Yellow jackets at feeding station

moxiewild

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For one of my colonies, our feeding routine is that I go out there at 6 am and leave food until about 8:30-9 am, at which point I drive back out to pick up the bowls.

I have to do it this way because -

1. Lots of wildlife at night

2. Vultures during the day

3. Enclosed feeding station to keep wildlife out is not possible in humid, Texas heat (it gets dangerously hot inside)

4. I absolutely have to pick up bowls because of neighbors and an HOA in the neighborhood, so I need to be discreet

5. I only recently started feeding this colony, so they won’t eat in front of me yet

It’s a pain in the butt, but luckily this schedule has been working really well for a few weeks now. Our game camera shows no signs of wildlife or humans in this area during this time frame.

Unfortunately, half of the cats still haven’t caught on, which just breaks my heart, but there’s not much more I can do about that :(

And now we have yellow jackets.

Yesterday when I went to pick up the bowls around 8:45 am, there were about 7 yellow jackets on the food.

I managed to escape with the wet food bowls, since I know wet food is more appealing to them, but that meant all 7 were then on the dry food bowl (I only got away with the two wet food bowls because the yellow jackets were divided between all three).

I didn’t know what else to do, so I just left the bowl... at some point, someone picked it up, set it somewhere else, and flipped it upside down on the ground.

I used to leave out two water bowls at all times behind some tallish grass, and last week someone had dumped out the water, moved the bowls, stacked them, and flipped them upside down on the ground nearby - so I think it’s the same person.

Either way, it’s definitely not a good sign that the first day I leave a single food bowl, someone deliberately let me know they found it...

Today I decided I would pick up the bowls earlier, at 8 am, hoping it might be early enough to miss the yellow jackets.

Nope. Today there were 10 of them. I got away with one wet food bowl before a yellow jacket buzzed by my ear, at which point I got the hell out of there. Clearly there is a nest somewhere near by.

The only real option I see now is to close their feeding window down to one hour - 6 am to 7 am. Our sunrise is usually around 6:53 am so I’m hoping, again, that this will be early enough, and enough time for all the cats to eat.

Has anyone dealt with yellow jackets before?

This colony is just becoming increasingly impossible to feed. I’m trying not to get discouraged, but it’s becoming really difficult not to :/
 

maggie101

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I am in houston,tx so ya, it can get hot. I have a 20inch bird bath so it would be hard to pick up cause its filled with water. Are the cats fixed? I had some kind of wasps but they weren't there long. They did have a nest. Can they be trapped and given to a rescue that fosters? Even if they run from you does not mean they can not be adopted. If that were true, I would not have Coco
 

alphakitty

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For one of my colonies, our feeding routine is that I go out there at 6 am and leave food until about 8:30-9 am, at which point I drive back out to pick up the bowls.

I have to do it this way because -

1. Lots of wildlife at night

2. Vultures during the day

3. Enclosed feeding station to keep wildlife out is not possible in humid, Texas heat (it gets dangerously hot inside)

4. I absolutely have to pick up bowls because of neighbors and an HOA in the neighborhood, so I need to be discreet

5. I only recently started feeding this colony, so they won’t eat in front of me yet

It’s a pain in the butt, but luckily this schedule has been working really well for a few weeks now. Our game camera shows no signs of wildlife or humans in this area during this time frame.

Unfortunately, half of the cats still haven’t caught on, which just breaks my heart, but there’s not much more I can do about that :(

And now we have yellow jackets.

Yesterday when I went to pick up the bowls around 8:45 am, there were about 7 yellow jackets on the food.

I managed to escape with the wet food bowls, since I know wet food is more appealing to them, but that meant all 7 were then on the dry food bowl (I only got away with the two wet food bowls because the yellow jackets were divided between all three).

I didn’t know what else to do, so I just left the bowl... at some point, someone picked it up, set it somewhere else, and flipped it upside down on the ground.

