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

[john at kk9a.com]

This was an interesting subject. I did not realize that wasps were  
carnivores. I have a lot of wasps here in NC and they frequently build  
nests on my house. They are not really aggressive but often one or two  
get inside the house and I have to hit them with a fly swatter. For me  
fire ants are a more annoying issue. I put the pole sprayer shown in  
Bob's post into my Amazon cart, it looks like a good way to spray hard  
to reach areas. I really liked W0YK's poison bait suggestion, I wonder  
what meat he uses? It would have to be hung so racoons, cats and other  
animals cannot reach it. Since wasps eat bugs and spiders I wondered  
what the impact would be if they were removed from the environment  
with poison bait?

John KK9A



Bob Shohet, KQ2M kq2m at kq2m.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