How to Get Rid of Yellow Jackets in Siding or Window Trim in One Day

Last week, there were dead yellow jackets in my house near a picture window. It turned out that there was a yellow jacket nest in the trim around one of my windows, and I had to eradicate them before they could cause real problems such as forming a nest in my attic. Below I have a description of how I was able to successfully get rid of yellow jackets in the window trim of my house in a single day.  This would also work for a nest in vinyl or shake siding where access to the nest is restricted.

Originally, I had thought this was some kind of bee. Five minutes online taught me that it was indeed a yellow jacket by using google and comparing the body of a dead one to an image. I also learned this is a wasp which can sting multiple times. A couple of these small insects will teach you that in a hurry if you make them angry.

Knowing this was a wasp, I investigated the location of where the nest might be. There were a lot of yellow jackets flying around the outside of one of my windows, and I followed the trail to where they were entering the window trim.

This picture shows the window and trim I have, which was installed by home depot. It is a standard vinyl type replacement window with aluminum textured like wood around the outside. The aluminum is hollow and it allowed the queen to form a nest somewhere along the vertical piece. I had assumed the hole was intentional to allow drainage, but home depot will let me know if it was poor installation or if it is intentional.

There were approximately one dozen yellow jackets flying up to the hole with entry or exit of a different yellow jacket every 2-3 seconds. I put a long branch into the hole to see if there were other entries. This was somewhat successful to tell me that they were only interested in using this hole to get to the nest. However, I knew it was temporary and it didn't even completely cover the hole, so they could still get through.

How about using something else to block the hole completely? I thought that a 2 inch piece of duct tape over the hole would work and then the problem would be solved. I did this, and the insects started flying around rather quickly appearing quite angry. However, I didn't get stung for at least two reasons: 1) they didn't feel I was a threat and were focused on entering the hole as they had been for at least a week; and 2) it only took a couple of seconds for me to cover it and get away fast.

Unfortunately, the yellow jackets figured out other ways to try to get in and out. The horizontal piece of trim seemed to be one option as they kind of disappeared along the bottom. No problem. I can put a long piece of duct tape all along the bottom and that should stop it, or so I thought.

I put on a long wind breaker and some heavy cloth work gloves and got ready. They were flying around faster than before, but I thought I could move quickly as before and be safe. I was able to attach the duct tape strip at the end away from the entrance, and tried to quickly attach the tape in a rapid motion. It worked, but I was stung through both the wind breaker and gloves!

Lesson 1: Don't do this during the day!   Everything you read on the internet will say this and it is wise to do this after dark.

Within a couple of hours, they had eaten a large hole through the duct tape and I now had a lot of angry yellow jackets to deal with. To make matters worse, the new hole was not as efficient of an entry as the bare hole, so there was a traffic jam of yellow jackets flying around.

Lesson 2: Professional duct tape is not a barrier.

A more permanent blockage seemed like a possible solution, such as caulk (during the evening, for sure). After reading much on the internet, that did not seem like a good idea for a few reasons:

They were probably going to be watching for possible threats to the entrance I was smarting from being stung earlier.  Worst of all, they may burrow into the attic or siding to escape.

In addition, home depot is due to arrive in a couple of days and assess the situation. I wasn't sure if they would reimburse me for an exterminator, and even if they would, it would delay fixing the issue while waiting for an exterminator. I needed to do something pretty soon or I would be in a bind.

Solutions for killing yellow jackets include several chemical methods. I chose the last one listed below, but here is what I found at the local hardware store:

• Wasp / hornet spray - generally, this type of aerosol spray will shoot 15 feet or more (good to keep from getting stung), it kills on contact, and is relatively inexpensive at less than 5 dollars a can. The drawbacks include poor ability to focus the spray into a hole (it would work well for a nest that is in the open), and it is pretty toxic.
• Carpenter been and yellow jacket spray - this aerosol includes a small straw like WD40 and would enable me to get poison into the hole without making a huge mess. The drawback is that it is petroleum based, which is not good for either the latex paint or the vinyl replacement window. I could wash the siding with soap and water the next day, but it still was not a good choice for me because the nest was likely a distance from the hole and I would not be able to actually spray the nest. Most likely, there would be a pile of dead insects that block the hole and they would not suffocate for a few days if they didn't find another exit or way into the attic.
• Traps - there were several brands available and the concept was appealing to me because it would not require getting near the nest. I purchased two and learned that they should be placed at least 20 feet from entrances and edible vegetables / plants. I understand keeping it away from an entrance to draw yellow jackets away from where you might be. I also understand that keeping the traps (and chemicals used in them) need to be kept away from edibles because they are HARSH. Not ideal.
• Poison dust - this was the best option in my mind because it will not kill the yellow jackets instantly, but will enable them to return to the nest and share the poison with the others, leading to total success for killing the colony. There are a number of kinds available.

