I have this deal with mother nature: she stays outside and I don’t go there while her bees and flowers do their thing. That way no innocent paper tissues get snotted on.
Everything could be fine if it weren’t for those yellow striped trespassers that really like to make their home in yours. Don’t get me wrong here, wasps are useful insects, just not in my bedroom! I don’t get well along with them, they don’t get well along with me, so someone has to move out and it certainly won’t be me.
Wasp nests have two annoying properties:
- You only notice them when it’s already too late (the place is buzzing already).
- Wasps know better than to build in accessible places.
Which brings us to the interesting question of how to remove a nest without getting stung and without using toxic substances in your house. Sure, you can go the way of the treehugger and simply wait for the problem to solve itself in the first cold night of autumn. Or, you could could speed up the process a bit and bring autumn yourself upon the little stingers.
All you need is a flashlight and a can of ice spray (preferably one with a long nozzle). The flashlight is needed because wasps are diurnal animals, so you want to do the deed at night (duh!) and the ice spray is… well, you guessed it, your autumn simulator.
First of all, wasp nests look really sturdy, but they really aren’t. The outer shell is made out of a paper like material and will certainly not stop a mad insect from tearing through if you block the entry hole. So for safety reasons, operate swiftly and don’t shine the light directly on the hive. You really don’t want to give the little buggers a wakeup call in the middle of the night. Also make sure that the ground is clear and that you can retreat in case you mess up (don’t worry, wasps have a horrible memory, you get a second chance the next night).
Start by cooling the hull first. It really provides no insulation at all. As long as you don’t apply pressure to the wall (or make a lot of noise), nothing inside should wake up. Then simply empty the can into the entry hole at the bottom of the nest. The cold will paralyze the little buggers and the lack of oxygen will finish them off. The nest will likely disintegrate during the process and fall apart (that’s why you cool the hull first: to stun anything before it even gets a chance to break free). Keep a bucket ready, you don’t really want to scrub the muck off the floor.
Well, there you have it. An easy, cheap, (fairly) safe and most of all non toxic way to remove a wasp nest.