How to deal with hornets at the dacha, in the house and on the plot

From spring to the end of autumn, residents of summer cottages, as well as ordinary apartments, run the risk of encountering such a dangerous insect as the hornet.

The article about what hornets are afraid of contains the following sections:

1. Hornet danger
2. What to consider when exterminating hornets?
3. Ways to get rid of hornets: insecticides
4. How to kill insects right in the nest?
5. Making a trap
6. Getting rid of single insects
7. Prevention of hornets

Unlike bees, these “big wasps” behave more friendly, but if their nest is threatened with damage, they can turn into real “killers.” They sting and bite until the venom runs out. To get rid of such unpleasant neighbors, you need to find out what hornets are afraid of and how to properly fight it.

What to do if a hornet flew into your house

Sometimes hornets fly into the apartment.
They may be lured into rooms by the aroma of fruits, vegetables or sweets. The insect will no longer be able to get out into the wild on its own. You should not try to drive away the insect by making sharp waves of your arms, as such behavior can be regarded as an attack. To catch one hornet, you need a glass jar. The insect is carefully covered with the container, after which the lid is screwed on. They release the “prisoner” already on the street. If you don't have a can, you can use a matchbox or fabric work gloves.

If hornets have become frequent guests in the rooms of an apartment or house, you need to look for their nest. Often, they settle in attics, under the roofs of sheds, sheds or in trees. If the hornets' place of residence is located in an accessible place, it must be destroyed.

Where to look for a hornet nest?

Hornets are large and strong insects. Having settled nearby, they can greatly annoy people, especially summer residents and beekeepers. The fact is that the poison that the hornet injects into the victim’s body through the sting is saturated with strong allergens, which include, among other things, a component of snake venom. When a hornet stings, you can get serious health problems, and sometimes everything ends very sadly, especially if a person rapidly develops an extreme degree of allergy to the poison - anaphylactic shock.

You can sometimes find a hornet nest in early spring by its characteristic sound. A large family of striped workers is trying to build a home for themselves as soon as possible, so hundreds of insects produce a fairly strong, sustained hum. If the nest is located on a tree, it is clearly visible among the young foliage.

You should also carefully inspect utility rooms, attics, and basements. Sometimes on the ceiling in a garage or under the floor of a summer veranda, a strange-looking structure of an irregular cone shape is discovered, as if made from paper or thin wood shavings. This is exactly what a hornets nest looks like.

How is a hornet's nest constructed?

The founding queen begins building a nest in her chosen place by creating the first few honeycombs. Then working females are involved in the construction. With strong jaws, they gnaw out the bark of trees, process it with a special secretion of the oral glands and glue together more and more tiers of their home. The queen constantly moves inside the nest, laying eggs in the honeycomb.

The rest of the family hunts small arthropods, brings them to the house, cleans them of their hard chitinous coverings and feeds the queen and new hornets that have just been born with such soft food until they grow up.

The larger the hive, the easier it is to answer the question - how many hornets can be in the nest. In one house there can be from several dozen to several hundred winged individuals.

It is great if these insects live far away and fly into human habitat only occasionally, catching pests in the garden plot and not disturbing the owners of the dacha. But if the proximity is too close, it ceases to please, and the person wants only one thing - to destroy the hornets’ nest and save himself and loved ones, especially children, from the constant danger of being stung.

Hornets cause even more problems for beekeepers because honey bees are a favorite food of these predators. A small group of hornets destroys several bee families in a few hours, causing irreparable damage to the beekeeping industry.

You need to fight correctly: important precautions

When planning to fight hornets, you must remember that insect bites, especially numerous ones, are painful and dangerous to health. Precautions are absolutely necessary:

• Wait until night . After dark, insects are less active, most of them gather in the nest. But hornets never sleep soundly - at the slightest sign of danger they are ready to mobilize en masse.
• Cover your body as much as possible . Wear a jacket and trousers made of thick fabric, thick leather or rubber gloves, and a hat. Protect your face with a special mesh mask for beekeepers.
• When approaching the hive, do not make noise, do not turn on the light, try to do it as inconspicuously as possible.
• Prepare in advance everything to provide first aid for a bite - alcohol, ice, hydrogen peroxide, bandages, antihistamines.
• When attacked by hornets, do not panic, do not run, do not wave your arms, do not scream . This irritates the insects even more. Slowly move 8-10 meters away from the nest.

