Yellow Jackets!

[truckster]

I was doing a little work on my daughter's fence this morning (it's between my house and hers) and I suddenly discovered that I had a great deal of unwanted attention. Apparently I disturbed a yellow jacket nest, and they swarmed me before I realized they were there. I was smacking them as I was running, but I probably got stung 25 times. Most of the stings are on my head, and I got at least two on my ear and one on my lip, but a few of them got inside my shirt and my Levis. The picture is of the ones I killed after I got home and ripped my clothes off in the bathroom. They were pretty tenacious.

I'm not allergic, so that's a good thing, but I'm not feeling all that happy right now. They won round 1; I went back with some spray and did pretty well in round 2. Round 3 will be total annihilation...

[72c20customcamper]

Man that's alot of stings . I would be careful eventhough your not allergic that many can cause a reaction .

My wife got stung about and hour ago she is allergic to yellow jackets fortunately this was a common bee . Still had the epie pen ready though . Just some swelling around the bite on her pinky toe .

[1970 CST Short Wide]

I didn’t know they would nest in the ground, Last year while cutting the weeds on the hill in my back yard I stumbled on to a nest. The hill has ~ a 30 deg slop. So here I am With a running weed eater running down this slippery slop followed by angry Yellow Jackets I got bite numerous times. NO FUN

[Blue GMC]

Holy Crap!! Would be going back there armed for battle. 3 or 4 cans of the far shooting spray and the flamethrower/torch I use to weedeat the chain link fence.

[mongocanfly]

Yellow jackets are bad news...and that's alot of stings...
And we usually get in a nest or 2 ever yr...havnt seen any nests this yr though
But be glad it wasnt black bumblebees....they also den ...1 sting from one of em feels like you got hit with a hammer...I had a nest of bbs build in my blazer frame...
wasp spray dont work on bbs...gas does ..!!
I got stung 7 times by Hornets a couple yrs ago.....1 bumbler was worse than those 7..

[truckster]

Round two was the spray. Round three was a MAPP gas torch (no flame) in the ground followed by ignition. It blew the queen right out of the nest. I didn't stop to count, but there were probably a couple of hundred yellow jacket bodies in front of the nest, and I'm sure there were many more inside.

[mongocanfly]

When I was a kid ,Dad always poured gas in their hole at night...and then lit it..

[special-K]

That's more stings than I've ever had. Glad you're ok.

I had a tree die years ago, and it is long gone. When the roots rotted out I started having yellow jackets nesting underground. I think that's where they nest underground, in rotted root cavities. I would be mowing the grass and start feeling the stings. They always got me around the ankles/lower leg. I'd go back at night and do the pour gas & light thing, too. Worked like a charm.

It's October now. When it gets cooler later this month those yellow jackets will be on their last fling, looking for sweet eats like apples, AND OPEN SODA CANS!! Sop look out. I don't drink soda pop but I don't drink anything from cans this time of year. It's screw cap every time

[67ChevyRedneck]

I hate 'em. They build nests all around my house/shop. Suckers damn near killed me last year. My shop has a 13' ceiling and I have a temporary 12' ladder to the 2nd floor. They built a nest under one of the rungs near the top. Of course I had freaking flip flops on and they attacked my feet. I got stung 3 or 4 times. Just glad I held my composure and didn't fall off the ladder.

I didn't kill them nicely with wasp spray either...

I got attacked by ground bees a few years ago too on my lawnmower. I didn't kill them quickly. I put a large plastic container over the hole and let them all die slowly.

You got stung a lot... keep an eye on all of them!

[truckster]

So... I went back out there and there were more flying out of the hole. It was a tough one, because they had found a crack between two railroad ties where the lawn goes up about 2', and there are hedges on the upper part - there were probably some rotten roots, like Special-K said. So I followed Mongo's suggestion. I dug down as far as I could and let gas run down the hole, and then I lit it. After the third time there were no more yellow jackets. I'm a retired Soldier, and I really don't like to lose...

The stings are feeling less painful by now, but they hit me five or six times on my right temple within about a 3/4" circle. I have a pretty good bump there.

[68bowtie]

That’s no fun! Most I had at once was 9 stings when I was 9 or 10 years old. They all went for my neck and head too. I get chills thinking about it ever since. 25 is pretty extreme!

