Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan?

[sallyb]

People often ask on my face book what to use when their animals or vehicles get sprayed by skunks or they hit one with vehicle, I got this from a ranch family. 1 quart hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda, 1 teaspoon no-tears baby shampoo (I use this do it doesn’t hurt animals eyes) , mix together use rag rub on animal it kills smell immediately, I had one spray the pu just mixed and threw on pu smell gone immediately, didn’t hurt paint job.just thought this might help someone.

 

[grsthegreat]

Ground hornets are sensitive to colors and noise. Was told not to wear dark brown around hornets perceived as threat to them. Been stung as child and adult now forced to carry an epinephrine pen when mowing in the field. Doctor told me it’s not uncommon for farmers to get stung enough and not survive die on tractor seat. I also know that don’t like orange tractors either they amassed on the hood once i agitated the nest. Without epinephrine pen I could not survive another wave of being stung. Over past 40 years took over 400 stings. Stay safe hornets can be aggressive if agitated.

Holy cow..

time for a cab tractor

 

[grsthegreat]

We have some nasty ground dwelling spiders the Sydney funnel webs that rare up and attack with fangs that can penetrate leather boots very aggressive and deadly if you don't get help quickly, also inch ants big nasty ants with a painful bight, then we have the imported European wasps much the same as your yellow jackets fom how they are described evil ,agressive, and often attack in swarms if it's a big nest, they are known to kill animals as well as humans, early summer is the worst hear for mud wasps, I had a nest built in a 14" pedistal grinder between both wheels and the guards, locked it up solid, had them build nests in exhaust pipes on ride on mowers, chain saws and even in the gas rings in my out door cooker, these wasps don't seem to bother atacking, or atleast I have never been stung by them, just cause plenty of headaches ,any thing with a hole in it they will plug it up.

Every critter you guys have can kill.

 

[rodneyn]

Holy cow..

time for a cab tractor

Yes I do have cab tractor and definitely look over ground I mow to make sure no unknowns. Remember mowing up against tree line and snake non- poisonous landed on the hood non cab tractor it made its way back to my seat. Lucky I was still mowing and it fell off the platform into the bush hog. That day forward I carried corn knife for any unwanted critter trying to take the drivers seat.

 

[ultrarunner]

I was surprised my Home Depot stocks Spectracide Pro Spray so I picked up a can based on TBN comments.

 

[JWR]

Ground bees (yellow jackets) are the worst of all stinging bees. They are aggressive, will chase you AND unlike other bees they can sting more than once and keep stinging. Bad attitudes ! Usually found in mole tunnels or other second hand holes in the ground. Ran over one with a JD4700 and bush hog a few years back. Learned several thing very fast. One, the Deere cannot outrun yellow jackets. Two, the best thing to do is get off and run like hell. Found some tall grass and rolled in it, finally getting rid of the aggressors. I got 26 stings that time. Thankfully NOT wearing shorts !! They are mean, nasty, aggressive, vicious -- all that and worse. My solution (once I know where the hole is) involves pouring a few ounces of gasoline down the hole and setting it on fire. Surprisingly there is not nough oxygen for it to explode and the thing just burns like a candle there for several minutes. The bees die as they try to escape through the flame.

Found another nest here at home in the lawn landscape timbers with soil built up around a small tree. The bees had built a next just inside the double high ring of landscape timbers and barely below the soil. I accidently offended them and ran to the house (wearing jeans) with them covering my pants legs almost completely -- hundreds of the critters. My wife met me with a spray can of Raid and murdered several hundred bees. Then used a broom to rake them off my pants legs. In that outing I don't thnk I got stung at all but they sure were trying!! Later I dug out the nest. It was a multi-layer nest (7 layers as I recall) about 8 inches in diameter for the big rings down to 3 or 4 inches for the smaller rings. This was what I uncovered.

 

[Torvy]

Ground bees and Yellow Jackets are not the same species. Yellow Jackets are a type of wasp. Bald Faced Hornets are just a variety of Yellow Jacket. Apparently, different subspecies are more aggressive and more likely to nest underground.

