Ah, Youtube. Some videos are impossible not to click on. The one above shows how one can relocate a wasp nest with a shotgun.
In terms of DIY advice, this is pretty straightforward. But fun, nonetheless, to watch.
Now, before people start to go crazy over what appears to be the wanton destruction of innocent animals, there is a difference between wasps and bees. Bees are our friends (so long as they’re not Africanized) and wasps are pests. Bees create honey and can live alongside us in relative peace, especially if one is regularly harvesting their honey. For more info on beekeeping, check out these highly informative articles:
Prepping 101: Installing Package Bees
Prepping 101: Keeping Bees – Alternative Hives vs. Langstroth Hives
Wasps, on the other hand, don’t produce honey. What do they eat then? Other insects. Which is fine, if they are out in the wilderness. But when their nest is close to one’s home, wasps can be a real nuisance. They’re aggressive predators with a venomous sting. They can sting one multiple times, and even after they’re dead their stingers can still release venom. That’s correct, even after they’re dead, they can sting you. You don’t want to live near a wasp nest. Therefore, you have to take measures to get rid of the nest. Is a shotgun the optimal tool for the job? Probably not. But it does do the job.
At first, I didn’t see this working out well and t actually would have been hilarious if you had gotten popped a few times.
I’ saying that as one who has been popped a few times by Hornets. Those were not “wasp” you invaded they were actually Hornets They are the Rangers, Swat, Seal team 6 of wasp.I also learned to wrap duct tape around the cuffs of my pant legs
Not sure of the Hornets ballistic but they are fast and have the muzzle energy of at least a .40. I was popped in the back of my next, running down a tiered embankment and ended up rolling the rest of the way down.. It was hilarious, albeit sometime later. My friends who actually witnessed the incident were fast to grasp the entertainment value and laughed their selves silly.
When I was a junior in high school, we had just started morning football practices in August, starting at 5AM so the farm kids could get back out to the harvest field by 8AM or so.
We were doing pushups on the field in formation, when some evil critter flew into the left earhole of my helmet and got me three times in my ear before I could tear the chinstrap off and fling the helmet away. My ear turned into a huge swollen cauliflower, and I had to practice sans helmet for the rest of the week.
I hate stinging insects.
Surely was – we call them white-face hornets – sting is the same. I did it differently – from underneath, #9 shot, 5 as fast as you can work an 870 which is really one roar. Center them instead of taking to top off. Nothing but drifting flakes.
Should have used “dragons breath”
Forest becomes collateral?
Nah,use several rounds of 9shot from a open choke gun. A saiga 12ga with a 10 or 12 round mag if it feeds hv 9s
Had this problem on ranch in eastern Wa. Hornet built nest on gatepost, behind and under everything . Couldn’t get at them with foam and very aggressive. Donned poncho and mask and attacked with 12 ga and #7 at 5 paces. 4 shots later they were still in business! Returning to fragments like nothing happened. They did finally move to a safer neighborhood: probably Chicago.
That was a bald face hornets nest. Badasses!!! They have stung me many times. I am acquainted with them.BALD FACE HORNETS
When I was about 11, my friend and I went after a wasp nest with BB guns. We thought it was pretty cool, shooting that nest and even thinking we’d hit individual wasps with BBs . . . which was probably possible considering how thick they were as they swarmed for the counter attack.
Bottom line, a wasp landed right on my nose and stung me on the upper lip.
Ouch!
But, boys will be boys . . . no brains. Why else would the cavemen have attacked a Mammoth with a wooden spear?
As a young lad I was stung mercilessly without provocation on two occasions, never saw the buggers. Once leaving a lobby, another while eating an apple. I licked my wounds and applied meat tenderizer. I was frustrated and dumbfounded on being so brazenly attacked by so-called innocent insects. Twas a loss of innocence. But also sparked something in my Captain America T-shirt and Star Wars action figure life.
Sweet dirty vengeance.
In June what followed was a personal war of attrition, grabbing large plastic garbage can lid and big plastic wiffle bat focusing on the little white flowers on the grass and killing over 100 yellow jackets and a few bumblebees that month. Kept going that summer, I made it into a game, lost count. There were no more yellow jackets in my yard after that, as it turned into the Beemuda Triangle. I’ve never been stung again either. Leaking pheromones of death do that.
The writer of this article must not be familiar whit the difference in a wasp nest and a hornet’s nest. This is a very big hornets nest, and something that should be avoided at all costs. The hornets nests are a collectable item after the winter comes and the hornets leave the nest, but very dangerous as long as the hornets are in the nest.
When young in NC we had giant hornet nest.. One time about 12yrs old we bombed it with apples..Sob’s found us and stung crap outta..One of kids got two zeroed in n got his butt,,he hit ground and went to draggin’ his tail while hollering..
One time when I lived in NC , at my ex-mother in laws pool , under the slide there was a nest of wasps . I took a rolled up newspapers and lit it on fire. I only had to present it where they were and they all fell to the ground cause of there wings being so thin . Now with that said you were going to need a flame thrower for that beast of a nest. Waiting for early morning and bagging the nest while fully armored , of course, just in case , would have been a good option . Their mobility and number is what gives them the advantage and their temper makes it no better odds against you. Stay safe and watch your 6!, 7,8,9,10,11,12,1,2,3,4,and your 5!
I believe this is a hornet’s nest.
I believe you’re right but closer look might indicate yellow jackets since they build that way in West and I haven’t seen any hornets like we had in NC out here..either way it ain’t no wasp as they build open combs under shelters..
There are two good ways ro kill wasps & hornets that are safe and effective. 1. Get a can of Black Flag or Raid wasp & hornet spray, They both will shoot a stream about 20′. 2. Use a CO2 fire extinguisher to freeze them to death. But it’s important to remember to do it after dark. and saturate the nest. All the insects will be in the nest and you’ll get them all.
Dumb move… but even dumber – the loose short haired dog running around. .
That was not a wasp nests. Those are hornets and you do not want to irritate hornets needlessly. That said you do not to allow a hornets anywhere near where people go as they are agressive and you would much sooner be stung by wasls then hornets.
Stupid is what Stupid does, no offense, just a Fact Jack. My method would have been difficult on this nest, but try it next time. With a heavy cloth bag that had a quick closure string you can catch the little buggers. Yep, early in the morning when they are all in the nest get up there next to it. It takes 2 brave souls that are not afraid of heights, one holds the bag, and the other cuts the nest free. You figure out the rest or what you do with the nest that is now safely in the sealed bag. Me, I would have a Bee Suit on, the second guy has a super heavy plastic bag at the ready, and I drop the cloth bag into the plastic bag, Done. Simple and not stupid, plus it would have been entertaining. Biggest up side, you can do as you please with the bag, maybe leave it on Stupids door step. Dave
The insect involved here is Dolichovespula maculata, which is a social wasp. Although commonly identified as a hornet it is actually a yellowjacket wasp not a true hornet, taxanomically speaking Most commonly known as Bald faced hornets they are one of the most aggresive flying insects. Although they are not nocturnal, if you build your campfire under a tree containig one of their nests, they will emerge and sting the shit out of you.
Hate to disagree with an expert but yellow jackets nest in the ground. That is definitely a hornet’s nest.
I cant believe that on a firearms websight you need to tippy toe around killing visciois predators
Give me a break.
Shooting a wasps nest is risky if not VERY interesting (particularly on video) but sympathy for thr poor wasps….spare me. In fact, get a few pita idiots to hold the nest before you shoot it. Sheesh!
I can’t believe no-one else thinks this is just a senseless act. This is NOT a fun video!
Agree with one of the post – they are not “wasps” as we know them – wasps around the house build small paper nests with hexagonal openings. Wasps sting, and the nests should be eliminated, but they do not seem to swarm.
The nest in the film is a hornet nests, probably a bald-faced hornet, which is a dangerous animal which will swarm and attack if you get near the nest. Bald-faced hornets can kill. Those nests should be destroyed if they are anywhere near your property. That shotgun blast will destroy the nest, but produce a bunch of po’d hornets. Glad it wasn’t me there!
Cut the shot OUT and shot the wadding only! Shooting the wad only works great and will not cause any damage! I have used this for years! Gregg
Agree, not WASPS but hornets + very aggressive and down right mean. Blackheaded bumble bees are another specie that you do not want to mess with either. However, I read and tried this from Ripley’s Believe It or Not book…concerning bumble bees: ease a narrow necked gallon glass jug about half full of water as close as you can to the bees’ nest without stirring them up. Back away, then toss something heavy onto where the bees have made their nest; they then will come out in a swarm, finding the only strange thing around their nest they will try to attack it. They then one by one will find their way into the neck of that bottle of water and cannot find their way back out and will give out from flying and collapse into the water and drown. Once the body count gets 3 bees deep in the water the remaining bees will not drown as the dead ones will block the live ones from drowning. I tried this as a young farm boy and it worked 50 years ago, so I do not see why it should not work today. Ranchers/farmers who have to bush hog their pastures and run over one of these nests will have to put that tractor into high gear to out run them and many will get stung while shifting gears and raising the bush hog.
