BTW I remember reading in the news a few years ago, workers were bulldozing a vacant lot down in Florida and uncovered a yellow jacket nest of record size. It contained an estimated ONE MILLION yellow jackets! Needless to say the construction workers had a Very Bad Day.
Lots of powder covered dead and quivering little monsters starting to show up outside the burrow. Takes a few days but the boric powder looks like its doing the trick.
Vic Smith said:
Lots of powder covered dead and quivering little monsters starting to show up outside the burrow. Takes a few days but the boric powder looks like its doing the trick.
Keep that in mind because I’m sure another nest will show up somewhere else in the yard.
Glad you are winning the war Vic. I’ve been following along the whole time. I kind of think it’s a bit ironic that the guy who likes tiny models on tiny layouts is being plagued by tiny bees.
Victor, can you tell if it is the DE or the boric acid powder that got them?
A good article on boric acid, did not know the part about over application. Also I was told that some of the crystalline powders created cracks in the exoskeletons and they die from dessication, apparently untrue.
http://www.dodsonbros.com/blog/borax-and-boric-acid-for-insect-control-228.html
Regards, Greg
Greg I believe its the combination that’s getting them. I ended up pouring a good pile of the DE around the burrow and it didn’t seam to phase them, guess because they could just fly over most of it. At first I would just pour it over the entry, they would dig aside a new entry, I would pour over than, again new entry, so I poured all the way around the rock the entry was under, this forced them to tunnel thru the DE, that’s when I put the the Boric powder down the entry but I didn’t fill it just spread a good amount. then repeated the spreading around the entry and spraying again the Boric into the entry. The way it looks like its working is that the Boric effects them so its hard for them to fly right away, so they tend to walk around the burrow entry, in the DE which then gets on them. Eventually they just stagger off into the leaves to die. I’m pretty sure its the combo thats finally getting them.
FYI everyone about Diatomatious Earth, in order for it to work it must remain completely dry and powdery for it to effect their joints, once it gets wet, it just becomes silt and becomes useless. So no watering where you put it down. I have use DE very successfully over the years to fight fleas from the neighborhood feral litter of kittens we used to get every year, but since we got the momma cat fixed this hasn’t been as such an issue as in years past. If you can get the cats or dogs to eat the DE with their food its a great way to deworm them as well.
I’ve always wondered how the DE stays dry once its eaten by our pets. 
Yeah, did some more research, DE is little pieces of glass, not all crystalline, but all hard and sharp.
Interesting, so both “powders” work, but in different ways. Interesting about the boric acid, it must be ingested. Ingesting DE apparently does nothing for animals and us, and probably nothing on the insects.
I’ve heard all kinds of things, this thread encouraged me to research and find out what happens.
Greg
Greg, DE is the fossilized remains of the diatom, an algae with an exoskeleton. Granted, that exoskeleton is made of silica, but that doesn’t make it glass. I know that you like to be precise. I thought that you would want to know.
Greg Elmassian said:
…
I’ve heard all kinds of things, this thread encouraged me to research and find out what happens.
Greg
That is very dangerous, all that extra information can lead to “overload”. From what I understand a situation best avoided.
Despite what others may say, there are no side effects other than the extra time spent reading. 
Years ago. Many years ago, I was house sitting in the early spring. I noticed wasps coming and going from a crack in a timber above the deck. “I saw some wasp spray,” I thought.
Yes, a can of wasp spray, the kind that shoots a stream like 50 ft. I took it out to the deck and pointed it, and the stream shot straight into the hole.
Thousands of wasps came boiling out, and soon the deck was littered all around with squirming, angry, dying wasps, and I found myself thinking shoes might not have been a bad idea.
Today there is no activity visible in the burrow. Tonight after sundown I’ll bomb the entry with the spray insecticide then tomorrow night then I’ll cover the opening with DE.
Vic Smith said:
Today there is no activity visible in the burrow. Tonight after sundown I’ll bomb the entry with the spray insecticide then tomorrow night then I’ll cover the opening with DE.
Anything worth doing is worth overdoing, right, Vic?
Tom, you are lucky. When I sprayed them burrowing bees or wasps or whatever with spray, it just really ticked them off.
Steve, but of course. If you go into battle with just enough force to win, you will loose. You go to battle with all you have, and only when the last of the enemy is laying on the ground, dead, do you declare victory.
I think that’s called the “Powell Doctrine,” after General Powell.
well, Vic, one thing for sure - none of the still permitted chemicals will do the trick.
the survivors of your onslaught will make new nests somewhere nearby.
you won a battle, not the war.
since Folidol ( = good old DDT) gets more and more expensive herabouts, we started to experiment.
best way to kill insects is fire in the hole.
be it hornets, termites or ants, it is always the same:
pour a generous quantity of gas fuel into the hole. don’t be shy, use a quart or even more, if you suspect a large tunnel system.
wait two or three minutes, then (from some paces afar) throw a burning paperball onto the entrance.
not ownly may you admire a nice fireball, but if you look quick enough, you can ubicate the seconary entrances by secondary fireballs.
and don’t be afraid about your plants. what does not get roasted instantly, will not be harmed. the gas will explode, not seep into the earth.
if your neighbours start talking about strange fireballs in their gardens, you know, it was a big nest.
(from personal experience, take my advise, that one should have a close look for secondary entrances at the place, where one plans to stand, when igniting the gas. a “Marylin Monroe” air gust from below comes very unexpected in the field or in the garden)
if done right, we have to redo about one nest out of ten.
in the eternal war aginst the insects, man has to either become a criminal (thanks to greenp**s and similar, or he has to take out a credit to pay specialists, who will use the chemicals he may not buy, or he has to prepare for a very long campain.
Your are right Steve, I was 75% right, glass is usually about 75% silica.
I used glass as an example that people would identify with as having characteristics that could be sharp and cut.
Of course, to be completely accurate I was 25% wrong too ha ha!
Greg
I’m pretty confident I nailed the little bastards. The beauty of the Borat is that they don’t react to it, they ignore it like dust, and track it all down into the hive. I figured out the reason the DE wasn’t working the way I hopped was that they were simply packing the stuff like wet stucco in their walls. I wasn’t until the Borat took effect and they would stagger around the entry, and thru the still powdered DE that the DE started to take effect. Between the two that seams to have crippled the hive, and now with the spray hopefully they are done with.
Put a fork in it and call it done. Zero activities noted, buried over the entry with DE tonight. Whew glad that’s over.
Anyone else gets a nest and cannot do the pyroclastic options because we’re in the city, here’s my suggestions. All after the hive has gone in for the night.
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First night, spread diatomatious earth around the entry nice and thick, if you are not attacked, spread some Boric Acid powder in the entry tunnel. If they come out and try or kill you, do this on the second night.
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Continue to spread additional layer of BA into the tunnel entry, make sure they can still get in and out so they can track the stuff inside.
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Once activity has diminished, then spray the commercial spray down the hole. Give it a day.
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Cover the hole.
Or, if it’s available, do the same thing with Powdered Sevin, then forget about it…