stink bugs that found their way in a little further than they should have. They both find places to hibernate in the Winter - often attics, sometimes old double hung windows. No paper wasp queens . There really shouldn't be that many of them. I'd make a search and destroy effort this Summer to lower their population if you're really getting them inside. There must be quite a few not making their way in. I used to have lots of them in gable vents and some roof vents. I've removed the roof vents and make an effort evry year to destroy all and any of those squatter's umbrella nests in the gable vents . I've also found them up inside pipes - like the pipe that holds the TV antenna and inside some old recycled/repurposed fiberglass cel tower and vhf antennas that were used to hold grape vines.
Well, any that are outside right now are too cold to be active...and thats the weird thing too...we really don't have many wasp nest around our place normally. Wife has been home all day and seen no wasps...but just the last 2 hours I have gotten 6 of the dirty buggers!
I'm pretty sure just future queens hibernate. All the drones die in the Fall. The queens would be one of the last batches of young 'uns made in the nest in the Fall. They came from somewhere last Fall. If they are the black and yellow ones they had those umbrella nests somewhere last year. I found some hibernating in the top bend of the aluminum downspouts one Winter clearing snow off the roof and trying to get the gutters and downspouts unfrozen. I have 4 downspouts and all 4 had 4 or 5 in the top bend. One squirt of hornet spray and tink, tink, tink they all fell to the bottom. Seems like a cold place to be hibernating to me but then I'm not a wasp.
During the winter all you will usually find are next years queens hibernating til spring. They come in all the time on our firewood where they are tucked into cracks and crannies in the bark. I used to bring in a number of sticks of wood and set them on the hearth where the wasps would warm up from their stupor and start flying. Now I bring up only what I need to immediately load the stove. The wasps are in the stove before they get warm enough to fly! Some years we have lots of wasps and some hardly any. It is interesting that if you put out wasp traps earlier in the spring before the nests start producing drones, you will catch fewer wasps but almost all queens. This will greatly limit the number of nests that will develop in your area. I do have to say that 6 in an hour seems a large amount for coming in randomly on firewood. I have never heard of an entire nest making it through the winter in an area that has frequent frosts but that is just my experience! Hope you figure it out quickly!
They are paper wasps...these guys. Fortunately they are not as aggressive as the black/yellow ones are. Pretty sure they aren't coming in on the wood...it is in the house for less than 60 seconds before its on fire. Plus they have all been on the main floor, except for one in the basement, and one upstairs, all the rest have been on the main floor...and we are up to 7 since 4 pm here now today. Anyways, the wood furnace is in the basement, and all the wood comes in through the walkout basement door...so since the basement door to the main floor is always closed, and we've only ever seen 1 down there...I'm 99.99 certain they are coming in somewhere on the main floor. Was thinking they were coming in through the chimney yesterday...back to not being so sure about that today...
Sounds like a nest is established somewhere. I'm not sure how you can trace them back to the nest, but it should be possible. Perhaps keep an eye on one and see what happens.
For sure. As strange as it sounds, after dozens of these darn things that we have killed this winter, still no established pattern...about the only thing I can say is we have found the most in the living room, dining room in second place...everyplace else in the house comes in a very distant 3rd. I keep thinking sooner or later we will hone in on 'em, but its been 3-4 months now...and no closer to figuring this out than when we began
Forced air heat as back up ? time to clean the duct work. Little buggers got into the HRV unit here didn't last long though.
insulated? mine is insulated with vermiculite (looks like grape nuts cereal). can't think that bees are getting through that...then into the stove...then out of the stove and into the house...
how about under the trim/moulding at the floor? any gaps there? is you house balloon framed? (stud walls sit on the sill plate)
Not balloon framed...but yes, I have been eyeing any and all gaps/cracks/holes...just haven't been able to catch one at the point of entry yet. They just seem to appear out of nowhere!
