wasps congregating top of chimney
Hello,
I found your Website on a Google search. It is the time of year, again, where we have wasps entering our house and congregating around the top of our chimney outside. We have had three different pest control companies come out over the past 5 years, all saying it would cost from 300-500 dollars to “try” and treat them; with no guarantees. I figured for that money we should do it ourselves and actually get rid of them, instead of just trying. But obviously our efforts are not enough!! Year after year, no matter what we try, they seem to over-winter and return in the spring.
No one can locate the nest! That is the real problem. Otherwise we could just remove it. We even had a chimney sweep examine the chimney (at the recommendation of one of the companies) and he said there was no nest. How is that possible?
Today we have already vacuumed up two wasps–one that was upstairs, right next to the attic door on the ceiling, and another in my son’s room! That is really the final straw, because I just cannot have wasps randomly coming in my 4-year olds room.
What should I do???
Anticipating your Advice-
L.H.
This is an easy one. If you read through our WASP CONTROL ARTICLE, you’ll learn they do this not for nesting but simply to survive the winter. And once a structure is used, it will be “scented” so that local wasps will find it year after year. No doubt this is happening to your home right now. To stop this behavior, you only have to spray the surfaces where you see them with the CYPERMETHRIN we have listed. It will kill any that come in contact with it as well as repel them from the area.
If the chimney has a covering, like cedar shakes or hardyboard planks, there are probably cracks or seams where the wasps can enter to hide. To insure the best results, you should dust these areas with DRIONE prior to spraying. If you can’t reach this area safely, use a DUSTICK to apply the Drione. As our Drione video shows, this dust is quite light and will float up into the gaps and voids taking care of any wasps that may have entered so they cannot survive.
One application of both will solve any problem like this and should be done every spring and fall to stave off all activity. I like to do this application around my house every year focusing in on overhangs, soffits and any seam I find to keep out all overwintering pests. It works on just about all of them including wasps, stinkbugs, leaffooted bugs and others.
Here are direct links to the information and products mentioned above:
Wasp Control Article: http://www.wasps.net/wasp-and-hornet-control
Cypermethrin: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/liquid/viper-cypermethrin
Drione: http://www.bugspraycart.com/insecticide/dust/drione-dust
Dustick: http://www.bugspraycart.com/equipment/dusters/dustick
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Comments on wasps congregating top of chimney
guest @ 6:55 am
Hi I just read your response to “wasps congregating top of chimney” question and that is exactly what I’m dealing with now. We just moved into this home last month her in DE from SC and I have been sucking up wasps with my vacuum ever since. The few days of warmth we had seemed to bring more activity but now it’s cold again so I haven’t seen any today. I have called our pest control company too (referred by previous homeowners). After a few visits with them spraying and dusting the attic it came out this has been an ongoing problem. The owner said they dusted outside up in the sofits and around windows in the fall. Explained to me that they are over wintering and gave me traps with sticky substance on it for me to put fruit on. If that doesn’t work then they will drop off another kind of trap for me to use. A last resort is to fog the home and and again in the fall. I asked them to check out the roof and chimney area since I had seen them flying there during the day that I killed 12 in my house and employee said he can’t go up there for insurance reasons (same reason he dusted from the spot he entered in the attic since it doesn’t have a floor to support him). So should I spray the dust up that way from the ground using the sprayer? What are your thoughts?
admin @ 7:17 am
@guest: First, I’d like to know how the traps fare you get installed. In MHO, they don’t do well with wasps as they come out of their winter hibernation. Second, I just noticed the post above doesn’t discuss the inside structure of a chimney which may be a factor in how you need to treat.
You see, most chimney’s these days aren’t solid through and through. Most (over 50%) are hollow with an insert tube or flue running through the middle. In fact the wasps will many times find cracks and crevices on the exterior covering of the flue through which they’ll enter and then stay in the void or hollow space during the cold months. This space is big and is also known as the chimney box. When home builders went to this style of outer covering, they kept it square in look even though the real exhaust pipe inside was round. This was probably done for aesthetic reasons but regardless, it’s in this space where the wasps will group. And that means treating through the insert or flue to reach them won’t help the cause. This is also why the explanation detailed above is usually the most effective remedy.
With Drione being light and able to penetrate the space or void in the chimney box, a good dusting around the chimney box’s exterior will usually enable enough dust to penetrate the space through and through. This will kill any wasps living, nesting or staging in the area. And since the dust will last for 6-12 months in this protected environment, a good dusting every spring and fall will usually keep problems from happening. I recommend it for use on any home where repeat problems like this exist; the Drione is excellent for use in soffits, overhangs, around windows, along gutter lines, under roof shingles, around chimney boxes and pretty much any place a crack or crevice exists that’s an open invitation for ants, bees, wasps and other perimeter pests.
So in summary, if you have this kind of chimney (flue insert), directly applying something through it’s exit hole up top or from the bottom inside by the fireplace, won’t help. But a good dusting around it’s exterior with the Drione using a Dustick mentioned above will usually solve the problem. And if you read up on the Dustick, you’ll learn its a long treating device which enables the user to gain access to hard to reach places without any undue risk or danger – perfect for this situation!
One other thing: you can also spray the surface of this area with the Cypermethrin listed above too as this will both kill any that land on the wood exterior during these “changing” seasons. These are the times when wasps tend to come out and rest on the wood surface every morning to warm up till it gets warm for good. Doing this liquid treatment every spring and fall will no doubt help big time and when combined with the dusting of Drione, there is no reason why this house can’t be wasp free