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

OneWithWood · « **Reply #20 on:** October 18, 2004, 11:06:46 am »

Heard one buzzin' my head yesterday while I was framing the end walls for the greenhouse. Without thinking I swatted it. Knocked it right into my shirt collar. Ouch! That hurts

Now it looks like I got a big hicky on my neck

Murf · « **Reply #21 on:** October 18, 2004, 12:42:08 pm »

That's a good line, I'll have to remember that one.... did it work, did she buy it?

?

OneWithWood · « **Reply #22 on:** October 19, 2004, 09:20:37 am »

whitepe · « **Reply #23 on:** October 19, 2004, 09:52:17 am »

Last year (sept 2003) I helped a neighbor
drop a 40" dbh red oak that had died.
When it hit the ground, the upper part
of the tree split apart and there at what used to
be about 40 feet in the air was a huge
honey bee hive. The bees weren't real happy
about it although the neighbor only got stung twice
while he was pushing the log out of the township road
with his cat 436 backhoe loader. We called
a husband/wife team of beekeepers about 5 miles away
and they came over and took out about 15-20 pounds
of honey and captured about 75 percent of the
bees and took them back to new hives on their property.

leweee · « **Reply #24 on:** October 19, 2004, 01:57:16 pm »

whitepe ....its nice to hear a happy ending once in a while

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #25 on:** October 19, 2004, 02:06:42 pm »

I think that's awesome whitepe. When my grandfather was young he said there used to be wild honey bees along the river valley and he and his brother would find them usually in dead elm stubs. I didn't think honey bees where native here and I was always thinking in the back of my mind that someone had bees way back then that got away. They could have been crated and shipped by train in those days. Seems to me our docile type honey bees are from Europe.

Maybe Tom can share some info on this, I think he was a bee keeper at one time in Florida. I had a cousin that was also, but he's moved away to Alberta.

9shooter · « **Reply #26 on:** October 20, 2004, 07:33:25 pm »

Just for your information, I've wiped out hundreds of yellow jacket nests by using a garden sprayer and liquid dish detergent. You mix about 1/2 cup to the gallon and hot water makes it a bit more effective. When the soap hits the bugs, it kills them inside of a min. and usually in half a min. or less. Because they are coated with soap they can't fly very well if at all and it really messes them up. They seem to have nothing other than escape on their little minds. I've never been stung doing this. Of course I've been stung plenty of other times.
On my second date with my wife, I managed to get the car stuck in a mud hole trying to get out to the tip of the Keewnaw penensula. I went to cut a log with a machete and cut right into a hornet nest. Came running out of the woods waving that machete around and the poor woman thought I was going to kill her. She took off down the road and still got stung a hundred yrds. away.
Our first date was to the dump to watch the bears, and after I saw how she handled herself with subsequent escapades I realized I'd found a keeper.

Another way to kill a nest is to use seven dust. pour a bit of the dust in the hornet entry-way and they are almost all dead the next day. If they are in the siding of a house I push a straw out of the corner of a zip lock bag and with seven dust in the bag along with some air , you can squeeze the dust into the hole they use to get to their nest. It's best to booby trap their front door after dark.

sprucebunny · « **Reply #27 on:** December 15, 2004, 08:20:48 pm »

NOW...You can have the picture.

Phorester · « **Reply #28 on:** December 15, 2004, 09:42:08 pm »

I usually get stung a couple times every year, was once stung 18 times by those little buggers. We often shear off the top of their nests when bulldozing fire lines. That really gets'em mad. Luckily, I've never been allergic to bee stings.

But the worst time was when I was helping a friend clear out some vines and tall grass in his yard. I was squated down, my face within a couple feet of the ground, digging out honeysuckle vines. I saw movement between my hands, and saw one come right up to my face, but couldn't get out of the way fast enough. He nailed me literally right between my eyes. I felt, and looked, like I'd been hit with a 2x4. My eyes watered the rest of the afternoon.

Scott · « **Reply #29 on:** December 16, 2004, 06:19:18 am »

I've found that a 12ga shotgun makes a good nest remover

I don't think I've ever been stung by a yellowjacket but I got stung by a wasp one time (bigger then a hornet and with greyish markings) anyways, it really hurt!

timberjack240 · « **Reply #30 on:** March 03, 2005, 09:33:11 pm »

when my dad was cutting trees he was on the side of a moutnian. they had bee trouble everyday (no lie) anyway there were these bees that were like yellow jackets only meaner. those little son of a bees ( get that little joke ; ;

) would chase you if you got close to the nest bout 15 ft was the limit. but my dad was cuttin and got into a nest and tehy chased him down the mountian and when they sropped he looked down he was standidn on another nest

farmerdoug · « **Reply #31 on:** March 04, 2005, 09:21:24 am »

SwampDonkey,

You are right about the honey bees as we know them were first imported from Europe very early in the colonization of North America. They use to be found all over the place in the wild around here. Bees can swarm 3+ times a year but that is bad for honey production so beekeepers try to stop it. I have bees for the pollenization of our vegetable and fruit crops. I said that wild nests were once common as the Varroa and tracheal mites were imported with new bees from other countries in the second half of the last century and they did a good job of wiping out the honey bees(Like the dutch elm disease did to the elm trees). So to keep bees now it takes treatments for the mites or a high lost of hives each winter. The mites cannot fly but are spread readily by the bees bad habit of robbing other dead and weak hives.

