- 5 weeks ago
🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
https://eliasyoder.com
You step out to the porch in the late afternoon and there she is — sitting on the line right next to your hand. A yellowjacket. Her sting is half an inch behind her, and she does not need a reason. By the time you have backed off, three more have come out from under the eaves, and you realize the nest you have been hearing all week is right there in the corner where the children sit to take off their boots. The can of wasp spray in the garage costs nine dollars and does nothing for the nest you cannot see.
In this video I walk you through the old method — the simple, cheap, kind-to-your-honeybees method that careful country folks have used for as long as boric acid has been on the shelf. For about three dollars in apple juice and pure boric acid powder, you can wipe out the wasp and yellowjacket colonies near your home and keep them from coming back, and you can do it without harming a single honeybee in your yard.
That last part matters more than people know. The chemical sprays the lawn-care companies use kill the wasps, yes — and they kill your honeybees too, and your bumblebees, and
https://eliasyoder.com
You step out to the porch in the late afternoon and there she is — sitting on the line right next to your hand. A yellowjacket. Her sting is half an inch behind her, and she does not need a reason. By the time you have backed off, three more have come out from under the eaves, and you realize the nest you have been hearing all week is right there in the corner where the children sit to take off their boots. The can of wasp spray in the garage costs nine dollars and does nothing for the nest you cannot see.
In this video I walk you through the old method — the simple, cheap, kind-to-your-honeybees method that careful country folks have used for as long as boric acid has been on the shelf. For about three dollars in apple juice and pure boric acid powder, you can wipe out the wasp and yellowjacket colonies near your home and keep them from coming back, and you can do it without harming a single honeybee in your yard.
That last part matters more than people know. The chemical sprays the lawn-care companies use kill the wasps, yes — and they kill your honeybees too, and your bumblebees, and
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00You step out to the porch in the late afternoon to bring in the wash, and there she is, sitting
00:06on the line right next to your hand, a yellow jacket.
00:10Her wings flick, her sting is half an inch behind her, and she does not need a reason.
00:17By the time you have backed off, three more have come out from somewhere up under the eaves of the
00:23porch, and you realize the nest you have been hearing all week is right there in the corner where the
00:30children sit to take off their boots.
00:32Your wife will not bring the laundry in, your dog cannot go around the back of the house, and the
00:39can of wasp spray in the garage costs $9 and does nothing for the nest you cannot see.
00:47Now I want you to sit with this. There is a household pest that puts more Americans in the emergency
00:54room every summer than spiders and snakes combined.
00:59Yellow jackets, wasps, and hornets, and one stung child is enough to ruin a family's whole August.
01:08The store sells you cans of spray for $10 a piece.
01:13The pest control man wants $400 for one visit, and neither one of them stops the next nest from going
01:21up in the same spot in the same eve a month later.
01:26What I am going to show you today is the old method, the simple, cheap, kind-to-your-honeybees method
01:34that the careful country folks have used for as long as boric acid has been on the shelf, which is
01:40a hundred years and more.
01:43For about a dollar in apple juice, and about $2 worth of boric acid powder, you can wipe out the
01:50wasp colonies that have set up around your home and keep them from coming back, and you can do it
01:56without harming a single honeybee in your yard.
01:59That last part matters more than people know.
02:04The chemical sprays the lawn care companies use kill the wasps, yes, and they kill your honeybees, too, and your
02:12bumblebees, and your butterflies, and the pollinators that bring you next year's apples.
02:19The method I am about to show you does not.
02:23It is the wasps that come and drink it, and the honeybees walk right past.
02:29My name is Elias Yoder.
02:31I am Amish, and I farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
02:36I keep bees behind the milk house, and Esther and I have used this same recipe on our own farm
02:43for years, around the same yard where our grandchildren play.
02:48Let me show you how it works.
02:50Quick word before we go further.
02:52I have written a book that gathers all of these little money-saving methods my family uses, the things that
03:00have kept our household costs low for two generations, into one place.
03:05It is at EliasYoder.com.
03:08I will not bring it up again in the video.
03:12If you want it, it is there.
03:14And I will be honest with you the whole way, the way I always am, including telling you what the
03:20bold claim in this video really means and where it has its limits.
03:25Folks will tell you this method will kill every wasp for a half a mile around your house.
03:33The honest truth is plainer and still very useful.
03:37The wasps and yellow jackets whose foragers find your bait will carry it back and the whole nest will die.
