<p>We have been having a problem the past couple of weeks with wasps that apparently have a nest UNDER our deck. The deck is cedar, about 10-12 inches off the ground with latticework surrounding the edges. A kind older man at our local hardware said that it is wasps if coming out from underneath like that (not yellow jackets, hornets, or bees). We tried spraying insect spray that covers wasps; that only took out a few of them. </p>
<p>Then our handyman who helps with our house took off part of the latticework, pressure washed the underneath of the deck as much as he could, and sprayed extensively. I later found a HUGE bee-looking female and a male near the edge of the deck and disposed of them; I am hoping that was the queen wasp and a…companion. But now, two days later, more wasps. </p>
<p>Today our helper pried off several of the long boards of the deck, but we still can’t see any nest. The exterminator I called said they can’t do anything if they can’t see the nest. Our deck is huge, takes up most of our back yard. What can we do? I have dogs and my H is very scared of bees and relatives.</p>
<p>Wasn’t there a thread about wasp control at one time? Any advice? We don’t want to just ignore it as we are afraid it will really turn into an ugly situation with armies of wasps.</p>
<p>Try a teaspoon of hamburger (canned dog or cat food) laced with borax (boraxo) Essentially the same bait for sugar ants but with meat as the attractant. You can use regular picnic food as an third alternative but that gets a little expensive since you have to have all the accoutrement’s to really make it work.</p>
<p>Encourage your neighbors to have more picnics. This will keep the criters buzzy overthere and not “here.”</p>
<p>Well, actually some of my relatives are a little scary. My H is scared of bees and THEIR relatives, of course. </p>
<p>I did call a professional exterminator early on–they said they have to be able to see the nest to treat it. It could be anywhere under the deck. We also have black plastic under the deck and it has just dawned on us today that the nest could be under the plastic. Sigh…</p>
<p>Couldnt you treat the deck like a room and seal it off from teh outside using tarps and duct tape and bomb them with out actually having to see the nest?</p>
<p>intersting…I had the same problem, without the black plastic though…</p>
<p>Solution: buy triazide concentrate and a plastic 1.5 gallon pressure sprayer at the hardware store. Mix double strength triazide and water and, in the cool evening spray all the boards, cracks between boards and openings under the deck. Spray heavily, using gallons of the mix. Be careful that neither you nmor the dogs ingest the mix.</p>
<p>Repeat this treatement several nights. Each day following sraying watch for where wasps come out and die, or where lives ones enter during the heat of the day. Folllow those critters and focus your spraying where the wasps seems to go . When you find a likly wasps nest area, take the spray tip off the sprayer and simply flood the suspect area with the triazide mix.</p>
<p>Be careful with insecticides. You do know the potent ones are nerve agents? In other words, you would have a mini WMD in your hand with that spray can. </p>
<p>Seriously, the ones that are EPA registered for home use are not too bad, but can still mess up pets and do a real number on critters you don’t want to harm. The pros are right - you gotta find the nest. Problem is there are some kinds of wasps that nest in wood, believe it or not, although they’re not common.</p>
<p>Your best bet is either to get underneath if you can to find the nest. Sometimes, some careful listening will lead you to it. You might even think of going to a store to buy a sound probe. You could probe the deck surface listening for the nest.</p>
<p>LOL! We have such punsters on CC. My Irish great-great-grandparents came from Ireland to Canada, and I’m sure they were below deck.</p>
<p>And speaking of below deck–we have located the nest! It is apparently underground, going in below one of the pilings. Our talented employee (who can fix anything) found it and will spray with more serious spray for us. And I will watch my dogs carefully–thanks for those warnings.</p>
<p>When I was searching for a previous thread on this topic, I kept coming up with threads about too many WASPs at certain colleges.</p>
<p>See? The connection of wasps to college selection is very obvious. Even Google thinks so; so much so that it capitalizes WASPS so that you don’t miss it. :)</p>
<p>Bookiemom, glad you’ve located the nest. A friend of mine renovated his newly purchased house and found a bee honeycomb in one of the inside walls. The exterminator charged him $50 to tell him he needed a specialist beekeeper to take the honeycomb out because it was protected.</p>
<p>Using pesticides that is stronger than recommended application rates may be contrary to EPA regulations. Using pesticides 2x strength does not kill critters faster or kill more bugs.</p>
<p>When I ran my orchard and to my knowledge, no orchardist would use the recommended USDA Extension and Manufacturer application rates because we found that it was too expensive and we could get as good results at much reduced rates.</p>
<p>I recently had bees killed for $250 but they didn’t remove the honeycomb. They were in a 2nd story wall behind the brick and were coming inside through cracks in the fireplace. However, to get the honey out they would have had to remove a lot of brick, sheetrock and redo everything ($750 to remove honeycomb), so we opted to leave it. The bee remover is coming back next week to see if another colony has moved in!</p>
<p>We had dead bees on the floor upstairs for a few months that were coming in from the bricks in the fireplace. The bee guy said that the cold air from A/C kills them (thank goodness!).</p>