Important: not all methods that are recommended online to get rid of wasps are suitable for hornets. After all, the hornet is much larger and more dangerous. For example, dousing a nest with kerosene and expecting the hornets to immediately “get drunk” and lose orientation is dangerous. Just like trying to collect insects that have gone mad with noise from a nest with a vacuum cleaner.

Video: first aid for a hornet sting

RATING OF HORNET REMEDIES

Group 1 – sprays for spraying

Insecticidal agent GET (from 800 rubles)

It has a low hazard class for humans, it is recommended for use even in kindergartens when fighting parasitic insects, but at the same time it effectively copes with the task of destroying them. Its relatively high price is compensated by the long duration of the active substance - up to 6 months after the first treatment.

One bottle (volume 100 ml) is enough for 9 treatments

Read the instructions for use and order the drug GET for 711 rubles here

It is not a repellent - when applied it does not repel insects, so absolutely all individuals die. Can be used as a remedy against hornets. These dangerous insects carry the active ingredient - chlorpyrifos - into their nest, consume it with food, become infected and infect other members of the nest, including the larvae.

Medilis-SUPER against hornets (from 350 rubles)

It is an insectoacaricidal agent based on fenthion. Copes with insects such as:

• blood-sucking parasites: fleas, bedbugs, lice;
• flies, mosquitoes;
• ants, cockroaches;
• wasps, hornets.

Sold in ampoules and vials. It is easy to prepare - the required amount is dissolved in water, poured into a spray bottle and sprayed on the surface where harmful insects are present.

After treatment, it remains active on the surface for 4 – 6 weeks, sometimes more. This depends on the type of surface on which the treatment was carried out. This product should not be poured down the drain if there is excess left!

Order now - from RUB 312

Features include a characteristic strong odor. Therefore, after using Medilis-SUPER you have to leave the treated living space for some time. The drug is ideal for use as a remedy for hornets in the countryside and country house.

Insecticidal agent Delta Zone (from 720 rubles)

Created for successful control of insects that have a durable chitinous covering: cockroaches, bedbugs, wasps, hornets, ants.

The principle of operation is such that the poison in it is in the form of a suspension with microscopic capsules of the active substance. After spraying, the capsules gradually open and release new portions of poison. If the adult insects died, but the larvae remained unharmed, when new individuals are born, they will be destroyed without a trace.

• Production - South Korea
• bottle weight - 50 g
• Processing area - up to 100 sq.m

The product is effective for 8 weeks. When sprayed, no marks or streaks are left on surfaces. The drug has no specific odor and is safe for people and pets.

Spray effectiveness

You need to purchase a special anti-hornet spray at the store. Buy the cheapest spray. You need to know that all sprays work the same, so you shouldn't waste your money. The country of manufacture is not important and the larger the capacity, the better. If the nest is large, then buy two aerosols, but only against hornets

Pay attention to the inscription on the can; there should be no information about insects other than hornets.

It is best to carry out treatment in the early morning before dawn, since at this time the hornets are still sleeping and do not fly. The spray will kill the hornets, but it is dangerous for humans, and you need to protect yourself with a gas mask. Despite the protection, you must act quickly and get within three meters of the nest. Start spraying as you get closer. The nest should be well soaked. After treatment, move away. It's worth letting the couples dissipate. To help the fumes dissipate faster, you can create a draft or bring a powerful fan into the attic to help get rid of toxic fumes. Inspect the nest and if you are satisfied with the result, leave the attic and return to it after three days. Remove the nest, put it in a bag and burn it. Hornets that try to return to the nest will also die. Therefore, the nest should hang for another two to three days.

It is important that there are no small children or pets in the house at this time. It's best to take them out of the house for a couple of days

Hornets and wasps are very “ambiguous” neighbors of humans. On the one hand, with their presence at the dacha they prevent its owner from relaxing, forcing him to constantly be on alert for the possibility of getting bitten. On the other hand, being natural predators, they are capable of destroying harmful agricultural insects in significant quantities.