03:46That is most of the nests near where you live, because wasps forage out from their nest in a wide
03:53circle, often a thousand feet, sometimes farther,
03:58and any nest whose workers find your bait stations is the nest that goes down.
04:04So you can wipe out the colonies near your home, the ones causing you the actual trouble,
04:10and dramatically reduce the wasps you see on your property.
04:14That is what is honestly possible, and that is enough.
04:19Now let me show you the method.
04:22Stay with me.
04:23Let me first tell you a thing about wasps that the spray companies do not want you to think too
04:29hard on,
04:29because once you understand it, the spray can in the garage starts to look like exactly what it is,
04:36a quick fix that does not fix the real problem.
04:41Wasp colonies are big.
04:44A single yellow jacket nest in mid-summer can hold 3,000 to 5,000 workers, sometimes more.
04:51When you spray a visible nest with a can of pyrethrin, you kill the few hundred or thousand that happen
04:59to be home at that moment.
05:00The other thousands, out foraging in your yard, in the neighbor's yard, half a mile down the road,
05:08they come back to a dead nest, regroup, and a new queen starts building somewhere else that same season.
05:16The spray killed a part of the colony, the colony itself just moved.
05:22And next spring, the survivor queens you did not kill come out of their winter hiding places and start the
05:30whole thing over.
05:32The old method is different in one critical way.
05:36It kills the whole colony, including the queen, by letting the workers do the work for you.
05:43Here is how it works.
05:45Boric acid is a fine white powder you can buy at any hardware store or pharmacy for $2 or $3
05:52a box.
05:53It has been used by careful country folks for over a hundred years.
05:59It is slow acting, and that is the key word, slow acting to insects.
06:07A wasp that drinks a bait laced with boric acid does not drop dead at the bait station.
06:13She flies back to her nest carrying the bait in her crop.
06:18She feeds the queen.
06:19She feeds the other workers.
06:21She feeds the larvae.
06:23Wasps share their food back and forth inside the colony.
06:28The entomologists call it trophallaxis.
06:32The country folks just call it the way they feed each other.
06:35And the boric acid spreads through the whole colony in a day or two.
06:41By the end of the week, the nest is dead.
06:44The queen is dead.
06:46The next generation never hatches.
06:50One bait station.
06:52Ten cents worth of boric acid.
06:55A whole colony gone, including the part of the colony you would never have found with a can of spray.
07:02And here is the part that matters for the honeybees.
07:06Honey bees do not forage on apple juice.
07:10They are looking for floral nectar, the sugar from flowers.
07:15The yellow jackets and the wasps and the hornets, by late summer, are looking for sweet liquids of any kind.
07:42And there is one more trick that locks the bee safety in.
07:47We are going to add a small amount of apple cider vinegar to the bait.
07:53The smell of vinegar repels honeybees specifically.
07:57They do not like it.
07:59They steer clear of it.
08:01While wasps and yellow jackets are not bothered by it at all.
08:05The bait is built to be invisible to your bees and irresistible to your wasps.
08:12That is the chemistry.
08:14Plain.
08:15Now let me show you the recipe.
08:18Here is the parts list.
08:20Total cost, about three or four dollars for everything.
08:24Pure boric acid powder.
08:28A small box at any hardware store or pharmacy.
08:31Two or three dollars.
08:34Do not get the boric acid that is mixed with other roach-killing chemicals.
08:39Get the plain, pure boric acid powder.
08:43That is what you want.
08:46Apple juice.
08:47One bottle at the grocery store or the dollar store.
08:51A dollar to two dollars.
08:53Any brand.
08:55The cheaper the better.
08:57The wasps do not care.
09:00Apple cider vinegar.
09:02A small bottle at any grocery store.
09:05Two dollars and you only need a spoonful per batch.
09:09So a small bottle lasts a long time.
09:12A spoonful of jam or jelly.
09:16Any kind.
09:17Fig, grape, strawberry, what you have in the pantry.
09:21This makes the bait extra attractive to the wasps.
09:25About a dime's worth.
09:28Empty soda cans, tuna cans, or small jars.
09:33The bait stations.
09:35You probably have these in your recycling already.
09:38Free.
09:40A small twig for each can.
09:42Gives the wasps a place to climb in and out without drowning.
09:48Free from your yard.
09:51That is the whole list.
09:53Three or four dollars total.
09:56Here is how to mix it.
09:58I will tell it slow.
10:00In a clean jar or measuring cup.
10:03One cup of apple juice.
10:05One half teaspoon of boric acid powder.
10:09No more than that.
10:11The slow kill is what we want.
