Comparing Wasp and Hornet Killer Sprays, Distance and Price Comparison - Part 2

Yesterday I shared about how my trailer got lots of hornets nests inside the vents, under the hitch, and in some of the vented compartments. I used several types of wasp spray and wanted to replace the ones I used so I would always have a can handy if needed quickly.

I had to go to home depot to get a sprinkler part so I put the hornet spray on my list and headed to the store. I took some pictures of the different sprays and show the cost difference in the sprays. 

As far as distance goes, the Raid brand and similar shaped store brand cans said they shoot up to 20 feet. My experience was that they shoot up to maybe ten feet but the spray didn't drop them quickly and they would fly around with the foam on them before dying. 

The Raid was also more than twice as expensive than the Spectracide brand which shoots up 27 feet. It is $6 for one can and Spectracide is two cans for less than one Raid can. I show in the video how I shoot 22 feet with accuracy. The reason it isn't shooting well at the beginning of the video is I think there was a clog in the nozzle. It took a minute of spraying it before the spray shot that distance. The bottle I had I the garage I used on the first nest, shot from a long distance. I think it was just a fluke that the new one didn't shoot so far. If you don't want to watch the entire video, jump to the end and watch it shoot long and accurate. The top on the new one didn't leak on my hand either. I am fairly sure in the post yesterday, I mentioned that it had been dropped.

I learned something interesting about hornets. As I was squishing one with a stick, it thrusted its abdomen up and down several times. There are some insects that emit a furmone when they are dying by thrusting their abdomen up and down calling others in to help. One such insect is the crazy ant. when it is dying, it thrusts its abdomen up and emits a chemical that tells others to come. They then come and build upon the dead ants making a dead ant bridge to the next stable wire. They feed on electrical wires. They are also called the raspberry ant or the honeydew ant.

When I was squishing the hornet, it thrust its thorax up and down and it made me think of the crazy ant I researched after finding one in the house. I then used my scissors I keep in the garage to cut up some screen to put into the vents as you can see in the second picture. I used the scissors to poke the wire into the vent. I used it to scrap out the larvae and guts out of the pipe. 

The next morning when I was out demonstrating the spray. I had the scissors in my hand and a hornet went to the vent pipe, then to the fridge vent and then to the scissor tips I held in my hand! There had to be some way it smelled the other hornets on the scissors. 

I also noticed that when there was a breeze, it would go down wind a bit and work its way to the pipe. Over and over new wasps would come to the pipe. I couldn't figure out where they were coming from thinking they had somehow escaped from the hive the day before, but then I realized that the furmones were bringing in any hornet within a radius. It was interesting to see that. 

So, you can see that the Spectracide at two cans for $5 is a good deal and that it really does shoot the furthest of all the can sprays. For the price and the distance, I don't think I will ever be using the other brands again. For the ease, distance, and cost, it is well worth it to me to purchase the Spectracide.