Wasp Blower
76 comments
·October 13, 2025genuineresponse
jihadjihad
I’m fine with your garden variety paper wasp, along with its European counterpart [0] that is all over the US and closely resembles a yellow jacket, but the latter tucks its legs in flight while the former doesn’t, which makes distinguishing the two relatively easy. Paper wasps generally aren’t aggressive unless you’re in their business, and they’re easy to deal with if you have to.
Yellow jackets are a different story entirely. Sometimes they nest underground which can be a real problem (mowing/lawncare, pets, children), and they are far more aggressive than paper wasps and hornets. The sting is quite a bit worse than either, too, so my philosophy is if I find a nest in the spring it’s given no quarter with no remorse.
opwieurposiu
When we were kids we used to catch wasps in a plastic cup, put them in the freezer until they were anesthetized, and then tie a little leash on them with sewing thread.
Then you chase your friends around the neighborhood with your personal attack wasp. Good times.
chandureddyvari
Slightly tangential but this was a learning moment for me.
This reminds me of a story where Sage Mandavya established the first juvenile law in Hindu mythology.
<story starts>
Long ago, there lived a great sage named Mandavya who had taken a vow of silence and spent his days in deep meditation. One day, while he sat motionless beneath a tree with his arms raised in penance, a group of thieves being pursued by the king’s soldiers fled into his hermitage. They hid their stolen loot near the sage and escaped through the other side. When the king’s soldiers arrived, they found the stolen goods but the sage—deep in meditation and bound by his vow of silence—neither confirmed nor denied their presence. The soldiers arrested him and brought him before the king, accusing him of harboring criminals.
Despite his spiritual stature, the king ordered a severe punishment: Mandavya was to be impaled on a stake (shula)—a horrific execution where a wooden spike was driven through the body. However, due to his immense yogic powers and detachment from the physical world, the sage did not die. He remained alive on the stake, enduring the agony with superhuman patience. Eventually, other sages intervened, the king realized his grave error, and Mandavya was freed. But the damage was done. When the sage finally left his mortal body, he went directly to Yamaloka—the realm of Yama, the god of death and justice—to demand an explanation.
“Why did I have to suffer such a gruesome fate?” Sage Mandavya asked Lord Yama. “What terrible sin did I commit to deserve impalement?” Yama consulted his records and replied, “When you were a child, you caught a dragonfly and pierced it with a needle through its body, watching it suffer for your amusement. That act of cruelty resulted in your punishment - you experienced the same suffering you inflicted on that innocent creature.”
Sage Mandavya was furious. “That was when I was a child!” he protested. “I was too young to understand the difference between right and wrong, between sin and virtue. How can you punish an ignorant child with the same severity as a knowing adult?”
Yama tried to explain that karma operates impartially, but Mandavya would not accept this. In his righteous anger, the sage cursed Yama himself: “For this unjust judgment, you shall be born as a human on Earth and experience mortality yourself!” This curse led to Yama being born as Vidura, the wise and virtuous counselor in the Mahabharata - a human who, despite his wisdom and righteousness, had to endure the limitations and sufferings of mortal life.
But Mandavya didn’t stop there. Using his spiritual authority, he proclaimed a new divine law: “No sin committed by a child below the age of fourteen shall count toward their karmic debt equivalent to that of an adult. Children who do not yet understand dharma and adharma shall not be punished for their ignorant actions.” This became the first “juvenile law” in Hindu mythology—a recognition that children, in their innocence and ignorance, deserve compassion and correction rather than severe punishment.
<story ends>
When I was a child, I too wanted to catch a dragonfly and tie a thread to it so it would fly around like a little pet. But my mother stopped me. She told me this very story of Sage Mandavya, and it scared me for life. I never forgot it, and I never tried to catch and bind a dragonfly again.
chihuahua
Two thoughts:
1. If is were possible for an ordinary mortal to impose arbitrary curses on the god of death and justice, the world would quickly descend into utter chaos.
