I got dressed in a hooded sweat shirt, a winter mask, some work gloves and jeans (in 30 c summer weather). I got one of the 20 old ski poles from the garage and speared some news paper onto it and took it and the hose back to where then nest was. I lit the paper on fire and applied it to the nest, while having the hose handy to deal with any fire that wasn’t on the nest as well as to ward the bugs away.

The nest burnt and those that didn’t drop from the smoke/fire/water jet flew away. A few days later, a second nest appeared in the lilac tree right next to the crab apple tree. I repeated the process, though I didn’t bother getting as heavily dressed as none went near me the last time. It worked with no stings.

A week later, the nest was back in the original tree a branch higher than the first time. I repeated the process again, however I used an entire news paper(instead of just a few sheets like i did before) and applied a liberal dose of lighter fluid, to make it a very fast and very hot fire. This time instead of spearing the side with the mild flame to burn the nest, I held the fireball-on-a-stick immediately under the entry hole, and basically didn’t let any of them escape. I was fine with them escaping at first, but they didn’t learn there lesson that it wasn’t a good territory so this was the third strike. Haven’t had any more wasps since.

I’m just sayin’. Please note that my objection to this technique is not based on the wasps’ experience.

I will say that I may try your technique anyway. It sounds… immensely satisfying.

That said, the absolute best treatment for the hyper aggressive type colony wasps is WD-40 (aerosol machine oil) combined with one of those little torch lighters. Without wings, they cannot fly and go crunch under your boot. Also tends to burn up the paper wasps nest very well.

I AM IN NO WAY SUGGESTING ANYONE ELSE TRY THIS, IT IS DANGEROUS! The can could blow up, the wasps could sting the hell out of you. Etc…

* they eat pollen and nectar, depriving native birds and insects of food
* they also eat honey-dew which has very serious impact on several native birds, which previously relied on this food source (in extreme examples, some species no longer lay eggs because the wasps ate all their food!)
* best of all, the New Zealand climate is often not harsh enough to kill them off over winter, meaning a single nest can survive and grow bigger each year. A single nest over two metres (umm.. 7 feet?) in diameter and about the same high is not unheard of.

Plus they are mighty aggressive, especially in late Summer. If you start getting buzzed by a group of them while hiking, it’s recommended to just retreat the way you came; trying to detour “around” them may actually lead you closer to the nest and subsequent pain.

Horrid creatures, even for the otherwise adorable creepy-crawly group insectia.

Also, this is an awesome blog.

That said? I kill EPW nests every chance I get.

I notice also that EPW’s have yellow antennae while yellowjackets have black antennae, but as I haven’t read this anywhere official I suspect that this may just be a trait common to the ones near my home.