I know that it's gas, and gas is well, GAS, but

[ponytug]

My first thought as I was reading this was how lucky you were that it was a planned hike with a vet nearby.

This nest was just a paper wasp nest laying in a concave spot in the ground.

I was hooking up my bush hog a few years ago and discovered there was a nest in the mowing area. As I said before, for some reason they don't go after me like they do others so I continued hooking up the mower, then got on the tractor and engaged the PTO shaft.
No more hornets.

It was an organized endurance ride, the Swanton Pacific, with teams of vets every 15-25 miles. It was a ride (75 & 100 miles) that used to be held north of Santa Cruz, going through a wide variety of ecosystems from near rain forest conditions in some redwood forest areas to a desert like section in one area. It is/was one of my all time favorite rides.

It also had a ride and tie event; two people, one horse. You ride the horse, tie it by the side of trail, and then your partner finds the horse, leap frogs you by some distance, and repeat. I knew one guy who probably ran 80 miles to his partner's 20, and another pair of runners who would come out every year to do it from the east coast with no training, (ok they swam some at home), and neither of them looked in shape to get to the far end of the field, much less the whole ride. "Don't judge a book by its cover". I think they were just amazing.

Some of the Jurassic film series scenes look like it was filmed there, or a similar ecosystem along the California coast (not the Kauai footage).

Not my footage;

The yellow jackets are endemic here, and were a definite trail hazard some years.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^
Thank you. I enjoyed reading your post.

 

[ponytug]

You are welcome!

 

[Oaktree]

I was hooking up my bush hog a few years ago and discovered there was a nest in the mowing area. As I said before, for some reason they don't go after me like they do others so I continued hooking up the mower, then got on the tractor and engaged the PTO shaft.
No more hornets.

Was planning on tilling the section of my garden where the peas were and discovered a wasp nest on my tiller underneath the cover I have over it. The cover is from an old BBQ grill and fits rather snugly. Took several days of lifting up one corner with a 10' pole and spraying to finally kill 'em all.

I'm lucky here, we don't seem to have a lot of yellowjackets, or if we do they're well away from anywhere I've been. Hope it stays that way...

 

[Jstpssng]

There was one year (1991) when it seemed like the white tail hornets in the woods were EVERYWHERE, and they're mean little buggers who will sting you for the sake of stinging you. On more than one occasion we would be running from one nest and kick up another. One Friday morning my cruise partner kicked up a nest first thing and got stung 7 times. We worked a few more hours, then he got nailed again and said- Well, never mind, but we called it a week.
Another coworker was out blazing a boundary line and spotted a hollow tree which had a hornets nest in it.. he got stung in the eye! They rushed him 100 miles to the hospital because nobody knew what would happen but luckily he recovered.
He was a school teacher who worked with us in the summers... heck of a nice guy but he had no business being in the woods. If he got out of sight of the truck he'd be lost.

 

[jyoutz]

There was one year (1991) when it seemed like the white tail hornets in the woods were EVERYWHERE, and they're mean little buggers who will sting you for the sake of stinging you. On more than one occasion we would be running from one nest and kick up another. One Friday morning my cruise partner kicked up a nest first thing and got stung 7 times. We worked a few more hours, then he got nailed again and said- Well, never mind, but we called it a week.
Another coworker was out blazing a boundary line and spotted a hollow tree which had a hornets nest in it.. he got stung in the eye! They rushed him 100 miles to the hospital because nobody knew what would happen but luckily he recovered.
He was a school teacher who worked with us in the summers... heck of a nice guy but he had no business being in the woods. If he got out of sight of the truck he'd be lost.

One time, I was with a work partner doing stand exams. He was increment boring a tree and stepped on a downed rotten log at the butt of the tree. I saw the log break open and this mass of yellow jackets rose up from the log and started stinging us both. We took off running along the ridge and looking back, we could still see this flying mass following us and received a few more stings. After about a half mile, it started raining and the yellow jackets left. I had seven stings, and he had 23. We made it to the truck and I drove him to urgent care. Luckily he wasn’t allergic, so after he received an epinephrine injection and lots of ibuprofen, he was discharged. We decided that work was over for the day. I’m not allergic, so I just took a few Benadryl and ibuprofen. Those stings really hurt and the painful itching lasts awhile.

 

[coldsteelva]

I use a Weed Dragon. Propane torch at the end of a long shaft; runs off a 20lb tank. Supposed to be for weed eradication, but it does good work on ground nests.