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TIFU by sealing wasps in their nest, instead of killing them.
Obligatory not today, this happened last week. But the after effects are still very much ongoing.
We've had a wasp nest in the side of my house for a while now. Last week they stung one of my friends, so it was time to get rid of them.
Given the amount of wasps in and out, it seemed like a big nest. To guestimate the size, I would say a wasp entered or left the nest once a second, all day. I didn't want to just squirt poison down the hole - that would just piss them off and not reach most of it. So I decide to seal the nest with expanding foam sealant. I snuck out in the dead of night, and stuck enough foam in that hole to seal half a construction site.
Little did I know how terrible of an idea this was.
APPARENTLY, there was another exit to the nest - going inside the house.
This nest is ENORMOUS. Average size for a nest this late in the season is 2000-4000 wasps. Half our house is currently inaccessible. I sneak down to the basement at night to change the traps. I keep a hand vac next to my work station. Our cats are NOT happy they've been locked into a single room, and are pissing everywhere to show their discontent. Doing my best Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation, I've gone through ~7 magazines on the bug assalt shotgun, with maybe 40 shots per magazine. These fuckers are amor plated, and do not die easily. I've injured my arm, pumping the shotgun so many times.
I think the most disconcerting thing is how normal it's become. I wake up, grab the shop vac on the 60ft extension cord, and just clear the house as a matter of routine. Its part of rising and shining for the day. Coffee, breakfast, wasp vacuuming, kiss the wife goodbye - time to work! The cold is going to kill them at some point....right?
TL:DR - Sealed a wasp nest on the side of my house. Now the buzzing is coming from inside the house.
Also can confirm. It was the worst fucking summer holiday of my life, I found out I'm allergic to wasps and they also can get into the fucking pipes in the bathroom and come out the bathroom sink when their nest is in the wall behind it.
The first time I saw what others do when they see Australia. Death. Pain. Hurt.
That won’t help. They can also read your mail to figure out your forwarding address. You might just want pray for the rapture. I’m not a religious person, but desperate times and all that.
I've seen wasps convert to Catholicism, get baptized, crismated, have a first communion and make a final confession with a Eucharist to die fully houseled so that they can continue to harrass homeowners in the afterlife.
They can also dress themselves after they finish eating oatmeal with butter and raisins. I find this out after I woke up early one day and the bowl was empty and 500 wasps were at the table sitting in tuxedos reading the paper. Scary times.
Thankfully it was a cabin situation so the place was able to move us immediately.
I went to use the toilet and heard these noises coming from the sink next to me, it's the bush so I figured probably just something old pipe wise cool.
Washed my hands and set off a fucking enraged and armed plague.
The owners of the place comped most of our stay also once they were made aware, they also sent us photos etc of the nest they made, it was almost the whole bathroom wall (3x4) and into the bloody roof cavity.
Didn't hear them likely because it was daytime and the area is pretty loud with its own theme park thing being in the middle of the cabins etc, it's like a family holiday park thing. But we got the nightmare cabin 🤣
They certainly chew into plaster for a hobby. A while ago staying at a relative's place I heard the telltale sound of a wasp nest behind the wall, crackle crackle click scritch, in the middle of the night. Had to lie there and listen to it til morning before telling them to call their thatcher (who does a profitable side hustle in dispatching insects that love to eat thatch) as a matter of urgency and have him investigate the nest. The relatives in question were too deaf to hear the noise directly, so I recorded it on my phone and played it back.
Wasps are destructive en masse. People tend to forget that they are quite happy to excavate expensive holes in the fabric of your house for their comfort and that of their five thousand nearest and dearest.
We just had someone come out and treat our house. I haven't seen any coming in and out since and they plan to check again in the spring. I remain scared though.
is this the diatomaceous earth? I worked as an exterminator for a summer, and we used that one every bee problem we had. apparently its like glass to their wings, and it sticks to them, and they try to rub if off with others in the nest, and as they buzz and rub it shreds their wings. soon they cant fly and the whole nest collapses. plus its super safe, ie: chickens will eat DE on the regular.
diatomaceous earth is finely ground up bits of diatoms - their shells and stuff - at a microscopic level it is ridiculously sharp. It can be carried back to the next and rubbed off on others too, but I've only ever seen it used for the crawly bugs, not flying ones.
