Wasps, soap, salt, questions......

[F3506]

So we've had some wasp issues this summer. We're out in the sticks so they come from quite a distance sometimes. Not a nest close by. I've been trying different ways to reduce the ones that come to the pool.


Bucket of diesel didn't do much. Caught one. Same for a home made trap. Spray bottle, them pump up garden sprayers with water and plenty of dish soap seems to work. Bought the lawn and garden version of the Bug A Salt rifle. (Max range for a single wasp on that is around 16")

I'm open to other suggestions if you have any. We had around 50 at a time coming to the pool in the afternoon / evenings. That's down to around 10 or so now so we're making progress. So aside for asking for other suggestions, what is the effect of adding dish soap or table salt to a regular, in ground, plaster pool? Sometimes the only places these things land is on the water or something floating on the water.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Well, right off the bat I'll tell you that you don't need to add salt to the pool. Any pool that's been up and running a while has probably built up its own salt bank from the break down of many chemicals added. Most of them leave a couple few ppm of salt behind. If you get yourself a Taylor K1766 Salt test kit you can test how much you have.

What you may need to do is provide them some water further out from your pool. Can you determine at all which direction they come from? Put a small bird bath or kiddie pool 50-100 yards in the direction in see if it cuts down on using your big blue trough.

Maddie

 

[PoolGate]

I got 2 cans of Raid wasp/hornet killer at the beginning of the season and went hunting one day and killed every one I found. That did really well as we have had almost no wasps or hornets this year at all. We had a bunch last year. You could do that or get those hanging bag traps they are very effective.

https://www.amazon.com/RESCUE-Non-Toxic-Reusable-Hornets-Yellowjackets/dp/B001H1GRPI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1533558382&sr=8-3&keywords=wasp+trap&dpID=41oF1b4mcjL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

 

[ajw22]

I got 2 cans of Raid wasp/hornet killer at the beginning of the season and went hunting one day and killed every one I found. That did really well as we have had almost no wasps or hornets this year at all. We had a bunch last year. You could do that or get those hanging bag traps they are very effective.

https://www.amazon.com/RESCUE-Non-Toxic-Reusable-Hornets-Yellowjackets/dp/B001H1GRPI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1533558382&sr=8-3&keywords=wasp+trap&dpID=41oF1b4mcjL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Thats pretty much what i do. I have wasp traps like that hanging along the pool fence.

 

[Tfloyd]

Louisiana Red wasp are mean little creatures and we had issues with of them every years until someone told us about a paper bag trick. Stuff a brown paper bag with anything (I use plastic bags to stuff mine) stuff it until the paper bag is nice and puffy. Then hang the nice puffy brown paper bag around the pool area or any area the wasp seem to want to nest or visit. I’m not sure why or how it works BUT I was told The wasp and bees see the brown paper bag and they believe it’s a hornets nest and stay away from it. I was hesitant to believe it, but tried it anyway and it absolutely works! I hang out fake hornet nests up every year and we’ve had no further issues with the mean stinging Red Devils!

 

[rccarps2]

Had decent luck with these. Found an underground nest that no matter how much spray I used, or water, or gasoline, or diesel I couldn't wipe it out. Put one of these 5 feet from the hole and killed hundreds over a week.

https://www.amazon.com/UPGRADED-Cat...UTF8&qid=1533566495&sr=1-7&keywords=wasp+trap


I used the alcoholic drink twisted tea, since that was what they were going after in the pool area the most.

They haven't been bad this year, so the traps are currently sitting in the shed, awaiting the next onslaught.

 

[ranger_ric]

We had wasps pretty bad to start the year. My SIL and I spent about 2 hours one day and using my hat and him using a leaf skimmer we killed 169 wasps and pushed them to the skimmer. (I know the number because my granddaughter counted them the next day.) The next day we killed 114. Using the leaf skimmer you can knock them out of the air and once in the pool you push them to the skimmer. After that weekend I would kill about 20-30 every evening for a week and then the numbers just plummeted. We can swim for several hours now and only see one or two and they usually dont land. I did also check all my outbuildings and overhangs and chicken coop and destroyed 3 or 4 small nests with spray. I think they were coming from my neighbors place

 

[pooldv]

We have a saltwater pool and quite a few wasps, yellow jackets, hornets, mud daubers and other things visit the pool. We also live in the woods. Pool was built in 2012. Nobody has ever been stung. The more people in the pool the less wasps tend to visit. We just live with them. Every now and then I'll rescue one who is having trouble taking off from the water surface.

 

[JLayer01]

Louisiana Red wasp are mean little creatures and we had issues with of them every years until someone told us about a paper bag trick. Stuff a brown paper bag with anything (I use plastic bags to stuff mine) stuff it until the paper bag is nice and puffy. Then hang the nice puffy brown paper bag around the pool area or any area the wasp seem to want to nest or visit. I’m not sure why or how it works BUT I was told The wasp and bees see the brown paper bag and they believe it’s a hornets nest and stay away from it. I was hesitant to believe it, but tried it anyway and it absolutely works! I hang out fake hornet nests up every year and we’ve had no further issues with the mean stinging Red Devils!

This right here. We have not had wasp issues at all this year after hanging up 3-4 of these in random places around the pool and patio. Give it a shot.

 

[F3506]

To clarify, my goal isn't to add salt or soap to the pool, it's just a byproduct of the wasp thing. Just making sure I'm not going to mess anything up.

Also, I'm out in the country. There's no follow to the close by nest and take care of it. They come from all directions and distances further than I care to walk. There's plenty of stock ponds, water troughs, even a couple of bird baths so alternate water sources aren't the issue. As for the wasp and hornet killer, I keep cans of that spread around everywhere. I probably go through 4 - 6 cans a year between the sheds, barns, trailers, equipment, house eaves, etc. If I find a nest close by, it gets sprayed. My experience with the hanging traps has been less than stellar. The hanging fly traps seem to work well enough, but the wasp ones have left me unimpressed.

 

[pooldv]

Agreed that the glass jar with water and a hole in the bottom don't work at all. We put one on the screen porch a few months ago and haven't caught anything. I do better waiting for a wasp to land on a screen door and opening it to get it out of the porch.

 

[PoolGate]

Agreed that the glass jar with water and a hole in the bottom don't work at all. We put one on the screen porch a few months ago and haven't caught anything. I do better waiting for a wasp to land on a screen door and opening it to get it out of the porch.

Those worked great for us but you don't use water we used sugar water or sometimes just coke.