yellowjacket protection

[Sawyer Rob]

Was the mail carrier aware of it?

I have no idea, she drove right by it every day, but she puts mail in the mail boxes VERY fast and is off in no time at all...

I sat right by them quite often and they never bothered me at all, flying right by me, back and forth...

SR

 

[two_bit_score]

I have no idea, she drove right by it every day, but she puts mail in the mail boxes VERY fast and is off in no time at all...

I sat right by them quite often and they never bothered me at all, flying right by me, back and forth...

SR

When my brother and I were pretty young we stumbled upon a nest like that in the woods. We thought seriously about how to attack it, knowing that doing so was going to cause a real ruckus. The plan we came up with was to somehow apply some amount of High Life to that nest.

After getting back home we got distracted by some other mischief and lost interest in the hornet nest for the time being. Probably a smart thing that we never realized. After a few months we thought about it again.

When we went back it was no longer an active nest and we lost interest. Probably not a good idea to try and dose that nest with High Life.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I find one or two every year on my place, I see no reason to bother them, IF they don't bother me...

If you sit quietly by one and watch them, it's pretty interesting to watch them build the nest...

SR

 

[TomSeller]

I am allergic to honey bees. Hate to see the decline in the honey bee but it sure is less worry for me. I swell badly with yellow jacket stings but some wasps don't bother me. We have bald faced hornets in the brush and I have hit soccer ball and basketball size nests with my brush hog and was not stung. But I mostly trim where I have mowed the year or 2 years before so I am in a fairly high gear.

 

[stevebb1]

Hi. I'm in KS and where I am at there are two wasp types that seem to be perennial, one is completely black and the other is what I imagine is the most ordinary of wasp types, at least around here. Neither have ever been aggressive towards me or my son or they'd have been dealt with, but I have even bumped into them by accident and they don't sting me. That said, a few years back I was outside using a electric shaver and I literally saw one of the wasps flying by and he changed course 90 degrees and came up and stung the hand holding the shaver. Apparently is puts off a sound of distress. That's a guess because i have never tested the matter any further, staying inside to shave since then.

 

[DieselBound]

CAB, am I ever so happy about having a tractor with one!

"Madder than a hornet" is a pretty tall order. First and only time my wife has been stung was from a hornet (nest) out a ways from the house: was only walking nearby, no threat to the nest. About the very next day I got stung as well, from one in an underground nest; only the second time I've ever been stung. I can live with most that nature has, but this kind aggressiveness I will not tolerate; I obliterated a couple of nests shortly thereafter.

Wasps and yellow jackets are very common and I don't give them much thought as they really don't attack unless you disturb their nests. I stumbled across one that was inside the door jam of my truck (truck doesn't get used a lot) and got stung. I only ever look to dispatch nests from these bees if they're in the way.

 

[ning]

Napalm, or nuke them from orbit.

More seriously, try to control the population before they get out of control.
We used to have a big problem here, but now in the spring we put out traps:

• take a gallon milk jug (drink the milk first)
• cut a 3-4" hole in the middle of one side
• same on the opposite side
• put a couple inches of soapy water in the bottom of the jug
• attach a piece of meat to a string - salami works great (say a 1/2" cube)
• hang the meat about 1/2" above the water and close the string in the cap
• the evil ones come and take a bite, and try to land on the water to snack
• soapy water wets their legs and they drown, they can't stand on it
• redo the meat every once in a while it needs to attract them
• dump out the tons of dead bugs and redo the soapy water before it starts stinking

I barely find yellowjackets around here any more; I can eat pancakes and bacon on the deck and not worry about them coming by.

 

[DieselBound]

I barely find yellowjackets around here any more; I can eat pancakes and bacon on the deck and not worry about them coming by.

I'll be right over! But, I ain't going to fall for the meat-on-a-string trick! :laughing:

 

[Tractorable]

We had two honey bee hives until the black bears destroyed them. I have plans to build a bear-proof enclosure and try again. Honey bees and wasps/hornets are entirely different species. The wasps/hornets are much more aggressive. European honey bees can be down right docile if you handle them correctly.

That said, FYI, most bee suits are not sting-proof so make sure you wear long sleeves under them. If the fabric is up against your skin they can still sting through it. Honey bees can only sting once and they'll die. Wasps/hornets can sting repeatedly.