2. If children are completely free from accountability, adults will form them into an army and convince them to commit crimes on their behalf, leading to an intolerable situation. This may already be a standard way of doing business in some parts of the world.
doph
Very much this. After multiple very painful stings, I have a zero tolerance policy for nests on the house, but I am very grateful when they show up in the garden. Wasps are more effective at controlling garden pests than any chemical means I've tried. Plus they seem to be the only pollinators of my passionfruit.
kragen
Around here the passion flowers are mostly pollinated by a species of bumblebee with an almost-all-black abdomen and beautiful violet wings. So far they haven't stung me, although I'm sure they could, and it would be very painful. I haven't tried capturing them.
chihuahua
It sounds like it could be Xylocopa violacea, the violet carpenter bee, found in Europe and Asia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylocopa_violacea
stronglikedan
I used to want to kill them all, regardless of where they were, until I watched this excellent SciShow video[0] titled "What If We Killed All the Wasps?". (but ticks can still go fuck themselves to death)
foobarian
Similar story, had a nest in the walls of a bay window bump. Too far up the side to spray effectively, but they had one weakness: there was a clear entrance spot. So I duct taped a pool vacuum hose next to it and ran it into the garage attached to a shop vac. Left it running for a day, problem solved. It was fun listening to the "ka-thunk" sound when each insect got sucked in. I think for next time I'll make some kind of detector based on audio to count the kills.
samcheng
This is the technique I have used, too! You can put soapy water in the shop vac.
This avoids spraying poisons around your household environment.
blincoln
I've used a shop vac as a first step, but if it's the only step, won't the queen survive and make more wasps? Unless you left it running for so long the queen starved to death, I mean.
My current approach is to wait until after dark, then fill up the nest entrance with spray foam (while wearing a beekeeper suit, just to be safe). I don't think that would work for walls, though - they'd probably find another way out.
bigstrat2003
In fact, that approach is explicitly warned against for walls. When they can't get out their former entrance, they will start to chew through the wall to make a new one - and there's no guarantee that new entrance will lead to the outside, rather than your living room.
foobarian
My problem was the nest was hard to reach, and I was afraid that even if spraying did manage to kill the wasps, I would be left with a gross wet decomposing mass in the wall causing rot and water damage. I still need to figure out how to remove the existing nest but I'll wait until it's vacant :-)
samcheng
I've needed two passes in the past, a few days apart. One to catch all of the adults, and another to catch any new wasps that emerged immediately after the first pass.
tmerc
My first time having yellow jackets in my wall, I sprayed poison in the entrance. They found a new way to leave the nest that was into my kitchen. That's when I stopped using poison.
IncreasePosts
I used the shop vac method as well, occasionally shooting near their (hidden in a retaining wall) nest with a hose to piss them off and make them come out and get sucked up. I couldn't believe in the end there were two gallons of yellow jackets I captured.
I_dream_of_Geni
Haha! We did the same thing! And we caught about 2 gallons of yellow jackets too. We let it run for about 10 hours (it gets them coming or going), and then when we took down the vac, I let it run and sprayed wasp spray to make sure they were dead. I freaked out when I opened it, seeing the shop vac was half full!!!!
ChrisMarshallNY
This summer, we had a white-faced hornet nest, in a bush, a few feet from our front door, so it had to go.
Normally, hornets are great. They are nowhere near as aggressive as yellowjackets (unless you mess with the nest), and they eat yellowjackets, so you either have hornets or yellowjackets, but not both (but they also eat bees, so people who want to encourage pollinators, need to discourage them).
But that low on the ground, and that close to the house, they had to go.
I have heard too many horror stories about botched hornet removal, so I called in a pro. I have a friend in the business, so I got a break (but that was $150).
It was interesting, watching him do it. Took about 15 minutes. He had a special suit. It looked flimsy, but they couldn’t get through.
jonbiggums22
I have good luck with low nests just buying a can of wasp spray (the ones that foam and have a claimed 30ft range, although somewhat less in practice) and soaking down the nest at dust. I usually put on some extra clothing and make a run for it but I haven't been chased. The can only cost like $15.
What I don't have good luck with is the nests built high up since I'm afraid of heights
Tepix
Why didn't he just move it to another place? Hornets are a threatened species.
ChrisMarshallNY
Not white-faced hornets[0]. They are everywhere on the East Coast USA.
They aren't actually real hornets. They are just big yellowjackets.
the_sleaze_
Which hornets are threatened?
The only hornets news I hear is that they're invasive and killing pollinators.
hocuspocus
European hornets are protected in several European countries. The low population is also a reason we have too many wasps.
That said even though they're not particularly aggressive, I don't know anyone who would just leave a nest on their property.
Skwid
I see a lot of advice being given in these comments, and I find it a little alarming that my own preference hasn't got a mention. Just leave them be? I've had plenty of wasp nests in sheds, roof spaces, garages etc and never had a problem peacefully coexisting with them. Almost everyone I've spoken to about it shares this sentiment, and generally wouldn't do anything about it unless it was in an especially risky location.
