Why are wasps flocking to my blind?

We built a new elevated blind out of pressure treated wood this year. The sides are pressboard that has been painted with non-skid floor paint. Hundreds of wasps are flying around and in it and walking all over it. Big wasps, little wasps, you name it. They are not aggressive but I have no doubt they would sting if you sat on one or mashed one with your hand while climbing in or out.

Is there any way to get them to go away?

What are they attracted to? The paint? The pressure treated wood? They are also swarming around our farm house which is 5 miles from the blind so maybe it is not the blind in particular, but they aren't swarming like this out in the trees, just around the buildings.

I don't know that spraying the blind would help much at this point.

It is not expected to freeze between now and this weekend. I'm taking my two oldest (7 and 6) hunting and don't want the wasps to bother us. Also, my dad is so allergic to wasp stings that his doctor gave him syringes of some kind of medicine that he takes with him everywhere in case he is stung. The wasps need to go!!! How do I convince them?

Thanks

i havent tried it yet but there are some people that put chlorine tabs in their blind.....works year round to keep the wasps out.

It is getting cold and the wasps are looking for a winter home. They been doing that forever, set off a bomb in the blind, go to the local coop and ask them what you need to spray the outside of the blind. I don't remember the name of the stuff, but get a 2.5 gallon pump up sprayer to do the outside. Better do it now, that is a new smell and will scare off the deer for several days.

It's that time of year, and their looking for a warm spot. I have the same problem here. Leave a window open in your truck while hunting and they'll gather up. Once i was working on a well and had left my window open. Didn't notice anything until i turned the heater on. There must have been 30 of them in the cab with me.

Just make sure you have the blind well sealed.

I remember reading somewhere about wasps being very territorial. The article said if you make a nest out of a paper bag crumpled up then they will stay away. Don't know if it will work or not but might be worth a try???

We have wasps in our blinds every year in Laredo. They are just looking for a nice warm home out of the cold wind. We generally bomb them every year, but others will move in once those die. The best remedy is to keep plenty off wasp spray at your camp. I keep a can in my backpack that I take with me to the stand. Open up the door, shine your light around, and start spraying them. They will die quickly, and I have never ahd any problems with the deer smelling the nasty spray.

My pennies worth!

We could barely get our feeder filled this weekend because there were so many and they just all came out of know where!

They are trying to find a warm place. Plain and simple. If you will check around, you will see Lady Bugs doing the same thing.

What we used to do was slip up to our big enclosed blind, ease the door open and put a can of insect fogger inside, set it off and close the door. Go back an hour or so later and the problem would be pretty well taken care of.

Then we would keep a can of wasp spray in the blind and any time we saw a wasp, it got sprayed.

Until it freezes, I do not know of anything that will repel the things. They are going to try and find cracks and stuff to crawl into, and they will pile in them by the hundreds.

Probably what the Dr. gave your Dad is an Epi-Pen. it contains Epinephrine, a steriod, that helps open the bronchial tubes so that the person can breath. Most allergies immediately affect the lungs and the trachea.

Lora has the same condition and she carries one with her everywhere.

Odd thing is, that where she is allergic to wasps and bees, I know of at least two times in the past two years that she has been stung by a scorpion and had no ill effects, other than the area around the sting hurting for a couple of days.

The thing you have to be careful with, is that your boys have not inherited that same allergy.

Until or unless it freezes the wasps will just continue to be a problem. JMO.

Maybe someone else knows of some form of repellent.

Good Luck and Good Luck to the boys this weekend.

I'm going up this week to take out a couple nests on the side of my blind...setting a bomb off inside as well....

I understand about them looking for a warm place but this isn't a sealed blind. The shooting port is an 18" high opening all the way around (except for the roof supports) so there isn't a warm place in it. Also, setting off a bug bomb would be a waste of time in the open air. Spraying the outside will kill some of them but not quick enough to keep from getting stung if you put your hand on one.

ETA that youth season is this weekend so any possible cure better be soon. I guess we can hunt in the morning until it gets warm enough for the little flying critters to become active.

All my blinds before have been on the ground and made from trees, burlap, camo cloth and re bar so when the wasps gathered around the house I never worried too much.

Maybe we should try yellow jacket traps?

Bugs don't know whether it will be warm or not, sort of like elk don't know how many legs a horse has got.

The concept is "They Are Looking For A Place To Get Out Of The Weather".

Any crack around any structure, blind/house/barn/feeder, you name it will attract them.

There are sprays available that kill on contact, and they do work.

The drawback to hunting till it starts warming up, is that with 3 of you in that blind, no matter how open it is your body temps will raise the temp in the blind. Couple that with touching off a shot, which will jar wasps out of those cracks and crevices, and you may end up with some stings anyway.

Were it me, I would try to get to the place on Fri. night as early as possible and do anything I could to get those little devils killed. JMO.

Try hanging a couple of those fly traps that are sticky from Walmart. No smell and will catch/trap those that decide to take flight while you are in the blind. Dont want to spray bug killer opening morning.

I would keep the blind sprayed with wasp spray for a while, maybe the residual smell will keep them away. Of course, it may keep the deer away also. I have also heard of people spraying the nest and surrounding area with WD-40. They claim it keeps them away. Google up "Wasp Repellents"

We're going to try and make some home made traps like these:

http://www.pollinator.com/gallery/yellow_jacket_trap.htm

I'm going to make them out of gallon milk jugs and 2 liter soda bottles. Maybe 2 on each side of the blind. Hang them on the outside near floor level so they are out of the line of sight but still above the deer.

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We're going to try and make some home made traps like these:

http://www.pollinator.com/gallery/yellow_jacket_trap.htm

I'm going to make them out of gallon milk jugs and 2 liter soda bottles. Maybe 2 on each side of the blind. Hang them on the outside near floor level so they are out of the line of sight but still above the deer.

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Looked at the website and sounds like a good idea. Will try it this season.

Didn't know yellowjackets were "beneficial" little beasties but do know that from my experiences with them the level of tolerance for yellowjacets with me is 0 - that's zero, for those of you that may have thought it was a letter of the alphabet.