Yellowjackets

[Magicman]

Not a sawing day today, but a cleaning up day.  My Son took the backhoe and dug a good sized receiving pit.  We were just too busy to notice the buzzing before both of us were wrapped up with yellowjackets.   

I don't know their habitat range, but for those who don't have them, they are a relatively small vicious ground dwelling bee/wasp.  They are ferocious when it comes to stinging.  We were wearing shorts so they had easy targets.   :-\

Yes, multi-multiple stings for both of us.    :'(

[Warbird]

I got a single sting from a ground dwelling hive we uncovered last weekend, while clearing land around a friend's new home building site.  It hurt pretty good.  Multiple stings would truly suck.  :( 

Are either of you allergic?  Sounds like not.  I wasn't sure if I was and this may have been my first sting ever.

[Raider Bill]

Lots of threads on these little monsters here.

[Tom]

One of the most effective,natural cardio-vascular exercise contraptions ever discovered. They will cause the production of vast amounts of adrenalin in a short period of time and up the production of endorphins without the ingestion of fat producing sugars or expensive commercial acupuncture treatments.

[Raider Bill]

My Friend swears a yellow jacket sting takes the aches out of his joints. I think it just takes his mind off for awhile.

[Jeff]

We have a tremendous amount of wasp and bees this year, but virtually no honey bees which I love to have around.  I have destroyed at least a dozen nests in the last two weeks. We even have on our Pig Roast to-do list, "Hunt for bee's nests"  scheduled for monday before the roast.

[Magicman]

You mention honey bees Jeff.  Our bee population is seriously down.  Our pecan and probably other crops are suffering.

A few years ago a beekeeper from N. Dakota always Wintered his bees on my tree farm.  I loved it.  Sure, they were a nuisance at times, but we had bumper crops of  acorns and pecans.

I don't think yellowjackets pollinate anything but themselves.

[fishpharmer]

Glad your okay MM.  I've had them attack me on dozers and tractors.  Tractors can usually get away faster.  Last time I was on a tractor bushhogging and some attacked I was wearing ear protectors and sunglasses.

The yellowjackets were hitting the black ear protectors and black sunglass lenses.  I was only hit once in the neck.  Not sure why they homed in on the black, but fortunate for me.  I can only speculate they targeted the black because they appeared to be "eyes".  Not sure.

[Jeff]

It looks to me like our biggest pollinator here are bumblebees.

[SwampDonkey]

I've been on wild blueberry fields in the deep woods, that grow back after wild fire. There are no honeybees ever out there. There are little wasps, bumble bees and hornets and even some type of flies and moths doing a fine job. More blueberries than you could ever make a dent in hand picking.... and hanging like bunches of grapes .... acres. I was even cutting brush this week and some spots were just blue with berries a whole month ahead. Years ago when we used to go trout fishing, sometimes we just picked berries for 2 days and never bothered with the fish'n. Just sit on a stump or log and reap berries.  8) I have not been over in that blueberry country for 12 or 13 years now. They grew best where there was wild jack pines. In among them blueberries was a whole new forest of jacks taking off, released from the cones by fire. Sometimes you could even discover that someone didn't know their ecology too well, when they would have some trees planted (black spruce) and the jacks were 10 times as thick. :

[Banjo picker]

We just finished bushhogging the state roads in the county..Last week the guy in the only enclosed cab tractor stopped me and said that I had just demollished a hornets nest..and they were every where..I was turning around to make anothe pass when he got me stopped....He finished it...Tim

[Chuck White]

One of the most effective,natural cardio-vascular exercise contraptions ever discovered. They will cause the production of vast amounts of adrenalin in a short period of time and up the production of endorphins without the ingestion of fat producing sugars or expensive commercial acupuncture treatments.

You'd be surprised how fast "us" ole farts can move when being swarmed upon by a bunch of ticked off bees!

As a matter of fact, I have a nest of them in the gable end soffit on my garage I'm working up nerve to get rid of.
I figured I'd wait till after dark and go out and spray them when they're all in bed!

