OT Got lucky

Weed whacking yesterday and passed over a large hole. Big enough to fit a soda can in. Wondered what might be living in there and kept moving. Looked back a few moments later and there was a cloud of Yellow Jackets swarming out of it. I stayed clear and last night I gave it the Kerosene and Bic lighter treatment. There were still some heading in and out today so I did the same thing again tonight.
it turns out to be quite a big cave. I could see inside it while the flame was burning and it would almost hold a gallon jug. Anyone know how close the next colony may be?

Man, you got lucky!A few years back I was mowing with a push mower late one afternoon and about half dozen of the little devils got me! I looked and looked, but could not find where they came from, next week same scenario, only over two dozen got me! I thought I was going to have to go to the hospital. Next day I did some serious looking and found they had built where a tree root had rotted out. They were about fifty feet from where they actually got me.
I have never heard about how close they build, they can be anywhere.

Had a similar one at my place. I didn"t think I could run that fast for that long carrying the week wacker.
Rick

I discovered a nest of them while mowing hay and three years later I was plowing the same area and found them again. I wonder if perhaps the hole is used by later generations of the same colony/

We had a colony build a nest in a covered grill we hadn't used in a while. Soaked the nest with gas and lit a match.

Larry

I opened the top of a nest of ground hornets several years ago mowing along the road with my old JD H tractor and #5 sickle bar. It looked like a cloud coming out of the ground. I Immediately grabbed the clutch and throttle back and jumped off and ran like H*&^. Got real lucky and didn't get nailed. That old H sat there for almost 2 hours slugging away at about 200 RPM until it ran out of gas. Exwife asked me if I thought somebody might try stealing the tractor. I said it would be worth the price of admission to watch! That night it cooled off enough the bees simmered down so I took a gallon of gas up and got the tractor running the dumped a little in the hole followed by a kitchen match. Drove the tractor back to the barn.

Have a old house trailer siting down in a old gravel pit behind the house that I keep parts in. Went down one Sunday morning to get something, Dang Yellow Jackets had built a nest in the ground right the door. Well I steped on it, Seen them start to come flying out, So thought Time for ME to get to runing, LOL. Went a flying back up the hill fast as I could go waveing My arms, Cussing the whole time, Got to the top look over at the neighbor"s house 1000" away there he stood haveing his Sun morning cup of coffee enjoying the country life.

Yeller jackets are bad, but the danged bumble bees are my enemy.

Gene

I think they are used by the same colony. There is a field I disc every year. Those suckers are in the same spot. These things are bees, and they are real mad because I go over their home. Stan

Had an office with a back door onto a raised patio, with a couple steps made out of railroad ties up to the patio. Railroad ties will rot on the inside while the pressure treated portion stays intact. Got a nest of yellowjackets in there. Tried spraying into the entrance hole, but there was a right angle turn that prevented the spray from getting in.

So hatched a plan. I'll pull the offending step apart with a claw hammer, then spray if I get time, but secretary will hold the door and open it quick when I'm headed for it, then close it to keep out the jackets.

Great plan. Didn't get time to spray, because they came right out, of course. I dove for the door, she opened it and closed it at the right time. I made it in unscathed, but a couple of jackets made it in, too, and somehow I handed off the claw hammer to secretary. So now she's stalking these guys, with a hammer in her hand.

I immediately decided this was a problem, and quickly relieved her of her weapon of very probably destruction (lots of windows in the place). Managed to obsquatchilate the little devils, and periodically stuck just my hand and can of spray out the door a few times, until everything was saturated, and nary a live jacket to be found by the next morning.

Post script on the secretary- nice woman, very competent. Her husband was a general contractor, and got into some "robbing Peter to pay Paul" situations, which got worse when a riding arena he was building collapsed during construction, and he had no insurance.

She came in to work on Monday before Thanksgiving (about 12 years ago), handed me a dollar, and said "You're my attorney now, so everything I say is privileged, right?" "Yep" "Well, we're leaving town over the Thanksgiving weekend. Not telling anybody but you where we're going, so you need to fend off the creditors. If you can hire someone quick, I'll get her as up to speed as I can before we go."

So they were gone- and I was very surprised to receive only one call, from a very minor creditor- nothing from the aggrieved arena owner or any lawyers trying to run them down. She ended up divorcing the guy, and last I heard, was office manager for a big nursery firm across the road from the trailer court they first moved into.

An old neighbor from years ago used to tell about hitting a bumble bee nest when he was mowing clover with a team of horses. The bees went after the horses and you can imagine what happened next. Jim

is there anyone who's ever done much work outside, that HASN'T hit a yellow jacket or wasp nest?

worst experience for me was frog gigging one night in a john boat with an electric trolling motor on the back. I was in the middle of the boat working the light on the frogs, another guy in the back working the trolling motor, and his brother in front with the gig, he got the worst of that wasp nest when we ran him right into it, but needless to say, those were the only wasps on the lake that had their own boat for a while, we let em have it! I think they wound up having to take ole Joe to the emergency room

The wife was brush hogging awhile back and ran over a nest of those yellow jackets. She was stung 10 times before she could get the Ford 2N int 3rd gear and out run them. One of the stings she received was on her ring finger, she could not wear her wedding ring for 6 weeks.
The other stings on her back and arms took weeks to heal up and go away. I waited until that night and put a 1Gal. sprayer into the hole with a load of demon in it, ties the trigger down and ran.
Nest was dead by next AM.

Been using this incident ever since to convince her we need a cab tractor....

Andrew

My dad told a story about his great uncle plowing with a team of horses and a walking plow.

He plowed through a nest of bumble bees. Was laid up for a week.

Had a nest in the back yard along side the pool, did the old gasoline and a match trick after Mrs WisBaker dumped a can of wasp & hornet killer down the hole, about the only thing that did was make them mad. Couple weeks later I started up the roto tiller and churned up the area pretty good and reseeded it. Must of not been to effective 'cause they're back this year right near the old nest. This Gasoline poofed pretty good this time but then started to burn underground, blue flame shooting out the hole, dumped a bucket of water down the hole, a few were swarming so I left the upside down bucket over the hole.

You don't have to mow over them or dig into them to stir them up. I have walked by a nest some distance away and gotten stung.

FIL had some in his basement in some old rolled up carpet. I later put on my bee suit and went in with spray and unrolled the carpet. There is a queen yellow jacket that is about twice the size of the regular ones.

KEH

A fellow I knew in Indiana was up on a ladder on his barn and disturbed a nest he didn't know about. Fell off the later but that's not what killed him, it was the hundreds of stings that did him in. Died where he fell.

(quoted from post at 14:09:50 08/18/13) is there anyone who's ever done much work outside, that HASN'T hit a yellow jacket or wasp nest?

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yup, must have hit one yesterday but I was brush hogging in 4th gear so I went by pretty fast as they buzzed around. Every time I made a pass in that area, they'd buzz the tractor. Never did see where the nest is. Worst thing is that there's a lot of days with my gout where I can't run real fast, so if I hit one hard, I could be in trouble. Never had the tractor in 8th gear but that would be a good time to try it. :lol: Biggest concern is for my wife, who is allergic. I'd rather find those nests than her.