CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Well, I have an issue with yellowjackets. Specifically, they're making a nest in my bedroom window. I went to the apartment manager with the last nest they made (yes, this is the second one this summer!), and while the first one was taken care of... after several weeks and the nest was at least 8 inches big.... I'm a little concerned that a second one is being built.

Does anyone have any advice or resources on bees and how to keep them away? I'm not exactly thrilled with this situation, since they're in my bedroom window and could get in, and people walk within two or three feet of this window every day.

Buy a fake wasp (your local gardening centre or hardware store might have this) nest, and hang it outside by your window. Wasps will avoid building nests in areas they think are already occupied.

Hit it with some RAID from a distance, wait an hour and hit it again.

You might want to talk to the apartment manager first though, I don't know how touchy they might be about this sort of thing...

Technomancer (post: 1496557) wrote:Buy a fake wasp (your local gardening centre or hardware store might have this) nest, and hang it outside by your window. Wasps will avoid building nests in areas they think are already occupied.

If you do this definitely mention it to your manager, or he'll likely have it disposed of by accident at some point.

MomentOfInertia (post: 1496558) wrote:Hit it with some RAID from a distance, wait an hour and hit it again.

You might want to talk to the apartment manager first though, I don't know how touchy they might be about this sort of thing...

If you can hit it with some sort of yellow jacket/wasp spray killer (which I think is the best), make sure you do it pretty early in the morning while it's still cool (and perhaps dark as well). If you do it in the afternoon or even evening, not all the yellow jackets will be in the nest and will be likely to come back to that same spot or close to it and build another nest.

Thanks, guys! I know where I can get some spray poison, but I'll have to look around for a gardening store that'll have one of those nests. One thing at a time, though- first kill them dead!

I second goldenspines advice about spraying them early when it's cold. They can't fly when they're cold, but once they warm up look out if you miss one! Also, the wasp spray we've used leaves an oily residue, so try not to spray anything hard to clean.

On a corollary, I once heard that porch ceilings are often painted sky blue to discourage wasps from making nest. I guess the theory is the color looks like the sky and wasps don't like that. I dunno if that's true or not, but I heard it somewhere.

Pesticide residue can cause harm to organisms/animals other than the target yellow jackets. This webpage has really helpful (and pretty inexpensive) ways to take care of the problem.

Esoteric (post: 1496582) wrote:On a corollary, I once heard that porch ceilings are often painted sky blue to discourage wasps from making nest. I guess the theory is the color looks like the sky and wasps don't like that. I dunno if that's true or not, but I heard it somewhere.

Well, the problem is there's no porch outside my window to paint. It's my window and then open air.

@ Sheenar- I wish I could use those traps and ideas- unfortunately, I'm not sure how quickly those wasps would fall for the trap (and there are so many- I think I saw about 2 dozen out and about last I looked), I can't move the dumpster that they're feeding from, and I can't tie off the nest like suggested because it's firmly in the grooves of my window and will take some prying to get out.

I'm going to save it and use those ideas if I ever need to/am able to, because I hate spraying poisons next to areas I'm sleeping in.

Last summer we had a yellow jacket nest right above our back door and with me being the the bug lover I am, I wouldn't let my uncle kill them, so they stuck around all summer. I never had a problem with them, I'd even stand in the doorway and watch them climb in and out of their little nest. xD I'm such a weirdo. Since then my uncle has fixed that part of the roof so nothing can get in there anymore. None the less I do understand you wanting to get rid of them if they're right outside you window. I had problems a few years ago with these big brown wasp things getting in my room. My cat would catch them and carry them around in his mouth, I was so afraid he'd get stung. After making him drop them I'd get them in a cup and let them outside. He never managed to kill any because I always seemed to be just in time. Anyway then, enough of my rambling. Good luck with the bees!