Thus, residents of just one daily bring up to several hundred different caterpillars, bugs and butterflies into their homes, thereby helping gardeners and gardeners fight for the harvest. Therefore, before getting rid of hornets or wasps, you should make sure that there is no possibility of peaceful coexistence with them on the site.

However, there are times when the need to get rid of a hornet nest arises, as they say, here and now. If, for example, the home of these insects appears not far from an apiary, then they will definitely hunt bees, and when the colony grows, they will actively destroy their hives.

It is logical that beekeepers are unlikely to put up with this state of affairs and will eventually begin to actively exterminate predators, protecting bee hives.

At the same time, knowing what hornets are afraid of, destroying them is not so difficult.

Despite all the advantages of exterminating harmful insects, hornets in the country can also have a significant disadvantage - their proximity poses a serious threat to the health of children and adults. One or two large wasps that accidentally fly into the area are not yet so dangerous, but a family that has settled for permanent residence can cause serious consequences.

In the event of an attack on a person by ordinary wasps, serious damage is observed only occasionally; their bites are simply painful. If a hornet is taken for the “deed,” then the consequences of meeting it can be truly terrible.

Why are giant wasps dangerous to humans?

Hornets are peace-loving insects; they use their sting only for self-defense. The behavior of hornets changes dramatically near the nest. A person approaching a building within 2-3 m is perceived as an aggressor. The guards attack the intruder by striking them with their stings. Hornet venom contains toxins that cause severe pain and an allergic reaction in the body. Its effect on the immune system of children is especially dangerous.

Attention. The consequences of bites vary depending on the amount of poison injected and the characteristics of the body. This may be varying degrees of edema or anaphylactic shock.

If dangerous insects have settled under your roof, then you need to know how to get rid of the hornets' nest. There is no point in postponing the event; there are more individuals every month. The best option is to follow the queen and destroy her nest at the initial stage. The female hornet is quite large (35 mm), and cannot be confused with an ordinary wasp. If a huge insect often flashes around the area, it means its nest is somewhere nearby.

Watch the queen, she will lead you to the house. So far there are several hundred with larvae. They can be safely knocked down with a handy tool and burned. Make sure that the hornet is not nearby.

Hornet - let's get to know each other better

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, fight at least a hundred times, there will be no danger; if you know yourself, but don’t know him, you will win once, another time you will be defeated; If you don’t know yourself or him, every time you fight you will be defeated.” (Sun Tzu)

In other words: “You can’t win without having all the information”! But you decided to declare a real war on the hornets that have settled on your site, and therefore you simply must get to know your enemy better. So get acquainted:

Vespa or hornet is the largest representative of the family of true wasps. It reaches a record five and a half centimeters in length and creates huge, up to ten tiers, “paper” nests, which it builds not only in the voids of old trees, but also in attics. If you see such a thing under the roof of your house, do not touch it without preparation, and we will tell you how to get rid of hornets in the safest ways.

In total, there are about 27 species of these insects in nature, and most of them are slightly more toxic than ordinary wasps. The only exception, because of which, in fact, hornets have earned their notoriety, is the Suzumebachi (sparrow-bee), a huge Asian hornet. Its bite is truly toxic and, if a person is sensitive to the poison, can lead to anaphylactic shock and, as a consequence, death.

However, there is no need to panic. The tiger bee, as this insect is called in Taiwan, is a typical endemic, that is, its habitat is small and it is unrealistic to encounter such a predator at your dacha near Moscow. But smaller, but still dangerous Asian brothers - very much so!

But this fact should not plunge you into despondency. In fact, bee venom (and we are not very afraid of bees) is not inferior in toxicity to hornet venom. Moreover, it was created by Mother Nature to combat honey-loving mammals, including humans. While the hornet's natural food is insects. And it is them that he kills with toxin when he goes hunting.

Do you feel the difference? If you are not convinced, believe the numbers. Every year, about 1,250 people die from bee stings, while hornets account for no more than two hundred lives.

In addition, in defense of hornets, it should be said that these insects are not at all annoying, they try to stay away from humans and attack only when they see in his actions a real threat to themselves or their relatives.

