Remember me asking you about that huge hornet-looking thing I killed in my front yard last year?  You correctly identified it, as I recall...some kind of HUGE wasp?

They're back, and in force!  I thought you said they were solitary...I have 5-7 of them hanging around my backyard, chasing my dogs and generally being pains in the ass.  No one's been stung yet, but based on the size of the stinger on the one I smoked last year, I don't want to be the first victim.  Wasp spray appears to make them sneeze, and not kill them, unless you blast them from a range of 6" and really hose them down.  

I actually capped one on the wing with a .22LR CCI shotshell over the weekend - and it wasn't an instant stop, if that tells you anything about the size of these S.O.B.s.[:D]

Now to the question.  I believe you said they are ground dwellers, but I can't find the nest.  Is there a trap or something I can use to eradicate these foul beasts from my house and curtilage?

Sincerely,
Twitchy in Indy

I've found that a lawn mower works well for this...

Yeah, but if you miss... here's the pic I took last summer of the recently deceased -

[img]http://www.cs.iupui.edu/~tfarley/hornet.jpg[/img]

You can't see the stinger, but it's about like a thumbtack.

bump

I was thinking more like a CIWS in miniature, loaded with the CCI .22 shotshells.

What fun!

I believe you have cicada bees.  We had them back in Iowa where I grew up.  My dad found one thing, and one thing only that killed them.  He waited outside of their holes with his lighter and a can of aerosol deodorant [pyro]. When they came out, he fried their asses.

He first tried pouring gasoline down the holes and lighting that, but he only succeeded in burning down the bushes in front of the house.

We tried the wasp killer, they took a bath in it.  We had the University of Iowa ID them for us, and that is how we found out what they were.

They are the size of small helicopters and sound about the same, good luck in your fight..oh and bring flame.  Bring lots of flame!
[pyro][pyro][pyro]

The pic posted looks like a Japanese Hornet. I ran into a Cicada killer the other week - thought it was a japanese hornet, but this feller was 3-4" long. I'd go with Beekeeper on this one, but  just for reference (thinking it was a hornet) this one took 3 blasts from a 20ga shotgun at about 10 yards and was still flying. The last round was close enough I'm sure he took some shot (#9). I decided then that I didn't want to mess with an insect that can survive a 20ga pelting.

[img]http://saltthesandbox.org/cicada_hunt/more_killers_hand_35.jpg[/img]


Asking questions later, the folks in the know say that they're very passive except when mating. But yeah, I wouldn't wannna mess with anything that has a stinger in proportion to the size of that thing either

For the rest of where that pic came from
[url]http://saltthesandbox.org/cicada_hunt/MoreFinds.htm[/url]

whats those great big wasps that kill tarantulas called? i used to see them all the time dragging tarantulas and i thought if he was bad enough to drag that spider around i wasnt messin with him

Yep, that's the bastard.  Beekeeper, do your comments still apply to this thing?  Hate to be such a girl, but Jesus....I want these fuckers gone!!  LOL on the 20ga...  What else do they eat?  Maybe I could make a honey trap of some kind?

QS

Come on over to Indy and you can have all you want - I seem to have a surplus.  

Glad I'm not the only one who uses a firearm to kill insects![:D]

LOL!! I know how you feel!  Mrs.QS says I'm a big pussy about wasps.

I tell her, no, I'm just a pussy about BIG wasps!  Also, I have two Yorkies and I'm afraid if one of them gets stung it'll really fuck him up.  Since these are ground-dwelling wasps, and terriers love to dig....you get the picture.

From the [url=http://homepages.culver.edu/faculty/jcoelho/control.htm]Cicada Killer Thriller[/url] page.

How dangerous are they?

The most visible individuals are males, which cannot sting. ... no male ants, bees, or wasps can sting....

Males are about half the size of females, but otherwise hard to tell apart from them. They will even buzz and fake attempts to sting if you catch them. But they can't even break the skin with their false stinger....

If you approach slowly and carefully you can get quite close to them while they perch. If you don't believe how harmless they are, check out Chuck Holliday's photo of a male perched on his finger.

Female cicada killers can sting, but seldom do. ... Unless you step barefoot on a female or grab her with bare hands, you are extremely unlikely to be stung....

I had to grab one and hold it to my arm to be stung. It felt like the tiniest pin prick....A graduate student volunteer had the exact same experience. (Note: some reliable sources differ with me on this point, describing intense pain. The question requires more research, but [b]volunteers are not forthcoming[/b].

There is a scale of sting pain developed by biologists for rating the intensity of Hymenopteran stings. The scale ranges from 0 to 4. Although the scale does not allow for half-ranks, I'd rate the cicada killer a 0.5 (one half). Let's put that into perspective.

Rank 0. No pain.
Rank 1. Pain so slight as to cause no real deterrent.
Rank 2. Painful Examples: Honey bees, yellowjackets, bumble bees, carpenter bees, hornets, most paper wasps. These are the most commonly encountered stingers, but their greatest danger is the potential for allergic reaction.
Rank 3. Sharply and seriously painful.
More painful than a honeybee sting. Example: Velvet ant (Cow killer).
Rank 4. Traumatically painful, often medically serious. Examples: Tarantula hawk (Pepsis) So painful you may fall to the ground, writhe and scream.

edited to cut down on the amount of pasted material - use the link if you wanna know more

If you can find the nest that would help. Then you could try this.