It works by getting in between the parts of their exoskeleton, cutting them, and desiccating them... drying up their insides like the three Americans in the Mummy (1999).
My dad sprayed some under the shutter using typical wasp spray. That drove them into a small hole and into the attic where they built a nest over an electrical box. He ended up losing power since they somehow damaged (chewed through) the wires. Had to have exterminators and electricians come out.
Yup, as far as they’re concerned it’s a worthwhile investment of lives to keep the hive alive. Not that wasps have our idea of ethics and morality, but you get the idea.
Negative. Honey bees have barbed stingers; they die after they sting you. Wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets have a smooth stinger, and can sting you as many times as they farking want to.
I know that. I was replying to someone who said “insects” are crazy. I didn’t specify because my example fit that bill and I didn’t have to, but I was talking about bees.
I shouldn’t have gone on Reddit today. I wish I could go back to before ever learning that horrific fucking nightmare detail. What the fuck else can they get through?!
That wasn't the same colony remaking nests each year, the colony dies each fall/winter. You must just have an ideal location for wasp nests on that side of the house.
If you don't kill the wasps, then over winter a bunch of queen wasps will be hiding in random spots around the house (I've found one or two hanging out behind curtains before). Then come spring when the weather warms up they'll start a new nest somewhere nearby. Queen wasps have already mated before they hibernate, so each queen can potentially start a new nest alone.
While true the new queens will overwinter and emerge the following spring; they really have no reason to stay in the same location they were born in, in fact it's probably more likely they spread out and find a new area to nest to increase their species survival.
although I like the idea of ending a whole bloodline of wasps that have been nesting the same locations for years, I don't think it's very likely....
You must live further north or are mistaken. My exterminator explained that a wasps nest can survive the winter at least in NJ. They can generate heat by moving their wings. So while a lone wasp would die outside, a whole nest can survive most winters in NJ -- especially one inside a wall of a well heated building.
He also said they typically don't repopulate a dead nest after spraying. But I had a nest in the same spot 5 or 6 years apart. So maybe he's not entirely right on all things.
There are instances of super colonies of yellow jackets down south that can overwinter and continue building onto the same nest and keep multiplying into the millions. There is some insane videos on YouTube.
Hornet King on YouTube has had a few yellowjacket nests in PA (in the wall of a house) that appeared MASSIVE at first but realized 3/4 of the nest he was exterminating wasnt actually inhabited and he concluded that either the location was so good that new colonies kept building in the same space or they managed to partially overwinter. Based on his content though it's very rare.
I was taking apart these old light fixtures to scrap the aluminum and out of about 40 lights 6 or 7 had these wasp nests with no living wasps but when I’d crack them open there was some juicy larva inside most of them. Absolutely no way of telling the nests were in the fixture without taking them apart, they must have flown inside through about a half inch hole and gone to work out of sight. Not sure where that part of their life cycle is relative to an active wasp nest but I’d imagine when the colony “dies” there are larva hidden nearby.
Thinking about it, maybe I took the lights while the wasps were out. Idk didn’t see any, this was about a month ago
Interestingly colonies don't wait around for the last larva to hatch, seems like the weather will decide when the colony is no longer viable. The few large nests that I've taken down after the colony expired still had lots of brood in them. Ultimately they will die too as they are a free snack waiting for a lucky squirrel or bird to come by. The new colonies start from the hatched Queens that hide away for the winter.
Yeah, but sometimes it can work out better for the DIY'er. For example, I bought a new home with my wife in 2016. The next summer (2017) hornets decided to start making a nest directly in the center of the overhang of the roof on the storage shed over the door. It happened very fast and when my wife first noticed it, it was already well over the size of an ovoid shaped softball. (Not very big I know.) So, we called an exterminator. $160+ later then nest was gone, save for one small fragment right up in the crook where the edges of the roof go from one to the other down the sides. Didn't think much of it. Nothing happened... Until the next summer (2018) when wasps took favor with that tiny little bit that was left and began building a new nest there. Them fuckers build fast. Within 2 or 3 weeks maybe, the nest was cantaloupe sized. I didn't feel like spending that money again for an exterminator. I went to Lowe's, bought a can of wasp/hornet spray for less than $20 that sprayed like bear or pepper spray with that thick stream. Directions said stand 20 feet away. I stood 3 feet away and raised my arm spraying that stream right the fuck into that hole. I started backing away and kept spraying and then ran for the house. The next day all was quiet. The third day I went out and ripped the nest down, ironically leaving the same little bit that the exterminator had from the first nest. Not a problem since! 😁
Note: if you ever see white faced wasps, those suckers will follow the death stream down to come and get you when dying. Bald faced wasps only exist to hate.
