Now normally bugs do not bother me I grew up in the country and we just pretty much expected some bugs there. However the other day I came home to see 4 or 5 yellow jackets flying in and out of my Dakotas truck mirror. I waited till night and shot a liberal dose of raid in there and the next morning this is what I found:

There were even more still in the mirror, dead. I am going to have to disassemble it to get the comb out. With that over I went to the back yard for a smoke and there are 3 more combs along my fence, 2 on my gutters, and one up on a window air conditioner. Each comb has about 50 or so yellow jackets swarming around it. Now obviously I can wait till night or early morning to spray them but what sort of long term solution does everyone use. I have kids that play back there and the last thing I want is a swarm of yellow jackets getting them.

Best thing I know is to do a good inspection of all the house, sheds, vehicles (even stored)... Just keep the hives removed and that typically enough to reduce the chances of yellow jackets... Trust me after being zapped by baldface hornets I've very aware of the hives and keep them removed from the houses. Oh the spot where a hive was make sure to spray it raid or simular bug spray to make it in unfavorable to rebuild there.

We've had to knock out 3 huge white faced hornets nests this year. Yes, yellow jackets & such like rearview mirrors, passenger side door jams, under trunk lids, under the deck, under the roof on the horse shed, several places on the backhoe (South side under the ROP canopy, under a stabilzer leg (one of the afore mentioned WFH nests)). I am deathly alergic & now, with my bad legs... can't out run them. I think we doubled our Raid budget this year... & not over yet. Y'all be careful out there!Russ

Opened my door on my truck and the yellow jackets made a nest in between my doors, did it in one dayArghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Not sure cost wise what raid or bug spray costs but coming from a farm boy who used to raise bees for 4-H and FFA in high school we found the best and cheapest way of ridding the pesty ones was Good OL "ETHER" pretty much kills them instantly and isn't as nasty of a poison to have to worry about pets or people getting it.

Is there a way to prevent them from even coming around? I remember watching something about them on discovery channel I think and they would swarm and end up killing people from the massive amount of venom you end up having in you. Think it is kind of rare but still, if you got kids running around and they happen to hit something they are in... I just wonder how you would ever keep them far away from even thinking of building a nest around the house.

I haven't found a permanent way to discourage wasps but on the underside of the South porch railing & such, a quick mist with bee spray keeps them gone for several weeks.