Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan?

[rodneyn]

I tried pure Clorox bleach once for yellow jacket stings. It seems I held that soaked paper towel to my neck waaayyy to long. A bad chemical burn as our nurse at work described it. Ugly too. The burn that is.

Don’t LOL on this but either and oatmeal bath for multiple stings will work. Or for localized sting is meat tenderizer mixed in water solution applied direct to sting area. I was skeptical until my wife laid law down on doing this when I was stung either single or multiple times. Now it’s epinephrine pen first before I pass away. Hornets and wasps don’t like me. They for sure don’t like dark brown clothing represent a predator to them. Stop wearing this color and I have been lucky so far.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

A little chewing tobacco or chew a little on a cigar and apply to sting location, old time southern remedy.

 

[JWR]

Remedies are legion -- some work, some don't. The epipen is the right thing if you are at all allergic to stings. The rest of us can be soothed by all sorts of things. Antihistamine helps (centrally, take the pills.) Externally -- the stings are acidic so any strong base helps (like Clorox.) Baking soda made wet and pasted on immediately helps (since it is a strong base) but the problem is most of us are many minutes before putting on the goo and the sting is already in there. I do not see why one of the others posting got "burned" by Clorox. Maybe good advice is to dilute it or just don't leave it on the skin for so long. Many over the counter (OTC) remedies exist obviously. Absorbine Jr. etc. Drug stores sell lidocaine sticks that allow you to apply topical analgesics. Also there are OTC antihistamine gels that ease the pain.

 

[MrMetal]

I once found a nest of ground hornets in the back yard. I left the area without being stung. Later that evening, nearly dark, I prepared a 5 gallon full with boiling water and some dish washing liquid. I quietly approached the hole and poured the entire contents in the hole and put a rock over it. No more hornets.

 

[thewalnutguy]

geared down, popped clutch & fled. (open station) repeatedly stung on face. wife (at the time) said she never would have dated me looking like that.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

YIKES!! Some people pay big bucks for lips like that!!

 

[bigtiller]

The whiskers and cap help.

 

[wmfamily]

About a month ago I saw a couple of small mounds of fine soil (like tiny pebbles) that resembled an ant hill about 1½" tall, but with a opening hole the size of the body of a Sharpie marker. I curiously put a pine needle down the hole and it stopped a good 5 or 6" deep. 'Huh?' I thought to myself. I smoothed it over with my boot covering it up, stepped on it to compress the soil and left it. It reappeared a day or so later... Around that time I saw the largest yellow jacket I have ever seen- about the length of three 'normal ones' but with substantial girth. I realized it was a queen creating a nest. Got the wasp spray and held down the nozzle until the hole was filled and covered it up.

That most likely was a Cicada Killer. They may look dangerous but rarely sting people unless you are bothering them. Only the females sting and are not aggressive if you are around their nest.

 

[Richard]

Had a standing dead tree out in the field that I keep cut. There was a knot in the tree that was actually a hole. Think of Whinnie the Pooh sticking his hand in a hole in a tree and that's what it was like.

I AM sting allergic....been to ER once, also had 5 years of sting allergy shots so I try to be careful.
There is a constant stream of bees going in and out. You can also see a handful of them standing by the gate, much like guards.

This tree is GOING to get bumped sometime or another with the mower so frankly, it has to come down. Patience is my friend. I just dodge it and decide that I'll knock it down in winter time.

I think it was January of 2020, I decided it was cold enough so jump on the backhoe. I originally intended on cutting tree down....decided I didn't want to be THAT close to it so with the backhoe, I might be able to be 10/15' away from it to at least get some warning if they get excited.

All I can say is I'm thankful I never did this during the warmer months. Rather than dig at the roots, I thought I'd see if I could simply push the tree over. As it turned out, the tree was nearly 100% hollow and there were thousands of bees in there. I think the hive was maybe 12-15 feet long with various layers as they had built it up over the years.

I pushed it over, the tree shattered, breaking in half lengthwise exposing virtually ALL of them to me instantly however, it was cold enough they could barely move. They buzzed about, I simply got out of there. I figured I'd let time do some healing for me.

Went back the next morning, got these pictures. There were still hundreds of bees there. I presumed they were scouting for a new place to call home and seems that logic was reasonable. Several days later, the entire mass of them (there were some behind that didn't make it) but the most of them were simply gone. No idea where they went. Cleaned up the tree, took to burn pile and no sign of any of it there today.

Kind of hated doing that to mother nature but the tree was dead and would have fallen at some point no matter what happened. I just preferred for it to fall on my terms where I control the conditions rather than at random.

 

[wmfamily]

Had a standing dead tree out in the field that I keep cut. There was a knot in the tree that was actually a hole. Think of Whinnie the Pooh sticking his hand in a hole in a tree and that's what it was like.

I AM sting allergic....been to ER once, also had 5 years of sting allergy shots so I try to be careful.
There is a constant stream of bees going in and out. You can also see a handful of them standing by the gate, much like guards.

This tree is GOING to get bumped sometime or another with the mower so frankly, it has to come down. Patience is my friend. I just dodge it and decide that I'll knock it down in winter time.

I think it was January of 2020, I decided it was cold enough so jump on the backhoe. I originally intended on cutting tree down....decided I didn't want to be THAT close to it so with the backhoe, I might be able to be 10/15' away from it to at least get some warning if they get excited.

All I can say is I'm thankful I never did this during the warmer months. Rather than dig at the roots, I thought I'd see if I could simply push the tree over. As it turned out, the tree was nearly 100% hollow and there were thousands of bees in there. I think the hive was maybe 12-15 feet long with various layers as they had built it up over the years.

I pushed it over, the tree shattered, breaking in half lengthwise exposing virtually ALL of them to me instantly however, it was cold enough they could barely move. They buzzed about, I simply got out of there. I figured I'd let time do some healing for me.

Went back the next morning, got these pictures. There were still hundreds of bees there. I presumed they were scouting for a new place to call home and seems that logic was reasonable. Several days later, the entire mass of them (there were some behind that didn't make it) but the most of them were simply gone. No idea where they went. Cleaned up the tree, took to burn pile and no sign of any of it there today.

Kind of hated doing that to mother nature but the tree was dead and would have fallen at some point no matter what happened. I just preferred for it to fall on my terms where I control the conditions rather than at random.


View attachment 763069


View attachment 763070

Sad to see that many bees die.