Ground hornets! [emoji2962]

[masseyrider]

You don't want to wind up like this girl:

View attachment 975237

No harm done though:

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I know where I'd bite her.

 

[CADplans]

Hmmmmmmmmm ,,,
Should I sell my Zippo??

Check the price of this one ion eBay,,
Maybe obsolete,, but, still desired,,

The same with my Plumb Champions,,
I got both of them at yard sales for a few dollars each,,

I doubt that I will ever swing an axe,, again,,

 

[SPYDERLK]

Save your money - you only need a couple oz of gas. Take some plastic and a rim out there at night. Slap the plastic over the nest and plop the rim on top. Inject the gas through a small hole in the plastic. The fumes will kill them overnight.

Then light a match!!!

No, unless pure spectacle is your aim. The fire will burn off the fumes and only a few jackets. An ounce worth of fumes will virtually exterminate a nest.

 

[bdhsfz6]

If you're ever up in the Bradford PA. area, check out the Zippo/Case museum:

Zippo/Case Museum & Flagship Store

Zippo/Case Museum & Flagship Store The Zippo/Case Museum tells the story of two American icons – both based in Bradford, PA – through an extensive collection of priceless Zippo and Case artifacts. The museum’s exhibits include the very first Zippo lighter, an exploration of Zippo and Case’s...

www.zippo.com

Every type of Zippo lighter and Case knife ever made is on display. Admission is free and they will repair any Zippo on site. You can also see how they are made.

I've been there twice and it's worth the trip. Takes about 2 hours to see everything.

 

[M59]

Ahhh, the reminiscing continues. Good times. My garage is dug into a dirt bank on two sides with lower edge of roof about level with top of bank and about 4 feet from bank. Black bear decided the buzzing it heard in the eaves from the soccer ball sized yellow jacket nest sounded like dinner, so it leapt onto the corrugated steel roof and proceeded to peel back, about 3 inches worth, the corrugated steel. Never did get the bees but did leave a series of holes in the roof where its claws popped holes thru the galvanized steel. Found them during the next rain storm.

Had the white faced hornets decide the covered space in and among the hydraulic hoses and valves/ controls for the M59 backhoe would be great place to build a nest. Gingerly unbolted the cover one dark night and sprayed nest with pint of diesel fuel. Let it soak in for two days and nest fell apart. Diesel fuel, being a very light oil, just loves to wick thru that paper nest.

 

[Jstpssng]

You don't want to wind up like this girl:

View attachment 975237

No harm done though:

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I knew from the first picture that it was nothing serious. Honeybees are pretty docile.
Unless they feel you are attacking the nest.

 

[Dftodd]

No, unless pure spectacle is your aim. The fire will burn off the fumes and only a few jackets. An ounce worth of fumes will virtually exterminate a nest.

I was being sarcastic and referring to what this dude did.

 

[Dftodd]

I knew from the first picture that it was nothing serious. Honeybees are pretty docile.
Unless they feel you are attacking the nest.

Or.... you have the window open on your truck because the AC is out. And have one go down your shirt sleeve

I had that happen one day. I was wearing a loose tee shirt and had my arm positioned just so... so the wind was blowing through the tee shirt.

I felt something smack off my arm, but didn't think anything of it.

That was until I got stung in my side just above my belt.

Then I got stung a second time.

I got hit 3 times before I got the truck stopped.

Slammed on the parking brake, bailed out of the truck and ripped my shirt off trying to get that bee.

Spun a few times in a circle swatting g at it before I got it.

Good thing it was before cell phones or someone would have reported me for wigging out on the side of the road

 

[DarkBlack]

I got hit 3 times before I got the truck stopped.

Slammed on the parking brake, bailed out of the truck and ripped my shirt off trying to get that bee.

If you got whacked 3 times, it wasn’t a bee. They have barbed “single use” stingers.
Was probably a nasty yellow jacket or one of his cousins

 

[SPYDERLK]

I was being sarcastic and referring to what this dude did.

Yipes! Guy was lucky to only have some extra work, no injury. Must have been very porous soil to have the oxygen to support such a fast burn/explosion.

 

[Dftodd]

If you got whacked 3 times, it wasn’t a bee. They have barbed “single use” stingers.
Was probably a nasty yellow jacket or one of his cousins

I pulled out a big ol bumble bee.

 

[Dftodd]

Yipes! Guy was lucky to only have some extra work, no injury. Must have been very porous soil to have the oxygen to support such a fast burn/explosion.

Thinking Florida where it has sugar sand.