Here is How I Was Able to Get Rid of Yellow Jackets in One Day

Assuming you have a similar problem with a yellow jacket nest that is not near the entrance and you are considering using dust, I can say this worked very well for me. 

1. Purchase the insecticide. There are number of brands available and the price varies significantly. Ace hardware did not sell the popular brand Delta Dust, and in fact, the only option was Sevin. This worked fine for me.
2. Determine how to apply the dust. Based on other people's posts, putting a pile of dust is not very efficient. Some have said it is effective to use a turkey baster in which you blow the dust several times. I was unable to find a post that gave a better description of how to do it (jump to step 6 if you want to seed the method I learned to do this.
3. Select a method of propellant. The bulb won't blow the powder far, so I thought of a way to do it. I used an portable air tank which I already owned. You can pick one up at the hardware store for about 20 dollars and they are useful to fill up a tire that is low on air, blow off dust in the vacuum, etc. You can fill it up at the gas station or use a compressor if you or a neighbor has one. As it turns out, you can probably use a can of air from an office supply which is commonly used to clean out a computer.
   
   
4. Cut or drill a hole in the turkey baster bulb. This allows the air to push out the insecticide. Don't make it too big or it will be less effective.
5. WAIT UNTIL NIGHT!!!! I went out at 9:30 pm and there was not a single yellow jacket to be found. I had read there would be a guard watching out, but he must have been sleeping that night.
6. Fill the baster about 1/3 of the way. Just squeeze the bulb, stick the nozzle tip in the dust, and when you allow the bulb to expand there will be a significant amount of dust in the baster which is more than adequate to provide a lot of poison. I figured I would apply it several times in one instance and repeat the procedure if necessary. It turned out I only needed one instance to kill them all.
7. Blow the dust in the hole. I suggest wearing a cheap dust mask as a minimum.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 several times.

Following this procedure, I never encountered a single yellow jacket during the installation and even had time to blow the dust off the equipment without fear of getting stung. I am not absolutely sure the dust went all the way up the trim, but I am pretty sure it did. Why? Because the next morning, I saw two yellow jackets hanging out near the hole for about an hour, and then, NOTHING! It is possible a pile of dead yellow jackets is sitting on the bottom of the trim. When home depot comes out to seal my trim, I will ask them to pop it off and see (I will report the results later).


Let me know if you think this was interesting or have tried it. I wanted to share the turkey baster filling description as it has been mentioned by others but never actually described well. It was really easy. I do believe the propellant is essential to expedite the killing, though. I can't imagine getting to the queen unless you use a lot of air to really drive it into and through the nest.

GAIQ Exam - What I learned

     Have you been considering taking the GAIQ (Google Analytics Individual Qualification) Exam?  If you have reached this web page by a web search engine, you probably know what the GAIQ is.  If not, I have written a brief description of the exam and what it means.

     I recently prepared for and passed the exam and wanted to share what I learned about the GAIQ exam.  There is an enormous amount of information on this topic, but the exam was not entirely what I anticipated from reading other web pages.

     How is the GAIQ exam different than I expected?

• My exam did not contain any check all that apply questions.  When looking at the study questions others have posted, I expected to see many of them.  They can be quite intimidating.  I did encounter "all of these apply" or "none of these apply" in the multiple choice answers, but of the 70 questions, I never had the opportunity to select more than a single answer.

• The questions are not tricky.  I began the test with (admittedly) some anxiety as having to wait another week to retake the exam was not something I wanted to do.  Plus, it would be an ego bust.  Just remember to look for the words always and required in test questions as they have specific meanings.

• You can miss 16 questions and still pass.  While I knew this coming into the exam, that is a lot of questions to miss.  I used scratch paper to keep track of how many questions I was unsure about and was pretty close (I missed a few).  If you get uncomfortable, you can always use the search in google analytics without cheating since it is an open book test.

• 90 minutes is a lot of time for this test.  Some postings have indicated that you should not spend more than 1 1/2 minutes per question.  I found that many of the questions were relatively easy and could have spent much longer on challenging questions.

     If you are still reading this, you may be wondering why I was interested in earning the certification.  I really wanted to learn how the process of tracking works.  After all, google is a company that is clearly making money, a lot of it.  According to the google website, the fourth quarter earnings in 2014 were 18 billion dollars.  I did not understand how they earned their money and believed learning google analytics would provide enough information to learn their business model (I did).