House I used to own had aluminum siding. Found out the hard way that wasps liked to nest under that aluminum siding. When I cut the lawn not long after buying the house, the grass clippings hitting the side of the house disturbed the wasp nest which was below knee-level. Ended up getting stung several times around the ankles. I left my shoes behind, as they leave a pheromone that tells other wasps to attack and since a lot of them were on my shoes, it helped decoy a fair number of them away while I escaped. Ducked in the front door of the house (I was cutting the back yard grass), grabbed an extra pair of shoes and my wallet and car keys, and high-tailed it to the hardware store for a can of foaming wasp spray!
Those are Hornets. They have scouts flying around all the time finding danger. I am surprised they didn’t nail him when he shot the nest. That is why he couldn’t retrieve his cameras afterward. Probably waiting until after dark and get the cameras would have worked best. They wait until winter to get rid of them. Nasty!!
Takes me back 40 years. I was quail hunting in November in eastern NC, a frosty morn; found a paper wasp nest, and thought, “That’s cool; let’s take it home and show the kids.” So I cut it down (didn’t shoot it!) and stowed it in the back of my station wagon (SUV’s had not been invented), while we continued hunting. Came back to the car about noon; now it was 70 degrees outside, and higher in the car. Opened the tailgate and Wow!! Angry wasps everywhere! I finally managed to get hold of the branch and dragged it out, waited another hour and the wasps left the car; but I learned my lesson: Wasps hibernate; they aren’t necessarily dead.
Funny. Same thing happened to me and a friend about 40 yrs ago rabbit hunting. We found a Hornet’s nest and my friend wanted it so we cut the branch and placed it in the front seat of the truck while we hunted in 20 degree weather on a sunny day. The inside of the truck warmed up and when we returned to go home, the cab was full of hornets. We had two vehicles there. Opened the doors and left the truck until after dark. Haha… Good memories.
you got a hornet’s
I have used a shotgun to eliminate white faced hornets like those in the video several times. The trick is to use #9 shot and an open choke. Aim dead center on the nest and wait until dark when all of the hornets are in the nest. If you shoot from about
15 yds, there will be nothing left but confetti.
Those are actually hornets right? Wasp build a totally different type of nest….and yellow jackets build their nest in the ground….just saying.
Use Tannerite next time……..no survivors.
@ $2k-$3k per shot, Tannerite is a bit of overkill.
You are supposed to know what you are shooting before you shoot. Any idiot knows that. It wasn’t a wasp nest!!! It was a hornet nest. What a dumb ass. Just a real outdoorsman,,, Pretty lame if you ask me, but some people will do anything to get a little attention..
I knew he wasn’t much of an outdoorsman when he said there was a lot of mountaineering involved in climbing Mt. Fuji. I’ve climbed Mt. Fuji. Father’s Day 1978. There is a walking trail that goes right to the summit and another that comes down. You can do the entire climb, bottom to top and back again in a day or less depending on what kind of shape you are in.
A damfool performance like this only helps to erode our 2A rights, which are tenuous at best.
Over shooting a wasp nest with a twelve gauge?! Oh please! If you want to spend the rest of your life walking on rice paper around libtards, I guess that’s your choice.
I agree completely- stupid, irresponsible use of a firearm. I doubt the founding fathers envisioned this when drafting 2A.
The founding fathers wanted all able bodied white males and free black males to have and be ready to bear firearms against all enemies from without and within. Hunting, target shooting, and self protection were only byproducts of the initial framers of the Constitution’s intent. The main intent was for the immediate/quick formation of a state militia to assist the national army in case of an armed invasion from without, as well as to be used against that national army in case of an armed insurrection from within by an out of control bureaucratic and or totalitarian regime which challenged or attempted to usurp the authority of each state’s government. Our country was founded upon a confederation of states with a limited national or federal government…NOT WHAT WE HAVE NOW!!!
Just wait until dark and go in for the kill with a can of wasp and hornet killer. With a low beam flashlight, shoot the wasp and hornet killer straight into the entrance hole and let her rip.
Pretty lame….
Should have used a dragons breath round.
