Paper Wasps in our walls

[Rollo]

5. A couple years ago we had yellow jackets build a farily large nest inside the shed roof...

Over an enclosed patio attached to the house proper. They had found their way in through a gap in the roofing materials, It's about a six inch high space and they had been at it a while.

When they started coming into the enclosed patio I realized I had to take action. I drilled a 1/8" hole in the ceilng below where I figured the wasps were nesting. Then I bent a little plastic tube 90 degrees, and attached it to a spray can of wasp insecticide. Inserted the tube into the hole in the ceiling, and I could tell from the angry buzzing up there that I had found the mark. In fact a couple of wasps escaped through another hole into the enclosed patio, obviously on their last gasp.

Then I stopped up the gap where they were entering from the outside.

No more wasp problems.

Oddly, I had seen them congregating in that area of the roof for a few months, but didn't realize they had created a nest inside the roof. Then again, I had lots of other work going on with the house.

One of these days I'll have to tear down the ceiling to remove the nest remains, as well as remedy any damage from a rainwater leak in an adjacent skylight.

The joys of home ownership, for a DIY'er.