Odds of this working on wasp nest

Legume

I was really hoping for some flames and a good story, maybe even devastating.

SkinnyV

In the back of my mind I wondered if I was being set up,as I poured the gas the wasps would suddenly swarm me... And then I'd have an interesting story. 
But nope... I waited them out then poured.

littlerascal56

I do the gasoline dumped in the hole/nest trick a lot.  Don't need to light it.  A little cup of gas thrown on a nest under the eve or deck, and they all drop like flies and flounder on the ground till dead. 

We have the spray wasp bombs that shoot 20', but gasoline still works best when you are dealing with a lot of them in one place.

RRP

Ok - maybe this sounds dumb, but why does a small amount of gasoline poured in the hole in the ground kill them? Is it the fumes or the gas attacks their shell or brain or something? Maybe @nolaegghead can enlighten us!

Zippylip

RRP said:

Ok - maybe this sounds dumb, but why does a small amount of gasoline poured in the hole in the ground kill them? Is it the fumes or the gas attacks their shell or brain or something? Maybe @nolaegghead can enlighten us!

I don't know the answer to that but I do know if you pour rubbing alcohol on a bumble bee it'll shrivel up to the size of a raisin right quick

RRP

Zippylip said

...if you pour rubbing alcohol on a bumble bee it'll shrivel up to the size of a raisin right quick

I did not know that! I do remember though as a kid we made it a game of seeing how many honey bees we could catch and put in our jar before we got stung! Actually catching them is easy you just have to be fast. While they are collecting pollen their wings are stationary and you just pinch them together with your thumb and forefinger. Only drawback is if you don't get both wings then they flip over and sting your thumb or finger. Actually bee stings on the sensitive finger tips where you have more nerve endings is painful! 

I remember my buddy shaming a younger neighbor kid for catching lighting bugs..."real boys catch bees not fire flies"

Jeremiah

@RRP and now kids play Pokeman and don't know which bathroom to use. Kinda makes you wonder what this country will look like in 50 years...

Lit

RRP said:

Zippylip said

...if you pour rubbing alcohol on a bumble bee it'll shrivel up to the size of a raisin right quick

I did not know that! I do remember though as a kid we made it a game of seeing how many honey bees we could catch and put in our jar before we got stung! Actually catching them is easy you just have to be fast. While they are collecting pollen their wings are stationary and you just pinch them together with your thumb and forefinger. Only drawback is if you don't get both wings then they flip over and sting your thumb or finger. Actually bee stings on the sensitive finger tips where you have more nerve endings is painful! 

I remember my buddy shaming a younger neighbor kid for catching lighting bugs..."real boys catch bees not fire flies"

Real boys wear denim right Ron?

EGGjlmh

RRP said:

Ok - maybe this sounds dumb, but why does a small amount of gasoline poured in the hole in the ground kill them? Is it the fumes or the gas attacks their shell or brain or something? Maybe @nolaegghead can enlighten us!

Ron I cannot explain why it works but I know it does work.  I had ground bees last summer.  It was so bad we could not go in the backyard in the evenings.  Someone told me to pour about a quart of gas down their hole in the ground.  I did that one evening about dark and never had another bee!

BBQpilot

We had a nest of yellow jackets in an exterior wall of the house last fall. A small shelf with Sevin dust they had to walk through to get into their hole took them out in a couple days. 

RRP

EGGjlmh said:

RRP said:

Ok - maybe this sounds dumb, but why does a small amount of gasoline poured in the hole in the ground kill them? Is it the fumes or the gas attacks their shell or brain or something? Maybe @nolaegghead can enlighten us!

Ron I cannot explain why it works but I know it does work.  I had ground bees last summer.  It was so bad we could not go in the backyard in the evenings.  Someone told me to pour about a quart of gas down their hole in the ground.  I did that one evening about dark and never had another bee!