By the way, hornets are capable of secreting a special substance that acts on nearby individuals like a red panic button in an elite bank on security workers. Having received a signal from a relative who has entered the battle, the “corsairs” intensively begin to search for the enemy. In other words, killing a hornet near its hive may not be the best or safest idea.

Prevention of insects

It is impossible to reliably protect yourself from proximity to hornets. But prevention will help avoid the construction of nests and their massive raids:

• Regularly inspect all places that are potentially attractive to insects for building a home. It is easier to stop a process that has just begun than to remove a colony later.
• After getting rid of the hornets, change something in the environment so that the place does not seem familiar to them: cut down tree branches, repaint the wall or ceiling.
• Seal cracks in walls and floors in a timely manner.
• Do not keep fruits, berries, cookies, jam, or other products with an odor attractive to hornets on the veranda or near open windows.

The reaction to hornet venom is individual, and death is possible. To avoid potential bites, you need to get rid of insects. The range of methods for combating them is wide - these include special insecticides and folk remedies. As a last resort, you can seek professional help.

Once you decide to act on your own, be sure to take all necessary precautions

Intelligence first

Since predators flying into your area do not necessarily settle down within your line of sight, the first thing you should do before fighting hornets is to find out where their home is located. After all, these predators can fly several kilometers from the nest.

Experienced beekeepers use a trap or bait to catch one of the insects, attach a red thread to it and then track the route. It’s easier to tie an insect with a bright thread or ribbon with two people.

This procedure requires extreme caution and compliance with all safety rules, otherwise such an experiment will end in failure.

So, the stages of fighting these insects are as follows:

• reconnaissance of the location of the hive;
• destruction of adults;
• destruction of the nest.

If the hornets have settled very close, then it is much easier to follow the giant wasps and find out where their hive is. In the case when the discovered nest is of impressive size and there are a lot of insects in it, it is better not to think about how to win the war with hornets on your own.

It would be wiser to call a special pest control service.

Stinging insect repellents

The fight against the winged threat is carried out by mechanical and chemical means. If the home is built on the street, fire will help get rid of it. The material of the honeycomb is similar to paper, so after spraying with kerosene it lights up well. This method is suitable for killing insects that have settled in a hole. The colony in a hollow tree is covered with a potent insecticide and covered with putty.

Factory developments against wasps and hornets

Mechanical methods of dealing with dangerous neighbors include traps. Among the popular models:

Argus Garden - a simple design suspended close to the nest. First, fruit juice with honey or beer is poured into it. The principle of catching insects is simple - they climb behind the bait, but cannot get out. The product is cheap, so after filling you can buy a new trap.

Advice. After 1-2 days, it is worth checking the number of hornets in the trap; if there are very few of them, then the place was not chosen well. It is worth re-hanging the structure.

The Wasp Trap SWISSINNO is offered with bait included. To activate the structure, open the glass and pour the bait powder into the container. Then water is poured to the marked level. Just shake the liquid and the trap is ready for use. Water evaporates over time, so you will have to add new water.

Mukhoyar is a hornet trap that is very easy to make. You will need a 2 liter plastic bottle. Sweet compote, syrup or juice is poured into it (Fig. 1). On the side of the container, mark with a cross the area where the plastic insert will be located. The wall is cut along the lines (Fig. 2). The trap is removed from the package and inserted into the prepared hole (Fig. 3). Cuts are made on the back of the bottle for better distribution of the smell (Fig. 4).

Homemade traps

Ready-made insect traps work effectively, but there is no reason to pay for a container specially manufactured at the factory. It can be easily replaced with a glass jar or plastic bottle. A DIY hornet trap works on the same principle - bait and inability to get out. To make it, you do not need professional skills and tools.

You will need a transparent plastic bottle with a volume of 1,5,2 or 5 liters. Dividing its height into three parts, cut off the upper third with the neck using a stationery knife or scissors. By lowering the cut part inside the container, we get an effective trap. In order for wasps and hornets to fly inside, you will need sweet, slightly fermented bait. What to pour:

• fruit juice;
• sweetened beer;
• syrup with honey;
• soft raspberries.