[Dave Shepard]

I got nailed by them either last fall or the fall before. Stung so many times on the hands I couldn't close them for a while. They nest in the sawdust piles. I can't get cleaned up right up near the building with the loader, so there is always some that stays behind. I made a point of at least running it over the next time. ;D

[Warbird]

I just tried to get rid of a nest we discovered between the siding of the house and the exterior wall, underneath the soffit.  It is a very tricky one, as the opening of the nest is not exposed.  Thought I'd got them last night (after having been stung in the neck, next to my Adam's apple :( ) but I saw 2 or 3 going in and out again in the hot sun today.  :(  

If I can find more of the good bee/wasp killer, I'll try again, then pop off a piece of siding, and make sure to eradicate the thing.  They are vicious this year and will sting if you even look at them funny.

[Chuck White]

I don't know how good the regular "flying insect" spray is, I just know they don't like it!

The best thing I've seen for actually killing bees is "brake parts spray" cleaner.
This stuff will take the wings off of them right in the air.

I think the real secret is petroleum products.  Be it gas, diesel, oil, penetrating oil spray, or any similar product.

[DanG]

Roach bombs do a great job if they're in an enclosed space.  We had a huge yellow jacket nest in the void under the bathtub a few years ago.  I found the opening, then put a piece of tubing on a small funnel, then expended the can into the funnel with the tubing in the hole.  Never saw another one.  Use heavy gloves for this as the can freezes like freon.

An "environmentally sensitive" friend had an underground nest near his front door.  He poured a bottle of isopropyl alcohol down the hole and got rid of them.  Gotta do the deed at night with both methods.

Brake parts cleaner and carburetor cleaner both do a quick job on exposed nests too.  They're a lot cheaper and more effective than wasp  sprays.

[Warbird]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.  They get a couple of day reprieve because I have to get ready for church tomorrow and I've other pressing projects that require my attention.

[Warbird]

So that Raid Bee & Wasp killer is great stuff.  I didn't spray anymore since the one time (the entire town is sold out of the stuff) but still, the 2 or 3 I'd seen the day after spraying have now disappeared.  I banged on the siding all around where the nest was and there is zero activity.

Thank God.  I was not relishing the idea of taking a couple more stings in order to get behind that siding.  The one sting they got near my Adam's apple has been itching like crazy all day.

[Dave Shepard]

I had to kill 11 yellow jacket nests to get near my pickup to start working on it today. I think it was Ortho Home Defense that I used. I'd never used it before. They had built inside the mirrors on the truck, so I sprayed inside them at close range. I didn't know it was going to foam up like shaving cream, filled the entire inside of the mirror. ;D Also found a giant black and yellow spider, who was also evicted.

[Banjo picker]

One of the guys I work with said you could mix in a little dishwashing liquid in a bowl of water and dash on wasp and it would kill them....He said use Dawn I believe...Is there any reason that would work?  I haven't tried it yet ....has any body on here ever heard of that....?   Tim

[Dave Shepard]

I heard that elsewhere today. I suspect the soap film suffocates them, and probably hinders flight as well would be my guess.

[Tom]

Yes, insects breathe through spiracles (openings in the abdominal wall) and soap clogs them up so that there is no oxygen transfer.  The air enters the spiracles and the oxygen transfer takes place in the trachea, directly diffusing in the tracheal fluid.  It is an open system and air can be taken in through any of the spiracles and passed out through that one, or any of the others.  The insect can even direct the flow.

We used to do an experiment in college where we put a large insect, usually a locustidae (Grasshopper) in a glass tube, with a membrane sealing the abdomen midway and forming a barrier in the tube. Then we would blow smoke in one end and there would be little puffs of smoke come from the other.  Clearing the tube of smoke, we would then blow some smoke into the other end of the tub and, in a bit, there would be little puffs coming from the other end.  It was a pretty good indication that the insect had changed the direction of air flow.   Soap causes havoc with all of that.

[sandhills]

Yes someone mentioned it (dish wash soap) in the thread about penetrating oil.  I have never tried it but do know brake cleaner will drop most any bug right outta the air.

[SwampDonkey]

Tom, you could have some interesting insect conversations with my buddy Jeff at the Sault.  ;D

[DanG]

Tom, you could have some interesting insect conversations with my buddy Jeff at the Sault.  ;D

Ya mean he blows smoke up a grasshopper's butt too?  And here I thought Tom was the only one. : ;D :D