Wasp Nest

[sheriff john]

Winter's best to gather wasps' nests. Be advised paper wasp "babies" are dormant, not dead. Old cadillac limo had a nest under the dash. Friend found out the hard way. The large bald face hornet nests are abandonded when it gets cold, they go into the ground during winter. Within a short time, the large nest will deteriorate unless you get it quickly. The tricky part is to do this AFTER they've left.

The first hornet that stings leaves a phermone on the victim which signals others to attack the same person/animal, resulting in multiple stings. Never found a use for mud daubers' nests. It is amazing the short amount of time it takes hornets to "build" one of the large paper nests.

 

[Belleville]

In my Great Grandparents/Grandparents house here on the farm there is a huge hornets nest. It was made flat against an inside wall about 4' wide x 6' high. You can get to it thru an access hole. A friend harvested a huge amount of the nest for wadding. It is old and doesn't work as good as a fresher nest but works fine. So nests are out there.

 

[sportster73hp]

Every gun has it own specific likes, but I have found wasp nest to be an exceptional wadding material in two different fowlers. The more I think of it the risk of some bee stings may be worth it to be able to have some of this stuff on hand lolol

You won’t find much paper wadding in a bee hive. Just wax and honey. And they are alive in cold weather.
Sorry as a bee keeper i know the difference

 

[Antonio Ferraioli]

You guys scare me. I am allergic to bees.

 

[brazosland]

In central Texas we have tons of paper wasps. I use the nests for wadding in my smooth bores and I also use it under patched balls in my rifles.

Seems to protect against burn through on the patch and in my hunting loads if keeps the lubed patch off the powder.

 

[Jerry Rodgers]

convinced the maintenance guy at work to save all the ones he finds (A LOT) ....

 

[deerstalkert]

my out buildings have a multitude of them. but they all smell of wasp/hornet spray!.
stuck my head into a box trailer that is just storage the other day. felt something hitting the back of my neck. getting the range i guess. they made a funny sound hitting the floor when i sprayed them.
splitting wood today and about a dozen swarmed me. located their nest under the ridge cap on the hip of the porch roof. there were a couple dozen staring at me just daring me to start the splitter again. got most of them pass shooting with the can of spray!
them's that use them do you load by weight or volume?

 

[oldwood]

Having a life long vendetta against all things that sting and build paper nests , I have learned the easy way to subdue the owners of their paper homes. The magic elixir is diesel fuel , in a handy spray bottle. Make sure the spray bottle can't be dissolved by the fuel. The fuel won't hurt your gun barrel either , when put down the bore for wadding.
I tried to switch over to commercial wasp sprays , however say 15 yrs. ago , the environmentalists made all the bug spray companies go to a "non-toxic to humans " formula. Well , it ain't very toxic too wasps and hornets either , so , back to diesel fuel. Keep yur eyes open for the big paper nests . This is the time to mark their locations , and the ones low to the ground and dangerous to kids , dogs and unknowing folks that blunder into them , need to be fueled up , so no one gets stung.

 

[Springerpanhead]

Winter's best to gather wasps' nests. Be advised paper wasp "babies" are dormant, not dead. Old cadillac limo had a nest under the dash. Friend found out the hard way. The large bald face hornet nests are abandonded when it gets cold, they go into the ground during winter. Within a short time, the large nest will deteriorate unless you get it quickly. The tricky part is to do this AFTER they've left.

The first hornet that stings leaves a phermone on the victim which signals others to attack the same person/animal, resulting in multiple stings. Never found a use for mud daubers' nests. It is amazing the short amount of time it takes hornets to "build" one of the large paper nests.

Baldface hornets are extremely beneficial. They eat flies. One day I went to a new customer’s barn to shoe his horses. In one corner a limb had been placed diagonally across 2 beams with a large active hornets nest on it. He told me that he scouts out a nest then goes out at night and plugs the entrance hole with a stick then cuts off the limb it’s built on and carries it back to the barn, positions the limb, removes the stick and runs. He’s says it only takes a few hours for the hornets to adapt to their new environment and settle in on working on the abundant supply of flies in the barn. I watched fascinated as a bee would swoop down, pick a fly off a horse and carry it away. Oddly the fly never moved while it was being approached by the hornet. Although the sting of the bald face hornet is one of the worst, unless you disturb their nest they will leave you alone. They are not like yellow jackets that will tear you up when you are 15 feet away.

 

[toot]

I even use the comb with the PAUPA in it. they lube the barrel on the way out. sorta like bee snot!! I use it all. seriously I rely do use it!. give it a try, mix it in with the paper part, don't waste any of it. toot.

 

[toot]

right YELLOW JACKETS are rely bad dudes. they will nail you with out being provoked!. they are rely bad now that my apples are falling and getting rely juicy, they love them, makes them very aggressive. BTW, they also make PAPER NESTS just like HORNETS, in buildings, not only in the ground & tree roots. ans also can be used!

 

[rdavidson]

Somehow I wound up with a nest of giant Asian hornets on my property. Have no idea how they got there but those things are big. They could carry a cat off and man do they hurt, ask me how I know.

 

[Codger Craig Wilcox]

You guys scare me. I am allergic to bees.

Large differences between wasps and bees. Bees can only sting once, then they die. They leave the stinger, and the lower abdomen (like guts) that stay with the stinger, pumping in more toxins.
Wasps can sting multiple times, and usually do. But largely, the person who is allergic to bees will NOT have the same reaction when stung by wasps. And the bee hive is nowhere good enuf to use for the wadding.

 

[11Bravo]

About 40 years ago I was at one of my fellow Steamfitters home, hanging above his coffee table was a giant Wasps nest. If that wasn't strange enough his wife told me the story how he got it. While driving home in the fall he spotted it from the road and stopped to get it. Everything was fine til he started home in his VW van and the heat was on. Well these buggers became active again and he drove into a ditch. He had the van towed home and then gassed the van to kill them all.

 

[smo]

Somehow they find me….

 

[Whughett]

Well I learned something new, paper wasp nests for wadding. Who’d a thunk it.
As a telephone lineman Wasp bees and white face hornets were a way of life. We carried a utility brand of spray that could saturate a nest from the ground.
One summer I shot a huge oval shaped nest in a tree right next to the pole I was climbing. After knocking it down I took a large piece, put it into a 10 gallon fish tank with a screend lid. In a few weeks time several wasps, not hornets, emerged and were flying around the tank. My boys were pre-teen then and loved it.
I wasn’t bothered by stings beyond the initial brief pain.

 

[sportster73hp]

View attachment 91638

Somehow they find me….

Pretty sure that’s bee honeycomb not wasps nest

 

[smo]

Positive it’s a red wasp nest …. I got 3 stings too prove it..

 

[Whughett]

Well I learned something new, paper wasp nests for wadding. Who’d a thunk it.
As a telephone lineman Wasp bees and white face hornets were a way of life. We carried a utility brand of spray that could saturate a nest from the ground.
One summer I shot a huge oval shaped nest in a tree right next to the pole I was climbing. After knocking it down I took a large piece, put it into a 10 gallon fish tank with a screend lid. In a few weeks time several wasps, not hornets, emerged and were flying around the tank. My boys were pre-teen then and loved it.
I wasn’t bothered by stings beyond the initial brief pain.

 

[3Setters]

Whats the going price for a hornets nest? I havent found any...yet. But usually find a few each fall.