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

[Baby Grand]

Saturday I got stung on my soft, flabby, belly meat while dumping the table scrap bucket onto our compost pile. It finally stopped hurting, but now it itches beyond description.

Seems the little buggers built a nest in the shell of an old, bowling pin shaped gourd. An aborted attempt at eviction Sunday night resulted in almost getting stung again. The neck of the gourd was their entrance, so no way to position a hunk of meat to attract our neighborhood skunk - that trick has worked for me for nests in the ground.

So last night I brought out the heat wrench. The oxy-acetylene jet was just the ticket to burn out the gourd and not let anyone out while doing it. Strangely satisfying, too.

 

[cldutton]

I am a female building myself a house in oregon.

new construction, oregon, last year, digging foundation, excavator jumped off excavator, started running around.

Then I get my first sting. Last forever, first extreme pain for days, then itch like crazy for days. We weren't swarmed. Each with 3 stings.
He poured diesel down the hole.

Now a year later, I have a house partially built and walk to my 5th wheel to shower and cook.

I brush hog with my Kubota and have seen some yellow jackets on the ground so I think I will carry the spray.

Maybe I should wear my light tyvek suit I use to put in insulation or my mechanic suit.

I'm by myself so I better get serious.

I believe vinegar should help neutralize that strong base.

 

[phcaan]

A month or so ago I noticed a few red wasps buzzing around the door into the barn that was next to my mounted hose reel. I didn't like it much but couldn't find the nest. The next day I went out to fill the chicken water container and when I started to unreel the hose I got nailed, several times in the face. I swelled up and looked like Frankenstein's monster. The next evening I went out and found a nest about 6 inches in diameter in the center of the hose reel, it was full of white gooey maturing wasps. A can of wasp spray killed the nest and a whole bunch of red wasps. It took a couple of days for the swelling to go down enough so I could see out of my right eye.
Sometimes you get nailed from the most unexpected places.

 

[DeereMann]

It is amazing how invasive these European invaders have become. I was looking at the addresses of all the posters - even Australia!

I like the idea of a permie-cab, but I got too many woods & tree branches for that. I've 'only' been nailed a couple of times, but boy-howdy do they hurt if they get the venom into ya. One nest I bailed off the tractor (HST-it stopped moving) and let 'er run for half an hour before I got brave enough to see where the nest was. Turns out it was right next to the LF wheel. So I creep back as slow as I can go.

Many cool (& twisted!) ideas for killing nests. I'm usually short of time, so just spray a couple cans of Raid into the holes on cool evenings.

Sorry to see these nests so widespread across North America. :thumbsdown:

 

[jacspath]

This is my remedy. Other wise I find that they are very persistent and do not want to give up 'their' territory. And go for the match. The fire burns off their wings so they can build nearby.

 

[cosman]

I have had good results with sevin (garden dust) Fill the hole if possible. Yellow jackets
groom themselves. They will cary this into the hive and it will kill them all as they groom
each other. Had this experience several times. The noise and vibration from equipment
seems to confuse them so I try to leave tractor running although that makes it more
dangerous to get off the tractor.

 

[BigBoyinMS]

Back in the late '60's when I was about 9 years old I'm in the car coming back from a trip to town with my mother. As we get near my Uncles driveway I see what looks like a 4 1/2 ft tall smiling "space alien" standing in his driveway. That "alien" was my cousin who had been stung in the back of his head twice by yellowjackets. His head was swollen to the point that it looked like a white jacko'lantern with slits for eyes. We spent the rest of the day laughing at how funny he looked.

Someone mentioned Red Wasp earlier. I had a nest in a barn many years ago and I got my 20 ft Wasp Spray and just walked up and blasted them as I usually would. You shoulda seen this fat boy run! That spray didn't faze them at all. And this was the same spray that I used at the house I had just sold that dropped a hornet like a rock. Ok, so I decide to get serious... gasoline will drop them... I know it wasn't the safest thing but I poured some in my sprayer and again walked up and sprayed them. That was my day for running. Another direct hit and they still flew after me. I was done for the day. The next day at work I'm telling the guys about my zombie wasp and I was told about foaming wasp spray. That finally dropped them... literally. No, it didn't kill them... but it kept them from flying and when they fell I still had to grind them under my boots to finish them off. Maybe these weren't Red Wasp. They looked like Red Wasp but they were bigger than usual and so dark red they were almost black. I did get stung by one of these later in the year when I stirred up a nest in the tongue of a trailer I hadn't used in a while. The spot where I was stung scabbed over and when the scab fell off I had a divot in my leg about as big around as a small BB.

I think I was stung by a Yellowjacket on the tip of a finger once while mowing a field but I'm still not sure if it was a YG sting or a shot from a .22 rifle the neighbors were shooting. Either way it felt like I had slammed a 16 oz framing hammer on my finger.

 

[DarkBlack]

I've always been amazed at how fast they can: fly to you, Land, position, secure their feet-position, push the stinger into your skin, pump the venom.
I've literally felt pain the moment my eyes registers in my brain their flying movement towards me.:laughing:

 

[SPYDERLK]

We had a service man tell us the best thing to kill hornets and bees is carburetor cleaner!

Gasoline is as good and far cheaper. ... Unfortunately it is not available in a convenient dispenser.
larry

 

[SPYDERLK]

today i put my new Ratchet rake on for the first time and took it into the woods next to my driveway, to try clearing out some brush. After a couple of minutes of back and forth in the woods a stream of sunshine lit up the section of woods in front of me and I saw that I had just turned up the ground over a ground wasp's hole. There were hundreds of wasps buzzing around their hole. While I made a hasty retreat with my tractor out of the area, one lone wasp came under my tractor canopy and buzzed me but left quickly. I was wondering if he had any way to signal the rest of his army, but apparently not.

I lucked out today.

BTW, the ratchet rake is a fantastic tool!

Insects home in on CO2. Hold your breath if possible.