Yellow Jackets, Not Bees

Yesterday I had the time to call about the “bees” that are flying around the foundation.  I was pointed to the Milwaukee & Waukesha Beekeeper Association website by a co-worker and told that they have local beekeepers come and “rescue” the bees rather than destroying them.  The guy I spoke to gave me the rundown of what they do, and what the steps would be.  Since they are in the wall/structure they wouldn’t be able to do it but would put me in touch with a few places that would be able to get them out, but they would charge a fee. 

The first thing he wanted to do was determine if they were bees, and not a variety of wasp, or yellow jacket.  I asked Kris to try and take some pictures that I could forward to him to review.  This is what she got:

IMG_0368 from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

This was better than the pictures I tried taking with my phone last week, and just looking at it, I had a suspicion that these weren’t bees.  I forwarded it on to them, but never got a response.  So today, while I was out looking at the crack, I decided to try and kill one as it was hovering, waiting to enter the nest.  I swatted one to the ground, and as it lay on the concrete, stunned, I could see very clearly that this was not a bee, but looked more like a yellow jacket. That was good news, because now I knew I could just poison the hell out of the nest.

While we were at WalMart Saturday getting supplies for Kris’s dad, I got a can of Raid Maximum Strength Wasp & Hornet Foaming Spray.  Let me tell you, that stuff does the trick.  Although, the one problem I see with it is not being able to get it up far enough under the siding.  It foams up well enough and keeps the yellow jackets from being able to go in and out, but I am not sure it is actually getting to the nest itself. 

IMG_0369 from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

After the first application, there was a pile of yellow jackets on the ground next to the house.  

I ended up giving the areas three or four more applications and the pile is about 50 deep now.  I think this is going to take a few days of spraying and waiting in order to kill everything.  But at least I don’t think I’ll need to rip the siding off the house now.