Bee Careful?

[pinemartin]

I was checking out the fittings and pumps on my Timberwolf OWB today when I was surrounded by a cloud of yellow jackets. Good news they weren't in the stove they were in a old boot left underneath it. I thought this was odd so I took some pictures then set them on fire

 

[OR nurse]

I was mowing my grass several years ago when I got stung on the shoulder when I ran under a low hanging branch on a cedar tree. I killed it, thought that was that then I noticed a bunch of bees around. I let go of the mower and moved toward the house. Then I noticed a great big paper hornets nest in the tree. They were really aggressive, flying at my face, so I got pi**ed off, went into the house for my Remington 870 police 12 gauge, loaded it with #6 shot, went back out and blasted big chunks out of the nest! :hmm3grin2orange: Then I ran back to the house! I've never seen bees so mad in all my life. There was a cloud of hornets everywhere. For the next several days after that, they tried to rebuild the nest, but I would run out there and put a couple shells into their effort, and they finally moved on. I won!

 

[tdi-rick]

There's a critical shortage of bees in the US ATM (we differentiate between honey bees and wasps here) and there is an export market in live honey bees from Australia at certain times of the year to various US ag regions.

 

[Signoflife]

Wasps in the soffit / wall

Sorry its a bit of a long story, but it could help you out if you get a similar problem.

A couple years back we replaced the soffit, fascia, gutter and down spouts in house. Later that year we noticed wasps were flying into the soffit through a 1/2" by 1/2" gap in the bricks and soffit.

We were wondering how to get rid of the ever increasing number of pests, but couldn't get to where the hive was easily. At night while investigating I was chased away a couple times before getting close to the hive.

One day the little lady was walking behind our house (about 4 weeks after we first noticed them) about 20 to 30 feet away from the hive, one wasp dive-bombed and stung here in the lip. She looked like Lisa Simpson, man it swelled up huge! She was so mad and ugly (from the sting, I'd show you the picture but I like life at this point and don't want to risk it), anyway she had one of those brain waves caused from aggrevation / pain.

She suggested we setup the shop-vac to suck all those critters into the tank.

So here's what I did:
1. Duct taped a 15 foot pc of aluminum pipe into the nozzle.
2. I filled the bottom of shop-vac tank with foaming Raid spray.
3. Eased the nozzle up slowly next to the entry/exit hole.
4. Plugged the shop-vac in and stood back and watched.

Wow, you should have seen the wasps disappearing one after the other into that the pipe. Anyone that got within 4 inches or so would thhhhup, into the pipe!

After 40 minutes or so the wasps going in slowed down to nil, so I unplugged the vac, opened the tank...there must have been a thousand or so in there. They where a few inches deep in the bottom of the tank, all dead due to the spray in the tank.

After that I took the soffit apart, and found the hive a foot or so away from where they were disappearing into the gap, and they were building it down into the wall space.

Spray alone just didn't work in this case and the shot-gun was out the question too!

 

[2dogs]

The yearly project I'm on always produces some yellow jacket nests. Because of the politics we call the county vector control people to nuke the nests. I called in 2 this week. The lady who showed up researched our file from last year and said we had called her office for 27 nests last year over 5 weeks.

 

[Erick]

Never cut into them with a saw but I know they get plenty pissed off when you back over them with a bush hog.

Well I guess things haven't changed much ....... turns out they don't like the finish mower any better than they like the bush hog.

Took a couple of shots to the head this evening.... MAN I HATE F:censored:'n YELLOW JACKETS.

I was feeling pretty good to because I managed to avoid finding this little gem the hard way.

Noticed it just in time to turn off and not run it over with the bush hog.... and then I go and find the damn yellow jackets. :censored:

 

[beeker]

A friend from Kentucky was telling me a story while he was baling hay. He needed to use the out house. Sat down, next thing he knew he was outside on the ground rolling and screaming like he was on fire, pants still around his ankles. A nest of hornets were under the seat. Three stings on his behind and two more, a lot worse then that. The farmer was laughing so hard he almost fell off the tractor. He said glad the pain finally went away but wished the swelling would have stayed.

 

[Adirondack]

Took a couple of shots to the head this evening.... MAN I HATE F:censored:'n YELLOW JACKETS.

I was feeling pretty good to because I managed to avoid finding this little gem the hard way.

Noticed it just in time to turn off and not run it over with the bush hog.... and then I go and find the damn yellow jackets. :censored:[/QUOTE]

I am no expert but that looks like a blad faced hornet nest
I just killed a nest near my honey bees. They are really agressive. I am not sure of their sting but they are much worse than yellow jackets. I think:hmm3grin2orange:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttjLEqNZlRg&feature=related

 

[Erick]

Took a couple of shots to the head this evening.... MAN I HATE F:censored:'n YELLOW JACKETS.

I was feeling pretty good to because I managed to avoid finding this little gem the hard way.

Noticed it just in time to turn off and not run it over with the bush hog.... and then I go and find the damn yellow jackets. :censored:

I am no expert but that looks like a blad faced hornet nest
I just killed a nest near my honey bees. They are really agressive. I am not sure of their sting but they are much worse than yellow jackets. I think:hmm3grin2orange:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttjLEqNZlRg&feature=related

Yep, those are bald face hornets (also called white face hornets) they hurt for sure but I'd rather take a sting from them than a yellow jacket. We have a pretty strong population of European Hornets also but the hornets hurt for a little bit the yellow jackets hurt for a while, especially if they sting you on a joint. The hornets you usually find before the encounter the damn yellow jackets just come pouring out of the ground when you least expect it on the mower..... did I say I hate yellow jackets???? I take a few good stings every year it's just kinda part of maintaining the property. This is the time of year when the nests are at there largest and most aggressive and hitting them with the mower is a sure fire way to get stung.