Attracted by the aroma, small and large wasps crawl into the hole in the funnel, but none can fly out of it. They remain trapped until they die. For a large area, one bottle is not enough; you need to make and place 6-7 traps around the area. The container can be a glass jar with a screw-on lid, in which a hole is cut and the edges are bent inward. To attract wasps, use standard bait.

Advice. Holes are made in the bottles and a cord is threaded to hang on the tree. You can simply place them on the ground. If there are a large number of insects on the site, it is recommended to take a 5 liter container, then you will not have to empty the trap often.

To ensure that the caught insects die, insecticides are added to the bait:

• Karbofos is a broad-spectrum organophosphorus compound. A highly toxic substance is used to kill harmful insects.
• Delta zone - the drug kills wasps 2-4 days after ingestion.
• Aktara is an insecticide with the active ingredient thiamethoxam. Affects the nervous system of insects.

It is dangerous to clear traps of live hornets; at such a moment they can sting. Insects killed by toxins are safely removed from the full trap and then used again. Traps slowly, gradually reduce the number of dangerous neighbors. They can be hung in the area before leaving, and full bottles can be cleaned when you return.

Fighting methods

“In war, all means are good,” so many methods are used to destroy hornets that fly into an apiary.

Poisoned Bait

Knowing the carnivorous nature of insects, bait is prepared for them from minced meat or finely chopped meat mixed with poison. Predators eat it themselves and also feed it to the larvae and the queen. This causes mass death of the colony. Poisoned meat is placed in plates or cans. They are put away in boxes with holes or unused hives. Such precautions are necessary to protect pets (cats, dogs) from eating deadly food. Parisian greens are used as poison.

Attention. It is necessary to work with potent poison with extreme caution. Dishes and hives with poisoned bait are washed with hot water and lye before subsequent use.

Traps

Special traps designed for wasps will help get rid of pests. Homemade or purchased containers with bait are placed throughout the apiary. To avoid attracting bees, beer or kvass is poured inside.

Destroying a nest

Caring apiary owners have been watching their pets since spring. If hornets are spotted in the vicinity, they begin searching for the nest and immediately destroy it. All the methods described above are suitable - chemicals, water and fire.

Bees are not so helpless against the attack of predatory insects. A strong family can cope with several invaders on its own.

Whether or not to destroy hornets on their property is up to each owner to decide for himself. These insects benefit agricultural crops, but in close proximity they can become a threat to human health.

Locating the Nest

Regardless of the chosen method of destroying hornets, the first priority is to find their nest.

In some cases, this process does not take a significant amount of time or effort, and the nest can be found somewhere near the site, for example, in trees or in utility rooms; it is simply impossible not to notice it.

However, situations arise when the hornets’ home is securely hidden, and it is not possible to monitor where they are flying; in this case, you can use the old and proven method of determining the location of the nest:

Track down one of the hornets and knock him down with a tennis racket, but it is important not to kill him, but only to stun him

At the same time, care must be taken so that his relatives do not consider this a manifestation of aggression and go into an active attack.

Wear a thick leather or rubber glove on your hand to prevent the possibility of a dangerous bite.

Take a long colored ribbon or thread and tie it around the stunned insect.

Wait for the moment when the hornet comes to its senses. After that, it will go directly to the nest, and, thanks to the noticeable tape, you can easily track the trajectory of its flight. First, you can try to wander around and try to locate the nest visually

First, you can try to wander around the area and try to locate the nest visually.

It is recommended to pay attention to the following places that these insects often choose to build their homes:

1. Trees, especially if they have spreading branches that reliably hide the nest from prying eyes.
2. Old stumps.
3. Attics, sheds and various utility rooms, where people look extremely rarely and do not disturb these inhabitants.
4. Under the roof of residential buildings.
5. In holes dug in the ground. At the same time, the hornets themselves actually never create tunnels on their own; they use those that were made by other types of insects or underground animals.

What to consider when exterminating hornets?

Before you begin to expel or destroy insects, it is necessary to determine their habitat. Most often, hornets prefer to settle and build their nest in places such as:

• barn;
• lumber room;
• attic;
• barn;
• house walls;
• trees;
• ground (burrows of other insects).

