I'll Huff And I'll Puff...

Eating dinner on my back deck the other evening I noticed the comings and goings of bees from the opposite side of the chimney from where I was sitting, so I investigated.

Sure enough the bees or in this case, Vespula vidua, known generally as yellowjackets, had made their way into the wall of my house where the chimney meets the clapboard, which put them approximately just over and to the right of the fireplace mantle from an inside perspective.

This is not the first time this has happened either!  Several years ago, same issue and in the same general area.  I thought I had caulked the holes sufficiently but perhaps time and persistence finally paid off for these pests.  Part of the challenge is the location of their entryway, which is about 25' to 30'  up from the ground, see pic below (the red square shows where one of those grey paper wasp nests was being built.  Using the garden hose, I was able to spray that apart months ago and drove them off!) -

Just like the previous time, when you placed your ear against the drywall, in the general area of where I assumed they were, sure enough the wall was A BUZZ!  Yuppers, you could hear the humming and buzzing clear as day!  

Good news, if there is good news, I had relatively easy access to their entry hole via the window, see above.  Bad news is that I'm dealing with flying yellowjackets that are known for being very aggressive!  So, I waited until dark and made my move.  I presoaked several cotton balls with bee\hornet spray, which I then pushed into their entry hole before using one last piece to block access in or out, easy peasy.  I was hoping the fumes from the presoaked cotton balls would work to kill the bees trapped inside - I believe this worked to some level.

However, and which amazes me because it happened the last time I went through this, with their access hole blocked some of these dudes began getting into the living room!  I must have killed 20 to 30 that made their way in, see pic below, UGH! Why had I not been seeing bees in the house long before hand?

Anyway, my approach seems to have worked and I've successfully destroyed the hive!  It's been several days now and I've not found any more inside, nor do I see any flying around and trying to get in, YAY!  Seems I have some more caulking work to do to prevent this from happening again but I'll wait until cooler weather...