Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan?

[check]

Scary stories, guys. The only time I have come across the ground nest was this summer, when I pulled up to buy to stick that had rotted out over the ground. They swarmed up around the hole, but they didn’t attack me. So I went back later in the evening and sprayed the nest with wasp spray

 

[mapper]

It's just a small hole in the ground.

Often there are a lot of little dirt pellets and bird shot size pebbles around the hole.

 

[mapper]

I am always very attentive of how I am feeling after yellow jacket stings. I have a couple horror stories of friends that have never had reactions to it almost dying from it. I now always have an Epi-Pen in my truck now, it could save mine or someone else's life. While we are on the topic, what do you use to treat/ease the pain from stings?

Adolfs meat tenderizer, papayin breaks down the venom, also baking soda and water paste. Never needed it for myself, stinging sensation goes away in a few minutes. Knock on wood that I don't become sensitive or allergic to stings as I get older.

 

[mapper]

I have disturbed quite a few yellow jacket nests in the ground both plowing and brush hogging. We must have a different type around here, I've never been stung while on the tractor. They swarm around a foot or two off the ground but never attacked me. I've also driven past black hornet nests (3-4" from the rear tire) without getting attacked, lots of sphincter pucker however.
Most of the new hornet sprays seem to be pretty ineffective. Spectricide Pro seems to be the exception, it works very well and leaves a residue that stays toxic to bugs for about 8 weeks. It works well on above ground nests, most underground nests you can't deliver the spray to the nest. For those I use the gasoline and rock on the hole method. For rock walls and under the house siding, use the shop vac treatment. Takes a few days of periodic vacuuming to kill the colony however.
You don't need to add water or soap to the vacuum tank, just use the standard filter bag, the little deflector in the tank does a great job killing them when they slam into it at 100 mph! Never had any climb out of the vacume alive!

 

[kubota4me]

I wish I had a cab over tractor. I have a Kubota L4400. One time I was working on my prairie clearing dogwood and sumac out with a big Stihl Forestry trimmer, the type that have a saw blade on instead of heavy string. Anyway, the trimmer is heavy enough you have to have a vest on that has a hook whereby you hang the trimmer on and swing it from side to side to use it. Anyway, I was out trimming one day and suddenly I felt sharp pains on my back and in short order I realized a bunch of hornets had gotten inside my shirt on my back. I couldn’t get my heavy plated vest off because I was belted in it. The only thing I instinctively did was bang/ram my back against a tree multiple times until I felt the stinging stop. When my wife heard me yelling and got over to me to help me get out of my Stihl vest and shirt, my back looked like a pepperoni pizza. I won’t ever forget that experience. This year for some reason (extreme drought and heat living in Iowa) we had bald faced hornets in our garden and on our prairie. I was freaked out by them and bought a beekeeper suit and head bonnet. The ordinary paper wasps are ******* by comparison. I haven’t used the suit yet because of the weather change most of the hornets have disappeared. I have been putting homemade wasp traps up made out of plastic water or soda bottles and catching tons of them. I’m still freaked over them and probably won’t do tractor work clearing dead trees until in November when we have many hard freezes here in Iowa.

 

[Bocephous]

I had a ground nest that I was unaware of at the edge of my yard/field last year.
During our daily dog walk I was looking at some wild grape vines, turned around, and realized my older female pit bull, Fiona, was sitting down and covered with yellow jackets. I quickly urged her off the nest (she was actually sitting on the hole) and into another part of the yard, where I brushed all the yellow jackets off her (must have been 30 or 40 of them).

I didn't know how many times she had been stung so I drove her to my wife's place of employment, a veterinary hospital. Turns out Fiona was fine and she had only been stung a few times.

When I got back home I put my 20ish gallon sprayer in the back of our side by side, and mixed up about 5 or 6 gallons of Bifenthrin. I backed it to within about 25 feet of the hole, turned it on and started spraying. End of that nest.

I've actually brush hogged several paper nests over the years; not sure what was in them. Probably bald faced hornets. I never got stung, and actually never noticed what I had done til the next lap. I just modified my mowing pattern and it worked out in my favor.

 

[Lawnranger]

Shut down, crank wheel uphill,bail and run. If I suspect a nest I carry a can of spray in my cup holder.

 

[bgr]

Many interesting and frightening experiences. Problem with running a machine is the noise of the motor drowns out the sound of the insect so you don't know you are being attacked till you feel the first sting. Diesel exhaust seems to confuse them, so running machine away at full speed may be better.

Two years ago I hit a bald faced hornet nest in tall grass and damaged it. They started coming out. Backed up over nest and shredded it completely to prevent more coming out. All the hornets in the air stopped attacking as soon as the nest was shredded. I repeated for the next nest I ran into and it worked again.

Not sure if this is a reliable method I would recommend to others, but it worked for me. Probably best not to mow at the end of summer and wait till cooler in fall.

 

[deserteagle71]

Me, I just smile as they slam against the cab windows.

 

[sallyb]

Bleach if you have it, and also meat tenderizer, I find bleach the most effective if you can use it within about 30 minutes. I also keep a gallon of bleach in my vehicle in winter, poor some on tires when having to back up or start driving.