Yellow Jackets !!

[Magicman]

Unlike Honey Bees, Yellow Jackets pack a gift that keeps on giving.  The stump/root grinding guy got into a nest Saturday morning while grinding some roots in our front yard and I decided that I had better level everything off before the rain/storm gets here this morning.  No need to be concerned because I am up on a big old Orange Tractor and they only have tiny wings to move about.  Anyway, Yellow Jackets don't play fair.  

[Southside]

Had a nest of those get me once, so (not the best move I ever made) I grabbed a can of gas and dumped some into their hole.  One match later and I had a mini volcano with Kamakazi pilots coming out.  It was entertaining.... :

[coalsmok]

Yellow jackets fly faster than tractors can go....

[btulloh]

I hate yellow jackets!  I don't know why we need them.

Glad you survived the attack, MM.

[WV Sawmiller]

   They are worse around here in September and October than any other time. My biggest problem is when cleaning fish or early season deer and we get a warm day. They don't generally attack but will be on the meat/fish and I will pick up a piece and mash one and get stung. Skunks will eat them and dig up their dens when they find them. I got stung several times earlier in the year moving lumber around. They were yellow wasps and I am not sure if it is the same ones that nest in the ground or not. I find a leaf blower is the best way to find them in stickered lumber. You can make them move and can still blow them away till you can clear the area. If nothing else you blow the dust off the lumber.

[Pine Ridge]

  They are worse around here in September and October than any other time. My biggest problem is when cleaning fish or early season deer and we get a warm day. They don't generally attack but will be on the meat/fish and I will pick up a piece and mash one and get stung. Skunks will eat them and dig up their dens when they find them. I got stung several times earlier in the year moving lumber around. They were yellow wasps and I am not sure if it is the same ones that nest in the ground or not. I find a leaf blower is the best way to find them in stickered lumber. You can make them move and can still blow them away till you can clear the area. If nothing else you blow the dust off the lumber.

I skinned some squirrels saturday morning and had several yellow jackets around where i was skinning them, you can't run them off. When they sting me the itching a day or two later is as bad as the sting.

[Nebraska]

I think im pretty far north for yellow jackets, mostly  just have regular wasps under eaves , in pipes, old cattle head gates  they are a favorite.  My assistant won't run one without me checking  it first in the summer.
The only time ive seen yellow jackets on my place i was walking  checking the fence  on a hot day, they got me five or six times before I knew it. I took off running promptly tripped and fell got away from the little (terminology witheld) After finding the wasp killer, benadryl, and cortisone ointment. I couldn't remember  where the nest exactly was. I never looked down in the swearing stampede. I knew close enough when one gave their hole in the ground  away. Then we had a little visit....

[Raider Bill]

Maybe they are slower in your area but Tennessee yellow jackets are just as fast as my Kubota.

[Old Greenhorn]

Folks, when you get stung by these things, just wet the area and put Adolf's meat tenderizer (the kind with lots of MSG). The sooner you do it, the sooner it will be a memory. I keep a can in a zip lock in my Mule just for this. Very handy. If you get it quick, the pain and itch dissipates in seconds. No kidding.

[Pine Ridge]

Folks, when you get stung by these things, just wet the area and put Adolf's meat tenderizer (the kind with lots of MSG). The sooner you do it, the sooner it will be a memory. I keep a can in a zip lock in my Mule just for this. Very handy. If you get it quick, the pain and itch dissipates in seconds. No kidding.

I'll have to remember that, we've got alot of yellow jackets and i'll get stung several times every year.

[Ljohnsaw]

My immediate neighbor's property is set back so his driveway goes between mine and the next neighbor.  One day I see a couple hundred feet of extension cord coming from his garage most of the way up his driveway with a shop vac plugged in and running.  I was concerned as he is older (94) and nowhere to be seen.  So I turned it off, looked around and knocked on the door - no answer - their car was gone.  Later in the day, the shop vac was running again.  I looked closer and the hose was down in the shrubs next to a hole.  Every once in a while, a yellow jacket would fly out and, zuloop, into the vacuum!

[clearcut]

Many social wasps will secrete a pheromone when they feel threatened that signals the colony to attack the intruder. Guard wasp are often found protecting the nest. 

[YellowHammer]

I was bass fishing just last week, beautiful dawn, a 50 mph boat run several miles down lake Guntersville, and I pull up to my first spot, reach down to deploy my trolling motor and my pinkie starts burning.  Somehow a yellow jacket had managed to hold on to my trolling motor head through the road trip, the boat trip and then had to sting me on my rod hand before I'd even started fishing.  Are you kidding me??  I then realized real quick that the end of a finger isn't a good place to get stung because it hurts every cast and there isn't any room for a finger to swell, so in a few minutes it was as hard as a rock and about double size.  A couple hours later, it started to swell up my hand, but the fish were biting so I had to bear with it.  That sucker hurt until well into the next day. 