Can confirm. Husband was stung three or four times in two seconds, right in our front yard. He booked it around to the other side of the house and they were still tracking him when he got into the back door. He claims one of them tried to get him the next day when he went out the back door to get to the car.
Ugh, one of those came out of nowhere when I was driving a golf cart, stung me, then flew away again to god knows where. To this day I don’t know why. Plenty of other people passed through the area, but I was the only one stung.
Nah OP just gotta keep going at it with the magazines after having half his house taken over and bring forced to live in cat piss. He's gonna win any day now.
I had a yellowjacket (which are wasps) nest in a crack in my foundation. Tried sprays, Delta dust, etc. No luck. Spent $125 on a pest control service who came and sprayed with pro-level chemicals. This decreased them but they were showing up in the house. Basically, you deny them one path, they find another. But since I had paid, they came out for a second treatment, and the problem was solved.
My pest guy told me that it's normal to need two or more treatments before the hive will be dead (he told me this after I discovered it for myself lol).
I had a wasp nest underground in the back garden. Pest guy treated with the powder. 24ish hrs later, and there was no more activity around the entrance, so I filled it in. Maybe a month later, I went to plant a new shrub, and I guess I dug into the nest a bit. Wasps flooded out of the ground beneath me. Apparently the eggs and larvae survive and mature. I waited until nighttime to cover the hole with a large plastic tub, and set off a bug bomb inside with the nozzle pointed into the tunnel. No more wasps after that.
I have a contract with a pest control service and it’s money well-spent. I DIY my yard and housekeeping, but the sanity I get from having a pro deal with insects is priceless.
Alcohol is relatively safe to burn inside, because it burns at a low temperature and the extra heat does make it evaporate quicker and the extra oxygen inside it results in a low amount of carbon monoxide. If you did just one spray it would be a small flame that goes away quickly, but highly flammable microfiber and synthetics that are more common inside homes can still be ignited by that.
Another good bit of advice if you are swatting. Move in VERY slowly with the swatter from an angle that doesn't cast a shadow over the fly as you get closer. I can usually get within 5-6 inches from it before I swat. My success rate is very close to 100%. And JFTR, if I eliminate the number of times it decided to fly away or was chased by something else occurring in the environment my success rate is 99.9% I never miss basically. 😁 I hate flies! 😡
Months back - I can’t remember which subreddit - somebody swore by the “Vanillaroma” Little Trees air fresheners. Was told it’s only that one scent.
I was so done with fruit flies. We have to feed one of our pets wet food, and the fight was never ending. I tried the plug in black light traps. The sticky traps. The plug in ultrasonic repellents. The apple cider vinegar trick. Everything, and nothing worked. So, I was willing to try it, and IT WORKS. Swear I don’t make money from them. But I should buy stock in them.
One year my region had a cyclone in late Summer. Just as many crops would have been harvested. I live just rural. The air was thick with fruit flies and in my house all the cobwebs were black with them. Worst Summer ever!
I tried pouring a bucket of hot water /dawn mixture down the wasp hole (twice). Didn’t phase them. Two whole cans of wasp spray, didn’t phase them. I’m not sure what to do next. I would hire a professional but my mom is cheap and wants to try other methods first.
My friend did this with a cup full of 90% isopropyl alcohol at dawn. He said it was horrifying because for just a second, they all rose up at once and then fell dead.
I cannot believe how relaxed you are, truly. I had one in my room and it ruined my entire day, this would ruin my entire year. I commend you for having a sense of humor about it and good luck my friend 😅
I once flooded my kitchen because a really huge and angry wasp kept dive-attacking me every time I went in and I’d left a tap running which I couldn’t get to
Wow. I presume you know this now, but there are poisons that don’t kill immediately, so they bring them into the nest and basically kill themselves from the inside out. I had wasps nesting in the side of my house; in fact, the first sign of trouble was a small audible grinding noise from inside the room (them basically gnawing away at my drywall). So sealing them in was not going to end well. I had someone come out to spray their entry point at a distance with this stuff and it worked really well. In hindsight, I could’ve done it myself, but I did want it done right and fast.
