• I almost got stung

Posted: **Wed Jul 10, 2024 5:55 am**

Yesterday, I was planting seeds to fill in the spots among my bean pole teepees, where prior seeds did not germinate. I was concentrating on the task at hand. After planting and covering the last seed, I got up off of my knees to see a couple of dozen yellow jackets buzzing around, close to the ground. I backed my way out of there trying to not cause any ground vibrations. Once I was at a safe distance I kept looking to see where they would fly into and out of the ground. Their hole was about two feet away from where I was kneeling and working for several minutes. I have no idea how I didn't get stung. In a few weeks the nest would likely be at about full strength (population), and might make them even more aggressive in defending the nest.

To be able to weed, pick beans and do anything else in that area would be dangerous. My solution has always been to hose them down for several minutes, then take many, many shovel fulls of soil tossed on top of the exit/entrance (about 6 inches of soil), and then hose them down again. I also have a partial can of pressurized wasp/hornet killer (last year there was an attempt to build a paper nest right next to, and above, the house door) that can be used in addition to the soil and water.

Posted: **Wed Jul 10, 2024 7:02 am**

That was a close call! You never know where stingy things are. Last week I was in the corn rows doing a little weeding. I bent down to pull one and just happened to look up. On the underside of a corn leaf, right about eye level, was the beginnings of a wasp nest about the size of a quarter. I cut the leaf at its base but it was held up by another so I just left it. A few days later the leaf was brown and the wasps had abandoned ship. Good!

Posted: **Wed Jul 10, 2024 7:10 am**

They got me last week. Ran over the nest opening with a mower. We counted 15 sites where they stung me, including two on the face. I’ve watched a LOT of yellowjacket nest removal videos since then (grin). Gonna go with an initial application of Dawn right down the mouth of the nest, which should render the first emergers helpless, and then a five-gallon bucket of soapy water to follow it. Three layer bee suits are remarkably breathable these days.
I’ve been trying to get the kids trained up to mow; glad it was me this time.

Posted: **Wed Jul 10, 2024 9:56 am**

as long as you are slow, and make careful movements, and the wasps know you
are there, and not a threat, they will leave you alone, depending on the kind of wasp.
i have picked wild blue berries within a few feet of a hornets nest on the ground, big black
hornets with white spots. they left me alone.

my own near miss was when i was up potting a tomato plant a couple weeks ago. i was on the porch.
i reached into the open bag of potting mix, and put a handful of soil in the pot. next thing i know there
was one pissed off bumble bee in the pot. the bee was in that handful of soil.

keith

Posted: **Wed Jul 10, 2024 10:28 pm**

I still feel one, two weeks now I guess. Yeah two Wednesdays back, 26th semi planned comm garden worknight but only one person showed and then it rained for a few minutes. I was pulling the unharvested collards (I don't understand those lol), pulling the roots and all I think. I do have a sickle but I think I pulled the roots and all because I putting corn and potatoes in. Anyway, whap, left hand, outside base of the pinky finger. No stinger seen pumping. I was hoping it wasn't a spider and then I saw the bumblebee try to fly out. Landed, was walking around.

So I guess they had a nest under there, it was a wall of unpicked collards, and had been covered with agribon early so was probably a great place to start a nest for them. After I got everything out I think I forked it right away.

I don't know, seems to me I had the sickle in my right hand because when I got stung on my left, and first felt it, I was flailing try to get it off. And remember thinking later it was lucky I didn't slash my hand.

Then someone said to me later, you got stung, that's weird, I hardly ever get stung. (thinking, well, I spend 50x as long with my hands in the dirt.)

Posted: **Sun Jul 14, 2024 1:05 pm**

Watch out. They are nasty. I was trimming some bushes a few years back and got attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets. My left arm swelled up like giant sausage. The nest was right next to the area where my grandkids play. I bought a can of poison and zapped the nest. I keep a can in my garage in case they make a reappearance.

Posted: **Sun Jul 14, 2024 3:06 pm**

rxkeith wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2024 9:56 am as long as you are slow, and make careful movements, and the wasps know you
are there, and not a threat, they will leave you alone, depending on the kind of wasp.
i have picked wild blue berries within a few feet of a hornets nest on the ground, big black
hornets with white spots. they left me alone.

keith

I have to agree, although Yellow Jackets can be somewhat contrary. Have a SIL who is absolutely terrified of wasps, especially Red Wasps. he starts swinging and swatting at them and invariably gets strung. No matter how many times I tell him to ignore them, he will be stung before it's over. Mosquitos love him also, they wear him out and I almost never get bit by mosquitoes nor stung by wasps. The last time I was stung i had one land on the bend of my arm and when I flexed my arm, he got me. That has been a long time ago when I was getting a grain bin ready for corn.

