Long story short...

A have a lawn, a new tenant and three VERY stubborn colonies of ground wasps.

Tried Borax, Sevin and House Kill all to no avail. They seem to be tough little bastards.
Last night I tried a traditional wasp ( DIY) trap and got nothing, so this morning one of the nests has a glass bowl over it. Supposedly if they can see daylight they wont dig another exit.

I DO want to keep the lawn looking nice and I want to be careful about contaminating the water table 2 feet below the surface since it feeds ny neighbors surface spring.

We have two different types living here. 2 are yellowjacket colonies and the other seems to be mud wasps or a different variety of wasp. They ALL sting. The first time I found these with the mower was MOST unpleasant.

Looking for suggestions...and satisfaction!

SJ.

I can imagine. Not sure if what you have are GDW (Ground Digger Wasp) but wouldn't hurt to try the method suggested here. Apparently, there is a strategy to ridding these pest. Got's night vision goggles?

Mine got in under the vynal siding.

I don't know how I never discovered the nest until a few weeks ago.
It's taken weeks of feeding bee killer foam through a tube up into the sideing at dusk.
I unfortunatly need them mobile so they will try to escape down through the foam.
This has worked as the number i see swarming when I do soak it down has decreased significantly.

My only other option is to drill into the siding & let it all drip down.
They have to go through tyvek & OSB & then 1 inch boards before they hit the inside wall (old house) so i'm not afraid they will get in the house.
I just don't want them there anymore because it's the side where the driveway is.

Growing up we didnt have ground wasps, but we had ground hornets. He's what we did to "cure" the problem. Works everytime (did it about a dozen times, over the 15 years there).

Find the entry point. Tends to be a small hole where all bees come in and out of. Wait till night (they tend to stay home at night). Then we would fill an old 1qt oil bottle with gasoline. We would go out using flash lights to help see, then we would locate the hole, then we would jam the neck of the bottle into the exit hole (bottle is upside down to allow the gas to pour into the nest). We would then leave it and go back inside for the night (we never stuck around, we would drop and go). By morning all bees are dead, nest is ruined, and any remaining bees have left. So we then pull the bottle out, and rinse the hole with water (just as a safety thing), and then just dig it out.


It's a bit radical, and I know someone is going to preach the environmental issue with it. But hey, it works and works very well. We never had to do a second treatment, and we never got stung doing it.



EDIT- After Fully reading you post, you might not want to go this route.

"a new tenant"

Can you sense the question here, SJ?

*hears Hall and Oates playing "Family Man" in the distance*

My buddy did the gasoline trick and lit it on fire for good measure Not the best soil/water approach but it seemed to work.

Yeah. I'm sad that SJ's old tenant moved out. I'm glad that he wasn't desparate enough to take on some of the applicants that I've heard about though.

Gasoline is very bad for the water table. Probably not the best thing for the neighbors either to use almost any commercially available poisons.

Hmmm... I suppose that you don't happen to need any new birdbaths, hey? A nice sized hunk of concrete crushing the nest(s) flat would do wonders.

Failing that, epoxy resin will fill the holes nice and solid. They can't dig it out, and it won't pollute the water table at all. Polyester resin (fibreglass resin) is cheaper, but has some nasty fumes to deal with and is more toxic in its liquid state. It'll premeate the dirt and they won't be able to dig though within 6-8" of anywhere that the resin has been put in. (An inkjet syringe filled with resin, injected into the ground at 4" intervals will basically make for a very hard hunk of plastic in your sod. Eventually the grass roots will break it up, but in the meantime, there will be no ants, wasps nor any kind of digging insect getting through. It'll also not be a very pleasant place to lie down on the grass for a while either. (Plus the soil ther won't be very good for retaining moisture, so it'll need a bit of extra attention to keep the grass growing healthy.)

Or... Get a hunk of culvert pipe, sink it in the 2' or so to the water table surrounding the nest, and then put a hose in it. Drown 'em. (For good measure, I'd cover the ground with fibreglass window screen so that they can't get out.)

Hmmm... I suppose that enough fibreglass window screen covering enough of the ground to keep them from being able to get in or out effectively would starve out the nest. You'd need to cover a lot of ground with it though or they'd just work out the sides.

Or, get a beekeeper suit and just dig 'em out.

I used a water hose, then I found the emergency exit the insects had created, so i plugged that hole and kept.


have you seen the video the Japanese hornet catchers; they use a vacuum

*http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5b1_1252179216


**I have add blocking software, I do not know the content of adds on Liveleak

Okay. I played a little yesterday and then figured out what I needed to do.
What I needed to do was use their instincts against them. There is nothing so gratifying as making an enemy destroy themselves...

Gas is out.
High level poisons are out.
Traps dont seem to work...

what to do?

Okay I know this about them...
1.They live underground and sleep during the night
2. If they can see daylight, they will always try to fly upwards. Its a very old mechanism.
3.They will attempt to swarm if they feel the nest is in danger. ( Problem is they will swarm to the house)

Okay time to get downright nasty.

I took a small amount of borax ( ant powder) and put about a teaspoon in the mouth of the hole. Yes, its weaksauce...but not the way Im going to use it.

Then I took a kitchen bowl, about two quarts, and then inverted it over the hole. I did this at night. The kitchen bowl is clear glass. I nestled it into the ground and then placed a small rock on top of it.

Then I threw back my head and laughed an evil laugh! Hahaaaaa!

The morning comes and I come out to find that they tried to exit their nest, but couldnt. After the nest was alarmed they all tried to swarm...only to find themselves in a glass bubble.
Their instinct to dig another way out is squashed due to the light. They can see the daylight, they just cant get to it.

So they swarm and buzz and crawl all over each...all the while spreading the borax to every single one of the little bastards...

End result?

I estimate a 98% kill for that nest.

Yeah...revenge is sweet..

No pics? No video?

Now you need to make sure that the nest doesn't get new residents. Dig it up, or flatten it down.

Next nest checked this AM....100% kill. Really liking this method. Non intrusive, low risk and cheap as all get out. I think I will be able to mow this weekend with a carefree attitude.

SJ

Damit!, And I was looking forward to hear of a bonfire you may have had in your backyard

Do you want me to blow something up for you?

Hmmmm . . . I do have that inflatable woman I've not used yet. Think you're up to that?

Umm...What?

See, now I am thinking you have a marketable product there, SJ!

But you have to make it more proprietary. Like one of those old popcorn poppers that drop the butter.

Or something mystical, like a moon magnet on top. Or a solar powered bug zapper attachment that makes a hideous CRACK each time they try to escape.

I assume your referring for intended use in your lime jello pool right otherwise .........um, nevermind.

Im thinking of a "Green Wasp Destroyer" 100% recycled plastic. No Chemicals. Just let the sun fry em up...etc etc...

Mowed the lawn this weekend without incident or attack.

Yawn, wheres the excitement and adventure in that?

Im thinking about a tractor mounted afterburner...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2803521197171124691

Dam, and I thought I had gas. They say a little baking soda in the beans can help clear that right up.

Just an ironic update. I did the lawn and it looked pretty good but it had a little brown sheen to it and I figured it might be time to get it ready for winter. So my oldest and I happened to be in town and we found mower blades on sale! And some ear muffs! So I bought them...psyched that SUnday would be the ultimate lawn care day and the last true mowing of the season. A nice slow ride, mulching everything down into the lawn, sort of like a warm blanket for the winter.

Its raining on Sunday, its raining today. In fact its supposed to rain for the next 10 days in a row.

WTH?

hmmm, sounds like mother nature may be a bit upset with you for killing her precious pets

...or someone in the neighborhood just bought a new telescope..