TheSamba.com :: View topic - How to keep wasps out of engine compartment

Sun Jun 26, 2016 6:30 pm

Can anybody tell me how to keep wasps from going into your VW beetle to build their nests? Every spring they start hanging around the back vents just above the engine, which they obviously find SO attractive a place to settle down in. So every spring I put this longish piece of screen over top of the vents and then clamp them over the ridges on either side to hold it on. But I want a better solution! Does anyone make some kind of plugs you could put in the vents that would let the air in but not the wasps?

Another thing they like to get into is the inside of the front bumper. I've stuffed some plastic bags in there to prevent this but again, better solution would be most welcome.

Sun Jun 26, 2016 6:38 pm

DDT or simular poison!!!! kill the buggers.

Sun Jun 26, 2016 6:40 pm

Drive it.

Mon Jun 27, 2016 7:52 am

anthracitedub wrote: Drive it.
A rolling Beetle gathers no wasps. :wink:

Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:10 am

From my experience, wasps are insects of habit: they nest where wasps have nested before, and will not nest near other wasp nests. To solve the wasp-nesting problem on the underside of my garage eves, I removed all traces of the previous year's nest, and then repainted the area in a different colour.They never came back the next year. Some people have had similar success by hanging up a 'dummy' wasp nest (they actually sell such things at hardware stores). Perhaps if you fashioned a small dummy nest out of paper-mache or such, and hung it near the car when its parked?? Another thing to remember is that wasps are carnivores ...they eat other insects. So, if you keep the vent area (and bumper area) clean and bug free, they may lose interest in going there. That's all I got .....

Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:59 pm

How about a good way to keep stray cats off my ragtop.....??????

Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:27 pm

There used to be a product called "Shell No-Pest Strip." It was a yellow plastic slab impregnated with something that drove flies and other insects away. They don't sell them anymore, at least in California, so it must have been nasty stuff. If you can find that or something similar, you could hang it in the engine bay and "remove before flight."

Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:29 pm

Date from an Italian neighborhood and there are no wasps in sight.

Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:30 pm

anthracitedub wrote: Drive it.

That was my first thought.

Mon Jun 27, 2016 4:44 pm

KTPhil wrote: There used to be a product called "Shell No-Pest Strip." It was a yellow plastic slab impregnated with something that drove flies and other insects away. They don't sell them anymore, at least in California, so it must have been nasty stuff. If you can find that or something similar, you could hang it in the engine bay and "remove before flight."

Hey old timer. I'll admit I remember them too my Dad hung them in the kitchen when I was a kid, they worked too. They were first registered in 1954, the active ingredient was DDVP and it had a certain chemical smell.

Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:32 pm

Googling this, I find they are available from a seller other than Shell, reportedly on Amazon and Home Depot. NOT good for the kitchen or nursery, but it should work well in an enclosed engine compartment.

Tue Jun 28, 2016 4:59 am

KTPhil wrote: There used to be a product called "Shell No-Pest Strip." It was a yellow plastic slab impregnated with something that drove flies and other insects away. They don't sell them anymore, at least in California, so it must have been nasty stuff. If you can find that or something similar, you could hang it in the engine bay and "remove before flight."

sanitary napkin tape...fact is wasps, once they nest, will always return..I created a holocaust with PB blaster on a tractor I was working on the other day ,they died like flies... err I mean wasps..