Ground Bees: Appearance, Common Traits & Behavior | BeehiveHero

A huge, detailed guide explaining everything you'll ever need to know about ground bees, including their visual appearance, common traits, and behavioral patterns.

beehivehero.com

Everything You Need to Know About Yellowjackets – PestWorld

The yellowjacket is one type of stinging insects that can cause painful stings. Learn about what yellowjackets eat, where they live and when yellow jackets attack.

www.pestworld.org

 

[JWR]

Yellow Jackets are documented in some places as very different from ground bees (like the sources you posted.) In those sources the yellow jackets are larger and much higher % dark yellow than the ground bees. Other sources treat them as equivalent/the same. Regardless they can sting multiple times, are very territorial and vicious. Aggressive if they ever locate you. So far as I am concerned they are the same but I realize there are distinctions in some sources.

 

[dlctcg]

Hate Yellow Jackets... so far the only bee I'm allergic to....

 

[JWR]

View attachment 761271

Hate Yellow Jackets... so far the only bee I'm allergic to....

Agree. The sizes are misleading in that picture (bumble bee being much larger etc.) As we were talking above, the A-hole with wings is sometimes the one you show (which to me is called both a ground bee and a yellow jacket) and sometimes a larger yellow jacket that is much greater % dark yellow part but has the same bad attitude.

 

[DaBear3428]

spent my summers cutting and then raking hay with my father, on one field while cutting i noticed this huge ground bumble bee nest. after the hay dried we came back to rake and bail, i had forgotten about the bees until i'm on the wind row before the bees and as i go around i calculate that if i make a double pass and then come back the nest will be covered up. so after congratulating myself on being so smart and comming back on my next pass i look up to see my father bearing down on this huge pile of hay covered with a swarm of bumble bees, he just looks at me (you know the look) pulls the governor wide open and kind of huddles up in the seat. The tractor was covered with bees fighting everything that moves on the tractor as the tractor lugs down and barely chugs thru, the round baler managed to choke down the lot without stalling the tractor, he never got stung, but it was close. You can imagen the conversation after.

 

[bigtiller]

spent my summers cutting and then raking hay with my father, on one field while cutting i noticed this huge ground bumble bee nest. after the hay dried we came back to rake and bail, i had forgotten about the bees until i'm on the wind row before the bees and as i go around i calculate that if i make a double pass and then come back the nest will be covered up. so after congratulating myself on being so smart and comming back on my next pass i look up to see my father bearing down on this huge pile of hay covered with a swarm of bumble bees, he just looks at me (you know the look) pulls the governor wide open and kind of huddles up in the seat. The tractor was covered with bees fighting everything that moves on the tractor as the tractor lugs down and barely chugs thru, the round baler managed to choke down the lot without stalling the tractor, he never got stung, but it was close. You can imagen the conversation after.

One of the few times I got to work on the hay rack we found some big bumble bees. One of them landed on the tip of my nose...We looked at each other for a moment, and our defenses kicked in at the same time. He got a fist in the side and I got stung inside my nose.

Those bumble bees are HUGE when they are close enough to look you in the eye.

 

[Teck]

My wife puts a few of these traps out in the spring and catches the yellow jacket queens. It cuts the the number of nests down to zero. You can use rotten meat as an attractant as well.

 

[RobertEH]

Remember, know your enemy! Bees are your friends!

 

[Eagle1]

Seems these days most folk call everything bees and want to kill them. I like bees, don't mind wasps and hornets. Yellow jackets are evil. Targeted destruction only.

 

[Smokeydog]

Healthy skunk population helps reduce the abundant Yellowjacket population.

 

[Eagle1]

Armadillos and raccoons will find them as well.

 

[bdhsfz6]

What is your plan of attack? Shut tractor down and run? Downshift and pop the clutch?

I got my first experience of running over a yellow jackets nest while bush hogging. I was in a super low gear so I shut the tractor down and ran. Probably got nailed 8 or 9 times. I was able to wait for 1`0 minutes and was able to get on and drive away without another sting. I am just wondering what everyone else does in these situations. It is not fun, that is for sure.

Close the cab window.

 

[JethroB]

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.

I tried pure Clorox bleach once for yellow jacket stings. It seems I held that soaked paper towel to my neck waaayyy to long. A bad chemical burn as our nurse at work described it. Ugly too. The burn that is.

 

[JethroB]

As teens my brother and I had separate but similar experiences by getting too close to the commercial honey bee hives in the corner of a field on a MF 135. I stopped the tractor and ran. He just jumped off and ran. Dad later found the tractor in the woods where it had stalled against a tree.