Wasps the bane of our pool

[Katodude]

just going to throw this out there, but I found a product years ago that was suggested to treat for insects and what not. Also found it worked great in a backpack fogger set up when spraying for mosquitos. It's called Bifen IT. Since I began using it, I've found it works well on just about everything. I spray ant beds with it and it works better than anything else I've tried. That being said, I've used it on several wasp nests and it works almost instantly. If I find a nest hidden in a bush, I spray the whole bush. It'll kill anything that lands on it for a while. Just buy a cheap one gallon sprayer and mix it up. Cheaper than buying all those other products at the hardware store and has several uses. I even fired all my pest control services and spray the house myself now. Haven't had a single bug issue in years. Here's a link if you want to check it out
Amazon.com: Bifen IT Control Solutions Insecticide Concentrates: Gateway

+1 in on the Bifen. It is fairly cheap and you can apply it with a pump sprayer around your yard. Coupled with the other things you are doing it should help a lot. You have to re apply after it rains.

 

[RMcGirr83]

Boric acid arrived yesterday from Duda. Will be adding this PM after testing and adjusting pH and TA, running pump and see. Won't really know the effects until Sunday as we'll be in San Antonio for the weekend starting tomorrow.

 

[RMcGirr83]

Add borates to pool water, insects cant process the boron like we can and it kills them

Did this with zero effect. Borates are at 50 and the wasps are still taking their water breaks at will. I guess, for the rest of this season at least, just continue to apply a fly swatter to them when they land. Next year will setup traps and bait prior to it getting all hot and scorching out.

 

[mguzzy]

This is little consolation..but I feel your pain. If you get your wasp traps out in the early spring, you catch them before they establish their nests.

 

[john800xc]

Did this with zero effect. Borates are at 50 and the wasps are still taking their water breaks at will. I guess, for the rest of this season at least, just continue to apply a fly swatter to them when they land. Next year will setup traps and bait prior to it getting all hot and scorching out.

I also feel your pain. I bought a house about 6 weeks ago with a pool and here in Vegas, the temperature's been over 105 everyday since I moved in and over 110 for a couple weeks. I have regular wasps (not hornets, or yellow-jackets). The nest is not my property. They fly over just to land on the pool for water. They seem to know this is the spot and fake nests, traps, insecticide, mint, etc has NOT worked. They just go straight for the water and don't land on anything else or even pay attention to anything else. They're on a water mission it seems (it is often over 110 degrees)

I have not tried borates but due to your lack of success I won't.

What I have been doing which has at least been a physiological win is I have a little electric garden sprayer from Ryobi. I have it filled with dish soap and water. A few times a day I go out and spray the 5-10 who are landing on the water. It's very easy and very little soap is getting into the pool. They drown in about 5 seconds and the skimmer does the rest. I figure in the last week I've killed 75 to 100. Well, I think I've made a difference. I've done some research and regular wasp colonies should be 400 max and likely under 100. I think I've put a dent into their numbers by killing 75 and the rest of the colony is hurting. I'm seeing a little less wasps. Not nearly down to zero or close, but their's been an improvement. I'll report back in a week or so when I've killed around 200.

 

[Elwood5487]

I realize this is an old post, but am now empathizing with folks who have had to battle bees, wasp, hornets nests on or near their pools. Third season pool owner here. We discovered this nest yesterday after having two incidents of guests bumping the side of the pool when swimming and noticing a swarm.

They must build nests very fast because we mow weekly and never saw this.

We were able to get an exterminator to come and deal with this yesterday. Were told it can take up to a week for the baldfaced hornets to bathe in the Crud they sprayed in there to die.

Never had a thought that these things would be interested in building a nest so close to people. Now that we know this is so common, next Spring we will take a very proactive deterrent approach so these jerks don't ruin our swim time again.