A bee hive in my house!!!!!!!

[jerseydevil]

Hi, I am wondering if anyone can offer info on yellowjackets. Here is my story. All summer I have been hearing a light scratching/clicking sound while I laid in bed. I thought it was just my fish ( I have an aquarium near my bed) eating at the surface. Well, today after work when I went to feed the fish, I noticed over a hundred yellows swarming (inside) around two windows in the bedroom. So I Went to homedepot to buy some indoor bee spray. When I got home, many of the yellows were dead/dying. I figured it was because of whatever our exterminator sprayed in the spring, however my wife has since informed me that the exterm skipped the upstairs this time because of our newborn daughter. So I don't know what killed them. Anyways, I sprayed the lingering yellows and sucked them all up with my shop vac. In the prosses I noticed a hole in the dormer above the window. The yellows were coming through it into the bed room. I then sprayed into the hole, and stuck the vac up to it, when I did, i learned that the yellows had eaten through the drywall and left just the coat of paint, which was sucked into the vac leaving a baseball sized hole. Inside of this hole was the hive, which i sprayed. I also vacuumed out as much as I could even though it was not that much. By this time no bees were to be seen. I figured the spray did it's job. I then took my stethoscope and listened all around the hive area. I heard some buzzing but I don't know if it was dying bees or ones that were returning to the hive from outside, or if there is a nother part of the hive I did not reach or disturb. Lastly I covered the baseball sized hole with clear plastic and taped it up. MY concerns are, How large is the hive likly to be? I removed a piece about the size of a piece of wonderbread. I also noticed a paper material that looked like the same stuff hornets make. So is it likely that hornets and yellows share the same cavity (not the same hive) in my wall? I can provide further info apon request. I am just hoping to get info asap.
Oh and incase anyone is wondering, I was stung once on the ear at the end of this adventure. I guess i won this battle.
Thanks Again, JD

 

[Proj Eng]

Seal it up thoroughly from the outside. They'll eat through just about anything that isn't reasonably solid. The ones left on the inside should die off eventually (a few days). Just like us, they need food and care to survive so take away that aspect and they'll be goners. Using the foam filler and insulator helps also as there us no food value or use of it to them (Great stuff, icynene).
Sounds like you got the nest out of there. Biggest yellow jacket nest i've seen is about head sized, but that had thousands of em, not just a few hundred. I've never seen hornets and jackets together, they kill each other I think. (jackets could be food for hornets?... can't quite remember)
Got any photos?

 

[Lawn Masters]

Be glad it wasnt japanese hornets, I've seen what they do to yellow jackets, a small swarm of 30 jap hornets can annihilate a whole nest of 3000 yelllow jackets in around 3 hours. its impressive. those hornets can even kill humans if they wanted to.

But your issue, it sounds like you got the nest, just get the hole sealed up, call your exterminator, get a place to stay for awhile, and let the exterminator do the dirty work, he knows how to get rid of them little SOBs right.
They aint no fun, I been stung a few times myself, its not fun. they hurt like a #$@$#@ when they sting.

 

[jerseydevil]

Hello, Thanks, I appreciate the responses so far. Since my last post, I have read up on yellowjackets, wasps and hornets. I will be going home today at lunch to look and listen around. I am reasonable sure that I killed most if not all of the wasps (yellowjackets are wasps) however I will procede with caution. I have located the outside entry point and will seal that up. I will be removing the drywall below the hive to remove the remainder of it. So, this should remendy the problem. I'll post a follow up and pics and a link to the site where I found the most info on wasps,hornets and bees.
Thanks again,
Regards .Jerseydevil :umpkin:

 

[Squid327WFD3]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...ellowjacket.jpg

Vespula spp.
Yellow Jacket


Characteristics
Size: About 1/2 -to 1-inch in length.

Color: Generally small wasps with black and yellow stripes.



Behavior
Yellow jackets are social insects that live in colonies containing thousands of individuals. Colonies are usually started by a single queen in the early spring, and are very small for the first couple of months. By midsummer, a colony located on or near a house is usually large enough to become a nuisance. These wasps will aggressively attack when their nest is disturbed, and can inflict painful stings. Unlike the honeybee, which stings only one time and then dies, a single yellow jacket can sting many times. Yellow jackets are scavengers and can be beneficial when located in a wooded area or a field. Colonies located in or near a home, however, can pose a threat to the persons living in the house. When this situation is discovered, the colony or colonies should be eliminated. Because of the danger involved in treating these nests, only a professional such as Terminix should attempt to treat them. Should a colony be discovered, contact your local Terminix service professional for assistance.

Habitat
Yellow jackets prefer to locate their nests in the ground, usually in an old rodent burrow or similar hole. This wasp also commonly locates its nest inside the walls of a building by entering through cracks or holes in the outside walls.

Tips for Control
The following precautions should be taken to prevent accidental stings:


When working in a garden or flowerbed, be aware of numerous wasps flying into and away from a single point in the garden or to a hole in the side of the house. This will usually indicate where a colony might be located.

Be careful when using powered lawn equipment, such as edgers, trimmers and mowers. Loud, vibrating noises disturb yellow jackets and may send them into an attacking frenzy.

Stay away from yellow jacket nests once you know where they are located.

If yellow jackets are seen entering and exiting a wall, DO NOT plug the hole. You will only force the wasps to find another way out. Sometimes they might actually eat through an interior wall and enter the house.

 

[geofore]

Yellow jackets

The hives do look just like the ones hornets build when you find them in a building. The largest I have incountered was 3' dia. and 3+ feet tall in the attic. More often they build underground.The spray doesn't get all of them right away as there are many grubs growing inside the hive and will mature in time. The spray should remain active long enough to get them as they hatch out if you wetted down the hive with the spray. They will dig through plaster walls looking for another way out. Best to wait and see if the spray got them all in a day or two then cover or caulk the hole outside and spray the area to ward off any that might have been missed. Hopefully you got them all and you won't see more when you go to fix the plaster. The craziest thing I ever saw was a family of skunks came in to the neighbors lawn and rolled it up like a carpet to get at the yellow jacket grubs. The skunks were there two days, (mornings&evenings) having a feast, while the neighbors were on vacation. When they came home we rolled the turf back out and watered it and their yellow jacket problem was gone thanks to the skunks. It was a sight to see, that many skunks together in one place at one time working together.

 

[Squid327WFD3]

if you are going to treat the nest use a Dust Product like Drione or a liquid like Tempo/Sevin i Prefer a Liquid to saturate the nest the bees will start droping about a min after you spray the nest