We use to have the brown paper hornets all over around here also when I was a kid(those I am sightly allergic to). But in the last several years rhey have been replaced by a hornet that is colored like a yellow jacket but is shaped like a hornet. I am not allergic to these which is good as they are very quick multiplers and have a bad attitude.

tnlogger · « **Reply #32 on:** March 04, 2005, 09:45:50 am »

a few years ago my son talked me into going Ginseng digging with him. well i found a patch of goldenseal that was about 10 yards wide and went up the hill about 200 yards.
back then goldenseal root was about 10.00 a lb. so i just dove right in and started scratching it out and putting it in and old feed sack. About the time i got the feed sack
full i felt something crawling up my neck i swatted it and looked up. yup i dug straight thew one of them DanG yellowjacket nests and they was mad real mad.
Well as far as i know that feed sack full of root is still there

. I done light a shuck and headed down the mountain and didn't look back one time.

Cuz · « **Reply #33 on:** March 04, 2005, 03:10:43 pm »

I know this may go against your instincts, but an old farm hand told me when I was young, that if you can just take a quick step and a dive away from the nest and lay down for a short time and then slowly ease away, that the yellow jackets won't chase you. Something about motion that they zero in on. It's worked for me a few times. Works even better if your buddy keeps running! They will go for him and not you. Trust me!

Also, a little gasoline (4-8 oz.) in there hole after dark will get them all. The fumes will do them in real quick.

farmerdoug · « **Reply #34 on:** March 04, 2005, 04:34:18 pm »

Cuz,
Tha is kinda like getting away from a bear.

You do not have to out run the bear just one of your buddies.

thecfarm · « **Reply #35 on:** March 04, 2005, 08:49:54 pm »

The whole family was getting firewood,20 years ago, and we knew of at least the location of 20 ground hornets nest.What a summer that was.We would fall the tree on the nest and when we limbed the trees,guess who was waiting.Couldn't hear them buzzing over the noise of the saw. My father ran over one nest with the tractor.He had to jump off the tractor to get away from them.Never seen them that bad.

Rockn H · « **Reply #36 on:** March 05, 2005, 12:03:41 am »

This is a little off subject, but I am wondering if anyone else has seen, done, or heard of this. Some old timers around here will rub their hands in their arm pits and then reach up and take down red wasp nest with no problems from the wasp. Is this a local thing? No, we as a region don't stink that bad.

Roxie · « **Reply #37 on:** March 05, 2005, 06:49:52 am »

Reporting in for the Pennsylvania branch, I've never heard of that in my entire life!

Tom · « **Reply #38 on:** March 05, 2005, 12:41:10 pm »

I think it would be interesting to watch that done..........through some binoculars. I'll pass on trying it myself.

Fla._Deadheader · « **Reply #39 on:** March 05, 2005, 02:46:19 pm »

When ya git here, you can stand on the very front of the boat. Right now, them Red Waspers is nesting on the branches that hang over the water, just high enough to drill ya twixt the eyeballs.

We'll duct tape yer arms up, so's ya can smear them baby's as we go tearin through them branches.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #40 on:** March 05, 2005, 03:42:46 pm »

Don't forget the video production folks so we can make a Forestry Forum Maximum Exposure thread.

leweee · « **Reply #41 on:** March 05, 2005, 09:16:03 pm »

Watch it S_D ....don't giveum any ideas. The Great Outdoor Games will want some of this....loggers ....yellowjackets....fastest logger with the least stings.....sounds like a real crowd pleaser

Ernie · « **Reply #42 on:** March 07, 2005, 12:42:29 pm »

If yellow jackets are like the wasps we get here then in the spring, they are looking for protein for the queen. What we do is take an empty plastic icecream container and cut a few little door into it then we mix Carbaryl and cat food and put a blob inside, put on the lid and nail these to the tops of fence posts, the worker that have over-wintered take the brew back to the queen and kill the lot. We had a terrible problem a few years back, did the poison thing all around the farm for two years and have been clear of the little buggers for the last five years.

Ernie

logger · « **Reply #43 on:** March 22, 2005, 08:54:00 pm »

My friend said he was logging one time and said he was cutting this maple tree with a 036 and the tree was about 2 ft thick, he was comming around the back side and had the saw in the cut cutting and there must have been a nest of hornets in the ground and he was right over top of them and they went all over him. He said he took off running (with the saw still running in the tree) like you wouldn't believe brushing the bees of off him and hitting the bees off him. He said he got stung about 10 times. He come back the next day with bee killer!

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Author Topic: yellowjackets (Read 4398 times)