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Pest Control - Wasps Inside our Basement
Expert: George Manning - 11/4/2009
Question
Hi George,
About a couple of weeks ago, we noticed wasps inside the house. I found the entrance to be just above the foundation wall, vacuumed all the worker bees and sealed the entrance. I was hoping that lack of food, etc. would kill the rest. Since the problem inside the house persisted, I brought in some expert. As soon as he opened up the entrance, some wasps emerged and then flew away. He then applied a very soft power-like poison to that area. I cannot remember the name of the poison and my best recollection is "Drion"! He then applied the foam-like poison to the entrance and told me to wait a few days to see what happens.
The problem inside the house has persisted, but has diminished gradually. There seems to be a large supply of them. I used to kill 20-30 everyday, but now maybe 15-20 and they are all fully grown ones.
We have a drop ceiling in our basement and as soon as we turn on our fluorescent lights, some of them show up. My questions are:
1- What would be the quickest and most effective way to get rid of them? I looked at a product out of England, namely Jones and Sons Sales. It consists of a light that attracts wasps and then zap them with electricity (http://www.trapawasp.co.uk/indoor_electronic_wasp_and_flying_insect_killer.htm). Unfortunately, they do not ship to North America.
2-One solution that I thought was to leave the home overnight and let the temperature drop to close to a few degrees to kill them. Would that be effective?
3-Once there is no more flying wasps inside the house, must I find the nest and remove it? My limited understanding of the whole wasp life cycle is that the hibernating queen(s) will start new colonies. Some say they will try to fly outside, but if not successful, will fly around inside the house and land a new spot.
4-The wasps that are flying around now, do not seem to be harmful; some are lacking energy and a lot of them seem to be quite energetic. Will they turn nasty, if it takes longer to eliminate them?
5-Is there a device to look inside the wall, like a video head
that you know of? I want to make a small hole in the wall from inside where the entrance is and see if I can see the nest. If not, is there an audio device, like doctors' stethoscope, that would help hear them behind the wall and find the location of their nest?
Thanks for your help and wasp-bittenly looking forward to hearing from you,
Steve
Answer
Your questions are great because they highlight concerns expressed by so many other people.
In the first place, wasps will not survive the winter. Newly mated queens will leave the colony in the late Fall and seek ideal hibernation locations, under leaves, mulch, attic spaces, sheds, etc. They will not hibernate within your house proper, and will not travel within the house to seek shelter. Meanwhile, the mother queen will die along with the worker wasps and remaining male wasps, if they are still present in the colony.
In Spring, those queen daughters become active, having been torpid in most cases, during the cold Winter months. In late April/early May, they will appear, zig-zagging back and forth over exterior walls, appearing to be bouncing off the exterior walls of a building. In reality, they are examining walls in order to locate an ideal nesting location. When this happens, these queens do not become interested in colonies remaining from the previous year; in fact, the old colonies will never become re-occupied.
The English product to which you referred me, is too long and tedious a method to deal with a wasp colony that resides in the walls of your building. For instance, as you kill wasps within the house, usually not until the latter days of Summer and Fall, you are allowing the colony to continue to produce new wasps that in turn, will continue to invade your basement via the escape cracks or holes above your basement's dropped ceiling.
Finally, and could have been accomplished in the beginning of your awareness of the wasp presence,is the elimination of the hidden colony. Either from the exterior wasp exit(s) or in addition through a visible exit point above the dropped ceiling of the basement, using an insecticide that will evolve by molecular diffusion such as Vapona(DDVP chemically known as 0, 0-Dimethyl 0-2,2-dichlorovinyl phosphate. This is a restricted pesticide in the USA, and can only be applied by a professional; however, a product known as ProZap Insect Guard is available over the counter, and its plastic strips are impregnated with DDVP. Under slow release, the chemical will likely drift into the colony. An exception to universal diffusion could be if the wasp colony lies below the building's stud plates, within a hollow of a concrete block wall.
Insulation can block an insecticide from reaching a colony, and may require some ingenuity to reach the exact location within a wall. Your question about using a stethoscope is a valid one. These instruments are available at any medical supply shop.
Steve, I appreciated your inquiry. If you have follow-up questions or comments, I am prepared to guide you.
Best wishes,
George Manning
Consulting Entomologist
www.pestproblemssolved.com
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