Ground hornets, Not honey bees

[SPIKER]

The thing about the Yellow Jackets these buggers "Sting" and "Bite." Most of the time at the same time (bite and sting,) using their bite & legs to really push the stinger into ya. Then Bite Twist sting a bit and sting again (rinse and repeat...) The BITE can be worse than the sting as they eat dead stuff so can put bacteria into you thru the bite and can cause infection.

I posted my encounter 2 or 3 times in past if you "Search" for "Yellow Jackets" it is comical recall about walking my then 1 yr old Lab Husky mix pup. Needless to say I think I was stung & bit 15 or more times/places. The dog probably just as many times on nose, muzzle Ears & eyes/face in general. Most of my stings were elbows Knees & face/eyes. Not sure why but them (*&*&(% sure know WHERE to bite/sting to make you hurt the worst...

My Avatar is of my BEAR dog in question maybe 2 months later when he stuck his nose into the hole/nest

Mark

 

[Ken45101]

For a field that needs bush hogging, how do you find these holes to destroy the nest? I have one hillside pasture that I'm afraid to mow, I've been hit too many times and it's too steep to try to drive out of the area. I'd love to find these nests and destroy them. As it is, painful past experience keeps me away

One time I got hit a dozen times before I could bail out. Later that day I went back but stayed 75' away from the first problem. I got hit again!

I guess I would do better with an enclosed cab, LOL.

 

[Pilot]

We had a crew driving thru the woods when one of the guys hollered "Stop!" There was a hornet's nest hanging from a tree on the downhill side of the road, maybe 10 ft. higher than the road. The guy who hollered, jumped out, picked up a big rock and just as he was about to throw it, planning to jump back in the rig after hitting the nest, a hornet got him first!

 

[dmccarty]

The sting of those little devils is the worst. I got stung on the ankle twice; my foot swelled up such that I couldn't get my shoe on. The point of the stings ended up making a couple large scars, with deep pits. Bad boys, those hornets. Been stung by a bumble bee; it's bad enough, but can't compare to the hornets. Oh, BTW, juice from an onion will stop the pain from a bee sting almost immediately...no joke. Won't do anything for the swelling, but it does take care of the pain.

Stung on the ankle ain't noth'n. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

I was clearing some land and there was a tangle of climbing vines, saplings and downed trees that needed cleaning. It was safer to use a machete so I climbed up on a log to reach up to cut down some vines when I noticed a hornets nest at least 20-30 feet away...

Can you see where this is going? :laughing::laughing::laughing:

I figured, figured wrong as it turns out, that the hornets would not be bothered by me whacking down some vines when there home was so far away...

I can tell you right here, and now, that Einstein is WRONG. Flat out, no if, ands, or buts WRONG. It is absolutely, positively possible to exceed the speed of light.

My machete cut the vines and I got stung. It was instantaneous. Wasps can exceed the speed of light.

So I got stung and stung bad. That little !@#$%^&*()_ landed on the tip of my nose, bent its big a.ssed, stinger filled fanny over, and stung me UP IN MY NOSE. :shocked::shocked::shocked: I instinctively swatted at the wasp which sent the machete flying. I swatted so hard, my watch went flying. I was surprised when I found the watch and machete later.

The air turned blue with adult verbal punctuation as I critiqued the wasp's parentage in a must colorful manner that would make sailors and Marines blush.

My nose and face swelled up a bit, turned red and my nose looked like W.C Fields. Or Bozo the Clown. Did I mention it hurt like heck? I had some itching cream in the truck and slathered that all over my nose so that I looked like W.C. Fields or Bozo the Clown with sun screen. I had to sit down for a good hour to deal with the pain and my eyes that were watering from the swollen nose.

When I had somewhat recovered, I sprayed the !@#$%^&*()_ out of that nest with wasp spray. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Oddly, this afternoon, I was out splitting firewood when I heard a strange buzzing sound 20-30 feet away from me. I went over to see what was causing the noise and found a big, old yellow jacket wasp attacking a great big flying beetle of some kind. I wish I could have gotten a series of photos but there was not much light and the bugs were in some tall grass. That wasp was stringing the heck out of that beetle and I was surprised how long the bug lived.

Later,
Dan

 

[cqaigy2]

Buddy of mine just told me about a nest i the ground that he ran over while mowing. Said they were mostly black with a little white on them. Pretty aggressive and he got stung a few times and they left stingers. I don't know what they were and i asked what he did about them. He said he found a foaming spray that used wintergreen, i think it was, as the active ingredient. He said the can looked like one of those small kitchen fire extinguisher. He sprayed it at the entrance it foamed up and appears to have killed all the insects. It's supposed to me non toxic.

 

[toppop52]

I have some old Halon extinguishers from my boating days, it kills the nest almost instantly by removing the O2 from the atmosphere inside for several minutes. No real leftover residue either. They're not available anymore I understand due to those that hug trees, but they were/are very effective for open fires and bees.

 

[cqaigy2]

I have some old Halon extinguishers from my boating days, it kills the nest almost instantly by removing the O2 from the atmosphere inside for several minutes. No real leftover residue either. They're not available anymore I understand due to those that hug trees, but they were/are very effective for open fires and bees.

I thought it was because it depleted ozone. Used to find them in computer rooms. It worked pretty well as a fire extinguisher, not as good as water, but it didn't get the equipment wet.

 

[toppop52]

You may be right, been about thirty years since I read about it, by whatever means it flat kills the nest.

 

[rekees4300]

For a field that needs bush hogging, how do you find these holes to destroy the nest?

Sure would like to have the answer to that question. Only way I can think of is to put on a bee suit and walk around until they attack. When they get excited, it's rather easy to see where they are all congregating around the hole.

 

[kdm0811]

I have some old Halon extinguishers from my boating days, it kills the nest almost instantly by removing the O2 from the atmosphere inside for several minutes. No real leftover residue either. They're not available anymore I understand due to those that hug trees, but they were/are very effective for open fires and bees.

Halon is not a poison. It is worked well as a fire suppressant because is displaced the oxygen, and was highly compressable. So you could get more cubic feet of halon gas in a smaller pressure vessel. It is still used to extinguish fires, but only where absolutely necessary (like systems built into passenger jets).

You could have gotten the same results with CO2, or (cheaper yet) nitrogen.