Must be livin' right

[1bush2hog]

I'm not sure how I escaped getting stung by yellowjackets this past weekend. I was bushhogging and mowed over 5 different nests. One of the nests was under a privet bush I was digging out with my grapple, moved part of the bush and put on a brush pile, and came back and dropped the hog on the remaining portion of the bush. As I turned around to pull forward, I looked up and literally saw a fog of bees in front of my tractor, grabbed the highest gear I could, turned sideways on the slope, and hauled it out of there, running thru another nest that was only about 20ft away, that had also just been mowed over and had the critters stirred up.

All I can say is I am a lucky man - the other three nests I saw on my second loop around the pasture, but still had plenty of swatting going on as I was a little late in seeing the first one.

Mowing on a steep hill, swatting yellow jackets with my hat, grabbing a higher gear and trying to raise my hog to keep from plowing a furrow all at the same time while praying I didn't roll over - Glad I can look back and laugh now and give my thanks too.

Seems like a banner year for the yellowjackets.

Anyone else had any close ones yet?

 

[scott_vt]

Glad to hear that your OK Although thinkin about it now, I would have left the tractor runnin in neutral and jumped down and ran like he!! out of there Of course its easy to be a monday mornrn quarterback

 

[1bush2hog]

It is amazing that I did not get stung -

Maybe there is something about the color of my tractor that jammed their senses -

If I had been walking or running, I don't believe I would have fared as well and by the time I got my seatbelt off, put her in neutral, and applied parking break might have given them just enough time to locate me too.

To make matters more difficult, there was a fresh hatch of nymphs in the grass that looked like a swarm of bees every time I mowed a spot, so after a bunch of false alarms, I kind of let my guard down on looking for bees.

I know bees have been discussed before, but wanted to post this as a reminder to all, especially those who are allergic (I'm not), that it tis the season.

 

[junkman104]

Last weekend I was droping some trees that were too close to the site for the new barn thats going up next week. I was almost through a 50ft pine tree when I noticed through some small pines a bald face hornet nest the size of a basketball. I went ahead and finished sawing it down and as soon as it cracked I got out of there and they were coming out of the hole. I have one more tall pine to take down near them but it is leaning away from the build site and It will wait until this winter.

 

[MarkV]

We are seeing a lot of yellow jackets here in NW Georgia right now. Haven’t hit a nest this year yet and hope not to. Last year I found a good one in the woods while working on some trails. Left the tractor running and ran faster than I have in a good many years. Took me about an hour to get brave enough to go and retrieve the tractor. Glad I had a full tank of diesel at the time.

MarkV

 

[Cottonhawk]

I was spraying wasp nests around the house today and noticed a football size nest under the deck. I dumped a whole can of 'hornet spray' into that nest and I am pretty sure that they all got killed. I did a bit of google search and visited a site: http://www.vespa-crabro.de/hornets.htm. They say that thses are 'giant european hornet' and call them 'gentle giants' which are good insects and protected by law in some european countries.
Now I feel bad that I killed a whole nest full of good guys.

 

[1bush2hog]

Guess I bragged too soon.

We found 4 more nests this past weekend - 2 on Sat and 2 on Sun.

My Dad and I both got stung a couple of times each. We were using weed eaters to knock down some stuff we couldn't get to with bush hog or atv mower.

Sat. night we took some gas and torched 8 nests, but had to leave the two nests we found yesterday until another time.

That makes a total of ten nests we have found in about a 25 acre tract. Makes me wonder how many more we haven't found yet. Their poison seems to be more potent this time of the year too, or I didn't get tobacco on the sting quick enough, as I experienced more swelling than I usually do.

 

[InlineDieselFan]

It must be a luck week, on Friday I found some old knotted up barb wire while brush hogging, I got of fthe tractor and tried to pick it up but it was partially buried in the clay and a hunk of wood. So I climbed back up on the tractor and lowered the bucket to bust it free, about then a whole swarm of Hornets I believe, I did not stick around to get a good look, came flying out.

The hydrostat paid off, a full power reverse for 100 feet a hard right and head on down to mow the other portion ofthe field.

steve

 

[Bird]

Now I feel bad that I killed a whole nest full of good guys.

I have a brother who went into woods to help his golfing partner find a ball yesterday morning. He also found a hornet's nest and got stung on the middle finger of his right hand. He said it hurt so bad for about 10 minutes that he thought he was going to cry and maybe die. And late last night, he said the whole hand is swollen. I told him about this thread and the link provided, but he disagrees about them being good guys.

 

[slowrev]

I am with bird, I don't consider hornets good guys

And yellow jackets are downright despicable.

Ben