     If you are interested in learning about how google works, follow my test preparation method and you will understand the fundamentals of the google model as well as have no difficulty passing the exam.  My time investment was spread over a week and a half (not full time).



   

Preparing for the Exam

Tips Based on How I Prepared for the GAIQ Exam

     As you have probably guessed, I believe passing the GAIQ on the first attempt is very likely with adequate preparation.  I believe several steps are definitely required for passing the test, while other actions are optional and can be used to really understand the entire process.  Here are the steps I took to prepare for the GAIQ and pass the exam:

• Watch the tutorials in Analytics Academy.  12 hours

• Digital Analytics Fundamentals
• Google Analytics Platform Principles

           Take good notes and be ready to read them again before the exam.  While some indicated watching the videos twice was a good idea, I found taking good notes and reading them a couple of times was more than adequate to understand the material.  The tutorials move very fast and pausing to take thorough notes is recommended.  Also, each tutorial has questions or exercises at the end.  Take them.

          Other tutorials are available in analytics academy, but these were more than adequate to pass the test.  I did listen to the e-commerce tutorial, but it was not essential.

• Open a Google Analytics account.  10 minutes

          This step is critical to understanding how the platform works.  It is easy to do and most people probably have a google account through Gmail or Youtube,  During the test, there will be questions about certain reports and having google analytics open is very helpful.

• Open a blog and place the tracking code on your pages.  30 minutes

          I highly recommend you create some web pages that will generate data that you can actually monitor.  It is very interesting to observe google analytics in action and to understand how you can create reports and plots / graphs with the data.  Unfortunately, you are unable to observe actual web data without someone providing you user rights to their web page code or creating your own web page.  

          Why aren't there practice web pages to analyze real data?  This explanation requires a little background to understand.  Google analytics requires a java script with a tracking code and unique identification number that is provided by google for each page that is to be monitored.  This is used to a) initiate the process of sending data to google analytics (java script); and b) indicate how google analytics should organize the data (which google analytics account / property the information should be sent to based on the id).  If you do not have the identification number, you can't receive the data.  Google controls the tracking number in a google analytics account and does not allow you to set the tracking number, meaning that if your java script with the appropriate tracking number is not included in a web page, you can't see the data.

• Look at your data and learn how to make goals and reports.  as much time as you can

     I was amazed at how many people were looking at my test blog page.  Most were bounces but the data indicated my pages were quite popular for people on other continents.  Some clicked on my links.  Plus, you can watch the behavior of your own actions such as (sample question spoiler alert)

• Real time reports no longer show a user is active after 5 minutes of inactivity while a session remains active for up to 30 minutes of inactivity (default).
• You can close a browser and reopen it without creating a new session due to the current procedure of looking at the utmb cookie (session cookie) and ignoring the utmc cookie (deleted when the browser is closed).  

• Read available information on other web pages (very helpful).  10 hours

          While the tutorials do provide a lot of information that can help you pass the test, it is still not enough.  I recommend a sources, such as a blog by Jens Sorenson (very thorough), Natalie Henley, and Josh Waldrum. There are many others available as well, but this is more than adequate.

• Take some practice test questions (helpful).

          There are many websites that contain practice questions.  Some are collections of test preparation questions and others are actual test questions.  Believe it or not, these are two independent sets of questions.  Which is better for you?  Well, that depends...

• Test preparation questions are written by expert users of google analytics to challenge your understanding.  

          The website http://www.googleanalyticstest.com/ provides very in-depth questions which are much more difficult than the actual exam.  Fortunately, the questions also include the answers and explanations for the correct answer.  This site will help you gain conceptually how the process works.

          Many of the questions have been written years ago and the screen shots of google analytics are not fully up to date, but the content is consistent with the current platform.  If you can answer 50 percent of the questions correctly and understand the reasoning behind the answers, you are definitely ready to confidently pass the exam.  I enthusiastically recommend this site.

• Actual test questions are really more useful to recognize that you are ready to take the exam and pass it.  

         These questions will give you confidence in taking the exam knowing you are knowledgeable with google analytics.  While you can leave these types of pages open during the exam to assist, why are you learning google analytics?  If it is solely to add a certification to your resume, does that mean you are ready to perform web analysis professionally?  Inadequate understanding of google analytics will be obvious to your employer and you are wasting your time taking the exam if that is the platform you are planning to use for web analysis.  Is it not better to pass the test when you can answer the questions which were designed to show demonstrated proficiency without google searching each question?  All right, enough of the soap box preaching.  

         In the end, I am pretty sure you can pass the exam simply by google'ng each question and finding the answer on different websites.  If that is your goal, it is not really cheating since this is an open book test.  Enjoy!

     You can also return to see what I learned.