Death To The Queen!

After spending every other day dousing the “crack” in the foundation where the yellow jackets were flying in an out of, I had finally had enough.  I had a can of foam crack filler on my work bench and since I needed to fill a few other cracks in preparation of winter, I decided to stick the nozzle in and fill it.  It actually took a little more than I would have expected, although I don’t think the foam actually filled where the nest was, it more likely filled the opening they were using to get at their nest.

After I filled it a bunch of yellow jackets began flying around the foundation looking for a way to get in.  It always seemed like the only time I ever saw them was when I sprayed the stupid thing.  I gave them a good spray with the poison as they were hovering around the foam that was oozing from the crack just to be thorough. 

My big worry was that once I sealed off the opening to the outside, they would find their way into the house thru cracks and holes in the walls.  I went into the basement to look around the foundation I didn’t see anything, so I thought everything was good.  The next day when I was cleaning the little boxes, I found about 10 dead yellow jackets in the utility sink.  They were mostly curled up and dead, although a couple were still twitching. 

I still didn’t see any obvious openings anywhere.  I didn’t see any cracks at the top of the walls and no holes in the floor/ceiling between the joists.  The only thing I could think of as to where they may have been coming from was around a couple of opening in the ceiling where a couple of water pipes and a drain pipe went thru.  After I got them all cleaned up, I noticed one very large yellow jacket that was dead on the floor.  It was at least three times the size of the ones I washed down the drain.  It makes me wonder if that was the queen.  I think that if it was I won’t be seeing any more yellow jackets.  But I will keep checking, just to make sure.