 

[Jstpssng]

I pulled out a big ol bumble bee.

I did the same thing except it went down my motorcycle helmet. I was never sure what it was, but got stung once in the temple before I got my finger in there and mashed him.

 

[WinterDeere]

If you got whacked 3 times, it wasn’t a bee. They have barbed “single use” stingers.
Was probably a nasty yellow jacket or one of his cousins

Yeah, their stingers are designed to pull off, but I've read that they often don't lose their stinger on the first hit, and can hit more than once.

 

[camshawn]

While riding my motorcycle, had some kind of bee hit me in the shoulder, popped up and landed down in between my helmet and the collar of my leather jacket. Had a few stings in the back of the neck. I couldn’t get my bike stopped and my jacket open quick enough. To add insult to injury, I was 200 yards from home.

 

[Richard]

I suppose we've all had our own close calls with the little devils. Hopefully you all know this but if you don't (like I didn't) you can acquire an allergy to these little buggers. 20 years ago, November 30, was cold outside. These little buggers are VERY lethargic because of the cooler weather. A paper wasp had crawled up my leg, onto my sock... when I moved, it nailed me on the calf. I ended up in the ER for four hours with 5-6 viles of stuff being injected into me. Later, went to an Alleregist to see about shots. Upon being tested, the wasp was my least reactive.... and I was off the charts with the vespids (yellow jackets / hornets). Implicitly, had it been a vespid that stung me verses the lowly wasp, my story could have been different.

Spent five years going to allergist EVERY SINGLE WEEK for the shots. Living rural, there's no way I won't get stung again. Maybe three years later, I was doing something, a yellow jacket had gotten under my shirt and nailed me on the chest. I immediately went inside, had phone handy, had epi-pen handy, took a swig of benedryl and waited for the first inkling of a sign..... 2-hours later, nothing. So the trips to the Allergist for five years, had done their job. I've been stung since then....still get really nervous and immediately go into protection mode....but so far.... nothing.

Side story, when I "graduated" from the Allergist five years later, he congratulated me. He said I was one of VERY few that actually went through the whole shots program.

So know that just because you got stung and it hurt.... doesn't mean that you aren't now, allergic to said sting and next time you could land in the hospital or worse. I didn't realize you could acquire the allergy by being stung.

When I'm starting fires, I don't use a match nor a zippo. I usually toss my MAP torch onto the backhoe and use it. It has the trigger pull on it so pop trigger and it's burning.

Doesn't take much to get something lit with a bit of a larger flame like that.

 

[masseyrider]

I've been stung numerous times before and since but only once did I have a scary reaction.
A yellow jacket got me on the back of the wrist.
Started out normal. The stab followed by the burn.
Then my arm started to swell up from the bite site.
I was on the verge of calling an ambulance when it got to my shoulder. But then it just slowly dissipated.
No negative effects that I'm aware of.

 

[Jstpssng]

I had a foreman (Scott) years ago who was allergic to bees. He didn't carry an EpiPen because they cost too much. He had started the desensitization shots but stopped because they cost too much, although apparently they did slow the reaction.

We were out on a power line one day when he got into a nest. We only had one truck and he couldn't leave us there running chainsaws so the day was done. He started driving to the hospital, with 3 of us looking at each other thinking WTF? None of us knew what to expect, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Finally I started talking to the guy next to me about some unimportant thing... at which point Scott pulled over and said that somebody else had better drive.
I took over and as we drove past the motel he told me to stop so that he could change his clothes. Again, WTF?!?
I dropped him off at the hospital and we waited while he got treated. I don't recall if he stayed there overnight. I have always wondered how much that cost the company.

 

[Dftodd]

I've been stung numerous times before and since but only once did I have a scary reaction.
A yellow jacket got me on the back of the wrist.
Started out normal. The stab followed by the burn.
Then my arm started to swell up from the bite site.
I was on the verge of calling an ambulance when it got to my shoulder. But then it just slowly dissipated.
No negative effects that I'm aware of.

If it happens again, pop benadryl, liquid benadryl is better.

I swell up, and get a reaction, but it's not life threatening. So I keep benadryl in my backpack that goes with me everywhere.

I never had a reaction either, until I got into a ground yellow jacket nest. Ended up with 34 stings on my legs. Ankle swelled up almost to the size of my thigh.

I pop benadryl and pay close attention to any adverse reaction to the sting.

I also asked my doctor what dosage I can safely take if I get stung.

 

[BackRoad]

Found this short clip on Yellow Jacket harvesting for medical purposes. Just Wow!