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Its hot and they are mean

Started by timberking, June 27, 2016, 01:20:36 PM

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timberking

And they hurt.  We have been talking around the office about getting into yellow jacket season and watching skid trails for nests.  Well, this morning I was out marking some timber and kicked them up all by myself.  Got hit in the face and started slapping, knocking my glasses off. Stung 8 times I think.  Retreated to the truck to get away and let them calm down.  Sting by my navel still hurts 4 hours later.  Did find my glasses.

WV Sawmiller

   Sorry to hear it. Hope no lasting effect.

   I still remember not long after we moved here I mowed into a nest with a little Gravely tractor and front mounted mower. They were under a clump of multi-flora roses I was mowing down. First one stung me I slapped the tractor in reverse and quickly backed into a walnut tree with a football sized hornet nest on a limb about 6' above the ground and 3 of them got me. Just one of those days.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

WildlandFirefighter912

Lolol.

I hate that. Seems around spring and summer thats when i see them. Out plowing or harrowing firebreaks and here they come. Scream like a girl. Grinding gears to try to get out of there quick.

Thank god i havent ran up on a huge nest like my boss man said he did. He said he was plowing up old skid rows to break them apart. When he was turning around to make another pass. He could see a swarm ahead of him. Said he couldnt see through it.

I know ive bailed off on my personal farm tractor while it was going to run from them. Was a moron to do that but manage to catch it.

starmac

A few years ago I was loading a heavy ramp on my flat bed when I thought I pinched a nerve in my back, which is not that unusual. I stopped for a second then tried to slide it again and same thing. The third time I told my wife to come around and see if something was on my bac, bingo a lone yellow jacket, that probably thought he had found the stupidest human ever, that would just stand there and let it continue to sting me. lol
Old LT40HD, old log truck, old MM forklift, and several huskies.

dustintheblood

Me and them don't get along.  First time I got stung the doc said I had 20 minutes.  Next time he said 10 mins to get to a hospital.





Hospital's at least 20 minutes away



Third time I barely made it.  Upside was that I didn't have to wait to see a doc.  Called ahead on my way down, and when I got there the automatic doors opened and I didn't even break stride and into the emerg bed.  "I know my way" I said as I passed the triage lady....
Case 75C, Case 1494, RangeRoad RR10T36, Igland 4001, Hardy 1400ST, WM LT40HD, WM Edger, ICS DH Kiln

BargeMonkey

 We get the big white faced hornets around here every once in a while. Had a nest started up on the corner of my loader cab this week and took 2 cans of break clean to get them to figure out they where the wanted. I was mowing along the fence as a kid with a push mower and they had a nest on the fence, I got torn up and since then I avoid them like the plague.

mesquite buckeye

Important lesson for dealing with bees, wasps etc. if you want to minimize the stings.

No fast motions. This aggravates them and produces stings or more stings.

Hold your breath when they are near your face. When you exhale they follow it in to sting you in the face.

Calmly and slowly leave the area. Ignore any stings if you can. Running makes them chase.

Never, ever start swatting at them. Just makes them mad.

Once you are stung they deposit what is called sting pheromone. That marks the spot for the others to continue the attack.

Remember that they are defending themselves and aren't generally looking for trouble.


About 10 years ago I was cutting off a 24" branch off a big cottonwood and cut through an Africanized honeybee colony.
The bees came boiling out in a cloud. I held my breath, shut off the chainsaw and climbed down slowly from my perch about 6 feet in the air. As I kept walking the guys that were with me were running around swatting and panicking.

Sting Score: Guys running around, a bunch; me, zero.

I used to keep bees. I learned this stuff the hard way.

Last weekend a paper wasp was riding around on my back and the guys with me were all panicked that it would sting me. I said it is just coming for the salt (sweat), who cares? About 15 minutes later they are going, "It's on your arm now!!!". I picked it off with my trusty Harbor Freight clamp tongs and Game of Throne's it to shut them up. No stings.

Just sayin'.

Use the advice and be well. ;D 8) 8) 8) :snowball:
Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

enigmaT120

I get stung by them sometimes trail running (only in races).  It's like some illegal performance-enhancing drug, at least for a ways!

We have a nest of them up under the car port.  So far they haven't bothered me so long as I move slowly and don't hang out right under them.  My sweety thinks she can find somebody who wants them so I haven't done anything yet.  One time we took a shop vac with several lengths of the rigid tubing so that I could position it from a safe distance.  Slow, again, so it didn't alarm them.  Turned it on held in place a couple inches from the nest and man they just got sucked in.  I'll probably do that to this nest, since I don't want the poison bug spray dripping all over the floor there.

Ed Miller
Falls City, Or

starmac

Your sweety thinks she will find someone that wants them, are you serious? I would love to be a fly on the wall when she is asking folks if they want some wasps.
Old LT40HD, old log truck, old MM forklift, and several huskies.

scsmith42

Oh man, does this bring back some memories....

