1st thing to do when the mill has been sitting...

[zopi]

Dunk it in Hotshot.

I can run faster scared than they can fly mad though... ;D

Nine wasp nests in my mill. Little buggers.

[Chuck White]

They'll make a nest in any little hole or crevise that they can crawl into, and there are lots of places on a sawmill!

I think most of us can run pretty good when the bees are after us!  ;)

[Magicman]

Nine wasp nests in my mill.

Maybe they thought that it was their sawmill. 

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Nine wasp nests in my mill.

Maybe they thought that it was their sawmill.

Where there's a mill meal, there's a Magicman. 

[dustintheblood]

Growing up I'd get them nasty buggers in my motocross helmet and just flick em off.

Got a bit older, and one day took a long sip from a mcd's cup thru the straw and one of them bit me on the lip.  Doc said next time I have 30 min to live.

Year later, bit again... doc said 20 min.

Year later bit again ... barely made it.  (live 25 min from hospital)

A month later.  Bit again....  drove like the dickens and almost thru the front door of emergency.  Made it... barely.  (doc slapped me up side the head for being stupid)

Four years later.  No bites since, but did get one of them epi pen thingies.  Just don't know where I put it.   :D

[drobertson]

It does not have to sit idle for them buggers to build, got hit a few weeks ago by what I call the hybrid, yellow jacket/waspers, mean little fellows,  and yea they got a shot of it too!

[Chuck White]

And..... A sitting mill WILL gather mice too!  >:(


And then the Sawmill Gremlins take over!   :

[samandothers]

x2 on Chuck's comment.  Mill sat a week.  One the 25 hp Koehler they build next in the cooling fan area behind the exterior screen cover.  Removed the cover and nest.  'Thought' I got all the mice out too!  Started the mill and found out different!   

[xlogger]

mill doesn't have to sit long, I run my mill 4-5 times a week and they still get in.

[Chuck White]

Seems like they only require a couple of hours of quiet time, before they move in!  ;)

[zopi]

Yeah...mouse nest atop the engine. Carb cleaned...oil changed...new battery...<click>
Bugger.  Clean al the connections...none were bad....jump the solenoid...fired up amd idled.
Good girl.
Set the blade and throttled her up...all good.
I will put a good blade in later on and cut a test log..or two...maybe three. But it will have to cool off first.

[cutterboy]

I was gone most of May and when I got back I went through the mill with a can of W+H spray. I checked every place I thought the little buggers might nest. Like zopi I found and destroyed nine nests. However, when I started sawing more wasps came flying around me. I never seem to get them all. >:(

[petefrom bearswamp]

have had lots of mice and only one bee nest.
Luckily no apparent damage.
Ground up some babies once in the drive belt.

[Chuck White]

When it's going to be a while before I will be using the mill, I will get a couple of sox that have reached their life expectency and put some mothballs or flakes in them and put one in each end of the main tube and one next to the engine.

That will keep "most" of the mice and bees/bugs out!

[deadfall]

Here in the PNW coast, where we had no winter, there have been plenty of wasps' nests.  Bad for bugs all around.  Been lucky so far in the numbers of stings.  Been spotting the nests before hearing and feeling them.

[pineywoods]

Found a 3 ft long blacksnake inside the bandwheel cover. Didn't make any sense, then I found the wren nest....

[zopi]

One thing you can do...take one 9f those miracle gro ot whatever garden hose dispensers amd fill that sucker with soap and spray down the whole mill....wait a bit amd rinse...you get a clean mill and dead bugs...the soap will wipe em out.

[zopi]

Just busted up a bradford pear trunk for dulcimer soundboards....mill is working fine.

[zopi]

Just busted up a bradford pear trunk for dulcimer soundboards....mill is working fine.

[Magicman]

Twice??   ???   :D

[mesquite buckeye]

Harbor Freight electric flyswatter. Awesome on wasps and other unliked species. ;D 8) 8) 8)

I hit a couple of home runs this week. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Sixacresand]

I dug out a bird nest with eggs that had hatched out.  I don't remember having that much downtime. 

[zopi]

It grew back together before I got done.

Went to fetch a fresh blade off the rack....three more wasp nests. Jeezzz...

[deepsouth.us]

The red wasps got after me at the mill a couple days ago. Didn't have any wasp spray so I put water and dish soap in a pump up sprayer, and I'll be darned it worked. It doesn't drop them dead quite as quickly as the wasp spray, but it does kill them. The wide tip on the sprayer gives a nice pattern too. I now keep the pump up sprayer by the mill. It works well for soaking the channels in the frame, and for ground to air support.

[Kbeitz]

I keep gas in an old squirt oil can for hard starting engines and wasps... One squirt and they are dead...
Put some on the nest and they wont come back.