This is not funny, but, it is funny..there is nothing that can make you jump, shout, run, dance, bebop, back flip and any other thing you can do to and with your body just to escape one yellow jacket or even a wasp. Talk about making a 6′ 200LB man evacuate anyway possible, our little critters with stingers and do it….
Why only one shot? Should’a kicked a few more of ’em in on the ground…….fellow wasp hater Parker
Should you use #7 1/2 lead, or #6 steel on wasps?
Reminds me of the time I was squirrel hunting several years ago. Saw a big oak tree teaming with tree rats, so I sat on a nearby log to watch, have a sandwich, and cup of coffee. I heard a little buzzing around my backpack while I ate my sandwich. I paid it no heed, probably flies.
I was hunting with a Ruger Mark III Hunter, top with a 2X Leupold. A couple of squirrels came into a nearby tree and I stood and addressed them. I raised the 2 power to my eye, and zeroed in and found the squirrel’s tail. Just a slight adjustment and… Zap! Zap! Zap! I was being stung repeatedly by hornets. I ran out on to the trail, stumbled over a tree branch, and down I went, the hornets were on me again, stinging my head, back, and neck. I arose and ran like hell.
My backpack and rifle were back at the hollow log with the hornets nest inside. I had the Ruger pistol, but it’s not much defense against hornets. I had to go back and retrieve my outfit. Instead of just waiting until they settled down, I decided to stop by a nearby bee keeper to see if he would loan me a bee suit. Luckily, he wasn’t home (probably would have laughed me off his property, calling me a big wuss).
So, I went to a local hardware store and purchased a pvc rain suit, a butterfly net, heavy leather gloves, and wasp spray, then returned to the hunting area. It was an 85 degree day. I donned the rain suit, the heavy gloves, put the butterfly net over my head, and taped the seams with duct tape. As I left my truck, heading back to the woods, a family drove by me headed to the lake to picnic. I must have looked like an alien that had landed, or an EPA engineer heading to clean up a hazardous spill. Who knows what they thought of the idiot in the rain suit, with a butterfly net over his head, on a hot September day.
When I got to the log I didn’t see a single hornet. If I had just waited 15 min. I could have waltzed right in and retrieved my outfit. I hate wasps! I’m real careful now about where I sit and have a sandwich and coffee while in the woods.
That must have been a sight.
I was hunting in Indiana and took a step and everything went gray for a second then the heard the buzzing. Seems I stepped on a ground hornets nest. Those little bugged followed me for at least a hundred yards. Ended up with 19 stings on my back and neck. I probably could have broke the world’s record if I wasn’t carrying my grandpa’s Winchester mod 12 16ga. That dammed shotgun got hung up on every thing in my way. Wasn’t too awfully bad.
But three days later at work on the flightline 3 bumblebees flew up my pant leg when I was hooking up a piece of equipment. Now that hurt.
Enjoyed your story, Ryan.
Your bumble bees up the pant leg reminded me of a Sunday morn when I was 9, or 10. I had just got out of Sunday school, and left my parents and siblings jawing in the church foyer, and headed out to the car. Just as I reached the car a yellow jacket flew up my pant leg and started stinging me repeatedly. I stripped off my Sunday-go-to-meeting trousers in an instant, left them lying in a heap, and did the 100 yd dash across the parking lot… in front of half the congregation. I think I may have invented the, ‘Streaking’ trend of the 1970’s. Yeah, probably not. I hate wasps.
Instead of using a shotgun, he could have better used the flamethrower, which Jon Hodoway presented last year:
https://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/the-xm42-flamethrower/
Of course, being in the woods, like this man with his shotgun was, using a flamethrower is never a good idea. But a flamethrower is always what I am wishing for when I see wasps. I, a 27 year old adult male, admit, that I am afraid of wasps, as well as hornets, and will always be. But the funny thing is, I never got stung by each of these pests in my whole life and I am not afraid by bees or bumblebees, although they have stingers as well. But wasps and hornets are aggressive scouts and I always run away if I see one, although I’ve heard a lot of people saying that even these are not aggressive at all, as long as you don’t make any sudden movement, same with bees. But I don’t care, I just hate these things.
I remember that in 2002 I was reading about a German orthodontist that actually keeps hornets (yes, hornets!), just as others are keeping bees, and neither is he afraid nor does he see these animals as dangerous. But I will always keep a mile away from these for the rest of my life. I think my pure fear of these two kinds of insects kept me save from ever being stung.