Sorry, but I never said it didn't work! I just asked if anybody could explain why. Nothing more nothing less.

victor1

Boiling water?  Heard it works, don't know.  Just got rid of a football size nest tonight.  two cans wasp spray and long long piece of pvc pipe to knock it down.  Nests in the ground are a major PITA and hard to deal with.  I had a big one last year, tried, gas, motor oil, water hose, smoke bomb and a shot gun (Elmer Fudd style)  About 5 cans of spray finally did it.

nolaegghead

RRP said:

Ok - maybe this sounds dumb, but why does a small amount of gasoline poured in the hole in the ground kill them? Is it the fumes or the gas attacks their shell or brain or something? Maybe @nolaegghead can enlighten us!

I'm no biologist.  But if I were a betting man, I would postulate the volatile hydrocarbons in gasoline (primary constituents being benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, and three isomers of xylene - m, p and o), plus all the aliphatic hydrocarbons, are toxic.   When the median lethal dose (LD50) is exceeded for the species of insect, and this is not unlike putting bugs in a jar with gas and closing the lid, the majority of bugs die.  The hole is the jar, the massive amount of gasoline relative to the internal volume of the "cave" causes respiration of hydrocarbons and subsequent death.

What is interesting to me is how careful people are about admitting dumping gasoline into the ground on their personal properties.  I'm glad this isn't the internet where it's recorded for perpetuity and such admissions would make one culpable (probably wrongly, but absent other evidence in the eyes of the law, for probably what is a preexisting polluted property), with a bit of searching on the googlz.

Legume

Is the fine for dumping gas less than firing a shotgun in your backyard?

btw, agree with your large word explanation, gas is poisonous.

nolaegghead

Legume said:

Is the fine for dumping gas less than firing a shotgun in your backyard?

btw, agree with your large word explanation, gas is poisonous.

Oh, yes it is.

RRP

nolaegghead said:

RRP said:

Ok - maybe this sounds dumb, but why does a small amount of gasoline poured in the hole in the ground kill them? Is it the fumes or the gas attacks their shell or brain or something? Maybe @nolaegghead can enlighten us!

I'm no biologist.  But if I were a betting man, I would postulate the volatile hydrocarbons in gasoline (primary constituents being benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, and three isomers of xylene - m, p and o), plus all the aliphatic hydrocarbons, are toxic.   When the median lethal dose (LD50) is exceeded for the species of insect, and this is not unlike putting bugs in a jar with gas and closing the lid, the majority of bugs die.  The hole is the jar, the massive amount of gasoline relative to the internal volume of the "cave" causes respiration of hydrocarbons and subsequent death.

What is interesting to me is how careful people are about admitting dumping gasoline into the ground on their personal properties.  I'm glad this isn't the internet where it's recorded for perpetuity and such admissions would make one culpable (probably wrongly, but absent other evidence in the eyes of the law, for probably what is a preexisting polluted property), with a bit of searching on the googlz.

Think I got what you said...thanks...

SkinnyV

Who said dump??? It spilled .... Umm buffalo .... Need u here 

kill now pleaZe....

better yet we have underground oil tanks leaking all over this neighborhood..... I fixed my problem but see the point on gas not being the most ideal method. My wife was on me before doing it saying no... My bad.

saluki2007

nolaegghead said:

What is interesting to me is how careful people are about admitting dumping gasoline into the ground on their personal properties.  I'm glad this isn't the internet where it's recorded for perpetuity and such admissions would make one culpable (probably wrongly, but absent other evidence in the eyes of the law, for probably what is a preexisting polluted property), with a bit of searching on the googlz.

HaHa, jokes on them.  I'm just a dog on the internets.

chadpsualum

nolaegghead said:

RRP said:

Ok - maybe this sounds dumb, but why does a small amount of gasoline poured in the hole in the ground kill them? Is it the fumes or the gas attacks their shell or brain or something? Maybe @nolaegghead can enlighten us!

