How to kill yellow jacket wasps with Dawn dish soap + what to avoid

I don't think the givenan explanation of how dish soap works (it doesn't have to be Dawn) is exactly correct. The soap is a surfactant, meaning it reduces the surface tension of water. This allows the water in the mixture to easily enter their breathing holes, effectively drowning them. Essentially the wasps are being asphyxiated.

I love that we all turn into Latin dancers when the wasp spray comes out. 😂

Little tip. Put a large window screen over the hole before you start. weigh the corners down with bricks

I was dog sitting for a neighbor and was swarmed by wasp, resulting in over 100 stings on my head, chest & arms in less than 30 seconds. I live rural on a mountain, so I knew I was in trouble. I yelled at the dog to get in the house, & he hauled butt so fast he didn't get a single sting. I passed out twice before being able to low crawl to my house 200 meters up an embankment. I called 9-11, lost the connection, and took 3 benadryl, but my heart was pounding so fast I knew if I couldn't slow it down, I was going to die before the ambulance got here. I prayed to God to save me, and for some reason I remembered the New Years party for family & friends was at my house. I was not an alcohol drinker, but something told me that it could slow my heart down enough. I crawled to my pantry, slammed about 3 shots of vodka, and crawled out to my front deck. I put myself in the recovery position & elevated my legs. I passed out again and was revived by paramedics. I was hospitalized, had my head shaved so they could remove the dozens of stingers from my scalp. Now, I am deathly allergic & carry an epinephrine injector constantly. I also SWEAR by Dawn dish detergent to eliminate hives! Be proactive, be safe, & get rid of these hives before you, family, or friends get put into a life or death situation simply because they took a step that angered wasps. I don't recommend alcohol to anyone, but the E.R. doctor said the Benedryl & Vodka probably saved my life due to how long it took for the ambulance to get to me. Edit: they were bees at my neighbors, I have a crazy amount of wasps of different kinds on my property, so they are always what I refer anything stinging to.

I did the same thing with the dish soap. I covered the nest with a window screen before the soap and water. It worked perfect.

When I was 2 years old I stepped on a in the ground wasp nest. I don’t remember how many times I was bit. But it hurts. I’m 60 now and can still remember it. My house now is being overrun by them recently. I’m thankful for your video.

My favorite for several years is "Simple Green" spray cleaner. I keep a spray bottle of it handy all season to knock down the "starter nests" as they are found early in Spring, spray any strays on windows or doors, and wipe out larger colonies as found. It knocks the wasps out of the air before they can even begin to attack. I have bad reactions to the stings so it means a lot to knock them out fast.

You ALWAYS go after the nest after dark. The nasty little blighters will all be inside. Use wasp spray on the opening and watch for any other openings. Paper nests will rarely have a second opening. Darkness is key!

Great video. I improvised a bit. Layered up the clothing, grabbed my tennis racket and the hose. Indeed they led me to the ground nest. Tonight it's bath time for these little buggers. Thanks!!

I'm used to taking out yellow jacket nests where hoses aren't an option so we just mix a cup or two of dish detergent (any kind works but Dawn has the fewest additives) into a 5 gallon bucket of water and pour it into the hole. Always be careful to watch for secondary holes as you do it. Hives often have more than one opening.

agreed dish soap works. what i used was the initial hit with soap and water from a long PVC pipe. you can use a hose. Later in the evening I filled a 4 gallon jug for a water cooler with a water/soap mixture and flipped it up over the exit hole. Sometimes nests have 2 and also the queen can be protected because the design of the nests even when you flood the opening, the hive makes a air pocket. The water jug serves a second use as the few survivors try to leave and exit and fly up and into the jug repeatedly.

Bless your tender little heart for having a conscience for those.wasps stinging you. You seem like a very good man.

It's an annual crusade here in 30040. The dish soap works great. I use some old window screen to cover the nest entrance and weigh down the screen edges with garden soil. I mix a generous amount of dish soap in a bucket, pour it thru the screen and into the nest. Repeat nightly for a few days.

I have heard of this technique for removing aggressive beehives. Came here to make sure it works on Yellowjackets before attempting. Can confirm their stings are unpleasant 😅

I usually use 4-5 ounces of dawn in a 5-gallon bucket of water and it typically kills any nest I’ve come across. I also use HOT water, as that kills them as well.

I have probably taken care of more than 100 nests of yellow jackets (in Sweden). I use several different strategies - sometimes combined depending on the context. One of these strategies involved dish-water detergent and a water hose and this is for either ground wasps or wasps in birds' houses and similar contexts. First - as said in this video - early in the morning (preferably on a chilly day if you can chose) and then just pour 10-20 ml of any dish water detergent (I never bothered about the brand - it always worked) and then just flood the nest with water and stay away for 3-4 days - usually all wasps are then gone - a few may still be around but has never been a problem. If it is a birds' house I usually open it - give it a week to be sure - get the nest out on the ground and just walk over it (boots!) and leave for one more day. I never noticed any leftover life in such rests. For ground wasps - I have also sometimes combined with the use of one of these battery driven "badminton-like" rackets (tie it to a long string or lace so that you can pull it away from the hole - after you have 20 wasps on it the electric charge won't work because of the short circuit - shake of the wasps and stomp on them - then repeat until most wasps are gone - can be done in a safe way even daytime). On a few such occasions where a water hose was not an option I instead arranged with a fire in the hole after most active wasps had been killed. Other methods I use involve the use of a vacuum cleaner with different variations depending on contexts, time of the year and so on. For small wasp nests with a few individuals in them one can use any hair spray or whatever and spray into the hole - it probably doesn't kill the wasps but they don't like it and move to some other place. The downside of this is that you may have a few irritated wasps flying around for up to 10 days afterwards but they don't seem to like hair sprays so it works (discovery more than 50 years ago when I used my mother's whatever it was - not exactly insecticide but enough unpleasant chemistry* to do the job). Wasp nests under roofs and smaller than a fist can often be knocked down physically and just stomped on (best early mornings when it is chilly...). Only got lightly stung on two occasions when I took care of wasp nests (and badly stung on a couple of other occasions but those times I was not aware of their presence until they got me). * Retired now but have three different academic degrees in science/technology - one of these in theoretical chemistry... (the wasp chemistry context is perhaps more practical than theoretical...).

Great video. I appreciate the final point about the benefits of wasps.

Very good brief video, with surprisingly accurate/helpful info... also rather entertaining, I thought the spraying part was hilarious, I was NOT expecting to laugh as much as I did :) Anyway, after watching, I was armed with all I needed... I successfully removed a wasp nest. Thanks :)

The bug spray would have worked too if you had done it at night. Your biggest mistake was trying to kill them during the day. Always go after wasps at night.

Tyler, thank you! I have a nest that I discovered mowing my lawn(ouch)! I am going to try this tomorrow!