Yellow Jackets !!

[WV Sawmiller]

   About a 1" dot on my R forehead. Took several months to fade back to semi-original color.

    The worst thing - that is nowhere near the most damage I have done to myself over the years. :D

[Ruffgear]

We had an incident a couple weeks back, here's the short version. I drove over a nest with my skid loader  while making firewood. My 9 year old daughter was following behind on foot. I stopped when I heard screaming, she came running by with hundreds of yellow jackets chasing. It was bad, she got stung a lot as did I, but not as bad as her. Had to run a couple hundred yds maybe while trying to get them off of her dragging her along at times. Got her shirt off and got her into the house and still a couple dozen made it inside. It was pretty crazy

[thecfarm]

Ruffgear,not good.
Many years ago,25 or more,my 3 brothers came and wanted firewood. My Father was there too. He was cutting the trees down and we was doing the limbing and the bucking. When running the chainsaw,you don't hear them yellow jackets until it's too late.  I think we knew where there was at least 10 nests. Long time ago,could of been 20. We was all getting stung that year. We would have to pull the tree to a diffeant spot to get away from the ground nests. Kinda funny to watch a brother start running through the woods. ;D

[Don P]

Squeezing cider is when we'll get hundreds of them coming around. They are in everything having a feeding frenzy. They usually don't sting then unless one gets trapped in you clothes or something, it's not the same as invading their home turf.

Sort of related to the lawn tractor thread, I was mowing by the front deck which means I'm really hiked out, off the edge of the seat, full body lean and right elbow is way out off the tractor. I'm skimming by the deck posts when one of them hits me right in the elbow. I cut hard left down hill and while reacting two wheels come off the ground but it lands back on all 4 and down the hill we go full tilt. That swath didn't get mowed for awhile but sure enough a skunk found them one night and excavates. I don't know but it seems like they must emit a smell he picks up on when they get really stirred up, he'll clean them out most times when I've gotten into a nest. Anyway, I'm leaning over the deck looking at his handywork and notice he didn't get it all, then I see why. He dug out a good bit of my post footing but the nest must be partly under it as well. Lovely, a spring project to excavate and repour :. They are not my favorite critter. I usually get into a few ground nests every fall. On the tractor if I sit real still they usually go for the pto shaft and gearbox on the bushog.

I have noticed my other aches go away when I get stung but I sort of think its just like if you have a headache what you need to do is drop a brick on your foot.

[Ruffgear]

Ya my kids have a little PTSD now. Do people have allergic reactions to them, like they do bees?

[Don P]

Oh yeah.

[Southside]

I don't know if the same would hold true with Yellow Jackets or not but with honey bees when you get some aggressive ones coming after you (we have about a dozen hives) the best thing you can do is "break the line of sight", put a couple of trees, or other tall object, between you and the nest, and keep moving in a direction that keeps you out of a direct path.  It may seem counter intuitive to run into the woods rather than a field, but it works - at least with bees, and under the right circumstances they can get rather aggressive.  

[WV Sawmiller]

Ya my kids have a little PTSD now. Do people have allergic reactions to them, like they do bees?

More people are probably allergic to yellowjackets than they are honeybees. And the bad thing about wasps  is they can sting multiple times while a honeybee only once.

[Ianab]

Do people have allergic reactions to them, like they do bees?

Wasp sting put my Mother in ICU for a couple of nights a little while back. If my Nephew hadn't been there and seen her suddenly collapse she would have been dead, and likely no one would have guessed why. Because she had said "Ow, a wasp just stung me" a couple of minutes before the collapsed, he was able to tell the paramedics that, and they could administer the right treatment. Even then it was touch and go and she has no recollection of 2 days. 

She had been stung by bees and wasps before, and never had a reaction, but now carries an epi-pen. 

[samandothers]

Usually I tangle with at least one hive a year.  This year, knock on wood, I have been lucky.  Ran over a nest with the bush hog and saw the swarm.  A night time pour of gas removed the threat.  I saw two others while bush hogging but fortunately skunks had dug out already.  Did not mind missing an encounter this year!

[Texas Ranger]

I at one time ran a crew of Native Americans with a strange sense of humor.  Working the woods, one would find a yellow jacket nest in the ground, stand near it and call for help from the rest of the crew, about the time they got to him, he stomped the ground and ran.  We had a safety lesson each morning till I got tired of the Tom Foolery and got rid of them.