I'm no biologist.  But if I were a betting man, I would postulate the volatile hydrocarbons in gasoline (primary constituents being benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, and three isomers of xylene - m, p and o), plus all the aliphatic hydrocarbons, are toxic.   When the median lethal dose (LD50) is exceeded for the species of insect, and this is not unlike putting bugs in a jar with gas and closing the lid, the majority of bugs die.  The hole is the jar, the massive amount of gasoline relative to the internal volume of the "cave" causes respiration of hydrocarbons and subsequent death.

What is interesting to me is how careful people are about admitting dumping gasoline into the ground on their personal properties.  I'm glad this isn't the internet where it's recorded for perpetuity and such admissions would make one culpable (probably wrongly, but absent other evidence in the eyes of the law, for probably what is a preexisting polluted property), with a bit of searching on the googlz.

I'm sure the toxicity of the volatiles plays a part. Additionally, the volatiles also lower the amount of available o2 in the air so I bet some of them just suffocate.

milesvdustin

Jeremiah said:

@RRP and now kids play Pokeman and don't know which bathroom to use. Kinda makes you wonder what this country will look like in 50 years...

berndcrisp

Well, Slim just left town.

jtcBoynton

RRP said:

Ok - maybe this sounds dumb, but why does a small amount of gasoline poured in the hole in the ground kill them? Is it the fumes or the gas attacks their shell or brain or something? Maybe @nolaegghead can enlighten us!

My guess is asphyxiation.  Gas fumes replace the available oxygen. 

fishlessman

better for the kids than pokemon

https://youtu.be/rGKjsRjU0B8

Foghorn

This thread is anticlimactic. I'm devastated. 

nolaegghead

jtcBoynton said:

RRP said:

Ok - maybe this sounds dumb, but why does a small amount of gasoline poured in the hole in the ground kill them? Is it the fumes or the gas attacks their shell or brain or something? Maybe @nolaegghead can enlighten us!

My guess is asphyxiation.  Gas fumes replace the available oxygen. 

Possible, but gas mobility is one of those incredible mysteries that we don't often appreciate.  That little crack in the lower vent give rise to our low and slow fire. 

Take a quart mason jar, put a couple of lightening bugs or butterflies in it.  Pour a bit of gasoline in it (on some paper towel or something).  Seal the lid immediately.  There is plenty of oxygen in the jar - it isn't going to leak out of that mason jar seal very quick.  But the bugs die pretty fast.  Faster than just a jar sealed up with no gas.

Back on track: Bugs will die long before a control jar's bugs will die.  Takes a couple of days for the bugs to use up the O2.  I was a kid, did stuff like this. In the name of science and all that.

Captain_Paul

How in the world did you resist lighting the gas?

Botch

fishlessman said:

better for the kids than pokemon

https://youtu.be/rGKjsRjU0B8

I must be the most uncoordinated guy in the U.S.
I bought a badminton-shaped, battery-powered "fly swatter" from Harbor Freight for, like, $2.99.  I know it works, as a wasp landed on my curtains and I was able to flatten/shock him cleanly (and put out the fire on the curtain quickly).  But, been swinging at flies for months, haven't hit one yet; I have burn marks on my left elbow, left earlobe, chin, broke a lamp, and haven't seen the cat in weeks.  Still haven't killed a fly in flight.
And now this walmart army guy starts swatting bumblebees out of the air with a damn pool cue!!!?!?  
I hate myself.  

Legume

Botch said:

fishlessman said:

better for the kids than pokemon

https://youtu.be/rGKjsRjU0B8

I must be the most uncoordinated guy in the U.S.
I bought a badminton-shaped, battery-powered "fly swatter" from Harbor Freight for, like, $2.99.  I know it works, as a wasp landed on my curtains and I was able to flatten/shock him cleanly (and put out the fire on the curtain quickly).  But, been swinging at flies for months, haven't hit one yet; I have burn marks on my left elbow, left earlobe, chin, broke a lamp, and haven't seen the cat in weeks.  Still haven't killed a fly in flight.
And now this walmart army guy starts swatting bumblebees out of the air with a damn pool cue!!!?!?  
I hate myself.  

No, you really don't want to be him.