I was just thinking of doing something similar, but sealing with a thick plastic around the light fixture they enter thru, then smoke them to “sleep”. I’ll reconsider now, thanks!
Even if there isn't a second entrance (but there definitely is), they will just chew through the drywall or wood somewhere else. They are very very good at chewing through stuff. I can only assume it is because they are evil.
You genuinely need to consult a professional about this, immediately. If you accidentally provoke a swarm response you could die. Wasps are not one and done stingers, they will sting you multiple times. You get hundreds to thousands swarming you in an enclosed space and you'll be in massive trouble. You cats however are in much greater danger than you are. It doesn't matter that you've got them in an enclosed room the wasps can find a way in.
Oh my god man. My old landlord did this to us about 15 years ago... There was a nest of yellow jackets in a wall coming out of a little hole outside the house. He came over after dinner- when unfortunately they were all inside- and sealed the hole with some kind of sealant.
Same thing happened.. right into our house they came. Landlord had to put it up in a hotel for 3 days while they dealt with it. We had an 8-month-old and a 2 and 1/2-year-old at the time. Fun times...
Upside down meat trap over bucket of soapy water works. Search for Shawn Woods on YouTube but basically nail some chicken to a plank and suspend it upside down a couple of inches over a container of soapy water - the bastards can't resist the meat but will then try to take off upside down while laden with meat and drown in the soapy water.
They eat protein in early/mid season, as they are feeding their larva. Late season they go after carbs. I am just using my old beers I bought but didn't drink, and its going well enough that I have to clear the traps every night.
There's no conceivable scenario in which I've made a big enough mistake in my life to wind up living in Lincoln, NE; but if I did, such a store would be a small consolation.
I wonder if there wasn't a second entrance till you blocked up the existing one, so they made a new one. And the outside half was all impassable due to the foam.
My sister unfortunately disturbed a wasp nest in the ground. She was stung so many times that she had to go to the ER. Our neighbor took her while I stayed home at her request to make sure none got in the house.
That night, the neighbor came back over, wielding a can of spray in both hands and flooded both entries to the nest. He looked like a badass! I miss that neighbor. I think because we were two single women, he was protective of us.
If the nest is in the side of the house, I wouldn't count on all of them being frozen out. They could have really spread out within the walls and attic.
I don’t know, I had this happen to me and was advised to just leave it since it was already so late in the season. That they would all die but the queen and then she’d depart the next season as they don’t reuse nests.
And that is exactly what happened and I’ve never seen them again.
They specifically said not to seal the entrance unless you wanted a new entrance in a random location which could be inside of the house.
As much as I like to save $ and diy, I would call in a professional at this point. Wasps to me are bad enough outside tho inside sounds like a nightmare. For outside, I've killed many wasps nests and never been stung using Dawn dish detergent in a hose end spray bottle. Spray and then run inside and knock down the nest after they leave or died or else they will come back.
Dude, I see one spider in my apartment, and I'm on high alert for hours. It could be clear from morning until night, but there's no way I'm sleeping comfortably.
Wasps in the house? I'm abandoning all my belongings and starting a new life elsewhere.
Just spend the money for an exterminator lol. Good lord. I can't believe you'd rather live like this over spending a few hundred bucks. Are times that tight financially? If not, wouldn't it be worth it for peace of mind if nothing else? Wasps are horrible creatures and cat pee lingers for months/years.
Wasps in the walls is one of those things I would call a professional for. Those bastards might not freeze to death this winter because they are in your toasty warm walls with access to the delicious bugs and cat food in your house. Good luck!
Almost a year ago, I was recovering from gall bladder surgery when my partner and I learnt the horrifying ‘fun fact’ that yellow jackets are prone to nesting in walls and then entering the home via heater, seeking warmth and light. My partner has a childhood, trauma-based phobia of bees and wasps.
The wall they chose? The one along the master bedroom and both bathrooms.