Personally, I hate yellow jackets.  They are both nosy and mean.  They will get right in your face, fly around, then when they don't like something, they have an attitude and just sting for the fun of it.    

[WV Sawmiller]

Pine Ridge,

  As far as I am concerned the after effect is much worse than the initial sting. They make me itch for days.

Clearcut,

   Bees are like that with the pheromones and not only does it rile up the others they will also sting in the same spot so you may get 50 stings within an inch or so of each other.

OGH,

   I have heard about the meat tenderizer many times but still haven't tried it. I have crushed up any juicy green leaves near by and put on the sting immediately which seemed to help. I know people who put tobacco on it with the same thought in mind. I do know the sting is an acid (Formic Acid) and any strong base if immediately applied will neutralize the acid. I have used hydrogen peroxide, alcohol and bleach. I got stung by a white faced hornet one time and immediately soaked a cotton ball in bleach and held it on the sting several minutes and completely neutralized the sting but in the process I created a bleach burn which was likely worse and took months to disappear.

[btulloh]

WV, I hear sulphuric acid will work too!   :D :D

MSG has fewer side effects though. 

I wonder if crushed plantain leaves help. They seem to be good for a lot of things. So I hear. Lots of plantain around here. 

[Raider Bill]

I've used the adolfs treatment before it works.

Seems every time I get stung my aches and pains go away. Been told whatever they inject does that.
Or could be the pain of the sting just takes my mind off everything else.

We get them under fallen rotten pine while clearing the woods out.

A little gas poured down the hole works great. Don't burn them out just raw gas as the fumes being heavier than air gets down there and kills the nest. Nighttime while the little buggers are home asleep is best.

[Banjo picker]

I got into a den of them this summer while I was clearing a path to winch out a tree I had cut.  I was standing on a rotten log that was on top of their nest....they tore me up before I knew what was happening.  I run to the tractor and left them the saw and my hat.  Went to the house and got two cans of wasp spray and a shovel and went back.  I retrieved my saw and hat and sprayed every thing with the spray I could see and then dug with the shovel and round two started.  They got me 4 or 5 more time....back to the house again for the gas.  Like Rader Bill said ... just pour it in and let it set.   Waiting till dark would have been best, but I was mad at the little fellers. The way I figure it they won round one, round two was about a tie, but I won the last and final round.  That was the one that mattered.  I think my sting count was about 15.  It took several days before the stings quit hurting.  Think I will put some of the tenderiser in my cutting bag.  Banjo

[WV Sawmiller]

btulloh,

   I don't know what kind of plantain leaves you are talking about. The only plantains I knew about are the tropical fruits - first cousin to a banana and kind of like a banana on steroids.

Banjo,

   I don't want to hurt your feelings but are you learning impaired? :D Going back and getting stung again sounds a little much. Pouring gas in and lighting is very rewarding but actually you probably get more benefits from just pouring it down the hole and leaving it. When I burn out paper wasp nests I like spread out newspapers that have a big flame so I singe the buggers wings off. 

   BTW - don't stick the knocked down nests in a paper bag and forget about them as the new hatchlings assume the duty of guarding the nests. We stuck several big paper nests in a paper bag when I was a kid (I assume we were going to use them for fish bait) and got several stings when we opened it a few days later after we forgot what was in the bag. 

[btulloh]

Confusing. Same name, two unrelated things. 

Plantain weeds 

[btulloh]

Likely there'll be some growing near you when you get stung. Grab a leaf, chew it up a lttle, rub on the sting. That's the theory anyway. 

That implies rational thought, which isn't my normal reaction when I get attacked. I would generally say some Navy words and then get the gas can. And some C4. 

[Raider Bill]

Confusing. Same name, two unrelated things.

Plantain weeds

Glad you posted that because I was thinking the banana like plant which I like to fry up with pork chops, rice and beans. They (g the banana type)a grow  around here. 

 Don't light the gas just pour it down the hole. 
Digging them out is a waste of time and will get you stung. They have more than one way in and out. 

[WV Sawmiller]

btulloh,

   I am glad you just get the gas and C-4 and don't do anything extreme or go overboard or such about things like yellowjackets. :D

[btulloh]

 :D :D :D

The C4 just lets them know I'm serious. 

"Overwhelming force is the best counter to little yellow bugs."  - Sun Tsu, The Art of War

[Southside]

The Plaintain works very well. Could not bring myself to chew it, but mashed it up in my hands and rubbed it on a sting this summer and within moments the pain was gone. 

Raider, the ignition may not be necessary to achieve mission success, but neither is flying a Jolly Roger, still  they make the event more memorable.  :D

[WDH]

Howard,

I can't believe that you bleached yourself .