Wasps chewing the deck, white wasps

[AndrewSmith]

Hello

I have a cedar deck (not sure how old, but likely over 10 years) and there are constantly wasps landing on the wooden parts, I'm guessing chewing it up to make nests, cause you can see streaks of fresh cedar on the old (grey) posts.

I destroyed 4 small nests, the neighbours too care of theirs also. I hung a fake nest on the deck. As far as I can tell they haven't built any new nest on my lot, but obviously there are other nests somewhere not far from here cause the number of wasps chewing up my deck hasn't decreased much.

I hung a wasp trap and that wasn't too successfull. It caught maybe 2 wasps per day. What else can I do to get rid of these guys?

I don't particularly care but when people come over for a barbecue some are pretty sensitive about it, and I have a small kid who will probably get stung one of these days.

Also I sometimes see somewhat larger white wasps, like this:



What are those guys? They looke mean

[rainbowgardener]

Not sure what you mean by the white wasps. The picture you showed was of some kind of trap full of bees or wasps (thought you said your trap wasn't working ) but they didn't particularly look white .

RE the deck chewers , I had carpenter bees chewing up my deck like crazy. What worked for me is a product called citric fresh bee stop, that I ordered off Amazon. It is all natural made from citrus and tea tree oils. Just spray it straight from the bottle on all the parts of the deck where you see your critters hanging out . I did the whole deck apron and parts of the under sides . The critters only like un-painted wood , so you only have to worry about that .

It worked right away , but after a week or two , the bees started coming back . But after three applications a couple weeks apart , the bees didn't come back any more this season .

I was treating for carpenter bees , but it seems like it should work against your wasps as well .

[Allyn]

Not sure what you mean by the white wasps. The picture you showed was of some kind of trap full of bees or wasps (thought you said your trap wasn't working ) but they didn't particularly look white . ... .

In the picture, there's a great big white wasp in the top of the bag.

[digitS']

Perhaps this one:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald-faced_hornet

Good to know about the repellent, RBG.

Steve

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, it's a nice solution. Seems to be effective keeping my bees away from the deck, but does not kill them. It should work for other deck chewers, but I don't know about wasps/ hornets that are not coming for the wood, but are just hanging out on the deck, attracted to food/ sweets/ flowers, etc.

[digitS']

The ones AndrewSmith is talking about are really after that wood.

I remember when we called them paper wasps. They are making paper for their nests.

But, a repellent is a repellent ... of course, spilled soda pop and overripe peaches are an attractant. Or, an attractive nuisance ... better not have them around or the guest list will likely include unwanted visitors.

Steve

[AndrewSmith]

Cool, thanks for the advice. I'll try that next season. citri fresh bee stop looks unavailable in Canada but maybe I'll order it from the US site or find something similar. Did you get the one spray bottle or the big jug?

[rainbowgardener]

When I ordered it, I could only find the big jug size. Spraying the apron and much of the underside of a large deck three times only used a small fraction of it. I hope it keeps for next season!