 

[17 Oaks]

I've had those ground dwelling yellow jackets get me while bush hogging in my front fields. I learned to watch where I cut, when coming back around, to see them. They buzz around the hole in the ground just waiting for some poor sap to come back around. Three or four of those get you and it feels like someone poured liquid fire down the arm. Yeowch! A couple of years ago, I was bush hogging in the front field and had an area where the bushes had grown out more each year. I was trying to get really close to hack it back some. While swinging around, I came face to face with my worst nightmare....Big hornet nest. I was up in some limbs and my nose was about 6" away from the hole. The sentry was buzzing his wings at me in a warning. I slowly eased the old ford into reverse and gently back out. Quietly! I had just witnessed a friend at work getting torn up by those things when he was cutting some of his trails. His head and face had knots all over it....big knots. Made an impression on me. I found another one up in the bushes the next year. Those nests are really hard to see when they are camouflaged like that.

WOW, been there done that and took off the T shirt...out cutting wood for the fireplace and was coming back to the truck and taking a short cut thru the brush. Stepped on a big stump cut by loggers on our place and sunk to my kneecap. Then I felt the vibration and I knew what I had done, ground yellow jackets. Tossed my load of firewood, pull leg and ran like **** toward the truck parked at the lake. Got almost to the truck and thought I was home free as I looked over my shoulder and was suddenly hit like a ton of ice picks.

It was Feb and lake was froze over. My shirt was light and unbuttoned from swinging a double bit axe and sweating and it was an open door for the yellow jackets. I know getting in the truck will only bring them inside, so I head to the lake and I run out on the ice and with luck I see a thin spot which of over one of the many springs and down I go. After several ups and downs the YJ's finally leave. I get out and head to the house to get dry clothes. My mother gasps as the stings from the waist up, best estimate heading towards a 100. I grab some coffee and dry clothes, get warm and head back out to finish my chores...

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I'll be right over! But, I ain't going to fall for the meat-on-a-string trick! :laughing:

Hahahaha. Good one.

 

[Ghostrider16]

I was reading up on how to deal with wasps/hornets and came up with a couple interesting methods, though I have not tried either yet.

First one was dousing a ball of hamburger with Front Line (the stuff you put on your pet for fleas/ticks) and letting them take it back to the queen, which supposedly kills her and the nest.

The other was for in-ground nests - Wait until early evening when they are less active and take a block of try ice and put it over the hole and cover it with an upside down bucket with dirt kicked around the edges to seal it. The CO2 from the ice permeates the hole and kills the whole lot of them.

Of course, there was the guy on the organic gardening site who apparently forgot who his audience was when he suggested pouring gasoline down the hole and firing it up. Sure didn't sound like most others on the site took too kindly to that suggestion.

 

[beowulf]

I am thinking these are what we call "meat bees." A helluva sting - or actually, I think it is more of a bite. And they bite instantly when they hit you - and never a stinger - just a little chunk of skin missing. As stated, they live underground. When I find one of their holes (not easy to do) I wait until the sun goes down so they have all returned and then use a gopher gasser. It seems to kill them all. Later, if you do that and then dig up the nest it is sort of like paper mache. Someone then told me it was illegal to kill them???

As for a trap with a meat or similar lure, I have read that that will draw more to the area as they can detect that sent for a very long distance. There are traps which work very well - some kind of attractant and water. We used to use those and would catch hundreds quite easily. But again, we may have been attracting more of them to the area.

Once you have been bitten by one you will always remember it.

 

[17 Oaks]

I leave them alone unless they are in a location where they can be a nuisance. Some are quite aggressive and sting if you just walk by the nest, I got stung 2 days ago on the back thru a heavy shirt. Other than some minor pain from the sting it really does not bother me much at all. Recently got stung by a Scorpion and while that really hurts, it has little effect other than that.. Guess getting stung as much as I haver over the years has developed an immunity...which does not seem to work on Poison Ivy and if anyone knows of a good paying use for that stuff let me know I can round bale it for ya I got so much...

 

[two_bit_score]

Now poison ivy on top of a yellow jacket sting would be misery for sure!