New use for "Formula 409"

I had a busy week at work, and only casually noticed if I wasn’t leaving the house before dawn that there always seemed to be two or three German yellowjackets flying around between the screen and the glass louvers of the 50s-style storm door at the back entrance of my house. Today I finally looked up and saw that they had a well-established nest inside the upper corner of the door. Of course I wanted to chase them off or get rid of them. What to do… what to do. I tried squirting them through the screen with the stuff I use for cleaning my glasses. That upset them a bit, but seemed to have no effect beyond that. Hmm, what else do I have handy. I thought of Windex, and when looking for the Windex I saw the bottle of Formula 409, so I tried that stuff… Gosh, a direct hit with the 409 drops them instantly, and they are dead in seconds. So, in a pinch, who needs insecticide? 409 can shoot a very direct and accurate stream to quite a distance too, if need be. I’ll remember that.

Sheesh. You posted this awhile ago and I’m the first to reply? Why is it that clean deaths get no buzz in the media?

All pun and games aside, I’ll inform my wife, with her semi-acute melissophobia of a new arrow for the panic quiver. Any aerosol in reach has been her go to for years. If it had killed the suckers, the Final Touch fabric softener would have been aptly named. The Easy Off? Not so much on the porch rail and steps. Redi-whip? Sweet asphyxiation, I guess. One time when she had dad’s powerwasher crankin’ along at 1100 psi across the pvc privacy fence an errant paper wasp foolishly zipped into her periphery. It was like Al Pacino was reunited.with his little friend! The collateral damage was just awful! Now she’ll be singing, “It’s so fine, my 409!”. God help the little stinger stinkers.

Windex is effective. Critters that breathe don’t do well with ammonia.

“All pun and games aside”, yeah right. Like that could ever happen, not that anyone would want it to. You still made me laugh.

I thought “Final Touch” was good then along came “Easy Off” which was even more gooder. I really did LOL.

Melissophobia? Hey, learned a new word today.

There once was a bee named Melissa
Whose name made a guy wanna kiss her.
But when his lips went to pucker
She zapped that poor love-struck sucker.
So Melissa is still a Miss-a.

Shop vac’d a nest last fall, with an inch of water in the bottom of the vac, and a little dish soap to give them a gentle bubble bath. Took about an hour with the intake clamped right next to the nest, and a few shots of the hose to get them excited.

Don’t know if I’d rely on it for wasps, but we routinely use a spray bottle of diluted dish soap to kill squash bugs on the plant. Get 'em while they’re young and they die fast. The adults require a good soaking.

@string said:
Windex is effective. Critters that breathe don’t do well with ammonia.

Big Fat Greek Wedding idea… Windex is good for everything.

Windex acts as a wetting agent which allows water to enter their spiracles into their tracheae and drowns them. 1/4 cup of dish detergent in a gallon of water can do the same thing. This mix is used to kill killer bee hives. Oil can also cause them to suffocate.

I wondered if the detergent agent in the Formula 409 might be doing something as simple as that, though as fast as the wasps are incapacitated and then keel over, I tend to think that the wetting action leading to complete coverage “inside and out” (because of the tracheal system) might simply accelerate the speed of whatever toxic action is going on.

I think you will be surprised at how fast the water and detergent kills a honey bee. It seems to drop them immediately.

Liquid soap kills roaches fast, also.

@castoff said:
I think you will be surprised at how fast the water and detergent kills a honey bee. It seems to drop them immediately.

I hope you’re not making a habit of that.

@Steve_in_Idaho said:
I hope you’re not making a habit of that.

I was a commercial beekeeper for 15 years. I like Honey Bees. Only twice have I used soap and water to remove left over bees from bee removals one from a church entrance and another from the eve of a house. In both cases the bees could get inside.

@castoff said:

@Steve_in_Idaho said:
I hope you’re not making a habit of that.

I was a commercial beekeeper for 15 years. I like Honey Bees. Only twice have I used soap and water to remove left over bees from bee removals one from a church entrance and another from the eve of a house. In both cases the bees could get inside.

No thumbs up emoji here, so…thumbs up. :wink: