Ever Stir Up A Nest Of Yellerjackets?

woodsrunner

By God I have, and did it again this morning! Been doin' a little land surveying recently, and this morning my partner and I were setting up the instrument, and all of a sudden....THERE THEY WERE!! Less than 10 feet from our set-up point the damn things were pouring out of the ground! I was closer to the hole than he was, but he got hit 7-8 times and I escaped with NO HITS!

If you've never experienced yellowjackets, you've got something to look foward to! I'll take Rattlers and Cottonmouths 10 to 1 over yellerjackets any time :yikes:

Jayhawker

One of my brothers had an unfortunate encounter with yellow jackets when I was a kid....seems they were holed up under the seat of an outhouse...when he exited the structure he blew the hinges off the door and was running damned fast for a feller with his pants around his ankles...he got stung in places you definitely don't want to get stung...

Teach

My grandson found a nest of 'em with a weedeater about a week ago. They went up his pants legs past his knees before he managed to shuck out of his britches. Poor kid got 10 or 12 stings from ankles to knees.
Jerry

Varmintmist

I am somewhat familier with the type......

Lets see, I have opened up their nests with a bladed weed whacker, a string wacker, a lawn mower, hand implements, and a bicycle, and various powered equipment............. Worst was the last time with the blade (or this time with the blade) I dropped and ran, got tagged once in the arm, figured I was good to go since I was 70 yards away on the other side of the house, then the friggin Chuck Lindberg of yellow jackets stung me on the bridge of my nose............

Teach

For sheer number of stings in an encounter, yellowjackets are leading the pack, but for discomfort and length of healing time, red wasps are pretty potent. Tonight I'm nursing a big, deep hole in the middle finger of my right hand, courtesy of a red wasp that had set up housekeeping in a drawer of one of my tool boxes. Those little critters pack a really nasty sting, and they don't just do it once, like a honeybee!
Jerry

mosseybuck

I have gotten into them several times and always ended up with multiple stings. They are no laughing matter and are dangerous because of the number of them that pursue you. About 20 years ago in Apopka, Fl., our neighbors son was walking his dog through the woods and disturbed a large nest of them. They attacked the dog also and the boy couldn't get free of the leash. They both died as a result of the stings. This was just a kid, in 1st or 2nd grade and was a terrible blow to all of us that knew the family.

ghostsniper1

True story.... My dad has denture implants which aren't typical adhesive dentures, but implanted posts in his gums that the dentures "snap" onto. He has had many difficulties with them over the years and required many follow up procedures, surgeries, etc.... He does NOT do well with any medications at all such as pain killers, anasthesia. I was about 5 or 6 as I remember it. He came home from the dentist, high as a kite and acting as loopy as a preschooler when he decided that the yellow jacket nest in the backyard could be taken care of accordingly with damn near a half can of black powder. I don't remember exactly how he lit it, but it blew those bastards out of their nest with soil flying into the air and all. Destroyed the yellow jackets completely and to this day, he doesn't remember it lol.

GunnerK19

Last time I got stung was several years ago, I dunno what kind of bee it was but I was driving with the GF and the little bastard zipped/bumped/wound up coming in the driver side window and somehow zapped me a good 'un directly behind my left ear...

Got a bit disoriented to the point we hadda pull over and the GF hadda drive from that point on, got out of the van and forget about me standing up without looking like I was drunk...

BlkHawk73

Accidentally used a nest as a landing point from a stream crossing jump when I was a kid. Years later I inadvertently gave a nest a sunroom while mowing the lawn. I ABHORE those things. Fortunately, I have to deal with a nest of them Monday at work. They've taken home in a service body we have to work on, mount and paint. Brake clean will be in hand.

woodsrunner

mossy....I remember that incident. If I remember correctly the nest location was known beforehand, and some local kids had been messing with the yellowjackets before the young kid got into it with the dog.

In my career I've known two foresters who were killed while working in the woods. One by yellowjackets on a hot July afternoon, and another for his money by a "perp" high on crack. Never known of one bitten by a rattler/cottonmouth, though, while working.

NN

Yellowjackets, oh yes, several times.
Did I make a clean getaway, no.

CaliFFL

I'm allergic to bee and wasp stings, so the idea of multiple stings scares the hell out of me. This thread is like a horror movie.

I need to find my EpiPen.

ilove22s

i didnt but my mom did. we were painting one of the rentals and she put the ladder right on top. i was 5 feet away, but they went after her. that night they got bombed - no more problem. iirc, she got stung 2~4 times tho. i didnt know about yellowjackets making nests in the ground until then.

bisley

woodsrunner wrote: »

I'll take Rattlers and Cottonmouths 10 to 1 over yellerjackets any time :yikes:

As an old surveyor, myself, I completely agree. Snakes can be quickly dispatched with one machete whack, but ground hornets, etc. will put something on you that soap and water won't wash off, and the first warning you get is when 2-3 of them bore into your skin, usually followed quickly by contributions from the rest of the clan.

I was lucky enough one time to stick the range pole into a ground hornet nest. Nothing happened until I pulled the pole up, but things happened quickly from that point on. I scampered off through the woods for about 500 feet before they quit nailing me in the back, and spent the next thirty minutes picking up chaining pins, plumb bob, and assorted other gear that I had slung off during my flight. That's only one of several dozen similar 'bug events' that I either participated in or witnessed - I'll take snakes, any day, to stingy bugs...or ticks.

1965Jeff

Fire ants in the pants are less than fun as well, hit a nest while mowing in SW KS years ago, instant firery burning on the inside of the thigh and much jumping and yelling.

tennmike

Yep. Plowed up a few nests on the farm. Always a thrill a minute! Tractors are slow and yellowjackets are FAST!. Also run the bush hog over a few white faced hornet nests; they were not happy and tractor was too slow to outrun them. Hit the kill switch and abandon ship!

Had a few run ins with those big yellow and tan hornets called Japanese hornets that are about an inch and a quarter long. They sting you a few times and your day is ruined. I've found a few of their nests in dead hollow trees. A garbage bag to close off the hole and a can of starter fluid with straw attached stuck through small hole in bag works pretty good. Puts them to sleep permanently.

For the white faced hornet nests, a can of starting fluid followed by a wad of burning paper is satisfying revenge. Best done after dark, though. For the yellow jackets, a can of brake cleaner with the little straw attached is good. Wait until after dark and stick the straw into the hole and hose them down; half a can is about right. A LONG stick with a piece of burning rag to light it off is optional. :silly: Some fill dirt may be required to backfill the crater!

KSU Firefighter

Yes, mowed the yard last week and disrupted their day, after which they disrupted mine. Got hit twice. A can of hornet spray took out the flyers allowing for diesel fuel and a lighter to take out the nest.

1965Jeff

This summer there is no grass left green enough to mow to worry about mowing any way.

jbp-ohio

I had a nest in the backyard of my old house. Tried all summer to get rid of them with bug sprays and even Sevin dust. One night I smelled a skunk rumaging around the neighborhood, so I closed the windows for the night.

Next morning there was a hole in the yard where the skunk dug up the nest (there was honey comb, so I don't know what kind of bees/ waps they were. Only half the size of honeybees)). The hole/ nest was probably 8' from the entrance I was always spraying poison in........

Buffco

Uncle was a logger. He had a 5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut out that was used to sit on in the woods to take a crap.

A worker plopped it down over a 'jacket nest. A man shouldn't be stung there...

orchidman

Many many years ago I was duck/pheasant hunting with my best mate when we came across a busy hornet/wasps nest in the side of a clay bank. I saw Pete eyeing up the nest and then start to raise his 12g. He ignored my screamed "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO...." and put a load of #5 shot into the hole.

Everything went quiet for about 25seconds .............then we heard what sounded like a squadron of bombers revving up for takeoff. I kid you not, it looked like the scene in the matrix when the sentinels burst through the roof. I managed to get a head start in the downhill charge for the river with Pete about 10 yds behind me. Half way there, we ran out of time so I turned, yelled at Pete to drop ( he skidded past) me and I gave the swarm both barrels. It slowed them down a bit. I made it to the river ahead of Pete, jumped in the boat, dropped my (empty) SXS in the bilge and kept going..........straight over the side followed by Pete. What cracked me up was that Pete couldnt hold his breath long as he was laughing so much he had to keep coming up for air and getting stung on his head.

It took about 40 mins before they lost interest and when we finally retrieved the boat, Petes head looked like a pumpkin.

I lost Pete when he drowned in an accident a few years later ( aged 23)........I still miss that guy

NN

Yellowjackets were bugging us today while we were eating hard shell crabs; I just smacked them
with the wooden mallet I was using to crack the claw shells.

tennmike

NN wrote: »

Yellowjackets were bugging us today while we were eating hard shell crabs; I just smacked them
with the wooden mallet I was using to crack the claw shells.

Big heavy bullet (mallet) vs. light fast bullet (fly swatter). :rotflmao:

Weatherby

You bet stepped on a ground nest once pulled out 20 plus stingers from just around my eye it was swollen shut for days.

I find a ground nest now and it is headed for annihilation

LMLarsen

Years ago when Wife's parents owned their farm, I found a nest while repairing an old fence. I think I beamed back to the house, but they didn't get me.

Wasn't as lucky when I was a teenager at the beach. I had a can of soda and went to take a swig, and ended up swallowing a bee. Stung the back of my throat, I thought I'd swallowed the pop top! If I was allergic I would not have made it.

mosseybuck

I have been a collector of antique bottles for years and have done a lot of digging around old home sites. Two of the times I was stung by yellow jackets was while digging up old trash pits from the 1800's. A long time digging friend and I got too close to a nest at the base of a large camphor tree in Zellwood, Fl. We were attacked and stung numerous times before we outran them. They pursue for a long distance! I sneaked up on them a few days later and emptied a can of Wasp Sock'em in the entrance to their nest. The following weekend we went back and found that a raccoon or something had dug the nest up. We were amazed at the size of the layers of nest! It was huge! Almost the size of a 55 gal drum! We are very lucky we got away as light as we did. If that entire colony had caught us we would probably not have survived it. So be careful out there, they are a serious threat!

KSU Firefighter

1965Jeff wrote: »

This summer there is no grass left green enough to mow to worry about mowing any way.

We were headed that way earlier this summer. Then July came the wettest one in years ,(maybe even a record), mowing in between thunderstorms lately.