So, I dry dock my boat. I finally got it cleaned up and ready for the season. Now I can't even get on it cause of the wasps. I have gone through three cans of lowes wasp spray and have a yellow trap hanging from my rigging. Today I took my infant son over to do a bit more work and immediately more bees swarmed. So, long story short, I can't work on the boat. Can't get rid of the bees. Can't get in the water. Help?!! Anything special u do for this to keep these pesky things away? A balm a spray anything? Thanks.
Wierd topic--bees
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Wow. You don't say exactly where they're nesting? I had problems with them getting in through the corners where the hatch and companionway cover meet. At least on my Capri 22 there was a perfect wasp-sized opening. We had enough fabric left over after my wife made the new mainsail cover to make a fitted canvas cover that goes over the hatch and companionway. Nowhere for the bees to get in and none seen in 2 seasons!
That said, I have found them snooping around the drains (bilge pump & battery locker) in the stern when the boat is on the trailer before we launch in the spring.
Until last weekend we had metal awnings over 2 of the windows in our mfg home. The @#$@ wasps loved to build nests in the frame. We've had pretty good luck with black flag wasp killer from Home Despot. The trick is to get them in the evening when it's a bit cooler and they've mostly come home to roost. After I took down the awnings to paint the house there were a couple very confused wasps flying around for a few hours, who I apparently missed when I sprayed the nests the night before. The awnings are now in the back of the pickup pending a trip to the metal recycler or dump.
That said, I have found them snooping around the drains (bilge pump & battery locker) in the stern when the boat is on the trailer before we launch in the spring.
Until last weekend we had metal awnings over 2 of the windows in our mfg home. The @#$@ wasps loved to build nests in the frame. We've had pretty good luck with black flag wasp killer from Home Despot. The trick is to get them in the evening when it's a bit cooler and they've mostly come home to roost. After I took down the awnings to paint the house there were a couple very confused wasps flying around for a few hours, who I apparently missed when I sprayed the nests the night before. The awnings are now in the back of the pickup pending a trip to the metal recycler or dump.
I picked up a couple of ultra sonic pest repellers sold under the Black and Decker label at Walmart. Used on one my old boat pointed up under the dodger to try and keep birds off the boat. Don't know if it really helped or just made me feel like I was doing something. There are plenty of more powerful models that may work on wasps and bees.
My Morgan attracts brown wasps. These wasps hunt spiders so I pretty much let them be. I know spiders are beneficial but every time I reach under or behind something in a place where I can't see the vision of recluse spiders, black and brown widows pops into my head. I don't think I've ever seen a bug other than the wasps on that boat and that's pretty good for Florida. Plenty of lizards on the dock so the crawly ones may just not make it. I don't leave any food on the boat to attract pests and this helps.
My Morgan attracts brown wasps. These wasps hunt spiders so I pretty much let them be. I know spiders are beneficial but every time I reach under or behind something in a place where I can't see the vision of recluse spiders, black and brown widows pops into my head. I don't think I've ever seen a bug other than the wasps on that boat and that's pretty good for Florida. Plenty of lizards on the dock so the crawly ones may just not make it. I don't leave any food on the boat to attract pests and this helps.
Get in touch with your local Department of Agriculture or local university. There is likely a perfect solution if you get to the wasp expert. Bug problems are localized and local experts often have them understood. Take a sample bug along for proper I.D.
Thank you everyone for the feedback. I really thought I had this under control. I don't know where the nest is...problem 1. And I'm highly allergic...problem 2. So the last thing I need is to think they r gone and sail off across the lake only to get stung and go into shock. I will scour the shelves at home depot and lowes again. And who knows, the local agricultural solution may be what it comes down to.
There are aerosol bug bombs available at stores like Wal Mart and Home Depot. Set the can on the floor, depress the locking valve, hold your breath, close up the boat and get out. One can will fill the entire inside of your boat with a fine aerosol of bug poison. Come back 24 hours later and air it all out. These are meant for household pests like fleas, ants, etc., but read the can -I imagine they'd work on wasps.
As for where they are, my boat lived in "tidewater" Virginia for the last several years where mud wasps are a problem. I recently discovered that they were nesting up under the perimeter joint where the upper and lower hull halfs are joined. It's a very inaccessible area unless you are a bug!
As for where they are, my boat lived in "tidewater" Virginia for the last several years where mud wasps are a problem. I recently discovered that they were nesting up under the perimeter joint where the upper and lower hull halfs are joined. It's a very inaccessible area unless you are a bug!