 

[wfsdno]

I am one of those allergic to bees (honey bees) for sure, and possibly wasps, etc. After not being stung for 30+ years, I was hit by one this summer in the chest that was carried in on a strong wind. A short time later, my chest started tighening to the point is was hard to move my arms. Went to the emergency room and recieved a steroid shot. By morning I was fine.....but....
Now that I am into cutting wood for all my winter heat, I have acquired 2 EpiPens for safety. Never leave home without one (or both), now....

Roger

 

[corsair4360]

Hornets in the Ground

A couple of years ago my good friend was running a front end loader in his yard, scraped the top off a yellow jacket (hornet) nest in the ground here in California. They came out of the nest mad as heck, and chased about for a bit.

After we got away from the mad hornets, we poured some alcohol down the hole and lit it. That did not do the job so we poured a couple of gallons ( we use it in our drag race car) in the hole, and set it off. Those stupid yellow jackets would come in for the hole, could not see the flames and would curl up and die in the air and drop into the fire. No more yellow jacket in that part of his yard and we dug a water line trench right through that place this year.

 

[TreePointer]

Got lucky this time

I just ran over another yellow jacket nest this past Saturday with a riding mower. Actually, I went over the area twice before I noticed it. The third time they started swarming outside the hole immediately after I ran over it, so I let out a

and gunned the mower all the way back into the barn. Thankfully, I was fully covered (jeans and long sleeved work shirt) and received no stings.

 

[JAM]

Got married outside in a small opening surrounded by mature oaks. While saying all of those special words I noticed a stream out flying insects directly behind the preacher. After all of the festivities I wandered over to the spot and found a hole with a large stream of ground wasps going in and out.
Nobody got stung but there was a mad dash out of the area when I pointed it out to the guests.

 

[akennyd]

Cantdogs experience reminded me of this:

The military base I work on has a regulation for motorcyclists that they have to wear goggles or some sort of other eye protection. Seems that a few years ago, a soldier had a single vehicle motorcycle accident. He had just been clipping along one of the back roads here on base and for no apparent reason just run off the road and up into the woods. He didn't make it.

Seems they later found that some sort of wasp or bee had hit him in the eye (wasn't wearing glasses or goggles), lodged behind his eyeball and proceeded to do what all varmints with a stinger will do when irritated. Needless to say he lost control of his bike.


I have learned from a very early age to recognize all of our local stinging insects and we do call them by their specific names red wasp (or guinea wasp it's also called around here), yellow wasp, yellow jacket (those we have around here show up pee'd off), hornet, cow killer (actually a wingless wasp) and bee. (Except for the fire ants...I wasn't stung by one of those little suckers until I was in my late 20's.)

Kenny

John 3:16

 

[litefoot]

Any of you ever use yellow jacket grubs for fish bait? One of the funny memories I have of my childhood was gathering grubs with my dad. He'd lure in yellow jackets with honey on a paper plate. Then he'd follow them back to their underground nest, light off a railroad flare, stuff it in the hole and smoke out the yellow jackets. We'd then dig up the muliti-layered nest and freeze them until the next fishing trip.

 

[nmurph]

Cantdogs experience reminded me of this:

The military base I work on has a regulation for motorcyclists that they have to wear goggles or some sort of other eye protection. Seems that a few years ago, a soldier had a single vehicle motorcycle accident. He had just been clipping along one of the back roads here on base and for no apparent reason just run off the road and up into the woods. He didn't make it.

Seems they later found that some sort of wasp or bee had hit him in the eye (wasn't wearing glasses or goggles), lodged behind his eyeball and proceeded to do what all varmints with a stinger will do when irritated. Needless to say he lost control of his bike.


I have learned from a very early age to recognize all of our local stinging insects and we do call them by their specific names red wasp (or guinea wasp it's also called around here), yellow wasp, yellow jacket (those we have around here show up pee'd off), hornet, cow killer (actually a wingless wasp) and bee. (Except for the fire ants...I wasn't stung by one of those little suckers until I was in my late 20's.)

Kenny

John 3:16

guinea wasp are actually yellow and are similar in appearance to yellow jackets. red wasp are the other variety we have in the south. they are red (duh) and are larger. they are also slower to provoke.
did you know that what we call bald-faced hornets are actually an aerial yellow jacket.

 

[hamweena]

I hit a nest with my weed wacker three summers in a row. I got stung all three times and I ran like a school girl all three times.

 

[Ske-bum]

Several years ago, we got a cold snap in late Sept. Couple inches of snow and 15 degree morning temps. My wood cutting buddy and I head out to get some more firewood. I dropped a tree right on top of a yellow jacket ground nest. My buddy starts yelling, I'm trying to run as fast as I can over snow covered ground, when I realize that I'm not getting strung. Turned around to see what was going on.

On the ground there was a pile of dead and dying yellow jackets, they were freezing to death as they came out of the nest. A couple flew out froze and dropped to the ground. So to help them on their way I packed the nest with a bunch of snow. Damned things.

Turned out to be a good day cutting.

But one of their bastard relatives stung me the other day out mountain biking.