I used to leave out two water bowls at all times behind some tallish grass, and last week someone had dumped out the water, moved the bowls, stacked them, and flipped them upside down on the ground nearby - so I think it’s the same person.

Either way, it’s definitely not a good sign that the first day I leave a single food bowl, someone deliberately let me know they found it...

Today I decided I would pick up the bowls earlier, at 8 am, hoping it might be early enough to miss the yellow jackets.

Nope. Today there were 10 of them. I got away with one wet food bowl before a yellow jacket buzzed by my ear, at which point I got the hell out of there. Clearly there is a nest somewhere near by.

The only real option I see now is to close their feeding window down to one hour - 6 am to 7 am. Our sunrise is usually around 6:53 am so I’m hoping, again, that this will be early enough, and enough time for all the cats to eat.

Has anyone dealt with yellow jackets before?

This colony is just becoming increasingly impossible to feed. I’m trying not to get discouraged, but it’s becoming really difficult not to :/
Hello,

Thanks for taking care of those little kitties. God looks kindly on those who care for the little ones.

I researched the subject for you and then I remembered that I've used the methode below, which works pretty good, and it doesn't harm bees either (but do NOT use honey, as it attracts bees, and bees are good guys).

How to rid oneself of wasps, hornets, and yellow-jackets, etc:

Simple to Make Wasp Traps
How to Make a Wasp Trap (has construction videos - very good)
How To: Make a DIY Wasp Trap (with photos)

This link offers other strategies but the bottle trick works well.

As you likely don't have any place to hang the bottle such as tree limb or a fence, etc., here's a trick I used. Put a flat rock into the bottom of the bottle after adding the liquid bait but well below the liquid surface, no islands for those yellow beards to sit on. The rock's weight helps keep the bottle standing upright. Then to keep the ants off of the bottle, smear cooking oil around the middle of the bottle with a finger. Ants will not cross an oil line. Wasps in, ants & bees out. Do NOT place the wasp trap too near where you feed the kitties, as they can be stung also.

The oil trick also works well for cat food bowls. Smear cooking oil around the outside of the bowl's middle area. I use that strategy ALL the time for my outside community kitties food dishes.

Best of Luck to you and all your little kitties..

Alpha Kitty
 
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moxiewild

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I am in houston,tx so ya, it can get hot. I have a 20inch bird bath so it would be hard to pick up cause its filled with water. Are the cats fixed? I had some kind of wasps but they weren't there long. They did have a nest. Can they be trapped and given to a rescue that fosters? Even if they run from you does not mean they can not be adopted. If that were true, I would not have Coco
A few of the cats are fixed, but most aren’t.

I happened to find two colonies in separate parts of my neighborhood in the same night, so I have over 20 cats and kittens to get through now. It’ll take a while.

They’re feral, no rescue will take them. Have a hard enough time begging rescues to take feral kittens right now :(
 
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moxiewild

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Hello,

Thanks for taking care of those little kitties. God looks kindly on those who care for the little ones.

I researched the subject for you and then I remembered that I've used the methode below, which works pretty good, and it doesn't harm bees either (but do NOT use honey, as it attracts bees, and bees are good guys).

How to rid oneself of wasps, hornets, and yellow-jackets, etc:

Simple to Make Wasp Traps
How to Make a Wasp Trap (has construction videos - very good)
How To: Make a DIY Wasp Trap (with photos)

This link offers other strategies but the bottle trick works well.
[/URL]

As you likely don't have any place to hang the bottle such as tree limb or a fence, etc., here's a trick I used. Put a flat rock into the bottom of the bottle after adding the liquid bait but well below the liquid surface, no islands for those yellow beards to sit on. The rock's weight helps keep the bottle standing upright. Then to keep the ants off of the bottle, smear cooking oil around the middle of the bottle with a finger. Ants will not cross an oil line. Wasps in, ants & bees out. Do NOT place the wasp trap too near where you feed the kitties, as they can be stung also.

