I have a problem with wasps -- they seem to love me. Last summer I
couldn't spend more than ten to fif{*filter*} minutes at a time in my garden
before one or several wasps would come for me. I am asking for advice
on how to repel wasps.

   This year the wasps have built their nest under a stone next to one
of my tiny ponds. The caretaker (poor fellow!) will have to take care
of them, and that will give me a head start on them. Last year we
couldn't find any nest. Even after the caretaker has gassed the nest
in my tiny garden of 30 square meter, other wasps will most likely vie
for the territory. Is there anything I can grow, rub on my skin or
spread on the soil that will repel the black and yellow bastards?
Never mind if it turns my skin purple or kills off all my beloved
plants, I want to be able to spend time in my garden like everyone
else.

   Would it help to remove the ponds and the bird bath? The wasps seem
to come to drink at them, and I suppose that their prey will breed in
them. The black{*filter*}seem to be afraid of the wasps, because as soon
as the wasp season starts, they stop coming to have their bath.

Even when I am not trying to win back my patio from 15-20 wasps, they
seem to love me. The advice I usually get when I ask what to do about
wasps, is to stand still and not wave my arms. I've got some painful
stings when trying to follow that advice. I have also tried to use
hygienic products without perfumes, to no avail. They still love me,
and come for me, even when I'm in the middle of a crowd. So far only
two things seem to work: To kill it dead or to run into the house and
close all doors and windows.

NB: I don't have a problem with bees or bumble-bees, just wasps.
    Patronizing advice redirected to /dev/null.

--Ceci
--

"The number of rational hypotheses that can explain any given
 phenomenon is infinite."
Phaedrus' law from RM Pirsig's _Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_Maintenance_

    You will probably be safe from stings if you are more than 20 feet
from a  nest and not moving about in a threatening manner.  If they
are zeroing in on yoo from some distance, there must be something
about you that signals threat.   Wasps and bees give off attack
phermones which cause others nearby to rush in to help but one has
to be angered enough  to give off the phermones before
the others will pitch in.  The other possiblilty is that for
some reason you look to them like a huge caterpillar whicyh
they will try to paralyze and bring back to their nest for their
larvae.  I have never heard of anyone being attacked for that reason
however.  Beyond the obvious of keeping floral, fruity and meaty
scents away from your person and making sure there are no nests
within 20 feet of where you wish to be, there isn't much more
I can say.  Try calling the entomology department of a
good university and describing this behavior; it may be
of some research interest.

I have the same sort of problem, although I've been lucky enough to
not live near any wasps.  I was overjoyed when I moved from Florida
to Idaho last summer because I finally got to spend a summer outside!
(In Florida I got attacked by mosquitos and fleas, and the wasps
probably would have gotten me too if there had been any around.)
One thing that really helped was the oil by Avon called "skin so
soft".  I know it sounds weird, but it really made a difference.
I would get bit normally any time I went outside, but when I wore
this stuff I only got bit where I didn't put it (like on my head --
whee.).  I assume it works against wasps, although I don't know
for sure.  The stuff I had was an oil, but it may come in a lotion
as well.  I don't know much about wasps but I do know that any time
I was near water (including when our neighbors left their kid's
swimming pool outside for a month with yucky water in it) I got
a lot more mosquito bites than normally.  

Good luck!  

Jamie

---
The views and opinions expressed herein are personal and are not necessarily
those of the United States Government or any of its agencies or contractors.

        In fact, that spray killer is a must around my house. You can
        use it during the day for individual hits. It shoots 20 feet
        or so, so you can get 'em at a distance.  Something that was
        VERY effective at knocking down wasp populations for awhile
        was to hang out at these evergreen we have and get them while
        they were collecting whatever they collect from evergreen. I
        killed 30 or more in about an hour.

        But that's not recommened (and I don't think I'll do it again)
        cause I'm getting the entire area's supply of wasp in those
        couple of trees.

        I saw a new trap on the market that I'll think I'll try this
        year. You fill it with sugar water and the wasp go in and
        (supposedly) can't get out. they really went after the
        humming bird feeders last year, so the sugar water must
        be a good attractant. Just don't want to catch any
        humming birds though!

        Good luck and don't get stung (again).

        Rick Hoffman.

Cutter Labs mosquito repellant seems to work well to keep them away, but
it'll keep people away too.  Off doesn't work at all.

The wasps seem to be attracted to keytones; you can attract them some
place else by putting out finger nail polish remover and rubbing {*filter*}
mixed in equal parts.  This doesn't get rid of them, but you can get them
to go to the other side of the house, for instance.

You can kill them with a squirt bottle with sodium ferrocynide in water
or any cyanide containing rat poison mixed in water... of course you'd
have to wear {*filter*} gloves to do this -- you're better off getting an
exterminator or using a Bug-Bomb.

A Bug Bomb(tm) will also kill them, as will Raid(tm) bug killer, but
Raid attracts them, and it takes a lot to kill one.  Don't use Raid
unless you want to be hip deep in the damn things.

If you can wait, wait until it's winter and destroy the nests and larva
at the same time.  Knocking down a nest you can see will make them build
one that you may not be able to find; they're territorial as hell, so
you should only have to worry about one nest per side of your house.

Wasp anecdote:

We had one or two buzzing around a flourescent light (they seem to like them)
in our newly constructed home, I sprayed them with Raid; it killed them,
but attracted 5 or 6 more.  We sprayed them and more came.  Eventually,
we had to leave the house, there were so many.  We bug-bombed in the
house (1500 square feet in two floors).  After the bug-bomb cleared,we
went back in;  there was not one square foot that did not have at least
6 dead/dying wasps on it (we counted in the ba{*filter*}t, which had 1ft square
floor tiles).  The university estimated that we had killed 12-14,000 of
the damn things (we were in a rural area, but that's still a lot of them,
even if they called all their little wasp buddies on their wasp-phones).

Don't use Raid.  You'll think you are in a Hitchcock movie.

                                        Terry Lambert

---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.

"Oh yes, just sit out around dusk and watch where they are entering the house.
Then come back in the dark, and puff a small amount of diazanon powder
in the hole.  As the wasps enter, they'll carry the diazanon to the nest."

Worked fine.  Total materials used:  
                 1/2 tsp 5% diazanon powder     $ 0.05?
                 1 disposable medicine dropper. $ 0.10
                 1 pr disposable poly gloves    $ 0.10

Total time used:  Watching wasps enter:                5   min
                  Getting ladder out and up to house:  5   min
                  Puffing diazanon powder              0.1 min
                  Putting ladder back                  5   min

Gee, at $300 a pop, I think I should go into paper wasp extermination!

Kay Klier  Biology Dept  UNI