Yellowjacket Hunting

sassafraspete · Aug 14, 2005

Rat, nothing will get your body more motivated than a few hundred angry yellow jackets. Sounds like you could show Bruce Lee a few moves.

Robert, generally in our area, these jackets don't bother you ....eg if out picknicking.... until around October...then with some frosts and warm days, they seem to be on the prowl for anything to eat. That's when your trick might come in handy.

Bird, I might be willing to save a few honey bees, but the jackets .... never. They are not even in the same league. One thing made a lasting impression on me was the day they came and got a fellow student out of my math class, to tell him his father a bulldozer operator had died from being stung by yellow jackets... a hazard of this profession. Just last week watching Tony Stewart win the brickyard, they mentioned that his mentor AJ Foyt was in bed with his eyes swollen shut and unable to watch the race, due to being stung while doing some bulldozing work.

Pilot... how many traps would you set in a 2 acre area? I know that a few yrs back, I was going to do some Fall plowing of about 1 acre of a 5 acre field I have, and I plowed up 3 nests in that 1 acre of ground. So, based on that ....maybe 6 or so?

If I get ambitious, I will see if I can dig one of these nests up and give you all something to look at. As for yesterday, my mower developed a mechanical problem, so didn't get all my work done.... but didn't find any nests where I did mow. Will be finishing up today.

sassafraspete

_RaT_ · Aug 14, 2005

Yellow Jackets AKA meat bees. Robert I have done this many times. Apparently turkey is the best meat but really any will do. You can do the same thing with a 1 gallon plastic millk jug. You cut four windows in it, fill the jug about a quarter full with water, just a drop or two of liquid soap. Hang the meat from a string attached through the lid. YOu will fill it up in a few hours, it is interesting how it works. Apparently once they cut the meat free, they immediately fly down. Some even "fall" down as the meat they are clinging to is cut from under their feet. It works better then the plastic yellow traps.

turnkey4099 · Aug 14, 2005

I haven't found any yellow jacket nests (yet) but do have a problem with paper wasps. I use the Raid Wasp & Hornet spray cans, the ones you can stand way back and direct a solid stream at the nest. Don't have to wait till dark and can use them even while they are stirred up. They drop as soon as the spray hits them. I have never had a nest re-activate after just one dose. For a ground nest, I would probably go the Raid to knock down the guards then apply the gas trick.

Harry K

Boondox · Aug 14, 2005

I've been lucky. With all our sheep the yellow jackets have avoided our meadow, choosing instead to burrow along the sides of the road where they're out of the way. But the paper wasps are another issue. Just yesterday, while cleaning up in the pond after repairing the springhouse, I glanced up and found myself staring at a football-shaped paper wasp nest about 30 inches long!!! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif It's about twenty feet up a birch sapling, safely out of reach of my usual method of dealing with them -- fire in darkness.

Tamara says to just leave it alone, but those darned things and I have a bad relationship! I'm torn between trying wasp spray (can those cans shoot twenty feet?), getting a ladder and torching it at night...or backing off twenty yards some evening and letting rip with several rounds of #8 shot.

Have I mentioned how huge that nest is??? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

beenthere · Aug 14, 2005

Twenty feet is at the borderline of 'reach' from my experience. But up on a step ladder, it should reach.

Myself, I would use the 12ga with about any shot handy.

Yesterday I removed hickory tree branches with the 12ga as they were too far up to reach with the pole saw. The hickory nuts are so heavy the branches were leaning down and touching the house roof and facia board. A little wind and they would tear up the shingles along that edge, so shot them down with the 12ga. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Pilot · Aug 14, 2005

sassafraspete ,

I have 3 traps but one location seems to get 90% of the bugs. It's in the corner of my property, near the Christmas tree farm next door where they seem to come from each year. They lure the queens (and workers, too) from several hundred feet downwind. So try different locations. The yellow cylindrical traps with the pheromone attractant do the job. The most prominent lettering on the package is "Rescue" in yellow lettering, but the manufacturer is called Sterling. These traps work all summer if you keep refreshing the phermone, but yellowjackets reproduce faster than they can catch them, so you have to get the queens to be really effective. In our case, I just put them out in the spring and don't bother in the summer. It's important to get them just when the weather warms up. In our area, the temps have to be above about 75 degrees before the queens start getting caught.

TonyV · Aug 14, 2005

( I would like to know how big these nests get in terms of jackets at their peak.... )

Hopefull not as big as THIS!!! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

...Tony

PineRidge · Aug 15, 2005

Tony that yellowjacket nest gives me the willies just looking at it.

_RaT_ · Aug 15, 2005

While a beneficial insect of tremendous value, it also can be quite a nuisance, and sometimes dangerous in late summer into autumn. 

That is a quate from the article. There is no doubt they get more aggressive around here in September/October. They seem to want to attack rather then defend.

sassafraspete · Aug 15, 2005

After seeing your picture Tony, I'll just put my shovel back in the shed. I can't top that one. I did try digging out the smallest nest I found...(had a small entry hole). I kept tracking the hole and dug out a few jackets, but never did get to the nest. After digging a hole about a foot in diameter I thought ....this is a job for a backhoe! OK, I didn't want to tear up my yard. I have one more nest that I have yet to gas...but will see what I find there.

Of course I could get me a herd of skunks. Hmmm, sometimes the cure is worse than the problem.

sassafraspete