[KHodges]

I guess it's what I get for not using my tractor for six days. While I was in DC week before last, my X748 sat parked in the shed at the barn. When I got on it to mow the first time after getting home, I got stung four or five times in rapid succession, not really sure just how many, I was rather busy dancing a jig on my tractor seat and attempting to vacate the premises.

Turned out the yellow jackets had been busy building a nest in the ground next to the tractor while I was gone, and I stepped on the entrance when climbing on the tractor.

So here I am trying to avoid more of these little bast**ds, while trying to figure out how I'm either going to back the tractor out, or at least get back to it to shut it off. Apparently they also didn't care too much for the smell or sound of a diesel engine running.

It was about 6:30 in the evening, and there was quite a bit of traffic in and out of the nest, even after they settled down a bit. All the while, (about 15 minutes now) my little JD is sitting there, purring away just above idle. I went inside the house to treat my wounds with some benadryl cream and plan my assault on the nest while giving the bees a bit of time to settle down some more. I had several cans of hornet spray in the garage, so armed with this, I headed back to the barn to rescue my tractor.

Now, about 30 minutes later, the tractor is still happily humming, as are the yellowjackets still hovering around their new green and yellow possession. My thought was to approach slowly on the nest side, aim a can of spray at the hole in the ground, leap aboard the tractor while hitting the throttle with my free hand and releasing the brake and backing out quickly to a safe distance, then shutting down and rapidly retreating from any bees that followed (which turned out to be most of them)

My plan almost worked, except that a few of the yellowjackets anticipated what I had in mind, and let me know they were neither impressed nor afraid of my bravado by planting a couple more welts on my lower legs. Thank God, I'm not allergic.

At least I now had the tractor where I could get to it later, as well as having it out of the way of my full-bore assault on the nest once it got dark and the bees had returned to the nest. I had a shovel with me now, and the three cans of hornet spray, one of which was a foaming type. As dark approached, I checked out the sitiation, and found that there was only an occasional bee in or out of the entrance . It was about 8:45 now, almost dark, and about bedtime for this nest's last day on earth. One full can went down the hole, while I kept an eye out for any stragglers bent on defending the nest. This pretty much ended the affair; I waited several minutes, only saw a few bees buzzing around. So, I dug into the ground at the entrance to the nest and turned a shovel full of dirt, then emtied the foaming can over the now penetrated nest.

I left it like this overnight, moved my tractor to the bay of the barn to keep it dry in case it rained, fed and watered the horses, then went to the house to lick my wounds and gloat over the defeat of yet another nest of evil little insects. Next morning, no activity. Whupped 'em again, Josey.

A week later, and I still itch.

 

[cubguy2165]

Yes sir sounds like you got them,after they tryed to show you who's boss.I use After Bite on the stings it works well and stops the itch.

pat

 

[forkz]

they r nasty little critters wasp get n the hand rails on my back steps if u bump it they r mad a little dawn dish soap n water n spray bottle gets em

 

[Kbeitz]

I just light a thorch and put it by the hole.. wing cant take the heat...

 

[FrankMA]

My wife, sister and two kids were finally able to use the pool for the first time this year last Sunday. Weather was nice (for a change) and we were all having a good time. My wife left her drink on the 6" wide rail of the deck and we all started to notice a buzz of activity around her drink.

My sister got stung twice and my wife got stung once. We all left the pool area and I started my investigation. As I looked in the area where the activity was concentrated, I noticed the little ba$tard$ buzzing under the pool deck. I then noticed a wasp nest about the size of a large cantelope built in between the joists of the deck on the outside edge.

I always get 2 cans of the "Hotshot" wasp spray in early spring as I usually have to get rid of several smaller sized nests throughout the warmer weather. Our lack of being able to use the pool for so long enabled the wasps to build a fairly good size nest without our ever knowing it. I gave the nest a good long blast from about 15' away and then ran like ****. It melted the nest and completely destroyed the wasps. The next day I looked at the wasps that ended up drowning in my wifes drink - they were black with an off-white rear with black spots. My sister had to go to her doctor and get medicine as her stings were seriously swollen and became very hot and reddish looking. My wifes wrist (where she was stung) was swollen to twice its size for several days but she is OK now.

 

[DJ in WV]

I have always used a little paste made of baking soda and a touch of water for stings. Works well for me.

Glad you got the nest and saved your poor tractor. Blasted bees can't drive worth a crap!

 

[jas11964]

We always use meat tenderizer made into a paste. Takes the sting out almost immediately. Also, to kill the bees, try spraying them with brake cleaner. Works much faster than the bee sprays.

 

[LLigetfa]

- they were black with an off-white rear with black spots.

Sounds like Bald-faced Hornets. They took over my raspberry patch one year and can get quite aggressive.

 

[FrankMA]

That looks like the suspects. Thanks for the info!

 

[freebird]

Yeah, I use After Bite too. I'm not allergic but I sure do swell up!

 

[slipshod]

My niece broke into a bale of hay and got hit about 6-7 times on her hand before she could get away. Sure swelled up! Not a lot of yellow jackets this year and I have notice that the fly population is way down, must be the weather.

 

[Tom White]

My problem with Yellow Jackets is that I always find them in the middle of a field while bush hogging. Even going back close to dusk, and watching them return to their in-ground nest, it gets to be difficult to see the nest's opening due to all the cut field grass. Even armed with a good flashlight, it can be difficult. Sometimes I just have to take my best guess as to where the actual opening is and hope I'm right.