10:14Too much boric acid and the wasps die at the bait before they can carry it home.
10:20And that defeats the whole purpose.
10:23Half a teaspoon per cup of juice is the country folk standard.
10:28Some folks go up to two teaspoons.
10:31For the slow acting trip home effect, a half teaspoon is plenty.
10:37One tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.
10:40This is your honeybee repelling ingredient.
10:43Do not skip it.
10:45One teaspoon of jam or jelly.
10:47This thickens the bait slightly and makes it more attractive.
10:51Stir it all together until the boric acid is dissolved.
10:55The mixture should look like cloudy apple juice.
10:59Now you have your bait.
11:01Pour a small amount, about a tablespoon, into each empty soda can or tuna can.
11:06Just enough to cover the bottom.
11:09Do not fill the can because if the wasps drown in it, they cannot carry the bait home.
11:15Stick a small twig into each can so part of it sticks out the top.
11:19This gives the wasps a place to land, climb down, drink, and climb back out.
11:25That is your bait station, where to place them.
11:29Set out four to eight of these bait stations around the perimeter of your house and yard.
11:34Not in the middle of the yard where the children play, around the edges, where the wasps come in from.
11:40Along the fence line, near the woodshed, by the corner of the garage, around the pole barn, near where you
11:46have seen the nests.
11:47Up off the ground a few feet if you can.
11:50Hang them from a low branch or set them on a fence rail.
11:54Out of reach of children and pets, which I will say more about in a moment.
11:58Then wait.
11:59For the first day or two, you may not see much.
12:03The wasps find the bait, drink, fly home.
12:06By day three or four, you will start to see the nests around your house go quiet.
12:11Wasp traffic that was thick a week before slows to almost nothing.
12:16By the end of a week, sometimes ten days, the colonies that found your bait are dead.
12:22Queen, workers, larva, all of them.
12:25This is what makes the method so powerful and so cheap.
12:28You did not climb a ladder.
12:30You did not get stung.
12:32You did not buy a $40 can of pesticide.
12:35You set out a few sticky cans of doctored apple juice, and the wasps did the rest of the work
12:40themselves.
12:41Before we go on to the safety word, let me pause for a moment.
12:45If you want to lower bills, waste less, repair more, stretch groceries, and run a steadier home,
12:52join our Amish home-saving system and community.
12:55You will get the lessons, home-saving challenges, and a place to ask Esther and me questions whenever you get
13:01stuck.
13:02The link is in the description.
13:04Now, the safety, plainly, because this is the part where you must listen close.
13:09Boric acid is gentle compared to the chemical sprays, but it is not harmless.
13:14Eaten in large amounts by a child or a small dog, it can make them very sick.
13:19I want you to handle it with the same simple respect you would give the dish soap, the bleach, the
13:25kitchen ammonia, or the laundry pods.
13:27Same shelf, same household discipline.
13:31Keep the boric acid powder up high, out of the reach of children.
13:35When you mix the bait, keep the mixing jar away from the table where the children eat.
13:39When you set out the bait stations, place them where small children cannot reach them and where the dog cannot
13:45knock them over.
13:46Up on a fence post.
13:48Tied to a branch.
13:49On a high shelf in the woodshed.
13:51Not on the ground in the play area.
13:54This is no more careful than what you would do with any other household chemical, but mind it.
13:59The second safety word is for the nests themselves.
14:02This bait method is the gentle, slow, household-safe way to kill colonies over time.
14:08But if you have an active nest right next to your back door, a paper wasp nest under the eave
14:14by the steps,
14:15a yellowjacket nest in a wall void by the kitchen window, and you cannot wait a week for the bait
14:20to do its work,
14:21do not climb a ladder and try to knock it down with a broom.
14:26Yellowjackets in particular are dangerous and aggressive.
14:28A disturbed yellowjacket nest can send hundreds of stinging insects after you in seconds,
14:34and one person allergic in your household is a true emergency.
14:38For those active nests close to where the family is, the honest tools are
14:43a simple soap and water spray, a quart of water with a generous squirt of plain dish soap in a
14:49regular spray bottle,
14:50sprayed hard onto the nest at dusk when the wasps are all home and slow.
14:54The soap coats their bodies, and they drown in it.
14:58Do not spray near a light fixture or any electrical box.
15:03Water and electricity do not mix, and a wasp nest near a porch light is not worth a shock.
15:11A commercial wasp and hornet spray with a long distance jet, these shoot 15 or 20 feet,
15:18you stay at a safe distance, and they knock down an active nest fast.