Try www.bugspray.com and I think you will find the answer. I stumbled on this site while researching how to get rid of spiders - all kinds, 'cause I fear them more than anything, and I mean anything, else. This site not only tells you all about many individual pest species, their habits, what they eat, etc., but also this company sells the products to get rid of them, including mud dubbers, paper nest wasps and all their relatives. For me, they also sell spider sprays, happy days !! If you can't find the site, get back to me and I'll direct you further. Good luck, and let us know how you come out !!
Wasps in many places
I'm new to this forum, but not new to the problem of wasps in boats.
If you're allergic to wasp stings, be sure to get a doctor's prescription for an epinephrine injector and keep the "epipen" with you. I keep two on hand.
If your boat has been sitting unused for weeks or months, you may have more than one nest of more than one species of wasp. There's lots of information online to help you identify what you've got (try a local university coop ed similar to this one http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7450.html).
Household foggers for insect control can be useful if the wasp nest is in the cabin area. It may not work for other parts of the boat. The cans of "wasp spray" are typically designed to be sprayed directly on the nest (or in the entrance hole), but that requires that you can see and spray the nest. A combination of the two methods might work the best.
After my boat had been sitting on a trailer for a year, I found seven paper wasp nests (1-5" dia. paper combs) distributed around the head, main cabin, cockpit locker and engine well. It took repeated searching and spraying to deal with them all.
Check with your local marina (or Dept Ag/ Univ Coop Extension) for recommendations for companies that will save you the hassle.
I'm new to this forum, but not new to the problem of wasps in boats.
If you're allergic to wasp stings, be sure to get a doctor's prescription for an epinephrine injector and keep the "epipen" with you. I keep two on hand.
If your boat has been sitting unused for weeks or months, you may have more than one nest of more than one species of wasp. There's lots of information online to help you identify what you've got (try a local university coop ed similar to this one http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7450.html).
Household foggers for insect control can be useful if the wasp nest is in the cabin area. It may not work for other parts of the boat. The cans of "wasp spray" are typically designed to be sprayed directly on the nest (or in the entrance hole), but that requires that you can see and spray the nest. A combination of the two methods might work the best.
After my boat had been sitting on a trailer for a year, I found seven paper wasp nests (1-5" dia. paper combs) distributed around the head, main cabin, cockpit locker and engine well. It took repeated searching and spraying to deal with them all.
Check with your local marina (or Dept Ag/ Univ Coop Extension) for recommendations for companies that will save you the hassle.
I have found nests built above level of the bow deck, mostly around the pop top. At the first of season when doing discovery, I like to have a can of wasp spray that shoots a stream 6~10 ft of "kills instantly" wasp and hornet spray in my right hand and a running shop vac. extension in my left. It seems that the regular spray can just makes them mad. If I couldn't be sure of finding all of them, I'd be inclined to go for the bomb and take the vac in next day however those bomb types can damage the finish below near where they are set off.
Why don't you call the exterminator, it's a tough thing to do for us do-it-yourself'rs to call for a professional, I've made the shameful call many times on lesser problems like my iron jib, wind-vane, ect -it's good for the economy. IT's a B.O.A.T.
As a former beekeeper, I can advise you that soapy water sprayed on the wasps will quickly kill them. If you are truly allergic to bee stings, (most people just say that they are because they get swollen a bit) obtain an epi-pen from your doctor and have it handy just in case you get stung. Generally speaking, wasps and hornets just want to be left alone and won't sting you unless you accidently step on them or threaten them by placing pressure on them with you hand. Yellow jackets are an exception... They're vicious, but probably don't live in your boat. Yellow jackets actually live in the ground nearby and can be mobilized by walking near their nest.
You seem nervous and concerned, if I was you, hire a professional and bee done with it.
You seem nervous and concerned, if I was you, hire a professional and bee done with it.
I hate wasps. But hornets are worse. I had a nest in my galley when I went to view my current boat before I purchased it. Might be part of the reason I got such a good price.
I have found that a few boxes of moth balls placed in the boat while I'm away keeps out the bees, wasps, and spiders. When you get back on the boat, place the moth balls in a zip lock bag for use later.
The active ingredient in moth balls is naphthalene and it is quite volatile so it gets all over the interior and provides a second benefit. Naphthalene is also a good anti-mold agent so it will keep the mold spore population down in your boat. In fact the active ingredient in the green wood preservative you buy at Lowes is dichloronaphthalene. The two chlorine atoms are there just to make it less volatile.
