Hornets

[atsah]

I actually felt bad for a mouse today.. I have a pile of telephone poles that I use for fencing, I grabbed a couple with my pallet forks today and when I did, yellow jackets and lots of them came out and at the same time a mouse ran out from underneath the pile and they attacked it, it was dead in 30 seconds, crazy.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have ground hornets, ground bees and a few different kinds of wasps on my land. When I've disturbed a nest, they attack the tractor first. I've only been stung a few times and that was the oddball of the group, the rest where after the tractor. As soon as it happens, I kill the engine and walk/run away. Most of the time nothing happens the first time I disturb them, and if I'm paying attention, I can see the activity as I come close to them on my next pass if I'm mowing.

 

[bunyip]

Bunyip hit on the question which needs to be asked- Are you allergic to them? If not then getting stung is just another price that you pay for being outside.

Funnily enough ant and bee stings just expand my vocabulary, bees generally won't bother me and don't seem to attack unless threatened, I have had them land on me and just walk around before flying off.

 

[stingray1]

When I run over ground hornets, I drive away at usual mowing speed, they never chase.

We had a bald face hornet nest on the side of the shed, a couple years ago.
I have a decal stuck on the garage door of the VT Hokie bird, around the corner from where the nest was.

Well, I sprayed that nest with insecticide from 30 feet away, and ran to the screened porch, which is about 50 feet away.
When the hornets started coming out of that nest, They started flying,,, looking for somebody.
They saw the Hokie bird decal, and started slamming into the eyes of the decal, I could see them, and hear the hits on the thin steel garage door.

That encounter taught me to respect those insects,,, future sprays were done after dark
It took three sprayings to eliminate the hornets.

Those hornets were not homing in on CO2,,, they KNEW what eyes look like,,,

I always thought CO2 was a mosquito thing??

LOL I witnessed the same thing happen at the battle at Bristol,when they played the Tennessee Vols.

 

[Jstpssng]

Funnily enough ant and bee stings just expand my vocabulary, bees generally won't bother me and don't seem to attack unless threatened, I have had them land on me and just walk around before flying off.

I couldn't say how many times I've walked past a nest, only to have the person behind me get stung. Invariably they would throw whatever equipment they were carrying and go tearing off, leaving me to do the retrieve. One year I was working with somebody who was allergic, so when we came across a nest we were walking past every day I would take a pair of long handled loppers, carefully cut the branch or bush that it was on and move it to someplace safer for all involved. I worked that job for 4 years and never got stung, although everyone I worked with did multiple times.

 

[Einthewoods]

For whatever reason I don't have ground dwelling hornets, wasps or yellow jackets. They all make their nests in the low hanging branches of my largest Ponderosa pines.

About six years ago I became "involved" with a large nest of yellow jackets. Did I sit quietly on the tractor and hold my breath - - YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING.

I ran like a red-necked reb - heading for his grandma's home style B-B-Q. Between running like a mad man, flailing my arms, swinging and swatting like a fool - I only got stung three times.

Now if you want to talk about our Bald Faced Hornets - - those things are just pure meanness. They will fly clear across my yard - hit me like a paint ball - grab hold - take a BIG bite out the closest flesh near them. Then when they have digested that mouth full - they will sting - just for pure meanness. Some call them Tribal Hornets due to their facial markings.

Dang that was funny. And what I would do as well. I see hornet/wasp and I run. Come back prepared with whatever is needed to wipe them out.

Disturbed a wasp nest in my firewood she'd while stacking wood. My wife had to take the gas can out of my hands. Three cans of wasp spray and tearing down a perfectly good row of stacked wood.

This year, they are under a section of deck I was about to tear out. Thinking I will wait until November to do that project.

 

[gwstang]

When cutting one of my large fields, I have learned to watch the row that I had just cut. When coming back around, the ground yellow jackets will be swarming the ground where their nest/hole was disturbed. learned this after getting hit about 5 times. Feels like someone poured liquid fire down my arm. Those things are of the devil. Bald face hornets are really good at hiding their gray football shaped nests deep in the bushes...hard to see. I've come face to face with two of them in the last 3 years. The guard would be buzzing his wings warning me to back off. I put the tractor in reverse and slowly backed away and thanked The Good Lord for a great day. Haven't seen them this year....I know they are out there somewhere.

 

[NTG]

Spectracide Pro, Hornet and Wasp killer. This ***** works.

I keep a can of this zip-tied to the expanded metal shield attached to my ROPS. Just twist it and the zip-tie will break. From what I understand, this stuff is pretty nasty if you get it sprayed in your face. I figure I've got a better chance of exiting a cloud of wasp spray and driving to the hospital through squinty eyes for some antidote than dying in the woods/pasture from anaphylactic shock. Last year I got hit about 6 or 8 times from a yellow jacket nest running my gas shears and then got popped in the back of the ear by a massive hornet in the same day. That day sucked. I ran over a yellow jacket nest with the push mower this year and luckily only got hit twice before I dragged the mower away. I've learned not to ever leave equipment there if you want to continue working.

 

[GLyford]

It's weird, I've put about 6 cans of spectracide into a basketball sized hornets' nest and not made much of a dent at all...they had even repaired all the damage from the spray the next day. It usually works fine on yellowjackets and softball sized hornets' nests.

I'd bumped the tree it was in with the mower the day before and they "let me know" that it was not appreciated. Tree is next to the driveway so I made sure I had the windows up whenever I dove past, then about 2 weeks later something, either a raccoon or a crow I am guessing, tore it apart.

We've also found that spectracide affects our yellow lab, so we avoid using it in the fenced part of the yard or near the windows now. I set up a hose end sprayer with dish soap, and that worked OK to knock yellowjackets off a small nest and take the fight out of them but didn't kill them like I had hoped...but they went somewhere else so I considered that good enough.

Lately we have been getting a different smaller type of yellowjacket nesting in the ground. They don't seem as mean as their bigger cousins that build on structures and vehicles.

 

[atsah]

Yellow jacket nests in the ground get gasoline, it seems to be the only thing that kills them, I have tried all the sprays and none have worked..