Back in 1990 I did some freelance work repairing lighting systems on communications towers. One job was at WECT TV station in Wilmington, reworking the lights on their 2000' tower in White Lake, NC and then relamping the lights on their STL (station transmitter link) tower in downtown Wilmington. Their White Lake tower, built by Klein, was the 7th highest structure in the US and the tallest structure east of the Mississippi. I spent a week replacing conduit, wiring and lighting fixtures that had been damaged due to ice falling off of the tower. I liked that old tower (called the Kimco tower as I recall), it was solid and even had an elevator (which was an experience all of it's own). 

Here is a photo that I took back then from around 1,800' up the tower.  It's the first tower that I ever recalled working on where I could look down on aircraft.




 

Their STL tower was an old freestanding tower that was built back in downtown Wilmington back in the 30's or 40's. This tower looked similar to the old tower shown and the beginning of the old RKO motion pictures, with an angle iron base that transitioned into a triangular tower section with a 36" face for the top 80' or so. As near as I can recall the STL tower was around 250', give or take. It was painted and lit, and in pretty bad shape.

The top triangular tower section was built with pipe for the legs, and it was hollow and open at the top. The very top of the tower had a steel plate mounted to it for the upper lighting beacon to mount to. The top plate extended about 8" or so past the tower legs, so when you're climbing it when you get to the top you have to reach over and past the overhang and pull yourself up and around the plate and then sit on top of the plate with the 12" or so diameter beacon straddled in-between your legs. There is nothing to tie a safety rope too at the top - you're just up there.

So I proceed to climb the tower, replacing the bottom obstruction lamps as I go up. When I get to the upper section I notice that two of the three legs are completely rusted through in two different spots - held only together by the diagonal members welded above and below them. Funsies..... At this point I vow that this will be my ONLY trip up this tower!

Now, as folks who have climbed towers can attest, towers attract wasps. Supposedly the attraction for the wasps is the static electricity generated by the wind blowing across the tower members. I have been told that due to the wasp having an exoskeleton, the tiny static charge puts them in a euphoric state. They are a little harder to agitate, but if you DO pith one off, it's like they turn on a sprinkler of pheromones....

I've seen a lot of them back in my climbing days, and they would hang out around the legs and just bump their heads up against the paint. Usually they don't bother climbers, but it's weird seeing them up there.

When I reached the top I swung myself over the top plate and sat down with my legs straddling the beacon, with one of the pipe legs coming out of the plate right between my crotch and the beacon. Not wanting to spend any more time on top of this derelict than I have to, I proceed to remove the bolts clamping the beacon closed (it' hinges in the middle), open it up and replace both lamps. After the new ones were installed I radio'd down to the station engineer to turn the lights on so that I could verify that the bulbs were working correctly. When he turned them on, a loud hum started emanating from the beacon and one of the two lamps lit up. However, what caught my attention the most was the stream of unhappy wasps that proceeded to start buzzing up and out of the pipe leg that was protruding between my legs! It seems that they had built a nest inside of the hollow leg at the top of the tower and did not like the hum of the transformer or whatever was in that ancient beacon.....

Moving slowly but deliberately, I radioed the engineer to shut off the lights and I simply froze in place on top of that tower with those *DanG wasps buzzing all around me. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place; there was no fast, safe way off of the top of that tower. All that I could do was sit frozen in place and start talking to Jesus! Finally after about 7 - 10 minutes (felt like an hour) the wasps calmed down and went back into their hole. I slowly reassembled the beacon assembly and transitioned myself off of the top of that tower and back to the ground.

When I got down, the engineer commented that I was white as a sheet and I told him what happened. I did not get stung (not sure why), but staying frozen in place on the top of that tower with a swarm of wasps buzzing all around me was one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life.


Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

WildlandFirefighter912

Quote from: scsmith42 on June 28, 2016, 06:24:05 PM
Oh man, does this bring back some memories....

Back in 1990 I did some freelance work repairing lighting systems on communications towers. One job was at WECT TV station in Wilmington, reworking the lights on their 2000' tower in White Lake, NC and then relamping the lights on their STL (station transmitter link) tower in downtown Wilmington. Their White Lake tower, built by Klein, was the 7th highest structure in the US and the tallest structure east of the Mississippi. I spent a week replacing conduit, wiring and lighting fixtures that had been damaged due to ice falling off of the tower. I liked that old tower (called the Kimco tower as I recall), it was solid and even had an elevator (which was an experience all of it's own). 

Here is a photo that I took back then from around 1,800' up the tower.  It's the first tower that I ever recalled working on where I could look down on aircraft.




 

Their STL tower was an old freestanding tower that was built back in downtown Wilmington back in the 30's or 40's. This tower looked similar to the old tower shown and the beginning of the old RKO motion pictures, with an angle iron base that transitioned into a triangular tower section with a 36" face for the top 80' or so. As near as I can recall the STL tower was around 250', give or take. It was painted and lit, and in pretty bad shape.

