Bees in our bonnets

[Anonymous Poster]

A little tragi-comic background:

First the tragedy. Not long ago a firefighter died here in the NW of a yellowjacket sting(s), in spite of the best efforts of his trained coworkers to save his life.

Now the comedy. A friend of mine was working in an orchard aboard his JD, and while backing-up, pushed an unseen bald-faced hornets' nest backwards with his ROPS. His first clue was when the basketball-sized nest came free of the ROPS, and swung back to its original position... now just above his head, with the the understandably upset occupants boiling out to deal with the situation. He says that he is sure that the blurry helmet formed by his flailing arms as he self-ejected kept him from getting a single sting(!).

He also said that he would have never guessed that he would let someone have his tractor with so little protest! I don't know how he regained it ( we were laughing as he told the story, and I didn't think to ask), but it was one time he was glad that he WASN'T wearing his seat belt.

One more observation leads up to my question. Walking my pasture w/ my S.O. this afternoon, we saw 4 entrances to active underground yellowjacket nests( they take-up in gopher holes, etc.). Considering the area we walked, and the size of my 3 pastures, I expect to encounter 10 to 20 or more of these nests with any ground-disturbing work I do in those fields with the tractor I plan to buy next Spring.

I've read that some of these nests can contain thousands of wasps, and know that,although I've been stung before with no dire consequences, an allergy can develop unknown to a person, making the next sting (or the next several) a serious issue.

So, finally, to my question -- Do you guys have any good ideas about eliminating or protecting yourselves from these critters, when you know they are where you will be working?

Thanks for any ideas,

Larry

 

[Thomas]

Well for me it would be keep my eyes open & old shovel handle & fast set of feet. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
The only real problem I have are moose,/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif and a bear might come by and pay a visit now and than. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Bird]

Larry, we definitely have that problem; red wasps, yellow jackets, bumble bees, and now even the Africanized honey bees (killer bees) have gotten this far north, but I don't know of any solution other than watching out for them, staying away, etc. Of course, if you see them before an attack, there are any number of insecticides that work, but the problem is not seeing them in time.

Bird

 

[Von]

Larry,
Once while brush cutting I stopped the tractor to move a log and parked on a yellow jacket nest. As I was getting off to move the log is when they started to swarm. I got stung twice and ran from the swarm. Now the problem was how to get the tractor back! I waited about 5 min. so as to let them settle down and got back on slowly and drove off the nest as fast as I could. Next time in the field I sprayed the nest to kill them.

Von

 

[TomG]

The WD-40 that is probably in the toolbox works well if insecticide isn't handy. Best solution is to look for concentrations of them, which usually identifies a nest. Wait for evening when they aren't flying around, and saturate the nest with WD-40. Insecticide seems to be over-priced to me. Up here, yellow jackets tend to nest in old buildings, and black wasps in trees. I guess that makes oiling them a little easier than if they're underground.

 

[roysallis]

This site has soome good info on yellowjackets and other pests.

http://www.bugspray.com/article/yellowjackets.html

 

[ERNIEB]

Statistics show that more people die from bee and other insect stings than from snake bite, so this is a good topic to bring up. We have had the killer bees around here for several years now, much to the distain of area beekeepers. They tend to nest in deserted or unused structures. The problem comes when they are suddenly disturbed, and then they attack in a swarm. Often people and animals are not stung once or twice, but say fifteen to even hundreds of times. Hence fatalities can result. From what I've seen, it looks as if the noise of machinery really infuriates them. In the City of San Antonio, most attacks happen when someone is mowing a lot, that hasn't been mowed in quite a while. In the rural areas, the bees can and do nest in farm machinery and implements. Farmer goes to hook up that bailer he hasn't used for months, and surprise.
Prevention seems to be the best cure. Know how and where bees and wasps are likely to nest, and when you have to go into such an area, just expect them to be there.
Rattlesnakes, have always been around, and as far back as I can remember, I was taught to never pick things up off the ground using only my hands. Get a hoe or rake, and turn it over or at least look under it before using your hands. Not just for snakes, but scorpions, and these days the cursed fire ant.
ErnieB

 

[Harv]

Well, I can relate to this one.

It hasn't happened on a tractor outing yet, but we recently found a vollyball-sized bundle of joy on a tree next to the main house (see attachment). I thought I had made a clean getaway after taking this picture, but as I was walking away I felt something tickling the back of my neck, and when I reached back to brush it away it turned out to be under my shirt collar and didn't like being groped by a big ol' human hand.

Ouch!!!

Had a nice little welt on the back on neck for several days. We left the nest alone, since we deemed it scientifically "interesting", but the following week when my 8-year old dqughter got stung just walking nearby, Daddy got angry and took retaliatory action. Being the big, brave, macho-type of guy that I am, I..., well..., I picked up the phone and called the local pest control. The nest was gone when we returned a couple of weeks later. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

We also have rattlesnakes here, but I always thought that when I encounter one, I would like to be sitting high on my 'Bota, preferably with the brush hog close behind. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[scruffy]

ErnieB, Harv, Rattlesnakes den up during the winter, and there can be hundreds in one den. My Dad was pushing a new road across a hillside and hit such a den, the snakes were coming up over the tracks onto the deck of the D8 and he bailed! It took him three days to get that cat out of there. U of O started a study of that den, and two others that were located and used them to increase the knowledge of Rattlesnakes.
Way up high on that tractor deck? Still not a safe place.
The attached pic is of a rattlesnake I killed just 3 feet from the front door of the house. Son shot it with a pellet gun and it got away into the garage, where it was when I got home, I fished it out with a hoe and finished it off. The animal lovers around here were upset that I killed it. Tough. I don't like killing, but some things are necessary.

 

[PaulB]

I use the old tried and true gasoline technique. Go out at dusk, fill the hole with gasoline. cover with a board to allow the fumes to disseminate throughout the nest, then from a distance (long pole) ignite the fumes, and WHOOSH smoke rolls out of several holes often 10 or more feet apart, and the bees are fried. Any lawyers out there, i am officially NOT advocating anybody try this, etc, etc.