Oh, and I also use the spray foam. It does a very good job, and even if I'm just close to the hole, it can cover it and build a mound that the Jackets can't fly out of without getting the stuff all over themselves.

 

[Tractor-Holic]

Last time I got stung was August of '07,and it was the same type of hornets or wasps Woodsy described..for the first time in my life ,my arm swelled up twice its original size,had to go to the doctor and get antibiotics and I had been stung many many times at the junkyard before by other wasps,and probably the same type too,but never had an allergic reaction like that before..now I freak out when I see wasps or a nest,and get rid of them ASAP..I crushed a softball sized nest under my bay window a few days ago,and noticed a golf ball sized one built under the chassis of my Compact 8M the other day too!..glad I checked the oil before starting it up and noticed it,or I'd probably gotten stung..

Every year I get wasps in my shed,and the truck body I use as a shed next to it,a "reefer" body thats lined with spray foam insulation..one year long ago,the wasps chewed out most of the foam and built a nice condo for themselves between the walls of it..I used 5 gallons of old stale gas drained from a junk car that was RANK to hopefully get rid of them,but they persisted and came back the next year even worse..

..then I started using carb cleaner to kill as many as I could hit ,it'll kill them in mid air before they can get to you..then I doused it with several cans of wasp spray..the SOB's STILL return every spring,but this year as soon as I saw one before it warmed up in march,I blasted the inside of the walkls again,so far I've seen very few..probably due to the rain and cool temps so far here this "summer"..I haven't seen too many nests underground here,we get the ones that make paper mache' nests and mud daubers mostly here..we used to have BIG orange things underground in my hometown they called "sewing needles",that would REALLY hurt when they stung you!--I recall my dad and a neighbor using gas to "napalm" them one year after we got stung by them!..

Two days ago,as I went to open my garage door,I saw one of those HUGE wood spiders,right next to the doorknob! ...I smashed it with a board,and not five minutes later when I went into the house,through the houses's garage,ANOTHER one a bit larger was in a web in the corner,right next to the door to enter MY bedroom!..I douched him with a half a can of windsheild de-icer,them used some hedge clippers to finish him off!..man,I HATE those things,and that is about the 8th one I had to kill this year,and I bet there will be a dozen more due to the weather..these things look just like a tarantula,and some are aggressive,they leap off the wall at you when you walk by..I'm no girly man,but if one of those ever lands on me,you'll probably hear me shrieking 10 miles away!..seen at least a half dozen snakes already too,more than I've seen in the 30 years I have lived here--must be the rain washing them out of their underground hideaways??..

 

[Bill56]

Yep, them stinging critters are no fun! Got stung by yellow jackets when I was a kid. My dad had been out in the pasture, cutting weeds with a hand sickle, and got into a nest of them. He got stung several times. I didn't have any idea what was going on. All of a sudden he started waving his arms and was telling me to run. I was severasl hundred feet away, but one of them got me too...right in the back of the neck.
Another time I went with my wifes' family, to pick some apples at their place in Indiana. The trees were out in the middle of a field. While we were walking out there, my wifes' brother started dancing around and whipped his pants down. He had stepped right on a nest. That was a long time ago. Wasn't too funny, at the time it happened, but we think of it sometimes, now, and have a good laugh.
Ditto on the fear of them spiders, Tractor-Holic. I can't stand them things either!! Not all that fond of snakes either. I could pick one up with my bare hands, if I had to, but I won't go near a spider. Soon as I see em, they get smashed!!

 

[KHodges]

I usually have to deal with at least one yellow jacket nest a year, the last one was in my front yard last summer. I also have three of an oriental variety magnolia in my yard, and yellow hornets love to build nests in them. I usually get one a year, and I've gotten to where I search the trees very closely when I mow, to try and find a nest before it gets big. These trees have a smaller leaf than the magnolia you usually think of, and the canopy is very thick, so the nest can be really big and completely hidden. I found one in the tree next to our patio a couple of years ago, it was bigger than a basketball when I discovered it, and only about a foot higher than your head when you walked under it. I had to cut the limb off the tree at the trunk, and boy howdy were they ****** when the nest hit the ground. Didn't get stung, but it took three cans of spray to wipe them out.

I hate those white-faced hornets, too. I had one come out of a tree while I was mowing the edge of my pasture one year; I saw it coming a split second before it hit me right between the eyes. Stung me right where my glasses cross my nose, **** near knocked me off the tractor. I think that one sting hurt worse than all the yellow jacket stings I got the other day. My eyes swelled almost shut from that one, gave me a helluva headache, too.


LLigetfa, how'd you get that pic of the white faced (bald-faced) hornet? I hope you had a telephoto lens for that. He's a bit closer that I want to get to one. Great photo, BTW

 

[LLigetfa]

Not my pic, I just googled for it.

 

[Justin]

Just my .02. PB blaster takes them out pretty good. Had some mud daubers in my garage. Seems to hurt them too as they take off as fast as they can until they fall out of the sky dead. Now if I could just get rid of the fire ants!

 

[Kbeitz]

Working in the Christmas trees I would reach in the trees and smash the nest with my hands if It was not to big to put my hands around it... I never got stung doing that... Sometimes we would cut the weeds around a BIG nest and the next day the turkeys would get it...