Get a case of dish washing soap. Pour it all over and in the nest if possible. It will either smother them or if they come out they won't be able to fly and you can hit 'em with whatever.

Quietshootr

 Im in the same boat have a nest somewhere between my house and the neighbors cant find it anywhere but they swarm during the day, i also tried the wasp and hornet spray i think they liked it. I dont think it would be hard to kill them if i could find the nest but they have sucker hidden somewhere. give me anything snakes, spiders just dont send bees I HATE BEES!!  

Bees are not wasps.

You should see the Sand Wasps in Eisenhower Park here in Nassau County. Lots of holes that look like big ant hills created by the sand wasps.

Wasps, bees what ever, they are all the same to me they fly and sting i hate them. beekeeper do have any idea what the nest should look like for these things, i figured it would be a hole in the ground but i cant find it.

tnrifleman

Wasps are bigger and uglier.

After reading that the Tarantula Hawk rated highest on the pain scale, I thought I'd find a picture of that badboy.  Sorry about the size.

[img]www.chaparraltree.com/photos/tarantula-hawk1-lg.jpg[/img]

This is the one to avoid!

I'd feel for you beekeeper if you ever have to go after these.

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I looked that mean-looking bugger up too, after reading that exact same thing...jeez..



This guy has stones the size of cars.

Man...I HATE wasps & hornets.  They scare the crap out of me.  We kill dozens of 'em every year here.  They make nests under the deck, in the eaves...everywhere.  This last Spring, I'm sitting under in the porch swing with the two little ones and all of a sudden I notice a couple of wasps buzzin' around us.  I jump up and move away from the swing, look back and then I see their nest that's attached to the underside of the swing seat slats!  I grabbed the kids, took them inside and got the Raid.  (I'm real glad they didn't bite me in the ass....Ms. LWilde would have never let me live that down.)

I still remember an incident many years ago when my squad was setting up a 'bush during a training op at Camp Pendleton.  We had located the OPFOR "enemy" and were laying low, waiting for dark to move in and whack them.  As we're being real quite just observing, I looked down and what do I see but this wasp/bumblebee/hornet, whatever, as big as a hummingbird, sitting on my jacket sleeve, right near my wrist, making repeated attempts to STING me with a stinger that looked like a ten penny nail!  I couldn't do anything 'cause if I remember right, my hands were full, (glasses/NOD/rifle...I can't remember now.) so I just, "...pssssst!" to my partner next to me and whispered, "Get it OFF!!!"  He quietly swatted it and it flew away.  Took a pretty good lick too.

Beekeeper--

OK, next question...

I have an unauthorized bees nest in a topiary residing next to my front door.  Although I have no particular aversion to bees (good pollinators!), a bees nest next to my front door is no place to be.

I have already been stung once and have retaliated by attempting to kill the bastages with "Wasp and Hornet" insecticide.  It is not working, I guess because they are neither wasps nor hornets.  Any suggestions?

TIA
GS

Bat Bees/Wasps? Just a guess. or this?
http://www.play.net/gs3/info/bestiary/creature.asp?creature=139

I notified Johnny Rico and the Mobile Infantry of your situation. Apparently, there's too busy shooting up the giant Tanker Bug. Of course, I'm talking about the movie Starship Troopers. :-)

Beekeeper is right. As scary as they look. I first saw a cicada in FL. It was dead. I thought it was the biggest baddest awfullest [size=6]horsefly[/size] ever hatched. I stared at it on the porch for 2 or 3 minutes before I got the nerve to try and squish it. (I was worried that I might miss, or just make it mad.) When I stepped on it, it didn't exactly squish flat like less sturdily built bugs. It felt like I had stepped on a rock or a stick.

Beekeeper--

I just went out and risked life and limb to take these pix (actually, I took a bunch of pix,  these are the only ones worth a damn.)

[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/GeneStoner%2FMVC%2D829F%2EJPG[/img]
This shows the size of the hole they have burrowed out of the moss topiary. Note the standard size chicken wire and ruler.

[img]www.ar15.com/members/albums/GeneStoner%2FMVC%2D836F%2EJPG[/img]
This shows one of the buggers flying away (the yellow blur to the left of the hole).  Sorry, it was moving fast.

Does this help any?

Beekeeper... how many hives do you have?

Tweet's parents run an apiary. They have probably 70-80 hives now. Her stepdad inherited the "bug" (pun intended) from her papaw, who used to be the town "bee man" before he died. They are now the biggest producers in the county and just won their 3rd 1st place ribbon in the county ag fair this past weekend. They don't wholesale anything. He was the county bee inspector up until this past year. Ohio requires a mandatory $5 registration fee and inspection. We used to call him the Bee Police.

Beekeeper,
 Have you ever read any articles on beekeeping authored by a man named Don Cox?

Just wondering.  He worked as a consultant for our company in the role of Professional Engineer, keeping our vehicles in line with FMVSS rules.