Open up the boat a few hours before you set sail to get rid of the odor and you are golden. No mold not wasps. All good!
I have found that a few boxes of moth balls placed in the boat while I'm away keeps out the bees, wasps, and spiders. When you get back on the boat, place the moth balls in a zip lock bag for use later.
The active ingredient in moth balls is naphthalene and it is quite volatile so it gets all over the interior and provides a second benefit. Naphthalene is also a good anti-mold agent so it will keep the mold spore population down in your boat. In fact the active ingredient in the green wood preservative you buy at Lowes is dichloronaphthalene. The two chlorine atoms are there just to make it less volatile.
Open up the boat a few hours before you set sail to get rid of the odor and you are golden. No mold not wasps. All good!
I have found the mosquito jackets that zip over the head...
... to be very handy. Wear sweat pants etc (socks over pants), heavy gloves (they can sting through gardening gloves), and a big hat undernieth to keep the netting off the skin. Check careful that there are NO openings.
http://www.vtarmynavy.com/bug-jacket.htm
We've had yellow jeckets nest in the siding of the house and in the sail locker. No fun at all, but this really helped. However, there is no promise that you won't get 1-2 stings... instead of 20.
... to be very handy. Wear sweat pants etc (socks over pants), heavy gloves (they can sting through gardening gloves), and a big hat undernieth to keep the netting off the skin. Check careful that there are NO openings.
http://www.vtarmynavy.com/bug-jacket.htm
We've had yellow jeckets nest in the siding of the house and in the sail locker. No fun at all, but this really helped. However, there is no promise that you won't get 1-2 stings... instead of 20.
All kinds of wasps are dangerous around their nests. Away from the nest they are foraging and since you are not food they ignore you. Yellow jackets will share your sandwich with you but if you break a piece off and set it on the table they will go to that. I have watched the big white face black hornets hunting flies on a screened porch. They are like hawks going after rabbits. Yellow jackets will suck up drops of water from the table where you set a wet glass. Of the wasps that build open flat nests the more yellow they have the more defensive they seem to be. The potter wasps or mud daubber wasps have no interest in people at all .
Their mobilization gets a real boost when you walk near their ground nest while pushing a gas-powered lawnmower. I learned that one summer when I got stung every time I mowed the lawn. The reaction (pain/swelling) got worse each time, but never approached anaphalaxis, thank heavens. I'd go back and look for the nest opening but could never find it till later that very dry summer when the edges caved in and it was a 6" hole. Strangely, I didn't get stung that time, but boy was it fun to exterminate them that night!
I second/third/fourth what others have said. Hire a professional to do the deed.
I have issues with Yellow Jackets at home. I've never noticed them nesting in the ground, but they love to build nests under eaves and such. I use the Spectracide wasp killer in the black/white can...it has a dielectric breakdown voltage of like 45,000 volts and shoots 20+ feet. This stuff rocks! I can hit a whole nest at once, and as soon as they get hit they drop immediately to the ground. One or two twitches (if that) and they're dead. Later, as other wasps come to the nest, as soon as they touch it they drop as well. Seriously, I can't speak highly enough of this wonderful can o' death.
I never thought about moth balls for spiders and wasps, I'm definitely going to try that. I know it repells mice. I put some in an open plastic container on the floor of my pontoon boat before I cover it for the winter. One year I got busy and I forgot and next spring I had a lot of cleaning up to do. But if moth balls will repell spiders AND wasps in my sailboat, I'm at it. When I bought my ODay 222 4 months ago it had been sitting and was full of paper wasps and their 14 nests and I removed 58 mud dubber nests. FYI, I found a lot of mud dubber nests in dark places like inside of cabinets where they entered thru the finger holes you use to open the doors. I finally had to remove the sink and adjacent tray to putty knife the nests off, and they had built mud nests all over the back of my electrical main panel, and everywhere. Of course I eliminated a lot of wasps when I towed my boat to it's new home, but spiders are another thing. I can't stand them. Thanks for the moth ball info.
If its too dangerous to look in the daytime try after dark I have never seen any bees or wasps fly after dark. Locate them and kill them at the nest or use anyone of the above tactics that work without need to find the nest. I have used the mothball approach myself it drove the bees out of my boat after a couple days.
Ditto ! I put moth balls in a jar sitting in the sink. Just put the cap on when using the boat.
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