I get the impression most commenters here are from the US, whilst I live in the UK. Am I naive to the aggression of American wasps, or is it just more acceptable to kill creatures you find bothersome over there?
Does anyone with experience both sides of the pond have any insight?
blincoln
Maybe you have friendlier wasps in the UK, but the common ones in the US (yellowjackets, mud daubers, etc.) are generally very aggressive, and trying to coexist with them will end badly sooner or later.
I'm vegetarian because of personal ethics. I safely capture and release spiders I find in the house. I use live traps for mice and rats, and release them in the woods. But most wasps here are on my "nip the problem in the bud" list, along with termites, Scotch Broom, and a few other things.
I leave non-aggressive wasps, like Great Golden Diggers, alone.
tmerc
In my experience (and wikipedia), mud daubers aren't aggressive. You may have misidentified a species or had an uncommon experience. They prey on spiders so I consider them beneficial. Only real issue with them is that they clog up mechanisms with mud.
knappa
I don't know, but I've never had trouble with mud daubers.
pavel_lishin
What's wrong with Scotch Broom? It looks lovely, and I was thinking of planting some.
unregistereddev
Part of the difference might be our obsession with sugary foods and drink. There are several different kinds of wasps here. Paper wasps and mud daubers are not all that aggressive and you can ignore them, unless you have a sugary drink outside. Then they will fly unnoticed into your soda can and you have a surprise next time you take a sip. If you stay calm and spit out the wasp quickly enough, they probably won't sting you. If you panic (like kids tend to do), they will sting the inside of your mouth.
The other part might come from having different types of wasps. The ones in the article look like yellowjackets, which are extremely aggressive. They also tend to nest in holes in the ground. Yellowjackets are bad news because if you accidentally step close to their nest they will swarm you, often getting multiple stings in even if you are quick to run away.
unwind
If you have (young) kids, having active/plentiful wasps nearby might just not work. Wasps can be scary, especially to children who have been stung before, and they are super-impractical around kids eating/snacking, too. "Close your mouth and relax" just doesn't get through to a scared kid, in my experience. :|
oidar
> Am I naive to the aggression of American wasps
Yes. Yellow jackets are very aggressive. Having them live in or next to your house is just asking for an injury.
ssharp
Where I live, bald-faced hornets and yellowjackets are very aggressive. Yellowjackets will also build nests inside of structures, in the ground, etc. where it's sometimes very difficult to even know they are there until it's too late.
This is much different than honey bees and other types of wasps who are much less likely to attack just by being near them.
tmerc
No experience in the uk, but I might be able to explain. YellowJackets are wasps, I'm calling them out specifically; wasp is used for other species.
Wasps nest under the eaves of houses all the time. If they're not near an entryway, usually people leave them alone as long as the nest stays small.
Yellow jackets do not nest under the eaves of a house. They burrow in the ground (or walls) where you can't see them or the nest size. They're also particularly aggressive and will swarm if you step on their nest.
YJs are more aggressive and territorial than a normal "wasp" with the added bonus of sometimes they just swarm you out of nowhere.
IncreasePosts
The wasp nest from ops article was inside of their front door jamb. Basically anyone visiting the front door during daylight hours would be attacked by a swarm of wasps that thought their nest was being disturbed.
anhner
European here, more than once I have been stuck by a yellow jacket for the simple crime of staying outside, minding my own business. My father was very badly stung because he accidentally disturbed a (hidden) nest. So I hate them with a passion. They also kill honeybees if you want another reason.
comrade1234
I was at my cabin in the fall - it was after Covid and the first time I was there in a couple of years. I got a nice fire going in the fireplace and maybe thirty minutes later I saw a wasp flying very poorly and slowly around the living room. Then a few more and a few more. I figure they must have built a nest in the attic during Covid, and were in hibernation for the winter but the warmth woke them up.
So that night and the next few I had a roaring fire and let it get cold during the day. I really didn't want to go into the attic to investigate. Eventually there were no more wasps. Problem solved!
stanac
Reminds me of something similar I saw a few days ago.
https://old.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/1o195z6/i_elimi...
xattt
I had a wasp problem last year where they were going into the attic of my home. I did what I could with spray cans, but it wasn’t enough.
I ended up calling an exterminator who used delta dust, which the wasps carry into the nest. It was a little pricey (~$150) but it was peace of mind from the other alternative, being able to do nothing. The exterminator came back for free a few days later to re-dust when there was little change in activity. The second go did the trick.
