Author Topic: yellowjackets (Read 4398 times)

sprucebunny · « **on:** August 07, 2004, 07:33:26 pm »

I've waited to mention this 'cause I had to wait to go back and get the picture but I STILL can't figure out how to condense it so it'll just be words.
Last week I was cutting a 14" balsam blowdown that was broke at about 4 feet and hung up at 45 degrees. Scary enough. Just when things started to move, I realized there were WAY more large bugs around me and had a quick glimpse of the yellowjacket nest inside the stump before I had to leave at a smart pace.!!
Luckily I always wear a turtleneck and flannel shirt ( yes, I'm hot ) Got stung twice.Thru my jeans.Mad hornet stuck in my chaps!!
I thought yellowjackets lived in stone walls or the ground. Live and learn!!

Paschale · « **Reply #1 on:** August 07, 2004, 08:34:12 pm »

Man--doesn't sound like fun. I just had a run in with some yellowjackets/hornets or some other nasty bug. They had begun to take over my front lawn, digging some nests in the ground. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, or how to get rid of them. It just so happened that I've had a nasty grub problem too, and I paid Chemlawn to come and spray my lawn. The next day, no more yellowjackets!

leweee · « **Reply #2 on:** August 08, 2004, 02:40:22 pm »

did they look like these?

http://www.forestryforum.com/images/03_21_04/lew%20yellowjackets%20azzyy.jpg

rebocardo · « **Reply #3 on:** August 09, 2004, 06:21:49 pm »

That URL should be:

http://www.forestryforum.com/images/03_21_04/lew%20yellowjackets%20azzyy.jpg

Though I cant see much anyways! :-D

leweee · « **Reply #4 on:** August 09, 2004, 10:31:42 pm »

Thanks rebocardo for the html lesson. dem little rascals is tuff to photograph up close

The nest is the size of a soccer ball on a larch tree limb and the entrance to the nest is just inches off the ground.
leweee.

Cedarman · « **Reply #5 on:** August 10, 2004, 06:05:36 am »

Logged a patch of cedar with a lot of old hayfield around the edges of the woods. It must have been the year of the yellowjackets. I would make a drag out through the field and as often as not I would turn around and there would be this yellow haze just above the ground. We had about 30 or 40 nests that summer. Would mark the spot and next morning pour a little juice down the hole. The woods had quite a few also. Never did get stung but my cutter got a few stings. Chaps really help. Don't know what it was about that year, but have never seen that many nests in just a few acres.

rebocardo · « **Reply #6 on:** August 10, 2004, 10:30:08 pm »

I do not know which nests scare me more, above or below ground. When you can feel the ground sinking under your feet, it gets scary.

I had a nest in the back yard where the kids play. I counted about 3-5 landings a second in the fall! So, late last fall when I thought they were all in their nest, I took my lawn mower put it over the hole and ran. Eventually the mower buried and collapsed the hole.

I hate killing them knowing they lay their eggs in caterpillars, but, I had to protect the kids and me.

I have found alcohol (rubbing is okay) works well for nuking things and safer then gas. Though a bit more expensive.

Oldtimer · « **Reply #7 on:** August 11, 2004, 07:27:20 am »

I managed to get peppered by YJs several years back.....like 100 times....I was fully outfitted with ear plugs, helmet with muffs, and a screaming saw. never knew about them till I was standing on the nest and got stung 20 times in half a second. I dropped the saw, and ran like a scared cat about 100 yards....them things followed! I had to run yet again, stripping my gear and clothes off. I was told later that the stings had theraputic effects, and I'd benifit. Right.

sprucebunny · « **Reply #8 on:** August 11, 2004, 08:28:29 pm »

Well.. I think the stings that are good for arthritis are regular bees. I don't know what YJs good for unless they kill bad caterpillars.

sandmar · « **Reply #9 on:** August 11, 2004, 10:20:20 pm »

Have burned 2 nests this week

Seems they are out in force now. One nest was just under a rock about the size of a plate...stirred them up with the loader

The others had a hole in the ground under a nearly completely rotten piece of plywood...which we were cleaning up...maybe another time