The top triangular tower section was built with pipe for the legs, and it was hollow and open at the top. The very top of the tower had a steel plate mounted to it for the upper lighting beacon to mount to. The top plate extended about 8" or so past the tower legs, so when you're climbing it when you get to the top you have to reach over and past the overhang and pull yourself up and around the plate and then sit on top of the plate with the 12" or so diameter beacon straddled in-between your legs. There is nothing to tie a safety rope too at the top - you're just up there.

So I proceed to climb the tower, replacing the bottom obstruction lamps as I go up. When I get to the upper section I notice that two of the three legs are completely rusted through in two different spots - held only together by the diagonal members welded above and below them. Funsies..... At this point I vow that this will be my ONLY trip up this tower!

Now, as folks who have climbed towers can attest, towers attract wasps. Supposedly the attraction for the wasps is the static electricity generated by the wind blowing across the tower members. I have been told that due to the wasp having an exoskeleton, the tiny static charge puts them in a euphoric state. They are a little harder to agitate, but if you DO pith one off, it's like they turn on a sprinkler of pheromones....

I've seen a lot of them back in my climbing days, and they would hang out around the legs and just bump their heads up against the paint. Usually they don't bother climbers, but it's weird seeing them up there.

When I reached the top I swung myself over the top plate and sat down with my legs straddling the beacon, with one of the pipe legs coming out of the plate right between my crotch and the beacon. Not wanting to spend any more time on top of this derelict than I have to, I proceed to remove the bolts clamping the beacon closed (it' hinges in the middle), open it up and replace both lamps. After the new ones were installed I radio'd down to the station engineer to turn the lights on so that I could verify that the bulbs were working correctly. When he turned them on, a loud hum started emanating from the beacon and one of the two lamps lit up. However, what caught my attention the most was the stream of unhappy wasps that proceeded to start buzzing up and out of the pipe leg that was protruding between my legs! It seems that they had built a nest inside of the hollow leg at the top of the tower and did not like the hum of the transformer or whatever was in that ancient beacon.....

Moving slowly but deliberately, I radioed the engineer to shut off the lights and I simply froze in place on top of that tower with those *DanG wasps buzzing all around me. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place; there was no fast, safe way off of the top of that tower. All that I could do was sit frozen in place and start talking to Jesus! Finally after about 7 - 10 minutes (felt like an hour) the wasps calmed down and went back into their hole. I slowly reassembled the beacon assembly and transitioned myself off of the top of that tower and back to the ground.

When I got down, the engineer commented that I was white as a sheet and I told him what happened. I did not get stung (not sure why), but staying frozen in place on the top of that tower with a swarm of wasps buzzing all around me was one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life.

There is one fast way down..but its not safe...unless you have that parachute

gimpy

Quote from: dustintheblood on June 27, 2016, 05:11:59 PM
Me and them don't get along.  First time I got stung the doc said I had 20 minutes.  Next time he said 10 mins to get to a hospital.

If I were that bad, I'd definitely have my doc write a script for Epi-Pens and I'd have one in every vehicle and mounted on the tractor. Then you could just cruise into the ER without worry when you got stung.
Gimpy old man
Lucky to have a great wife
John Deere 210LE tractor w/Gannon Box

SineWave

Be especially careful next time...you can get "sensitized" to bee stings and suddenly become allergic.

That's what happened to me. I had probably been stung 50 times in my life when, in my early 20s, I got stung twice in one summer while cutting firewood. Ground hornets. That second sting put me into anaphylactic shock. Had to go to doctor and get adrenaline (epinephrine) shot.

Doctor said if it happens again, the anaphylactic shock could come on in a matter of seconds and be lethal. Apparently what happens with anaphylactic shock is, your body senses a "bad poison" in your body, and in an attempt to protect itself, it drops your blood pressure so low that your heart can't get enough blood to keep itself alive!

Apparently that's exactly what happened to a friend of my parents. He got stung while mowing his lawn, and he ran toward the house to get his epinephrine injection kit, and he dropped dead on the doorstep to the house.

Be careful out there!

timberlinetree

I liked working with Bruce( he was allergic) so every time he got stung ,it was sitting in the hospital getting paid, and eating good food while he was getting checked out.  8)
I've met Vets who have lived but still lost their lives... Thank a Vet

Family man and loving it :)

gspren

  A few years ago when my wife pulled in the driveway she saw me in the lower pasture going full speed on the tractor waving my hat around like a rodeo cowboy, I had backed the bush hog over a yellow jacket nest and got a few stings. This year was good but yesterday when getting ready to head to the pig roast I went to plug the RV into a 30 amp box by the house and there was a wasp nest in it, no stings but some fast back peddling.
Stihl 041, 044 & 261, Kubota 400 RTV, Kubota BX 2670, Ferris Zero turn

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