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yellow jackets / hornets

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Mr_Yan

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I had a small nest of hornets just above my back door - directly above my grape tomato plant which my toddlers graze off of. I first noticed it when a ball of about a half dozen hornets fell on me and my daughter when picking tomatoes for tonights roast corn, tomato, and feta salad.

Anyway the hornets seemed docile, weak, tired, and disoriented but that didn't matter it's time to bring out chemical warfare.

After kids were safely inside I vac'ed up the ten or so hornets on the end of the gutter I could easily get. For this I used a bag-less upright vac. Well, a bag-less cyclone vac won't necessarily kill hornets. Now I have live hornets in my vac. I'll leave it outside and address it tomorrow AM. Our overnight low is forecasted to be in the low fifties F. Being cold and spun for a few minutes in a vac cannister should have them pretty well messed up and I hope to bag them then.

After dinner and bed time I sprayed down the nest with HOT SHOT brand wasp and hornet killer (0.025% prallethrin and 0.010% lambda-cyhalothrin). Two more wasps crawled out of the nest and fell dead and I can see a few more dead but trapped up there. I hit the gutter a few times with my mag light to agitate them after spraying.

The over spray and drips from spraying landed on my grape tomato plant. I did wash off the tomato plant after putting everything away. Washing consisted of spraying down well with the garden hose with a sprayer wand attachment.

According to my retired PhD ag-chemist of a stepdad we should be fine eating the tomatoes after rinsing them with copious amounts of water.
 

w_r_ranch

Master Gardener
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Messages
6,449
Location
South Central Texas
Planting Zone
8b
I never let them get established here... I spray them as soon as I see them before they can attain critical mass.
 

Mike

Might know the answer
Messages
977
Location
Kentucky
Planting Zone
6b
I'm like Sam and kill them as soon as I see them. We used to get small nests on our house each year but after going after them like a mad man I haven't seen them around for a while now.
 
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