The oil trick also works well for cat food bowls. Smear cooking oil around the outside of the bowl's middle area. I use that strategy ALL the time for my outside community kitties food dishes.

Best of Luck to you and all your little kitties..

Alpha Kitty
We actually have five yellow jacket traps that work very similarly! They’ll catch hundreds of yellow jackets every few days, it’s crazy!

The traps were my first thought to use, but they’re just too noticeable. Young kids (and adults) also travel in this area alone, and I’d be concerned that they’d be stung or one would notice the trap and maybe even open it. I’m sure neighbors would not be happy about attracting yellow jackets to the area either.

I don’t have a lot of space to work with... I should really take a photo of it, I’ll do that tomorrow. It’s a cement drainage way in between a bunch of houses.

I’m just exhausted with feeding this colony. It’s one thing after another, I’ve never had so many issues feeding a colony before. Wish I could just relocate them all to my property and call it a day 😂

I might use the oil truck for the ants, though! I’ve been using DE, but several days a week the neighbors sprinklers go off during feeding time, and once DE gets wet, it no longer works. So I just have to kind of accept ants some days :/

But oil should at least be more resistant to water and hold up better since it’s actually on the bowl vs around it on the ground! Thanks for the tip!
 

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Will the cats respond to a clicker as a sign that the food is there? Or are you too close to the HOA to make a noise?
 

alphakitty

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We actually have five yellow jacket traps that work very similarly! They’ll catch hundreds of yellow jackets every few days, it’s crazy!

The traps were my first thought to use, but they’re just too noticeable. Young kids (and adults) also travel in this area alone, and I’d be concerned that they’d be stung or one would notice the trap and maybe even open it. I’m sure neighbors would not be happy about attracting yellow jackets to the area either.

I don’t have a lot of space to work with... I should really take a photo of it, I’ll do that tomorrow. It’s a cement drainage way in between a bunch of houses.

I’m just exhausted with feeding this colony. It’s one thing after another, I’ve never had so many issues feeding a colony before. Wish I could just relocate them all to my property and call it a day 😂

I might use the oil truck for the ants, though! I’ve been using DE, but several days a week the neighbors sprinklers go off during feeding time, and once DE gets wet, it no longer works. So I just have to kind of accept ants some days :/

But oil should at least be more resistant to water and hold up better since it’s actually on the bowl vs around it on the ground! Thanks for the tip!
Hi MoxiWild,

>>>I might use the oil trick for the ants, though!
>>>But oil should at least be more resistant to water and hold up better since it’s actually on the bowl...

Oil is a simple, effective and virtually a long term solution to the problem. It took me many months of experimentation to develop this strategy. It works. Nothing else resolves all the issues.

Initially when I was developing the oil based anti-ant problem resolution strategy (ants are a significant problem for indoor and outdoor kittie feeders), I used a lot of motor oil. It was nasty and messy, bad for the environment but it worked well, and later I discovered that a lot of oil is not required. Just a little bit works just as well as a lot. Then I transitioned to and experimented using cooking oils. Corn oil is inexpensive, non-toxic to the kitties and the environment, and is inherently clean. As an experiment I started smearing corn-oil around the outside, middle, of feeder and water bowls. Whether one smears a line of cooking oil or petroleum-jelly around the outside of the bowl when the sun warms it, it gets hot, the oil becomes less viscuos, or more 'runny' and so it will thin out in time, it may lose its effectiveness.

Then while designing a 3D printed timed auto solar-powered dry-food cat feeder (I use OpenSCAD - OpenSCAD) which I am also developing, it dawned on me that a little oil resevoir around the bowl, shaped like a little moat would be a clever solution to the low viscosity problem when oil becomes warmed in the sun. That works really well. But in the mean time, until I have that feeder functional, to help mitigate that problem, I simply tie a string around the middle of the bowl and using 3 or 4 drops of Goop glue, I tack glue the string to the bowl around to keep the string in place. After the glue cures, around 12 hours, I saturate the string with the corn oil. That way the oil stays in place far longer...several months at least.

