Yellowjacket Attack

[GoDawgs]

Friday was a painful day. We had cut up three small trees that were down and had been limbed up. We headed to the fourth and last one for the day, one that was still hinged up from the base. That's the fallen one between the trailer and the large oak on the right.

24.09.28 Post-Helene, summer houseplant area torn up.JPG

Pickles was carefully undercutting the hinge when all of a sudden something stung my nose! Then I heard Pickles hollering behind me, "Yellowjackets! Help! Get 'em off me!" We tried to get away from them but they were pissed off and Pickles took the brunt of the attack. I think because I had on very loose camo pants and a baggy sweatshirt the stingers couldn't reach my skin very well but Pickles had on sweatpants that weren't baggy and a light flannel shirt over a t-shirt and they were stinging right through it all.

I had my leather gloves on and at first tried to brush them off her but they weren't easily brushed off so I kept snatching them off with my hand and smooshing them or slapping them off between open hands. All the while we were walking away as fast as we could as I couldn't get bees off a running Pickles. We finally got them all gone and did a final thorough check to make sure there were no more bees on us before going into the house.

Poor Pickles had a lot of stings. She stripped down to unders and started slathering hydrocortisone cream over the stings and I applied it where she couldn't reach. Then she took an antihistamine tablet. Her worst sting was on the top of an ear. It was so dark red and painful! I just had a cluster of three stings on one elbow, one on my nose and one on the other arm. Today the pain of stings has turned to itching so more cream. Hopefully that will pass soon too. We're very lucky it wasn't worse.

The nest has to be somewhere around the base of that tree but I'm not risking another attack looking for it even at night. It won't be long before the queen leaves and the rest will die when colder weather comes. They'll eliminate themselves and good riddance. First time anything like that has ever happened here. Hope it's the last too!

[friedgreen51]

Yellow jackets are a big problem in Western NC right now from all the flooding after Helene. Some items that pharmacies are donating are Epi-Pens, Benadryl, and Benadryl cream. They have lost their habitat after the flooding and are everywhere, hindering brush debris clean-up.

[Sue_CT]

Wow, hope you both feel better soon!

[ddsack]

What an awful experience! Those stings are painful and serious, poor you, and poor Pickles! Hope you improve soon.

[worth1]

My dad ran over one with the brush hog.
The tractor couldn't go fast enough.

[pepperhead212]

I feel for you!! I got stung 23 times once, after hitting a nest or two underground, when I was howing around my tomatoes. And I ran faster back then! I watched from a distance, to see where they were going, and that night I poured some 20 percent vinegar in them.

[karstopography]

That’s painful for sure. I’ve got a nest of these in the ground at the base of the pampas grass and about 6 feet beyond my compost bin. I keep reminding myself not to get too close. There’s one of the winter squash I was growing ripe and ready to pick up in the pampas and beyond the yellow jacket nest, but I can’t get to the squash without walking right on top of the ground nesting yellowjackets. The squash will have to wait until the stinging insects are dormant or gone. If the yellowjackets didn’t sting me to death the pampas grass would rip me to shreds trying to escape from the wasps.

[PlainJane]

Jeepers you two didn’t need this to happen on top of everything else.
Feel so bad for you both.

[worth1]

We would find the hole pump gasoline in and cover up the hole with a jar.
Done when it's still too cool for them.
Not all yellow jackets die out in the winter.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespula_squamosa

[bower]

I've noticed that wasps tend to be more aggressive in the fall, any time it's warm enough for them to be active. And then to have their habitat disturbed by the hurricane, that's just awful... They must be gone nuts trying to defend the nests, and the last thing anybody needed while cleaning up after the storm... sheesh!!!!
I hope they get their cold weather cue pronto and out of the picture.

[rxkeith]

yellow jackets are one of the wasps that just can't be reasoned with in my opinion.
they will pester you even when you are minding your own business. pissed off yellow
jackets, its run for the hills. pickles know what to do about stings. i rarely use products
like raid, but when there is a yellow jacket nest too close to the house or a walk way, i will
locate the nest, then at dusk drench it with a wasp killing spray, and block the entrance.
that usually does the trick. other wasps like the paper nest builders, or the cone building type
you see under the propane cap or similar out of the way places, i leave alone as
long as they leave me alone. they usually aren't aggressive as long as you don't surprise them.


keith

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday Pickles said she thought she thought she saw where the nest is and showed me... from a distance! Yep, at the base of that tree you could see them coming and going. I have some long distance wasp spray and might try that around dusk. Other than that, they can die when winter comes.

The stings have gone from pain to itching but the hydrocortisone cream is helping a lot. We were lucky it wasn't even worse. No allergic reactions.

Now.... if we can only get rid of the masses of mosquitoes that blew in with the hurricane! I've never seen so many and boy howdy do they come out in clouds towards evening.

[worth1]

I hate mosquitoes.
Burning a kerosene lamp runs them off of you like to sit outside at night.

[CrazyAboutOrchids]

You both are so very lucky! Oh my! Sorry about all the stings, but so glad neither of you reacted!

[Tormahto]

I get stung nearly every year. Luckily after the first sting, I know to just run.

I think that 3 stings is the most that I've ever had, mostly on the shins. It's fairly early in summer when I get stung and then know where the nest is. If I came across a nest later in summer, it would be at full strength, and many more yellow jackets would be sent out to defend the nest.

A bumper crop of apple and pear drops this year perhaps has kept them calmer. I think that I have two yellow jacket nests and one small wasp nest in the yard, this year. After a hard freeze, I'll do a closer inspection for two of them, with no idea, within about 20 feet, where the third one may be.

[worth1]

I've been stung but just shake it off but it really hurts for a little bit.
West Texas was famous for the darn things getting in your clothes and shoes at night.
Sometimes they don't sting until an hour afterwards.