Mowing Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time

   / Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time #21  
Someone was saying recently that they got a new can of wasp spray and it didn't seem to kill them as well as previous cans. Did manufacturers need to detune this stuff?
 
   / Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time #22  
Haven't done it on the tractor, but did manage to find a nest with the weed-whacker while cleaning out the ditch.

I was in my mid-50's at the time, and I set two Olympic records: shot-putting a weed-whacker and the 100 yard dash...
 
   / Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time #23  
Must have been being watched over last year. During a soccer scrimmage (high school girls team) I went to retrieve a soccer ball that rolled up by the fence around the field. as soon as I picked it up I saw a black cloud start to pour out of the ~4" diameter hole in the ground beneath it. I slowly walked away from the hole and the soccer field the teams were playing on. The swarm followed me a 100 yards across another field and some open area before they decided I wasn't a threat and went away. I went over and stopped the game after that, certainly didn't want to take second chance with a couple dozen soccer players and a swarm of angry hornets.
 
   / Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time #24  
I got nailed fueling the truck this past weekend. Seemed like every time I was on the tractor or skid steer I had 3 or 4 big ugly nasty looking red wasps bird dogging me but I never could find the nest.

Well saturday I go to get fuel for the tractor and skid and decide to top the truck off while I'm buying diesel. Truck is driven very little to the point the 25 gallon tank will last a month plus.

I pop open the fuel cover and reach in without looking to open the cap only to find the wasp nest the hard way. Lucky me there was only one on the nest since it was daytime. He got me right on my left hand ring finger. After I realized what happened I at least had sense enough to pull my wedding band off before I swelled up. Arm burned all the way up to my elbow and that finger hurt for 2 days. I killed about a dozen more wasps that were hunting that nest as the weekend went on too.

As of today, my finger is still swelled up too big to get my wedding band on.
 
   / Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time #25  
So far ... sheer luck I'm sure ... I've not stirred up any nests. I am, however, a big believer in good spray and use it around my home and barn. There are countless brands and some of them just make the little devils angry! For my money, Raid Wasp & hornet is the best going.
 
   / Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time #26  
And man oh man do those things move fast! We were renovating a two bedroom cottage, and had painted the wall and the trim around the exterior door just the week before.

The next week, I had noticed that every time I went inside and slammed the door there was a bunch of something flying around outside.

I figured it out without getting stung, and what it was was the wasps or hornets had entered where the trim meets the siding of the cottage around the door trim. You could hear them in the wall if you put your ear up against the inside paneling right next to the door. So, I got this hornet killer can of spray, and went up to the outside frame and sprayed into the hole where I saw them coming in and out. Then I stepped back quickly, in case any of them came out, but I did not notice that at the very top of the door was a guard or something. I saw it at the same time it launched itself in a straight line towards me, about 10 to 15 feet away. The whole thing took a split second, but I could tell it was headed for my left hand, so I swatted my left hand with my right hand, but not before it had stung me. The whole thing took such a tiny amount of time, that I was amazed that it had the time to get that stinger into my hand.

It was no big deal, as it hurt for a little bit, and the spot where I was stung did not swell up very much (maybe because I moved so fast in swatting the little b____r away. )

Next time, I am going to stand back and spray, because this particular can has a long shooting spray which you can aim very precisely and yet stand quite a ways away. I will still probably have to run, however.

Yet another hazard in cottage country! Never had this problem when I was growing up back in southern Alberta. As a kid, we used to beat the heck out of big giant yellow jacket nests with a stick, and they would all come swarming out, but they seemed to be too stupid to realize that the kid with the stick was the problem. Ontario bees are smarter, I guess.😝
 
   / Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time #27  
Haven't done it on the tractor, but did manage to find a nest with the weed-whacker while cleaning out the ditch.

I was in my mid-50's at the time, and I set two Olympic records: shot-putting a weed-whacker and the 100 yard dash...

:laughing: LOL...Sounds like something I would do...I can picture it...LOL
 
   / Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time #28  
Hit a nest of ground bees this morning. Weren't there last week. Put some sevin dust on them since they are close to the house. Small plastic pesticide cup on a long wooden pole works great.
 
   / Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time #29  
A couple years ago, my father was mowing some of his property with my tractor. He routinely takes his grandson along (my sisters son, I won't let him take my son) him for the ride because he "likes mowing".

He was 2-3 yrs old at time, and he fell asleep on my dad's lap while mowing. As you can imagine, he ran over a yellow jacket nest, and the first sign was his grandson waking up screaming, followed by a few stings of his own.

He shut off the tractor and jumped off with my nephew, then ran. My nephew only ended up with 3 or 4 stings, but considering as few as 30 can kill a small child, he is pretty lucky.

I've never mowed with my son anywhere near the tractor, and I never will until I have a cab someday.
 
   / Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later..... and today it was my time #30  
Was tack-nailing down the first row of tar paper to the roof of a two story home we were about to shingle when a couple of yellow jackets came to meet me. They seemed to be in a hurry. Instinct was to swat at them with my favoured hand... Yes the same hand I hold a hammer in. So the hammer went for a fling toward the front yard and driveway since I was more concerned at that moment with being stung than whether I was holding a hammer or not. However... an instant later my thoughts turned to the hammer which I watched sail to the ground... beside the car, thankfully.
 
 
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