[Stocker]

That is an awful lot of stings! Glad you're doing as well as you are, that could be extremely serious for some people. When I was a kid there was a nearby field that would sometimes burn. Of course I had to go check it out. There were yellowjacket nests in the ground, and I usually got stung. My mom would put a dab of wet baking soda on it to ease the sting a little.

Several years ago I had a used McCulloch chainsaw which could be temperamental. It was early in the morning and cool out when I climbed a cut bank to reach a snag for firewood. Got up there and the darn saw wouldn't start, then I noticed the ground was crawling with yellowjackets. Got out of there pronto and never went back for that snag. That was the one time I was glad the saw didn't start.

More recently, I have seen a few nests that were dug up by bears while I'm on my morning trail walks. I guess the stings don't bother them too much. They must really like to eat bees.

[72c20customcamper]

I use one of these on the ground bees and other varmint . Just don’t get carried away I blew out a huge hole dirt went everywhere wife laughed her ass of once she saw I was alright to much propane

[lil hoodlum]

I got stung one time by a yellow jacket when I was a kid. Of course, I was a punk and blew on their nest and they attacked! It hurt real bad, I can't imagine being stung 25 times on the head. Ouch!

[Nick_R_23]

An old native trick for getting rid of them is to get an extra large Rubbermaid storage container, fill it about half full of water, and hang a piece of beef tongue on a string just above the water, but below the rim of the container. A stepladder works great to sit above the container to fasten the string to. The wasps are attracted to the beef tongue and eat so much of it that they can’t fly, then they fall off and drown in the water. I’ve seen this setup catch a layer of wasps three inches thick on a bad season before!

[Ol Blue K20]

I'm glad you're alright. I have killed several nests. I wait for it to be dark and most of them are in the nest and dormant. Pour ammonia in the opening, put a glass jar over the opening. The jar will be full of yellow jackets in the morning.

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by 72c20customcamper

I use one of these on the ground bees and other varmint . Just don’t get carried away I blew out a huge hole dirt went everywhere wife laughed her ass of once she saw I was alright to much propane

Thanks for the tip. I have one of those too. I'd never hear the end of it if I blew something up.

I hate wasps. We get the kind that build their nests in the eaves of the house so they're easy to spot. I blast them with hornet spray. It drops them like a bad habit. Which is fine with me. They are mean nasty little flying devils.

I got bit once diving into the pool. They would float around on the water and I must have hit one. It bit the hell out of my back.

[crossfire84]

I have chickens free ranging on my land so I have to be careful what i use, the best thing i do is get my garden sprayer fill it with hot water and 1 cup of liquid laundry detergent, hit them with this and they drop in flight. The detergent coats there shell and they suffocate and I can stand back away from the nest. Plus it will not hurt the chickens or any other living thing.

[The Rocknrod]

Hey that happened to me mowing once, wow what a rush. I couldn't run fast enough or long enough. Mean little bastages, I only got stung like 10 times around my head and face. Last winter was so bad here though we haven't had any wasps or yellow jackets this year. Okay by me.

[Warrens69GMC]

Man blows up backyard trying to kill a pest. -...

[Stocker]

[mongocanfly]

At work we have hi-lines that carry our utilities from bld to bld..me and a guy were up in there one day doing some maint work..he was ahead of me as we were making our way thru the structure...the structure is xbraced with angle iron..we also have to wear safety harnesses with double tieoffs..
Well he reached a grabbed some angle iron to balance hisself, and his fingers went right in a huge neat..he tried to run but that harness stopped him quick...I never seen anybody come out of a harness so fast..he only got stung a few times..it was cool weather so they were semi dormant..

[truckster]

It's already become a funny family story... Grandpa vs. the yellow jackets.

But I checked this morning and there's zero yellow jacket activity in her yard. I'm just glad it was me instead of one of the grandchildren.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by Warrens69GMC

Man blows up backyard trying to kill a pest. - YouTube

Caddyshack!!

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by truckster

It's already become a funny family story... Grandpa vs. the yellow jackets.

But I checked this morning and there's zero yellow jacket activity in her yard. I'm just glad it was me instead of one of the grandchildren.

At least you got a funny story out of it.

Some things happen and at the time they are not funny. But later they are when you can kid around about it. Grandpa vs. the yellow jackets sounds like a good one.