I did look at a few options online before calling. One idea was to set up a vacuum trap with a shop vac (1).
debo_
Horror. The spiral birth factory, stepped terraces of the hatching cells, blind jaws of the unborn moving ceaselessly, the staged progress from egg to larva, near-wasp, wasp. In his mind's eye, a kind of time-lapse photography took place, revealing the thing as the biological equivalent of a machine gun, hideous in its perfection.
aaronbrethorst
Neuromancer, in case anyone's curious. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7235994-horror-the-spiral-b...
Great book.
akarlsten
We had a wasps nest last summer inside the wall under the eaves of our house, some kid from the exterminator's came with a long telescoping rod and puffed some kind of white powder into the opening. He explained that it was something like a slow-acting poison (or maybe like diatomaceous earth) that would cover the drones when they left or arrived at the nest and that it was enough for one of these drones to brush up against the queen to kill her. They swarmed around for a few hours then we never saw them again, so it apparently worked.
This was after attempting to spray the opening with regular wasp spray a few times. Sure, it killed a dozen or so drones each time but never really put a dent in the population.
exasperaited
A good spray picking off the very earliest dozen or so wasps in the early spring may actually directly get the queen, who has not always permanently settled in. That point or the next few weeks is an excellent opportunity to add secondary toxins that the workers will carry in, because the nest is so small they will encounter the queen.
Beyond that I guess only completely saturating an internal trunk route through the thing with a tool like that is going to work!
javier_e06
I wish I had the was blower 3 months ago. Wasps nested in the space between my laundry room and the 2nd floor. The exit was a crack between the concrete blocks outside wall and the vinyl siding. They found an entrance into the house through the overhead light socket when a fool whose name shall not be mentioned duck-taped their regular exit route. A call to the pest-control and $400.00 USD later took care of it. They bore a tiny hole next to the exit and pumped lethal gas in it. The problem with the was blower in my case it it would have to be 8 ft attached to the wall.
itintheory
I had two yellowjacket nests in the wood siding of my house this summer. Several cans of foaming spray had no effect since it couldn't penetrate far enough inside. I found a random forum thread where someone suggested using Sevin insecticide powder on the openings. It took a week and a half of daily applications using a paintbrush, but it seemed to be effective. Less expensive than calling an exterminator, and I have most of the can of powder left for next time.
taneq
Pro tip if you're trying to deal with any of these: Do it while it's cold. Do not (as I did the first time) gird your appendages in towels and other random shielding, then do it in the mid-afternoon when it's been warm for hours and they're prepped to go like fighter jets with warmed up engines. Get up first thing in the morning when it's crispy and you can just get a can of bug spray and coat each one as it comes out. Ethical? No. Effective? Yes. I believe those two might be at odds.
goda90
I do it at night. They sleep, and using a red headlamp I don't think I disturbed them too much. After I saw activity drop off, I used expanding foam to seal the hole.
LtdJorge
For people that don’t know, regular wasps always leave in the face of danger to the nest. If you have the typical small nest, the easiest thing you can do is hit it fast with a broom or similar. They will all disappear in seconds.
I’ve seen my dad do it a lot of times with his bare hands, never got stung. But if you pass by the nest enough times, you’ll be.
Another good solution is fire. A blow torch with a wide flame, burns their wings (if it doesn’t outright kill them) and also their nest, which is more or less made of paper.
jonbiggums22
I once saw a video of a crazy dude take care of a wasp nest by putting a plastic grocery bag over it and detaching the nest in one smooth motion, then tying it shut and throwing it in the trash. He didn't get stung because the nest was tied up before the wasps even knew they were under attack.
FeteCommuniste
Some people get even crazier: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QAe7gtkp_2E
tmerc
Alternatively, if you like having your house not catch on fire...
Soapy water is unreasonably effective. Water alone is not. The soap makes the water extra clingy and does a pretty rapid job of incapacitating insects. Then killing them. I've taken out individual wasps this way, but not a whole nest.
comrade1234
lol. I had a neighbor burn his shed down that way. The fun (not sarcastic) of rural life.
LtdJorge
Well, yeah. You have to be careful. Here, houses are made of brick, and almost no one has a shed, YMMV.
IncreasePosts
Sorry, but no one has a shed? Where do you cook your meth? Please don't tell me the house.
Wasps in a high traffic area are definitely bad, but if the nest is somewhere not too in the way I'd encourage folks to leave it be. Wasps are predators, and they eat a lot of the bugs that damage gardens. Yes, they are also assholes, do you have to strike a balance, but they can be really beneficial.
Obviously, if you've got young kids around or the wasps are being aggressive, take care of the humans first, but understanding them a bit can really reduce the conflict with them.