Author Topic: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2  (Read 1337 times)

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Offline lightmaster

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Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« on: March 03, 2019, 10:13:35 PM »
Noticed that during a really bad thunderstorm tonight, the rain amount stopped going up even though it was still heavily raining, and a station a mile away reported twice as much rain as mine has so far. Went outside with a flashlight to see if there was debris in the rain funnel, and instead found 3 wasps huddled between the radiation shield and base of the rain gauge. Likely a wasp nest under the rain funnel, any suggestions on how to remove the wasp nest cuz I’m really not a fan of wasps and want to avoid getting stung dozens of times.

Offline galfert

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2019, 10:27:57 PM »
Bee keepers use smoke to put bees to sleep and make them not want to attack. I don't know if that works with wasps too or not? If you spray any kind of chemical I don't know if it will damage the equipment. But maybe you just need a water hose and bast them from a safe distance.
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Offline CW2274

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #2 on: March 03, 2019, 10:39:40 PM »
Bee keepers use smoke to put bees to sleep and make them not want to attack. I don't know if that works with wasps too or not? If you spray any kind of chemical I don't know if it will damage the equipment. But maybe you just need a water hose and bast them from a safe distance.
The hose may work. If not, perhaps dumping some mothballs into the cone and covering it up may eventually repel them out, especially if it cooks in the sun. :evil:

Offline lightmaster

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #3 on: March 03, 2019, 10:45:27 PM »
I've got wasp spray for around the outside of the house, says it's non staining, but not sure if it'll damage anything inside the rain gauge part. And not sure about the best way to remove the funnel without pissing them off. Pop off the funnel, throw it, and run, lol.

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #4 on: March 03, 2019, 10:49:09 PM »
One theory is that when smoke is around bees, it triggers an instinctive response to the workers to think there hive is in danger from a fire, which makes sense.  The next sequence is a bit of a leap of faith but makes a little sense.  A bee, alerted to a fire, eats as much honey as it can in order to carry it away before being burned up, and thus gets what some say is sort of a sugar high, and become very docile.

Could be, I guess.  but when I've seen hives smoked, ALL the bees get docile, not just the ones who've had a chance to go into the hive, open a cell, and gorge on honey.  It is almost instantaneous.  So maybe there are triggers to the smoke that make them think it is time to quiet down, but would seem much more likely to stir them up.

I'm off to do more research, but remember a WASP or HORNET is NOT a bee.  Different characteristics, entirely.  Usually nastier, especially if a yellow jacket rather than a paper wasp, but both are a pain and can sting repeatedly, while a honey bee can sting only once, and dies having it's stinger and poison sac pulled out of it when it pulls away.

Water may be the best to dislodge. I'd think that the petrochemicals in hornet and wasp spray cans would be very harmful to the humidity sensors.

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Offline lightmaster

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2019, 11:08:25 PM »
Talked to a pest control company in town and they said that I'm a bit lucky on the timing. We're gonna have a freeze warnings for the next couple of nights, so they said to go out during the coldest part of the night and I should be able to open it up, set the nest on the ground, and stomp them all to death. Said the freezing temps will make them very docile. Still gonna be scared stiff doing this, but yeah... lol.

Offline CW2274

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #6 on: March 04, 2019, 11:44:58 PM »
If you want them instananeosly dead, fill a container with gasoline and drop the nest in.

Offline Mattk

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #7 on: March 05, 2019, 12:05:29 AM »
There's a thing called preventative maintenance which will generally pick up initial nest builds before they get bigger and harder to deal with. 

Offline lightmaster

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #8 on: March 05, 2019, 12:15:16 AM »
I thought it was too early in the year for wasps to build new nests, so haven't opened it up yet to check. Didn't think about the unusually warm weather we've had lately.

Station recorded 0.9" out of estimated 1.7" of rain during the storm yesterday, and then stopped halfway through, so I'm really hoping it was a few wasps seeking shelter and they haven't had time to really build a nest yet. Gonna check it out during the freeze tomorrow night, so I'll know then. Think I'm gonna do what I read about earlier, and glue some screen door stuff over the holes under the rain gauge, so water can get out, and insects can't get in.

Offline havtrail

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #9 on: March 05, 2019, 03:15:45 PM »
Lightmaster, your profile does not indicate where in the U.S. you are, so I held off responding that I do this work in the dead of winter here. (It may also be why Mattk suggested preventive maintenance.) The winter weather makes wasps and spiders much easier and safer to deal with. So far, I have not needed bird spikes, which I think reduce captured rain in a crosswind, and have only needed to clean out debris, bugs, and nests annually. Guess I'm lucky in that regard, weather-wise. Having a good location away from falling leaves has also helped. Everyone's situation differs.

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Offline lightmaster

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #10 on: March 05, 2019, 06:06:12 PM »
Apparently updating where you are on the member map doesn't update the text on the side of your posts... Fixed that now I hope. Supposed to hit 29F in the morning, so I'm planning to deal with it then. Hopefully I can get he rain funnel off without aggravating them too much. As for debris, mines in the middle of a large field with no tall trees within at least 100 ft. I have yet to find anything stuck in the top of it so far.

Offline DaleReid

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Re: Best way to remove wasp nest from Davis Vantage Pro 2
« Reply #11 on: March 05, 2019, 09:01:40 PM »
Take a couple pictures of what you find when you do your clean up project.  We all are now intensely curious as to the innards and the bugs living in there.

One last story.  Here in the midWest there are lots of guys who go out hunting in the fall.  A buddy, city/town raised, found this immense paper wasp nest on a branch, and being pretty cold out and in the fall, had no problem using his jackknife to cut the branch holding this nest, about the size of a basket ball or good sized soccer ball.  All was well until he brought it into the house to show his wife when she came home the next day, but overnight it warmed to room temperature and the wasps thought it was spring and decided to check things out.  I think he used the vacuum cleaner to go around and suck up all the wasps he could find before she got home, and when I stopped over I saw it back out on the porch in the cold.

It sure looked rustic and woodsie when he put it in a plastic bag and fogged it with insect killer and finally put it up in his office, though.
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