Re: Conundrum

**A* v* g* <g*@lists.ibiblio.org>**

I've never tried this, Betty, so I have no idea if it would work. It sounds 
 logical to me, but, then, perhaps my logic is flawed. In any case, thought 
it  might be worth an experiment if you have the hornets, the compost, and 
the  plastic. After all, isn't that what gardening is all about? 
Experimenting and  succeeding - or failing and trying again until we get it right?

I've always just left them alone when I've found them - assuming I found  
them in time to avoid doing something like poking a spading fork into the 
middle  of their nest, which my husband did several years ago while helping me 
dig iris.  Experience much like the one Sally described, except there were 
two of us to  help each other, we were closer to the house, and while he lay 
on the floor  theatening to go into shock from so many stings (they liked 
him better than me),  I managed to call the doctor and kill the dozen or so 
that came into the  kitchen with us, before they did more damage. Those irises 
didn't get dug that  year and we stayed totally away from that area of the 
garden for the rest of the  season.

Lina

In a message dated 9/7/2015 11:19:19 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
bettymackey@verizon.net writes:

I am  wondering whether solarizing a dry compost pile with clear plastic to 
kill the  wasps will be safe. Could it lead to a fire, with all that fuel? 
There would  be plenty of heat buildup, I would expect! Lina, have you done  
this?

Duane, be careful! Or chicken out and call it wisdom. Lawrence's  warnings 
about your protective gear are on the mark. As a redhead, you're  probably 
allergic to everything. If you do this insane thing, wait for the  coldest 
possible dawn. Make sure someone else is home.

I have yellow  jackets living in a house wall behind a light fixture near 
my mailbox. Getting  the mail one day, I got two stings an inch from my left 
eye. It took over two  weeks to recover enough not to think about it all the 
time, and three weeks  for a complete recovery after tiny bumps of dead 
skin came out. Yes, a paste  of baking soda on the stings is helpful but not a 
cure.

Foam sprays  kill some of the yellow jackets but they are not reaching the 
queen, so the  population builds up again. My husband used them after I was 
stung. The  exterminator was supposed to come Thursday but failed to show up.
This is  the worst summer for wasps and yellow jackets that I can remember. 
It is also  unusual in that lots of suburban and town fruit trees that no 
one has sprayed  are bearing big crops instead of being so wormy the fruit 
never develops.  Every once in a while, those worms don't have a good year. 
Could this fruit  bonanza be feeding all those wasps?
I passed an old house with a 40-foot  unpruned apple tree towering over it. 
It was loaded with fruit -- had to be  many, many bushels.

Betty Mackeywww.mackeybooks.com

From: AldieOaks--- via gardenwriters  <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>

Have you tried  covering the compost pile with clear plastic after they're  
all gone  to nest for the night, weighing it down securely so they can't 
get  
out,  and letting the combined heat from the sun and the pile itself  cook 
them? Think  I'd give that a try before I'd go for the poisons.  

If you use clear plastic instead of black plastic or a tarp it   may heat 
things up more - think of it as solarizing your compost pile and  their  
nests 
instead of the soil.

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