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[TowerTalk] Hornet Nest on the End of the Boom - How do you safely get r

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Subject: [TowerTalk] Hornet Nest on the End of the Boom - How do you safely get rid of this?
From: "Bob Shohet, KQ2M" <kq2m@kq2m.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2019 16:59:42 -0400
List-post: <mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
I want to thank everyone that responded and provided helpful information, 
experiences and anecdotes.  I learned far more than I had ever imagined.   :-)

A little more explanation is in order – for the gentleman that asked, the 
hornet nest is on the lowest of 8 antennas on that Rohn 100’ tower.  I have a 4 
stack of HG105CA 10 meter yagis and a 4 stack of HG155CA 15 meter yagis and the 
HG105CA at 23’ is the lowest of the 10’s.  

I never knew that rotating the antenna (and the hornet nest) in the daytime 
might cause the hornets to get confused and not realize that that nest, in a 
different location,  was theirs.  Unfortunately I won’t be able to test that 
hypothesis because the antenna is not rotatable – it is fixed NE.

Yeah, the idea of using a homemade flamethrower to torch the nest is pretty 
cool, and I got a kick out of those videos – especially the one with the drone 
doing the job.  LOL!  But I am not going to do that.  No torches here – it 
would likely start a forest fire.  Too dangerous all the way around.

On a more practical note, I can not leave the nest up until the Winter because 
I need to fix antennas and rotators on that tower this Summer – and climbing 
the tower with that nest so close is literally taking your life in your hands.  
I can’t do that – the nest must go.  There is also a another issue...  When you 
have a large nest, the hornets use it as their base and continually look to 
expand their territory with new “outposts”.  From past experience, they fly 
around and try to make smaller nests under the eaves of the house roof and then 
they colonize and expand that and then spread out some more.  So one massive 
nest can lead to 20 new additional smaller nests within a matter of weeks, and 
a far more dangerous situation.  You need to get them when you can.

I can’t speak for the relative differences between hornets in the UK, the 
South, or Western Canada, but I do know that the hornets that I have 
experiences with in CT and NH, are VERY aggressive and foul-tempered and they 
will attack and sting you even if you don’t provoke them.  Just being 10’ – 15’ 
away from one is enough for it to decide to go after you.   If you happen to 
stumble into something that there nest is in, like a fencepost that you bump 
into with a lawnmower, the whole nest will come after you and they will sting 
you repeatedly if they get the chance.  They are very dangerous, unlike bees 
and carpenter bees which will generally leave you alone unless you are 
aggressive towards them.  The white-faced hornets are huge, truly nasty and 
aggressive and incredibly fast.  You are not safe within 30’ of them.  I don’t 
know if they are the ones in the nest (I don’t think so), but regardless the 
nest has to go. 

The last thing that you want to do with a nest this size is to attempt to hit 
it with a jet of water.  All that will do is piss them off – even more so if 
you knock the nest down to the ground – where hundreds of them will be enraged 
and looking for something to sting while you struggle to figure out where the 
nest is buried in the brush/weeds, etc.  That would be a vastly more dangerous 
situation with a far more uncertain outcome.

Having said that, I am going to do the work myself.  

I purchased two cans of water-based Hornet spray from Home-Depot

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Terro-Wasp-and-Hornet-Killer-Spray-T3300-6/203806933?keyword=terro+hornet+spray&semanticToken=21300000011_20190727163736596743_csfj+21300000011+%3E++cnn%3A%7B9%3A1%7D+cnr%3A%7B7%3A1%7D+cnb%3A%7B0%3A0%7D+st%3A%7Bterro+hornet+spray%7D%3Ast+oos%3A%7B0%3A1%7D+br%3A%7Bterro%7D%3Abr+rt%3A%7Bhornet+spray%7D%3Art+dln%3A%7B573612%7D+qu%3A%7Bterro+hornet+spray%7D%3Aqu

and this from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Innovations-GSP0205-Sprayer-Aerosol-Extension/dp/B0042T5PBO/ref=pd_cp_86_1?pd_rd_w=IR8DY&pf_rd_p=ef4dc990-a9ca-4945-ae0b-f8d549198ed6&pf_rd_r=EK88FHF224ZYKJF7WVC7&pd_rd_r=6952fae9-b29f-4b98-b88f-66efb0566ee1&pd_rd_wg=iEU9h&pd_rd_i=B0042T5PBO&psc=1&refRID=EK88FHF224ZYKJF7WVC7

I am going to take off the saw from my 16’ pole saw and use the pole to put 
into the spray can pole adapter and mount the can of Terro in that.  If that 
doesn’t get me the height that I need then I will use aluminum tubing and tape 
the device to the end of the tubing.

I have a very heavy duty 8’ wooden step ladder and plan to climb up 2 – 3 steps 
and then hold the pole in place at almost full extension while I pull the 
trigger.  The trigger and hornet spray should be ~ 18’ above ground and 5’ up 
in height should not be too much of a stretch.  I plan to have the can about  
5’ away from the nest aiming up 5’, which should be well within the can’s range 
(even though it says 20’ spray range, I don’t trust that at all.)   I plan to 
do this when it is almost completely dark and will be wearing a full chemical 
mask and covered head to toe in clothes and wearing a large brim hat and 
jacket.  I have done something similar several times before although not from a 
step ladder and not with a nest this large.

If I don’t like the set-up before I pull the trigger, I will back off and then 
call an exterminator.  No reason to endanger myself to save a few $.

The powder that Gary, K9GS mentioned is one that an exterminator used here many 
years ago when we had several nests in a roof vent above my deck.  Not only is 
it highly toxic to the hornets, but the “genius” is that it relies on the 
social properties of the insect and their grooming in order to kill them.  One 
hornet coming into contact with the poison can spread it to the entire nest 
because each time it touches another hornet, it passes the poison dust onto 
them and then when they touch another hornet in the nest, they also spread the 
poison.  Everything in the nest and every insect ultimately because the poison 
is spread everywhere.  And, even if some hornets are away from the nest, the 
moment that they come back and touch anything inside, they become poisoned too. 
  It is ingenious and almost 100% effective in a very short time.

Tnx for all the responses.  It was a lively discussion!

73

Bob  KQ2M

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