[gspren]

I get quite a few ground nests every year and usually spot them without getting stung much. Around my buildings I throw about a half a cupful of sevin dust on the hole and then stay away a few days, the worker bees going in and out take enough in to kill the entire nest, safer than gas which I also have used. 

[Texas Ranger]

There is a certain visceral satisfaction of throwing a match on a nest that had a couple of table spoons of gas in them.  Particularly after they have run you out of the woods.

[LaneC]

   That is how we take them out also Raider. We wait until dark, have a long neck bottle filled with gas and shove it in the entrance. I know they sometimes have more than 1 hole but it does not matter. Once you plug that hole and that gas goes in there, they are dust. You have to be quick because even at night the sentinel (not sure about that spelling) (the guard) will be at the hole guarding it.

[Ianab]

  That is how we take them out also Raider. We wait until dark, have a long neck bottle filled with gas and shove it in the entrance. I know they sometimes have more than 1 hole but it does not matter. Once you plug that hole and that gas goes in there, they are dust. You have to be quick because even at night the sentinel (not sure about that spelling) (the guard) will be at the hole guarding it.

Yup, find the nest (carefully ) during the day. Then go back at night and pour a litre of gas in the hole and throw a sack over it. 

[WDH]

Having grown up on a farm, I was very familiar with them.  So, one Fall day back in 1975, my Dendrology class was out in the woods looking at tree specimens and we will all standing around the subject tree looking up at the leaves, checking out the bark, etc.  There were about 20 fellow students, many from Atlanta or other cities without the battle experience that I had.  One of the students stepped on a yellow jacket nest, and I saw them boil out of the ground.  Being a seasoned veteran of the yellow jacket wars, I lit out like a bat flying out of Hades.  I looked back about 50 yards away and there were a number of students doing a particular kind of arm waving and leg kicking kind of dance. 

The uninitiated learned a valuable lesson that day. When the yellow jackets boil out of the ground, run like your hair is one fire :D. 

[Poquo]

After I find a nest I use a whole can of wasp spray or dump gas down the hole then immediately cover with a rock so the fumes and yellow jackets can't escape .

[YellowHammer]

I was sawing maple yesterday and the beasties were flying all around, I guess they like the smell of maple.  I was thinking of this topic as I was sawing, and about that time, one of the little guys slammed into my hand, which was on the joystick.  He didn't sting me but it was a clear warning shot.  So I started spraying them with the closest thing I had handy, which was my little hand sprayer filled with transmission fluid to lube the mill.  Turns out yellow jackets do not like getting sprayed in the face with transmission fluid, and pretty much drop out of the air.  

I've seen a bunch of these home made yellow jacket traps on YouTube, I may have to make one and try it out, because as many as I saw buzzing around me yesterday, I must have nest pretty close.

[Don P]

Ever think back when you do get stung? One usually did bump you moments before to give a warning before saying "this dude ain't paying attention" :D

[LeeB]

Wonder what triggers them to sting after you have been bumped? I've gotten bumped a couple of times in the last few days but paid them no mind and they left me alone.

[Raider Bill]

I was sawing maple yesterday and the beasties were flying all around, I guess they like the smell of maple.  I was thinking of this topic as I was sawing, and about that time, one of the little guys slammed into my hand, which was on the joystick.  He didn't sting me but it was a clear warning shot.  So I started spraying them with the closest thing I had handy, which was my little hand sprayer filled with transmission fluid to lube the mill.  Turns out yellow jackets do not like getting sprayed in the face with transmission fluid, and pretty much drop out of the air.  

I've seen a bunch of these home made yellow jacket traps on YouTube, I may have to make one and try it out, because as many as I saw buzzing around me yesterday, I must have nest pretty close.

I bought a couple of yellow jacket traps for the porch in Tenn. After I ran out of attractant I used mountain dew.
Caught quite a few.
Now if I could figure out what will attract boring bees into their traps except for my porch wood I'd be happy.

[NORTH]

When I used to be a climber for a local tree service more than once they would lower me into a tree with the crane only for me to find out there is a white faced hornets nest in the tree. Not much you can do except rig your rope and make the cut or rig your rope and come down. Either way your butt is getting stung up.

[WV Sawmiller]

@btulloh

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

    Is this a relative of yours?

  https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/backyard-bug-explosion.html

[btulloh]

 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

[Sheepkeeper]

I was going to post a link to that video but WV beat me to it