Sorry for this long post but I am passionate about getting rid of these things around the pool.
We’ve had 3 different issues around our pool and pump house. Wasps, carpenter bees and yellow jackets. Beginning in the spring and throughout the summer, wasps and carpenter bees swirl around the pump house like it is a big convention center. We did the wasp and hornet spray for years for the wasps. But it’s a never ending cycle. And it didn’t phase the carpenter bees. We dusted and filled the holes that the bees bored in the painted but untreated studs and shelves in the pump house but they just bored different holes.
Finally we found an article about fake hornet’s nests. You take a bunch of plastic shopping bags like you get from any store now (white or yellow seem to work best) and you bunch them up to resemble a big hornets nest.
I stapled one under one of the shelves in the pump house and one underneath each end of the deck attached to the house and we have been virtually free of wasps and carpenter bees for 2-3 years now.
Yellow jackets are a different animal. The traps will catch a few but to get rid of them you have to kill the nest. I’ve found 2 ways to accomplish that.
1.
A. Get a spray can of yellow jacket freeze (Amazon)
B. Get a bottle of Tempo 1% dust and a dusting bulb/can (also amazon)
C. Find the hole in the ground they fly in and out of
At dusk or later, take the spray and a flashlight, stand away from the hole and spray around it. (The can will spray 20-30 feet)
After that is done, walk up to the hole. There may be some dead yellow jackets around the hole.
Now shoot a 10-20 second stream of spray directly down the hole.
Go inside and put some Tempo dust in the duster and wait till the next morning.
Early the next morning take the duster to the hole, stick the tube in the hole and dust the Crud out of it.
2.
A. Get an electronic bug zapper that looks like a fly swatter or tennis racket, preferably one with C, D or 9 volt batteries (they last longer)
B. Tempo 1% dust with a dusting bulb/can.
C. If the zapper turns on by pressing a button, you will need a clamp or tape to hold the button down.
Take the zapper to the hole and turn it on. Being careful of the flying yellow jackets, place the zapper over the hole.
The yellow jackets will zap themselves to death trying to defend their nest.
This may take several days depending on the size of the nest.
Once the activity around the hole has died down (literally), wait until early the next morning then take the Tempo dust in the duster, remove the zapper, stick the tube of the duster in the hole and dust the Crud out of it.
NOTICE:
Yellow jackets are notorious for having at least 2 holes going to an underground nest, so be on the lookout for the additional hole(s).