Knowing these habitats, you can choose the optimal method and means that hornets do not like. Usually this is either physical impact or chemical agents that quickly destroy them.

Precautionary measures

It is advisable to begin the fight against dangerous insects at night or early dawn. During this period, their activity decreases slightly

But it is important to remember that they are still active and, in case of danger, can attack. Therefore, you need to protect yourself with the help of protection measures such as:

• clothing that completely covers legs and arms;
• face brimmed hat;
• respirator (when using chemicals);
• leather or thick rubber gloves.

Making a trap

Separately, it is worth mentioning an effective way to combat insects using a bait trap. You can buy it at the store or make it yourself. The principle of the bait is that inside the container there is a sweet solution of honey or sugar, which hornets react very well to. Having arrived to enjoy the sweetness, they simply drown in the liquid. If you make a trap yourself, you can use a regular plastic bottle for this, having first cut off the neck. Then you need to turn the cut part over and install it in the bottle. This way, the hornets will be able to crawl inside the bait, but they will not be able to get out. You can add chemicals to the honey solution that will kill the insects immediately. It is important to ensure that children and pets do not get to such bait.

Important! When dangerous insects appear, it is advisable to immediately call specialists who will get rid of the problem quickly and professionally, without risk to health.

Destroying the root

Quite often the home of insects is in the attic. If you have found it, you can get to work

But it’s important not to forget about safety precautions, because we are talking about a family of insects that can attack. The first tip is to carry out the “mission” when it’s already dark and the family is resting

At night they are not as active, and you can destroy both insects and larvae.

You need to have a protective suit (beekeeper's clothing or other thick fabric). The entire body must be completely protected. In addition, immediately think of an escape route if you fail in order to take cover. We will look at three ways to get rid of your home:

1. Using the package.
2. Use of insecticides.
3. Pouring and burning.

Plastic bag

When the home is made in the shape of a ball and hangs on the ceiling, rafters, etc., you can put everything in a bag

At night, carefully and carefully, with a quick movement, pull the bag over the nest, tear it off and quickly tie up the contents

Note! The package must be intact and strong. Leave the package

The insects will die in it within a few hours. To speed up the process, the bag can be lubricated with an insecticidal agent in advance. When the nest is not round, and is in such a place that it cannot be torn off, the technology is as follows: pull the bag over the nest, and glue the top of the bag with tape to the nest. This time the bag definitely needs to be lubricated with the product

Leave the package. The insects will die in it within a few hours. To speed up the process, the bag can be lubricated with an insecticidal agent in advance. When the nest is not round, and is in such a place that it cannot be torn off, the technology is as follows: pull the bag over the nest, and glue the top of the bag with tape to the nest. This time the bag definitely needs to be lubricated with the product.

If we talk about the disadvantage of the method, it is that it is important to have agility and dexterity. Yes, and the tape may not stick to the surface.

But now you know how to get rid of a wasp's nest.

We use insecticides

If you cannot get close to the nest and remove it, aerosol cans with insecticides will come to the rescue. To eradicate them, use the products “Raid”, “Kombat”, “Dichlorvos Eco”.

The method consists of spraying the nest, namely its entrance. The action of the drugs is effective: individuals that crawl along the treated surface will die, poisoning other residents in the nest. To enhance the effect, you can increase the dose. Spray the entrance every few days until all the wasps or hornets die out.

Fire and Water

If we are talking about the roof, then using fire is not recommended. Only if the wasp nest is placed in a non-residential building, ground or stone building. The method is fast and effective. It is enough to pour gasoline or a flammable substance over the nest, light a match and burn the wasps or hornets.

If a wasp nest is placed on a roof where fire cannot be used, there is another method - pour liquid insecticide into the nest. Don’t forget to cover the entrance with a rag that is also soaked in the product. Then the wasps or hornets will not fly away. Instead of a toxin, you can use water, preferably boiling water. This method is not as effective, but it works. After filling the wasp's nest with water, the entrance must be plugged. Use a stone or something else.

That's all, in these simple ways you can get rid of insects by eliminating their habitat. After this, neither wasps nor hornets will bother you. What to do if insects just fly to you? They don't have a nest in the attic, but they go there? Or are you simply physically unable to get to the nest? Let's find out.