We have a nice little problem in the EAVE of our house, close to the door. They haven't been aggressive yet. I have sprayed the corner where they were coming out, I finally put some sealant in the hole, they found another way out... Guess I'll have to wait until a cold night and take the soffit down to spray the nest, if I can find it..
Be careful. We have been having an issue with some also. They have managed to make a nest in our cinder block wall.
German hornets behind siding and not far from that the little beasties were under the roof shingles as well, and that doesn't count the Yellow jackets and Mud dobbers. I was weed whipping and found another German hornet nest the hard way as well in one of the wood piles. Haven't run into any Bald Faced hornets this year- they are meaner than the little German buggers though. They are hard to sneak up on even at night as they post guards. The last 2 nests of them I used for target practice with one of my air rifles. That opens them up and the birds do the rest. I do not know if I got the whole nest behind the siding But none are around now- the back stairs (enclosed,external to house into basement) was littered with combatants. It is hard to find spray with extended action. Most of what is on the shelves is short term contact stuff.
T.Jeff Veal Last year we had new soffits put on and we warned the guys doing the work about hornets that were nesting in the soffit. They were very careful taking down the old stuff and had a couple of cans of hornet spray at the ready. I was surprised at the size of the nests they had built. Be careful and come armed.
Best thing to do is take a short length of cpvc and fill it with sevin dust while holding your thumb over one end. Blow it up in the soffit with an air gun, do that in a few directions and with any luck you'll coat the nest. They also carry it on their feet to the nest. I have had good luck with this a few times.
We did this exact thing using a piece of 1/2" x 10' PVC conduit to take out a huge nest that they built in a 1" gap between two large concrete structures at work last year...packed the end with paper towel to act as wadding...poured in dust...used portable air tank for air source...worked great...next day they were all gone.
I feel your pain T.Jeff Veal. I have the same problem here in East Texas. We call them Texas Yellowjackets and we also have underground hornets, both will get your immediate attention it you happen to cross paths with them. When I run over an underground hornets nest with my tractor/brushhog they chase me for about 100 feet. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose.....the most I have ever been stung is three times.....but my pay back to them was brutal! I applied one pint of gasoline in their entrance hole and a five gallon bucket (upside down) to block their escape exit hole....the result was 100% kill rate, I took no prisoners....no quarter given to underground hornets!
Glad we don't have the underground hornets, our yellow jackets will build a nest underground or in a crevice like these. We have the red wasp, guinea wasp, honey, carpenter bees, and regular hornets.
I keep the leaves from our trees for compost. Put them in a chicken wire circle for a year and then mulch and into the garden. This year did not go so good. First time I stuck the pitchfork into the pile I was greeted by those yellowjacket $%$^&$#@'s. Got me in the wrist and back of my neck. Not fun at all. Next time I'll be more careful.
Man, I do not envy you having to deal with those! Sevin tip is sweet, I'll remember that if I ever get an infestation.
I haven't had them in a compost or leaf pile but I've had them in woodchip piles. Not very big piles too.
The nest was about the size of a paper plate! Obviously they were very busy doing their thing. I'm lucky that I only got hit twice. After a 5am spraying with wasp/hornet, the whole nest went into the fire pit. a few ounces of kerosene and a match end of that story.
I managed to get some Sevin dust in some of the cracks, there was still some flying around yesterday.
It took a few days, but I think the Sevin dust took care of them. Only saw 1 flying around yesterday, I killed it.
