During a heatwave, a bunch of yellow jackets stopped by and built a hive behind my turn signal in the front under the hood. They chose the section that was always in the shade. Also found another small hive underneath each end of the spoiler.

None of this was there a month ago.

And they are NOT happy when I start the engine.

I'll have to wait until Sunday night to pop the hood and see where the damn thing is. I'm guessing wasp type killer will take care of these boogers but I do not know if it will affect external paint.

Any ideas for what to use that might be less harsh?

 

Get a one quart container and put a cup of bleach and a cup of ammonia in it and slide it under the car. Wait 15 minutes. It'll kill everything in the garage. Just make sure to ventilate the garage before entering.

 

You know I'm a chemist, dude.

Can't think of what gas that gives off offhand but I'll look it up. They actually seem to be inside the front bumper. That's where that broken corner of the front turn signal lens allows them to get. I killed a bunch of them today with regular insect spray until no more were coming out but I have no idea where the hive is and I know I really have to do this at night to get as many as I can.

 

The only thing I know of that kills yellow jackets instantly is starting fluid. I just don't know what it will do to your paint.

I had yellow jackets build a nest under the Crown Vic. I had gotten a bottle of Dawn dish detergent, a small screen, and 50ft of garden hose to drown them. But when I went out there one night to do them in; something got to them before me and dug them up; perhaps a fox as we have them in my neighborhood.

 

I'm not sure what gas that is either, derf, but I THINK it's close to chlorine. I had a huge wasp nest under a window sill of my apartment when I was in college. I mixed a regular coffee cup with half and half mixture and put it on the window sill. Within 30 seconds, they were all dead. Most just fell off the nest, but some clung to it. It was awesome! Yellow jackets are some evil little devils straight out of hell. You'd better be diligent with them. They sting AND bite.

 

It's interesting that you brought this up. My engineer showed me his leg after gotten bit by 4 or 5 yellow jackets over the weekend. He tried the method I was going to attempt with the dish detergent and a garden hose. He didn't have any screen material; so he put a plastic cup over the hive opening after drowning them. He said that he didn't see any movement this morning; but that might because it was 7AM and perhaps they were not awake yet?

I'm glad that he isn't allergic to their stings. My grandmother was very allergic to yellow jacket stings. We had to keep an EpiPen in the house at all times in case of that event. The site of the sting would swell and for whatever reasons, her throat would swell if not treated. It's the reason why I hate yellow jackets so much despite not being allergic to their stings myself.

Freakin Sand People!!!!

 

I'm lucky enough not to be allergic to any type of insect sting. Sure, they all hurt and swell up and leave a mark and I usually seek revenge by killing as many as possible. BUT, my wife and daughter are both allergic to any type of stinging insect and we also have to keep Epi pens on hand. They both kind of freak out if a wasp or bee gets in the house, but I'm always there to defend them. One the rare occasion I'm not, my son usually is around and he's not allergic to them either. Besides a hornet, yellow jackets pack the worst wallop that I've ever been hit with. They're like flying fire ants with more bite and venom.

 

Chloramine gas, my friend. Kills bugs and people alike. I just used some spray bug killer that I had in the middle of the day so I could find out how many they're actually were between the ones still in the hive and the ones swarming around. Probably weren't more than 20 or 25. They also built a nest on each side of the trunk lid underside just on the inside of the trunk gasket which obviously after 27 years has a gap.

 

I had no idea that yellow jackets practiced community living. That's terrifying.