When I posted my anti-ant research information here on "The Cat Site" a couple of years ago, one astute member said, 'hey that's a great idea!', and then she suggested in lieu of corn-oil, to use petroleum-jelly or 'Vaseline' (Petroleum jelly - Wikipedia), which I've come to find works very well also, but it too will run in the sun when things get warm. But that is still a great suggestion!

If you have not used Goop, then you are in for a treat. This glue is absolutely amazing, I've been using it for 15 years, I no longer purchase "Crazy Glue", which in my humble opinion is crappy by comparison (great for gluing the fingers together 'tho), and the Goop compares well with two part epoxy, but it remains flexible and, it grips to everything, is virtually water-proof and is tough as h.ell to remove. Over the years, Goop's price has gone up while the tubes are becoming ever smaller...'fun-size'. I used buy it at RiteAid for a 3.7oz/110mL for $3, but now its available on Amazon (their prices as usual are pricey) sold in 2.7oz/80mL & 2.0oz/60mL tubes for $10, and $8 a tube. One warning though, once you open the tube, very quickly recap it tightly, else the next time you need to use it, you'll find that you have a flexible solid inside the tube that is partially cured...ruined. All of the versions as far as I can determine through usage, Shoe Glue Goop, Automotive Goop, etc, are all the same product in a different colored tube.

Goop Glue Info:
Amazon: search with item number: B00LDYKF9I

Best Regards

Alpha Kitty
4 indoor/outdoor short hair kitties - 1 calico; 3 black kitties;
6 outdoor community kitties (fed on my front porch), 1 long hair, orange tabby; 5 short hair, black kitties...black kitties matter!
I've TNR'd around 250 kitties so far.
 
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moxiewild

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Will the cats respond to a clicker as a sign that the food is there? Or are you too close to the HOA to make a noise?
I use a silent dog whistle.

I haven’t been feeding them for very long, so only a few seem to know what it means. Only one are two are ever there to watch me put food down and hear the whistle. They know what time I get there now.

The others, I think, end up smelling it from nearby (I use mackerel flakes hoping it’ll help the scent travel farther), and like I said, some have never figured out this new schedule :( I know they’re still around though because our cameras catch them searching where we used to leave out bowls before we switched to the more limited feeding schedule weeks ago 😭
 
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moxiewild

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Hi MoxiWild,

>>>I might use the oil trick for the ants, though!
>>>But oil should at least be more resistant to water and hold up better since it’s actually on the bowl...

Oil is a simple, effective and virtually a long term solution to the problem. It took me many months of experimentation to develop this strategy. It works. Nothing else resolves all the issues.

Initially when I was developing the oil based anti-ant problem resolution strategy (ants are a significant problem for indoor and outdoor kittie feeders), I used a lot of motor oil. It was nasty and messy, bad for the environment but it worked well, and later I discovered that a lot of oil is not required. Just a little bit works just as well as a lot. Then I transitioned to and experimented using cooking oils. Corn oil is inexpensive, non-toxic to the kitties and the environment, and is inherently clean. As an experiment I started smearing corn-oil around the outside, middle, of feeder and water bowls. Whether one smears a line of cooking oil or petroleum-jelly around the outside of the bowl when the sun warms it, it gets hot, the oil becomes less viscuos, or more 'runny' and so it will thin out in time, it may lose its effectiveness.

Then while designing a 3D printed timed auto solar-powered dry-food cat feeder (I use OpenSCAD - OpenSCAD) which I am also developing, it dawned on me that a little oil resevoir around the bowl, shaped like a little moat would be a clever solution to the low viscosity problem when oil becomes warmed in the sun. That works really well. But in the mean time, until I have that feeder functional, to help mitigate that problem, I simply tie a string around the middle of the bowl and using 3 or 4 drops of Goop glue, I tack glue the string to the bowl around to keep the string in place. After the glue cures, around 12 hours, I saturate the string with the corn oil. That way the oil stays in place far longer...several months at least.

