Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan?

   / Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan? #101  
Although not involving mowing, a few years ago my wife was fussing with flowers along the woodline about 50 yards from the house when the screaming started. By the time I reached her she was dancing over the nest with the critters surrounding her and getting into her clothes. I spent the next moments stripping off her clothes to bra/panties, helping her run and swatting. Although she fared well with the stings, the neighbors are still talking!
 
   / Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan? #102  
About a month ago I saw a couple of small mounds of fine soil (like tiny pebbles) that resembled an ant hill about 1½" tall, but with a opening hole the size of the body of a Sharpie marker. I curiously put a pine needle down the hole and it stopped a good 5 or 6" deep. 'Huh?' I thought to myself. I smoothed it over with my boot covering it up, stepped on it to compress the soil and left it. It reappeared a day or so later... Around that time I saw the largest yellow jacket I have ever seen- about the length of three 'normal ones' but with substantial girth. I realized it was a queen creating a nest. Got the wasp spray and held down the nozzle until the hole was filled and covered it up.
That was probably a Cicada Killer. They are large solitary wasps matching your description. They paralyze a cicada and fly it back to the hole in the ground. One egg is laid on the cicada and the larva eats it alive when it hatches. They almost never sting humans- unless they do something lik you did. A friend of mine was stung when tried to kill one on a window sill with a kleenex. He described the sting being like stabbing through your thumb with a blunt screwdriver.
 
   / Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan? #103  
As a youngster I was mowing at my grandmas , a birdhouse had fallen of the tree it was attached to so I grabbed it and put it on the hood of the tractor to bring it back to the house. The noise and vibration was quite a motivator and the bees that had moved in came out at an astounding rate ! I left the tractor running and took up running myself!
Went back after dark , gassed up the tractor, put it away and haven't trusted a birdhouse since!
 
   / Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan? #104  
Don't let those little SOB's fool you..... they are fast.

Years ago, I was cutting back side....I was on a hill and mowing down, verses up. I stirred up a nest and they were buzzing about. Pointed downhill, I simply pushed clutch in and gained speed coasting verses taking the time to stop, clutch, change gears, get moving again.

So I'm rolling down hill at a bit of a 'bouncy' pace... wonder what's going on behind me so I turn around to look back. There was one of them 'keeping up' with me.

In a blink of an eye, I had the thought go through my head "thank God the little SOB isn't gaining any ground on me"....I look to see how much further/longer I can coast... I have plenty of room. Turn around again to see if I'm out-pacing the little SOB and nope, he's keeping up with me.

All the sudden, he went from 10-15' away, goes into attack mode and in a near blink of an eye, BAM, covered that distance and nailed me on the forehead as I recall.

He wasn't in genuine attack mode prior....he was merely loafing along, probably chasing me away and when I got far enough, he decided to add some insult to injury by nailing me with a sting so I might know what they can do if I ever go back.

It really astounded me how he instantaneously covered that distance.
 
   / Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan? #105  
Just ran across a large nest 2 days ago. Seems at least twice a year I have to battle the ornery little sob's. We have a ton of wasp nests everywhere and many bald faced hornet paper nests hanging from the trees but they will cut you some slack. The little ground hornets simply look for any reason to attack.
A couple years back my wife accidentally dug up a nest while moving some flowers. She was stung 33 times an they chased her for 150 yards.. Nasty little buggers.
 
   / Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan? #106  
A few years ago I had a ground bee nest under my side walk by my front door . I tried a lot of different things . Bee spray , gas , diesel, antifreeze, a hose running over night and still they survived . While looking on my shelf for something else to try I saw my Gallon of premixed Home defense bug spray . Got it at Walmart for 6$ I figured what the heck nothing else worked and it’s cheap !! Dumped the whole gallon at night and the next day they were gone . Cheapest and easiest thing I have found ….
 
   / Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan? #107  
I used to keep honey bees out on one of the back lots. I thought it was interesting that mowing the lawn nearby never seemed to initiate any adverse response. None. Maybe it was the vibration, type of bees etc. I had the trailer hooked up behind once, and decided to drive over and check up on them. What I didn't remember was that the trailer was a bit wider than the tractor. So - what to do - the bewildered feeling was overcome almost instantly. Glasses broke, hat gone, high gear wasn't fast enough. The next time has never happened since. Running sounds like a better plan if I had to choose. Avoiding them even better. Otherwise, every year there always seems to be a couple of yellow jacket nests near the barn doors. There are a lot of doors - and it's always by one of them. They build in the hay mow above. This time of year they are at their population peak, and their food sources will be coming to a close, so they tend to get a little ornery. So far if I stay calm and leave them alone, they leave me alone.
 
   / Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan? #108  
I flip my tractor in high gear and ride away while swatting. I figure nothing runs like a Deere, I can't out run the tractor or the yellow jackets.
 
   / Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan? #109  
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.
 
   / Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan? #110  
Seems like maybe someone could invent an attachment that unleashed smoke and wasp killer from a rear remote or the rotary cutter.

Not everyone has the option of a cab.
 
 
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