I had leaned in the door of the bin and then realized that the door frame was solid with Red Wasps. Nothing I could do except stand there until most of them no longer resembled B52 Bombers. Took a good 30 min. or more, seemed like 3 days. When I got about 15-20' from the nest, most of them left me and flew back to the nest. Very lucky that only the one got me.

Posted: **Sun Jul 14, 2024 4:19 pm**

Bees, bumblebees and wasps do not bother me any more. Once was I was very skittish and ran away swatting at the. For several years I have been ignoring them and they ignore me. Hornets are another story..I hate them and they hate me. It is hornet spray for hornets.

Posted: **Sun Jul 14, 2024 4:23 pm**

I hate wasps with a passion as well as hornets and yellow jackets. Bees don't bother me though, they're cute fuzzies and I've even pet them. Mostly the carpenter bees.

Posted: **Sun Jul 14, 2024 6:39 pm**

Bees and I don’t get along. One was on my washcloth in the outdoor shower, so I got stung in the nether regions. Nothing good about that. Got stung on my eyelid one night at the boat ramp. Ended up looking like Quasimodo.

The worst was a bee stuck behind the bridge of my glasses. Stung me directly between the eyes and within four hours I was having trouble seeing due to swelling. I’ll try find a picture, it’s fairly hilarious

Posted: **Sun Jul 14, 2024 9:06 pm**

I don’t recall a sting in 2024. Maybe I just forgot about it. Been a while since I came across the ground nesting communal hornets, wasps or yellow jackets. There was a spot they’d set up on annual basis, near the bamboo. Maybe they are there now.

I got into the fire ants when chainsawing our way free after Beryl. I considered using the saw to remove my left foot and ankle to spare me from the tormenting ants, but my wife that was present might have fainted and hit her head and we couldn’t have that.

Posted: **Mon Jul 15, 2024 12:13 am**

Red wasps, don't like the sound of that...

Posted: **Mon Jul 15, 2024 12:46 am**

Have a friend who is what I call a Gentleman Farmer. He collects antique tractors and also is allergic to everything. By the time I got there he had already started bushhogging with his oldest John Deere. As I pulled in he was making a tight circle around the power pole at the edge of the field. As I was opening a beer, I looked up and he's running in one direction and the tractor is going in another. Hat was gone, respirator gone and he's swatting around his head.

I jumped back in the truck, spilled my beer and wasn't about to let him bring a hoard of angry Yellow Jackets anywhere near me. I waited about 30 min. and tried to shut off the tractor which had nosed into the woods, too many Yellow Jackets was still attacking the muffler. We had to let it run out of fuel. Darrell came back about an hour later, stung 4 or 5 times. He used the first EpiPen I had ever seen, a lot larger than the ones now. He was kind of mad at me for not letting him in the truck. 10 gal. of diesel fuel a couple of days later took care of most of them. Repeated until they were all dead.

Posted: **Mon Jul 15, 2024 8:41 pm**

This morning I was chasing a squirrel (fig robber) and spotted a yellow jacket hole right on the other side of the backyard fence. The entrance hole looks pre-dug by an animal and was only like twice the size of a quarter but as many jackets as I saw flying in and out it must be one big kingdom down in there. I got a bucket of dirt ready to smother them with when the time is right.

Posted: **Tue Jul 16, 2024 10:51 am**

Tormato wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2024 5:55 am Yesterday, I was planting seeds to fill in the spots among my bean pole teepees, where prior seeds did not germinate. I was concentrating on the task at hand. After planting and covering the last seed, I got up off of my knees to see a couple of dozen yellow jackets buzzing around, close to the ground. I backed my way out of there trying to not cause any ground vibrations. Once I was at a safe distance I kept looking to see where they would fly into and out of the ground. Their hole was about two feet away from where I was kneeling and working for several minutes. I have no idea how I didn't get stung. In a few weeks the nest would likely be at about full strength (population), and might make them even more aggressive in defending the nest.

To be able to weed, pick beans and do anything else in that area would be dangerous. My solution has always been to hose them down for several minutes, then take many, many shovel fulls of soil tossed on top of the exit/entrance (about 6 inches of soil), and then hose them down again. I also have a partial can of pressurized wasp/hornet killer (last year there was an attempt to build a paper nest right next to, and above, the house door) that can be used in addition to the soil and water.

That was sure close! Whatever you do, dont take a stick and jam it in their hole and rummage around, then stay still thinking they will not see you when they all start to come out. Five-year-old me can tell you how that works out.

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