Once a year in the winter i make sure to fill the water softener barrel to the top with salt chips in case i dont feel like battling the wasps in the spring to get in there. The last time i did do battle i won but the barrel ended up full of dead wasps. I got to thinking about whether i really wanted wasp killer chemical mixed in with the sink water and i decided it’d be best to try and avoid their little carcasses falling in between the salt chips and becoming impossible to retrieve. After a week of lows in the thirties the wasps were gone and i was able to empty several bags of salt chips i had in the shed into my water softener barrel in the well house. This was good because i needed to clear things out of the shed for the following week so i could get to the stock tank (currently located in the back of the shed) which i used to keep the chickens in the house when below 17 degree temps were forecasted.