When I posted my anti-ant research information here on "The Cat Site" a couple of years ago, one astute member said, 'hey that's a great idea!', and then she suggested in lieu of corn-oil, to use petroleum-jelly or 'Vaseline' (Petroleum jelly - Wikipedia), which I've come to find works very well also, but it too will run in the sun when things get warm. But that is still a great suggestion!

If you have not used Goop, then you are in for a treat. This glue is absolutely amazing, I've been using it for 15 years, I no longer purchase "Crazy Glue", which in my humble opinion is crappy by comparison (great for gluing the fingers together 'tho), and the Goop compares well with two part epoxy, but it remains flexible and, it grips to everything, is virtually water-proof and is tough as h.ell to remove. Over the years, Goop's price has gone up while the tubes are becoming ever smaller...'fun-size'. I used buy it at RiteAid for a 3.7oz/110mL for $3, but now its available on Amazon (their prices as usual are pricey) sold in 2.7oz/80mL & 2.0oz/60mL tubes for $10, and $8 a tube. One warning though, once you open the tube, very quickly recap it tightly, else the next time you need to use it, you'll find that you have a flexible solid inside the tube that is partially cured...ruined. All of the versions as far as I can determine through usage, Shoe Glue Goop, Automotive Goop, etc, are all the same product in a different colored tube.

Goop Glue Info:
[/URL]
Amazon: search with item number: B00LDYKF9I

Best Regards

Alpha Kitty
4 indoor/outdoor short hair kitties - 1 calico; 3 black kitties;
6 outdoor community kitties (fed on my front porch), 1 long hair, orange tabby; 5 short hair, black kitties...black kitties matter!
I've TNR'd around 250 kitties so far.
Thanks for this!

At the colony at our house, we actually use “bug snub”. We attach the little bug snub feet to trays, and use petroleum jelly vs buying the official bug snub refills.

But the cost of trays and bug snub feet would quickly add up if we got them for all of our colonies (5 daily colonies, 2 others we care for 2-3x a week with another caretaker). So finding solutions for all of them can be tricky.

Not sure why I never thought of oil or petroleum jelly before since we already use it with the bug snub feet! Doh! :doh:

I wonder if the oil would work with the “ant-proof” bowls that already have moats attached, then. We haven’t had luck with those in the past when using water in them for various reasons, but I’m thinking oil might work now! I’ll have to try it!

My boyfriend is into 3D printing too! Might have to plant some seeds in his head now... although I don’t think he’s quite as advanced as far as designing goes 😆 The solar powered part would be such a great feature!

You’ve given me several ideas now for ants that I’m pretty excited to try, so thank you! I will definitely look into that glue too!

I think we would get along well, by the way! We have 16 cats indoors and over 75 community cats spread out in various colonies (although I’ve TNR’d several hundred at this point).

Add to that - 5 of our indoor cats are all black, one of my part-time colonies has 28 all black, short haired cats, and there are (at least) 10 black cats spread across the three colonies in my neighborhood (we’re still not sure precisely how many)!

Funny thing is, in May of last year, we had no black cats in our lives. This has definitely been The Year of The Black Cat for us, with over 30 of them somehow managing to work their way into our hearts in quick succession! 🖤
 
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moxiewild

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Update - I wanted to get there at 7 am to pick up bowls today, but forgot we had to drop one of our cats off at the vet for an ultrasound at 7, so we didn’t get there until 7:15.

The yellow jackets were still there, but it was only 2-3, which is more manageable (though not ideal. I’m pretty phobic of wasps and bees, but particularly aggressive species like yellow jackets! 😬). So I think if I get there just a little earlier, odds are god that I can beat them. Fingers crossed 🤞🏼

Kitties will just have to learn they only have an hour to eat now.
 
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moxiewild

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Also, this is the area I’m working with -

538588F0-655B-495A-9D47-0548A87163F9.jpeg


That’s it. There’s literally nowhere else to feed anywhere remotely nearby.

