# Raspberries and Wasps



## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

My daughter was out picking raspberries, and a wasp stung her finger, stung her arm and was chasing her across the yard trying to sting her in the face......

I was out yesterday (um, deathly allergic to bee stings...) trying to pick the gazillions of berries ripe....and the stupid thing chased me off.

Ok, now it's war.

HOW do I get rid of the wasp WITHOUT spraying my raspberries with chemicals?

I have zillions of berries that I do NOT want to go to waste!!

Thanks!!


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## frankva (May 21, 2009)

1 wasp? Fly swatter, rolled newspaper, towel...
If they are yellow jackets, have someone find the nest. Kill it.

Place a bounty on them. Worth a few bucks not to use your epi pen.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

go pick at night when they've gone to bed. If there is a wasp running you off then there is a nest nearby. And they know you have war-ful thoughts and that makes them madder(they can smell it)


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

wyld thang said:


> go pick at night when they've gone to bed. If there is a wasp running you off then there is a nest nearby. And they know you have war-ful thoughts and that makes them madder(they can smell it)


I think you should submit that to Homeland Security. Think of the possibilities: guard duty at nuclear plants, a nest near the aircraft cockpit door, Federal Office buildings. Lots of uses for hostile enemy sensitive wasps. 

geo


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## bja105 (Aug 25, 2009)

Dish or laundry soap in a spray bottle, it may need some water to flow. Coat wasps with soap, and they can't fly. It may even suffocate them, my shoe gets them first.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

geo in mi said:


> I think you should submit that to Homeland Security. Think of the possibilities: guard duty at nuclear plants, a nest near the aircraft cockpit door, Federal Office buildings. Lots of uses for hostile enemy sensitive wasps.
> 
> geo


hah! ya think! actually they are provoked by fast--which they read as aggressive--movement, and I'll bet they can smell adrenaline(fight or flight). I tell my boys to think calm gentle zen (ha) thoughts and move slowly around wasps, but they still scream like girls and flail and get stung. (I don't )

Killer bees are another story though, NASTY creatures! 

Honey will take the sting away.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i wouldn't want to be picking raspberries at night, with a flashlight near a bee's nest. i would want to be able to see them coming. bees have this magical ability to fly straight to a flashlight. if your berries are anything like mine, i wouldn't want to be crawling through them at night for fear of copperheads. 

i came one step away from tramping right into a hornet nest while picking raspberries last year. it was built only about a foot off the ground. it disappeared on it's own...i think foxes or skunks got to it.


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

I really don't know how I would deal with a wasp/hornet/yellow jacket nest in my raspberries, but this thread sure gave me the heebie-jeebies yesterday as I was embedded about twenty feet deep into the raspberry thicket just to get the biggest, juiciest ones. Was just a Japanese beetle, but it sure buzzed.........:run:


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## farmerbrian (Aug 29, 2009)

I got stung this morning by a yellow jacket, very mean and painful little jerks..... I disturbed their nest while forking hay from the mulch pile. I know this nest hasnt been there more than a week so I may press my attack tonight. I will try to pinpoint the location of the nest in the haypile as best I can and then think of some way to demolish the pile in the that location without getting stung again... hmm an excuse for a cab tractor perhaps?!

In my experience if you harass them enough, early enough, they just find a new location.

A month ago i got stung while setting up bean pole teepees , saw them swarming around a small hole and knew this was a new nest because it was a high traffic area....came back an hour later with a big flat rock and wheel barrow full of soggy hay. I either trapped them in there for good or they found a way out and jetted.


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

Okay, here you go. You take a bucket, suspend a chunk of scrap meat, a few inches above water w/small amount of cooking oil. You want to create a film on the water.

The Yellow Jackets will gorge themselves, fall into the water, and they get the oily film on their wings and DROWN.

Removing their little hives? Have a bucket of water handy... Get a smoker, and do this at night. Borrow a bee suit and smoke the hive, use a hoe or something with a long handle, so you don't have to get too close. Scrap off the smoked hive, right into a garbage sack. Ceremoniously drop that sack into the bucket of water and close the lid securely. Leave for a few days, occasionally shaking the bucket to make sure they all are drowned. Or you can do what I prefer- TORCH 'EM. I'd start a little bonfire, and toss the hive right on top OR set in our burn pit and use my torch. What I don't like to do is use poisonous sprays. I only want to kill what is directly a pest to me, our home, or my honey bees.


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## FunnyRiverFarm (May 25, 2010)

Make a paper mache "hornet's nest" and hang them where ever you don't want wasps and they won't come near it. Hornets are very territorial and if the wasps think there are some in the area they will steer clear of it. I didn't think this would work but was pleasantly surprised when we tried it and have had no problems since.


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

I have heard of using paper mache' Hornets nests, but what happens when you already have Hornets? Would they leave if you hung another nest nearby? 

Last year, we had Hornets nests under the eave of our home, about back. The nests were only about 10 feet apart...that isn't very territorial, so I wonder how many nests we would have to hang to deter them. Could look rather interesting...


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