Yellowjacket Hunting

DaveNay · Aug 16, 2005

( Well not wanting to suffer the same fate this weekend, I decided a good offense was the best defense...and this morning I went on a yellowjacket hunt. Any of you out there do this?)

What caliber gun are you using? I find that I need to stick with something small like a .177 pellet gun. For the really big guys, I may move up to a .22 short, but that really ruins a lot of the meat. Also, do you find it best to use a stand to hunt from, or do you prefer to stalk?

Finally, have you had any luck with your bow? I think you would really need a bunch more patience this way, but the rewards from the thrill of the hunt might be higher.

/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Dave

sassafraspete · Aug 16, 2005

Dave, I am not sure how much meat there is on a yellow jacket.... guess it depends on what it has been eating. You could cover them in chocolate. My boss once ate chicken feet in China, so I suspect there may be as much meat as on chicken feet. Definately crunchy in both cases. As for tools... I definately would want to give them a sporting chance. Something like a 12 guage with 00 buckshot seems sporting to me.

_RaT_ · Aug 17, 2005

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif, while not a hunter, I understood that post perfectly. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

BlueRidge · Aug 17, 2005

( My boss once ate chicken feet in China, so I suspect there may be as much meat as on chicken feet. Definately crunchy in both cases. )

Especially as it's usually fried in China. THOROUGHLY deep fried.

Unless it's in soup, of course.

( As for tools... I definately would want to give them a sporting chance. Something like a 12 guage with 00 buckshot seems sporting to me. )

Nothing less than a quad .50 caliber! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

rox · Aug 22, 2005

I have an olive farm in France as well as 125 almond trees. We are new farmers, jsut one year into this adventure. The almond trees need work. There are two varieties of trees as you need to have two because one is a 'cultivor' to the other. Also we need the bees because the bees pollinate the two different varities of trees.

They have various pests and diseases so I am reading on the Internet at U.C. Davis about almond trees. California after all is the largest producer of almonds. Tere is a motherload of information from U.C. Davis and olive and almond farming on the internet. While doing this research, I read that wasps eat mites that infect almond trees. So although I have wasps around I jsut leave them be hoping they are busy eating a lot of mites /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

We got this trick from a neighbor. To keep the wasps away form the house we put out moth balls. The wasps don't liek the moth balls and don't come around, it works pretty good, actually it works excellent. Also we have a plum tree that the birds took every single plum from last year, every one! The neighbor told us to hang mothballs in the tree and the birds won't bother it becasue they don't like the smell. So moth balls have become our main source of pest control, and so far it works very well. We have a lot of wind where we live so the oder is not really over powering or anything.

I would have tended to want to eliminate the wasps but now I see how they are serving an ecological purpose so we are living in peace with them. We don't mow anything, we dont' have any grass here, just weeds, your stories are chilling. Glad I don't have to mow around them, that is for sure.

sassafraspete · Aug 22, 2005

Rox, it was interesting reading your post. I am tolerant of honey bees, bumble bees, paper wasps, hornets... but when it comes to yellow jackets, that is a whole other story. People die from these. I still remember the day I saw my dad slumped over the steering wheel...hanging half off the tractor that he had been using to mow with. By the time we got him down and into the house, he was very pale and had a very weak pulse. He had never been alergic to the stings, but this time was different. We live out in the country and are about 20 miles from a hospital, but we were lucky to have some neighbors that were EMTs, and they came to our rescue. In my book, the yellow jacket is the most feared and to be respected. I have never had any problem with them ...just in walking by their nest. It is always the mower that stirs them into a frenzy. I've used the moth balls to keep mice out of my boat before, but never used them for other pests. I can understand how they might work... as I can't stand to smell them either. Hmmmm, wonder if they would work on deer?

sassafraspete

v8dave · Aug 23, 2005

Moth balls are good for other pest controls too. I keep a bag full of moth balls in my old cars to keep mice out of the upholstery. Got that tip from other car collectors. It works well too. Moth balls in plastic sandwich bag, just partially open allows the aroma to drift out without using up all the balls in a week. It also keeps the stench inside the car down so we can drive 'em.