Along the drainage way, there are 5-6 houses that back up to it on either side. The area we feed is somewhat of a midway point, which has the most space and is the most secluded area from street view (and mostly house view if we set the bowls in the actual drainage way, which I do unless it’s raining).

Both ends of the drainage way open up to cul-de-sacs. Along one side of the cul-de-sacs is someone’s larger property that is not part of the neighborhood and is a more densely wooded area, which I think is where the cats mostly hang out and take shelter, but I’m not really sure.

But yeah, this is what we have to work with. We were initially very excited about managing to find a secluded area like this in the neighborhood since there aren’t many, but it turns out the neighborhood folk travel down this drainage way all the time! Ugh :(
 

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If you can find where the Yellowjackets are nesting you can get rid of them with commercial wasp and hornet spray, preferably the foaming kind.

If I'm dealing with an underground Yellowjacket nest or a Fire Ant nest I usually pour gasoline in it and give it a minute to soak in, then light it. So far it's been a 100% kill rate and I've never had any return to that spot. That's probably not an option for most people though.
 
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moxiewild

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If you can find where the Yellowjackets are nesting you can get rid of them with commercial wasp and hornet spray, preferably the foaming kind.

If I'm dealing with an underground Yellowjacket nest or a Fire Ant nest I usually pour gasoline in it and give it a minute to soak in, then light it. So far it's been a 100% kill rate and I've never had any return to that spot. That's probably not an option for most people though.
Nest will be impossible to find. It’s not in the area we’re feeding, so that means there’s a 99% chance it’s on someone else’s property.

I really wish that I could find the nest or set up traps, because a yellow jacket nest grows out of control quickly down here without a “proper” winter. They often don’t die like they usually would, so the nest just keeps getting bigger. It’s going to become a problem........

This is really frustrating. I went at 7 am today to pick up the bowls, and there were tons of them. We were doing a release at the same time, and we had to rush the whole process so that we and the kitty could get the heck out of there.

I’m going to try to get there at 6:45 tomorrow.

I’m thinking about buying one of those “grabby arm” devices just so I can make sure I can get the bowls but still maintain some distance with the yellow jackets 😂
 

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Nest will be impossible to find. It’s not in the area we’re feeding, so that means there’s a 99% chance it’s on someone else’s property.

I really wish that I could find the nest or set up traps, because a yellow jacket nest grows out of control quickly down here without a “proper” winter. They often don’t die like they usually would, so the nest just keeps getting bigger. It’s going to become a problem........

This is really frustrating. I went at 7 am today to pick up the bowls, and there were tons of them. We were doing a release at the same time, and we had to rush the whole process so that we and the kitty could get the heck out of there.

I’m going to try to get there at 6:45 tomorrow.

I’m thinking about buying one of those “grabby arm” devices just so I can make sure I can get the bowls but still maintain some distance with the yellow jackets 😂
Yeah, it's not likely the nest will be right there but sometimes you get lucky (or not, I once discovered a nest by stepping on it and my dad discovered a nest when he parked his tractor on it) and it's in the immediate area.

An extended gripper might help, it wouldn't keep you from being stung if they get pissy about you moving their meal but at least you wouldn't be directly touching it.
 
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moxiewild

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Anything to at least put some distance between me and them! :lol:

I'm seeing some repellent type options online, and I found one study that used a bunch of different essential oils and EO combinations.

I'm trying to figure out what might be safe for the cats and also not repel the cats, but still repel the yellowjackets. Peppermint seems the best option in terms of not repelling them, I would think.

There are these peppermint oil pellets that are supposedly pet safe -

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z788D1W/?tag=thecatsite

And that company also has a well rated peppermint oil spray, as well -

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KCRRPS8/?tag=thecatsite

The reviews appear to mostly focus on rats and mice, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for yellowjackets.

I'm just not sure if it might repel cats too, how cat-safe they are, etc
 
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