yellowjackets

[SwampDonkey]

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]

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. ;D

  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]

NOW...You can have the picture.

[Phorester]

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]

 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]

 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  ; ; :D ) 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  :D  :D 

[farmerdoug]

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]

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

[Cuz]

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]

Cuz, 
  Tha is kinda like getting away from a bear. ;D  You do not have to out run the bear just one of your buddies.


:D :D :D

[thecfarm]

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]

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.    ;D

[Roxie]

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

[Tom]

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

[Fla._Deadheader]

  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.  ;) ;) :D :D :D :D :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

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

[leweee]

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 :D :D :D

[Ernie]

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]

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!