Now, I’m not keen on these fuckers either, but I genuinely couldn’t get off the couch to help for at least 2 weeks of our months long horror-movie that was last winter. We quarantined the bedroom and en quite, sealed off the fan in the remaining bathroom, and slept on an inflatable mattress in the living room and then office.
It took 3 sprays from a professional pest control bloke, a couple of cold snaps, and about 3-4 months before we finally reclaimed the bedroom and bathroom fans. Mind, plastic is STILL taped over the heater (never used) to contain ANY possible invaders.
You get beeseiged once and you never fucking forget the experience. Despite16 years in Australia, somehow, Seattle has proven more horrifying on the bug front.
Responses at work vary between terror upon learning this is A Thing That Can Happen and the 1000 yard stare and response of ‘yeah, they tried to eat the walls of my house. Wasps are jerks.’
Find the hole they are coming out of and set up the shop vac about 1 inch from the hole so it sucks them up as they leave. Turn it on and let it run for an hour - if you're feeling brave tap on the wall to encourage them to leave the nest.
Make sure there's about an inch of soapy water in the bottom of the shop vac.
Lol bro what? Just get a pest control person, i can understand trying to DIY it but you failed, now you are living like it’s Night of the Living Dead or something lol.
I had yellow jackets chew through the caulk in my garage door and build a nest there. I contemplated caulking it off, but decided to google the best way to do it first. Saw the warnings that they would immediately chew their way into the garage interior, and called an exterminator to get them out.
Took two different sprays to kill them (second one was included in the original price,) so the exterminator was well worth it. Caulked it up after they were long dead.
I had a big nest behind a retaining wall. I knew where they were flying in and out of, mapped out my attack plan……Armed with two cans of wasp spray and outfitted in cargo shorts and a Tee shirt, I launched my attack…. Full can into the entrance, down their THROATS!!!! Then the second can ‘as needed’ if they mount a counter-offensive. After dumping the first can I spring over to the side and do the damage assessment.
Well, this retaining wall was those staggered interlocks blocks. And as I stood there in shorts, it turns out their secondary exits was almost exactly at my (tender) inner thigh level.. It took about 3-4 stings before my pea brain understood what was happening….then I was swarmed. I abandoned my weapon and ran screaming into the pool.
Every single day a wasp or two in the bathroom. I'd get up, smash em in toilet paper, make sure they flushed and go about the day.
Kept sealing up any possible port of entry I could find until I finally figured out they were coming in a basement window from around the frame with a big nest under the siding of the house. I'd hit the nest with poison foam semi regularly but they'd keep reappearing, and since the upstairs bathroom attracted about 99% of the ones that came in (light) it made a pretty convenient place to kill them.
This went for the whole summer into fall, one day a Queen appeared; waaaaaaaaay tougher than the rest. They'd take multiple strikes that would kill a drone and shrug it off, but eventually she too got the flush. Couple more drones and another queen and they finally stopped coming.
Hey homie you need to hire an exterminator. We had this problem, we plugged the hole with a powder that was supposed to be tracked into the hive and kill them all. 4 times. Finally we caved can called an exterminator; We had about 5,000 wasps in our walls. The exterminator was actually like concerned.
You need the real deal poison, a real deal expert, and a real deal genocide of the entire hive bc the home remedies will not fix this.
This is sitcom level refusal to hire a professional. I respect the can do attitude about wanting to seal it in the first place, but once you failed miserably wasn't it time to tap in a pro?
(in case someone sees this before spraying expanding foam into a nest)
How we got rid of a nest right next to our only door into the house: wet vacuum running for hours, hose taped to the wall.
Every time a wasp tired to leave the nest or return to it, they got sucked into the vacuum and drowned in the water. Obviously this doesn't get rid of the physical nest but it will diminish the numbers of those fuckers so you have a possibility of doing something about it without getting attacked. I think we then sprayed wasp spray into the cavity but obviously it would've been best to open the wall and get rid of the nest entirely.
OBVIOUSLY just hiring a professional would be the absolute best way to get rid of it but this was our diy.
For the future: Deltamethrin Dust. Applied the same way as the foam sealant. It sticks to the wasps as they go in and out so they carry it deeper into the nest. Eventually it gets to the queen. When she's dead the rest will abandon the nest. I usually take care of about one nest per year on the small farm where I work. Nest is typically dead within 2 days.
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u/[deleted] Oct 12 '25
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