Sandmar

Mark M · « **Reply #10 on:** August 12, 2004, 05:56:50 pm »

I have to tell a story about a run in with some yellow-jackets. When I was about 17 I was clearing a lake lot for a fellow named Frank Youso who had a resort in N Minn. Some of you may remember Frank as a pro football player ('58 - '65) for the Giants, Vikings, and Raiders. He was a big man about 6' 5" and 250+ pounds. I was cutting down some birch down by the lake and Frank was up behind the outhouse cutting brush with a machete. All of a sudden I hear some yelling and look up to see this big man running at me swinging the machete. Thinking he had flipped out I looked for an escape path so I could run down and jump in the lake to get away from him. A few seconds passed and I realized that Frank had got into a nest of yellow jackets and was trying to get away from them. I grabbed my coat and helped him chase away the bees. The whole thing was pretty funny afterwards but for a while there I thought I was a gonner.

Mark

LoggingBeast · « **Reply #11 on:** October 05, 2004, 08:40:09 pm »

I have had a few stinging incidents this season. My partner was walking in front of me and he stepped on the nest and when I get to where he was a few seconds later I got the bad end of things. I bolted up the creek and was lucky to only get stung twice. Those are some angry $@#$ they even got me through my shirt. The worst this season was getting hit by a Bald Faced Hornet. I was marking a real nice sugar pine having a good ole time and out of nowhere this guy just dive bombed me right in the throat. Vicious man. That *pithed me off I can't imagine getting hit as much as some have.

Woodcarver · « **Reply #12 on:** October 05, 2004, 10:35:05 pm »

A neighbor, who has deer hunted in my woodlot for years, volunteered to do some skidsteer work for me in return for the hunting privileges. I asked him to widen a short stretch of logging road.

His skidsteer, unlike most I have seen, has an enclosed cab. Shortly after he began working on the road he unearthed the hub of an old wodden wagon wheel. Yellow jackets had set housekeeping in the hub. He said he was darned thankful for the cab on that skidsteer.

ohsoloco · « **Reply #13 on:** October 07, 2004, 09:38:18 am »

I don't know why, but sometimes a yellow jacket sting will leave a baseball sized welt that aches and itches for a week or more, and sometimes they just get a little hive for a day

Haven't run into any nests lately, but I was unloading some pin oak this morning and the yellow jackets were all over it...sap maybe?

Murf · « **Reply #14 on:** October 08, 2004, 10:39:41 am »

I found a yellow jacket nest this summer, luckily it was while I was doing some rough cutting with the tractor, they had built a big nest inside a discarded plactic pail.

Even luckier for me the tractor ahs a full cab & A/C

After the tire bumped the pail the little buggers started bashing their brains out trying to get to me through the glass, until I ran over the pail with the flail mower ...

Ga_Boy · « **Reply #15 on:** October 08, 2004, 06:34:52 pm »

I was at a tree service log yard two days ago talking ot the owner about getting some of his real big logs ( 48"-50"). There was a whole bunch of yellowjackets swarming around and one of them jumped up and stung me on the neck.

I still got my eye on some nice oak, elm and sycamore. He is getting some cherry in a few weeks. The best part is he's got a excavator; with a thumb

to load my trailer.

sprucebunny · « **Reply #16 on:** October 10, 2004, 03:09:29 pm »

Murf...I'm glad someone got even with them for once

rebocardo · « **Reply #17 on:** October 12, 2004, 09:05:20 am »

I usually bring a big can of bug killer when dropping trees. Usually if you just stand still you can find a nest and nuke it before they get out because the bigger nests are like airports. The worse thing is standing around waiting for them to die or having new ones come back to the nest, imo.

hillbilly · « **Reply #18 on:** October 13, 2004, 04:27:39 am »

Them little babys sure do lay a welp on me

An old timer told me to pour warm soapy water on their nests he siad that it would kill them,he was right,it's alot cheaper that what you buy at the store and works just as good. For those wasp nests use one of the kids big high powered water guns

hillbilly

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #19 on:** October 15, 2004, 04:43:50 pm »

Buzzzzzzz B B Bzzzzzzz

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Author Topic: yellowjackets (Read 4398 times)