15:23Read the label, use it the way it says, and do it at dusk.
15:27This is a chemical, and not bee safe, so do not spray it on or near flowers where bees forage.
15:34Use it for the active nest, not as a general yard treatment.
15:39The bait does the long, gentle work of clearing out colonies over the season.
15:44The spray is for the emergency nest right by the door that has to come down today.
15:50Use the right tool for the right moment.
15:53And about the queen.
15:55Here is a country folk secret most people miss.
15:59In early spring, March, April, the queen yellowjackets and the queen wasps come out of their winter hiding places to
16:07start new nests.
16:08There are not many of them, and they are slow and cold.
16:12If you put your apple juice and boric acid bait stations out in early spring, before any nests are built,
16:20you can sometimes kill the queens before they ever make a colony.
16:24One dead queen in April is a colony of 3,000 wasps that never existed in August.
16:32The careful folks who run this trap year after year find their wasp problems get smaller and smaller every season.
16:42Now I want to take a moment, because this is the part that matters.
16:47Look at what we have just walked through.
16:49A bait that cost three or four dollars to make.
16:53Half a teaspoon of boric acid per cup of apple juice.
16:57A spoonful of vinegar to send the honeybees the other way.
17:01A few empty soda cans set out around the edges of the yard.
17:05And the wasps and yellowjackets carry their own destruction back to the nest,
17:10and the bees keep working the flowers undisturbed, and the children can play in the yard again.
17:16The pest control truck pulls up at the neighbor's place for the third time this summer.
17:22Four hundred dollars a visit.
17:24He is spraying chemicals across the lawn that kill the wasps and the bees and the ladybugs,
17:30and everything that moves.
17:31The neighbor's bees are gone.
17:34His butterflies are gone.
17:36His paper wasp problem is gone for two weeks until a new nest goes up in the same spot and
17:43the truck comes back.
17:45There is a great deal of money in selling a man a monthly pest control contract.
17:50There is no money at all in telling him to mix half a teaspoon of boric acid in a cup
17:55of dollar store apple juice
17:57and let his wasps die at their own table.
18:01That is the honest difference.
18:03Not a conspiracy.
18:05Just who has a reason to teach you and who does not.
18:09My grandfather kept a box of boric acid in the cellar his whole life.
18:13He used it on roaches, on ants, on wasps, on every household pest that needed handling.
18:20It cost almost nothing, it lasted forever in the box, and it never hurt his bees, his garden, or his
18:28family.
18:29That same box is on my shelf today.
18:33Esther reaches for it three times a year.
18:35It is one of the cheapest, most useful things in our whole house.
18:40So here is what I want you to do.
18:43This week, walk through your yard and the perimeter of your house
18:47and find the places where the wasps and yellow jackets are nesting or foraging.
18:52The eaves, the pole barn, the woodshed, the corner of the garage, the trash can area.
18:59Buy a small box of pure boric acid powder, a bottle of apple juice,
19:04a small bottle of apple cider vinegar, and a jar of jam or jelly.
19:08Mix the recipe.
19:11One cup of apple juice, half a teaspoon of boric acid, a tablespoon of vinegar, a teaspoon of jam.
19:18Pour a small amount into four to eight empty soda cans with a twig in each.
19:24Place them up around the perimeter of your yard, out of reach of the children and the dog.
19:30And then, wait a week.
19:32Watch what happens to the wasp traffic around your house.
19:36Most folks report that the visible nests go quiet by day five or six,
19:41and the wasps drop in number across the whole property over the next two weeks.
19:47And mark your calendar for next March.
19:49Put out the bait stations again before the queens have built any nests.
19:54Catch the queens in spring.
19:56Save yourself an army in August.
19:59Tell me in the comments below, where do the wasps get worst on your property?
20:05The eaves?
20:06The pole barn?
20:07The picnic table?
20:08The trash cans?
20:10The garden?
20:11And once you have run this bait for a season, come back and tell me what you saw.
20:15The folks who have used this trick year after year on the same property report wasp populations
20:22that get smaller every summer.
20:24I read every single one.
20:27Next time, since we have been speaking of how to handle the creatures that share our property
20:32with us, I am going to show you the old way my people keep mice and rats out of the
20:38granary
20:38and the home.
20:39The simple traps, the doorway tricks, and the small habits that mean you never have a rodent
20:46problem in the first place.
20:48It is the natural next step after today.
20:51Until then, mix the bait, set the cans, and remember that the wasps were carrying their
20:59own end home before the pest control truck ever rolled down your road.
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