Hornetacolypse.

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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

From here.



Edited By GORDON on 1226174487
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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

<s>I only see George Bush hating white people.</s>

Nevermind.




Edited By TheCatt on 1189427801
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Post by TheCatt »

"middle finger bee a hornet" (by?)
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Post by TheCatt »

We have ant problems. They come every summer and try to get crumbs off of our kitchen floor. Then I poison them, and we repeat the next year.

I hope your hornets (bees?) are smarter.
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Post by GORDON »

1. You must have been hitting the page just as I was uploading it.

2. I corrected a couple typos and uploaded it again 30 seconds after the first upload.

3. We have a large potted palm that goes outside in the summer and inside in the winter. One year an ant colony moved into it, and we've been moving this ant colony from state to state as we moved. But now we live in Ohio where the winter lasts 9 months out of the year, so the palm is inside more, and the wife has noticed the ants crawling around snatching crumbs. She hired an expensive exterminator to come get rd of them.

Now, my question is... you'd rather have crumbs on the floor than few few ants on autopilot cleaning them up for you? I didn't have a problem with seeing an ant here and there on the countertops. I never saw them anywhere else, like in the cupboards raiding the non-spilled food. But the wife went Antpocalypse.




Edited By GORDON on 1189428334
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Post by GORDON »

Uhhh..... I just made a teensy tiny little update to the front page.

And posted a pic.
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TheCatt
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Post by TheCatt »

Well, at least the spiders are trying to do their part to help.
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Post by GORDON »

In a way it's a good thing I got stung this morning which started my quest.

I know the small crack in the foundation they've been using to go under the house. I've already bought some mortar and filling that crack was my next project.

If I had sealed them up I'm guessing the entire hive would be inside the house the same way the solo guy got in this morning.

Exterminator will be here tomorrow morning.

Ahhh... Ohio. I haven't been stung by a wasp or bee or hornet in about 20 years.

Every joint in my hand is aching.
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Post by GORDON »

Or geez... imagine if I sealed that crack, but they found another way in and out of the foundation, and I didn't realize they were there. The entire crawl space would be solid hornet hive within a couple summers.

Assuming that's how hornet hives grow. I've seen some huge ones in museums.

(I was in that crawl space last autumn checking out the insulation situation; no hive then)
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Post by GORDON »

It also occurs to me that I shouldn't judge all individuals of that hive based on the actions of a single violent hornet. The other hornets have shown absolutely no aggression toward me, and perhaps complete extermination is morally wrong. Perhaps I should find am impartial mediator and negotiate with them to find a way that we can all live together, because certainly they have just as much a right to be in this house as I do.

Nah, fuck that, they're all gonna die. Every last one. Every little defenseless baby hornet, too. I would be completely to blame if I did nothing and they stung more people in this house.




Edited By GORDON on 1189435206
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thibodeaux
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Post by thibodeaux »

TheCatt wrote:Well, at least the spiders are trying to do their part to help.
That was the first thing I thought, too.
We have ant problems. They come every summer and try to get crumbs off of our kitchen floor. Then I poison them, and we repeat the next year.

Yeah me too. What kind of poison do you use?
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Post by GORDON »

thibodeaux wrote:
We have ant problems. They come every summer and try to get crumbs off of our kitchen floor. Then I poison them, and we repeat the next year.

Yeah me too. What kind of poison do you use?

Orkin.

$70 every 2 months for spraying, but then they also come out for free if you discover a particular problem, like a big-ass hornet nest in your crawl space.

For the first time I'm very glad I'm on their service and fixing this problem only took a single phone call.




Edited By GORDON on 1189437273
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Post by GORDON »

Here's a higher-res picture of the nest.

http://www.dtman.com/covert/images/hornet_big.jpg

I keep expecting them to chew their way up through my bedroom floor and come boiling out.
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Post by TheCatt »

We might get a service. We have some bugs/spiders in the garage occasionally (black widows at the worst), and with the kid around, might as well not.

We use Terro for the ant poison (the self-contained trap ones, not the bottle of liquid). It's interesting, cuz we set them out, then a flood of ants comes to eat, then the flood goes to a trickle. Then, about 7-10 days later, a flood of really small ants comes in (I'm assuming that the colony is starting to collapse, so the ants have some sort of forced early maturity to take over for the dying ones), then that trickles out.
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Post by Paul »

GORDON wrote:Exterminator will be here tomorrow morning.

I sensed that this could turn into my favorite thread ever until I read that "I'm a big pussy" line.

If it were me, step 1 would be having the wife and kid stay somewhere else for the night.

Step 2 would be lobbing a few foggers at it during the day, just to see what the reaction was.

Step 3 is waiting for night, and going at it with those foaming cans of wasp spray that shoot 30 feet. One in each hand, and two on reserve. Cover the hive.

If the hive is somewhere that can't be reached with an easy exit, well then I'd make a bug barrier. Maybe the screen equivalent of a shark cage.

Once the foam dissipates, cover it again.

24 hours later go at it with a high velocity can of regular wasp spray. These will cut into the nest. I doubt you'll see any activity.




Edited By Paul on 1189442962
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Post by TheCatt »

A real man would burn them down! :)
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Post by Leisher »

We have ant problems. They come every summer and try to get crumbs off of our kitchen floor. Then I poison them, and we repeat the next year.


Same for me. I buy some bug repellent/poison from Home Depot that's supposed to last 6 months and I spray the house down outside and specific areas inside. It seems to do the trick for the most part, but the bigger critters still get through.

I found a wasp nest two weeks ago when I was doing my spraying of the poison. Their nest was in a spot I couldn't get to, but I nailed several with the poison and coated the opening. I haven't seen any activity in that area since.
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Post by GORDON »

Paul wrote:
GORDON wrote:Exterminator will be here tomorrow morning.
I sensed that this could turn into my favorite thread ever until I read that "I'm a big pussy" line.

If it were me, step 1 would be having the wife and kid stay somewhere else for the night.

Step 2 would be lobbing a few foggers at it during the day, just to see what the reaction was.

Step 3 is waiting for night, and going at it with those foaming cans of wasp spray that shoot 30 feet. One in each hand, and two on reserve. Cover the hive.

If the hive is somewhere that can't be reached with an easy exit, well then I'd make a bug barrier. Maybe the screen equivalent of a shark cage.

Once the foam dissipates, cover it again.

24 hours later go at it with a high velocity can of regular wasp spray. These will cut into the nest. I doubt you'll see any activity.
Well, all these ideas occured to me, with the exception of the shark cage. I even have the materials on-hand for other nests outside the house (you know those fake shutters peeps put around their windows? Great wasp nest magnets).

Then I thought... well.... I already pay a guy to do this.

It might be neat to be able to recover the nest, too....
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Post by thibodeaux »

TheCatt wrote:We use Terro for the ant poison (the self-contained trap ones, not the bottle of liquid).
I used the liquid last year and I liked it, but I can't find it now. Where you get it?
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Post by thibodeaux »

GORDON wrote:Here's a higher-res picture of the nest.

http://www.dtman.com/covert/images/hornet_big.jpg

I keep expecting them to chew their way up through my bedroom floor and come boiling out.
You might want to think of nuking them from orbit...
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