Yellow Jacket, (wasps)

[LAWNGODFATHER]

I had a bad experiance with them yesterday while aerating, I ran over several nests in the ground, and did not notice at first, but I did notice when I was swormed by them.

I got off the mower and high tailed it as fast as the old dogs could take me, until I did not see any more.

Next lawn I went to, same thing, more in the ground.

Good thing I did not get stung once.

Everyone watch out, and be aware!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Doogiegh]

When was the last time you were on the property.. Do nests like that pop up within like 3 days or is that the first time in 2-3 weeks and now there is a nest where there previously wasn't..

I have no idea how fast yellowjackets build their nests. <G>

Gary

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Last time "I" was there it was end of August.

One of my crews cuts there weekly.

I have run over many nests in the past and have never been swormed like this before, but I guess since I was poking holes in the ground I really pissed them off.

I went around a few times and seen them flying right next to me, but the sun was shinning bright and I couldn't make them out real fast, but the last time, I was haulling tail!!!!

[Administrator]

Once, while trimming a yellow jacket went up my shorts and started stinging.... each time I got stung it felt like I was being struck by a hammer at full swing.

By the time I got to the truck I was stripped down to my socks... yea, sounds funny now but at the time I had tears in my eyes, not from embarrassment. I got stung 8 times on and around my crotch. My day was finished because I broke out with a bad fever and rash. :eek:

While working I quit wearing boxers and stuck to briefs.

[LAWNGODFATHER]

OUCH Chuck, it must have liked the ghostly white aera huh?

I got zapped right in the corner of my right eye earlier this year, 1 week before the EXPO.

This is the first time I have ever seen them in this numbers before!!! I mean a whole lot of them, they were every where.

Funny thing though, I sat and watched them cool off while the mower was running at full throttle almost right over their nest for close to an hour.

[Doogiegh]

Maybe in the past on your ZTR you go over them so fast that before they know what's up, you're past them 70 feet away and they don't know the difference.. I would figure that poking the holes might of gotten the attention from more then a few of them..

I was trimming along my mom's house years ago in the middle of August or July. It was hot as heck out.. I went right over a nest of yellowjackets and before I knew it, I was stung 8 times as well. They were all over me like I was tarred and feathered. I didn't hear them since I wasn't using ear protection, and all I did hear was the hum of my trimmer...

I ran out of the backyard like I was Rambo and did a army dive and roll in the back grass like I was on fire.... Damn things had their bodies and stingers attached to my legs, man, that comment about feeling like a Hammerhead sure was right..

It took me a couple of YEARS to relax again when trimming... I would break into a cold sweat and get into a very agressive type of mood/zone when trimming.. If I saw so much as a dust spec go past my eye, I'd take 10 steps back so quickly until I figured out what it was/what was going on...

Now I've calmed down abit again.

Thanks for the heads up.

And Admin - Thanks for sharing.
Gary

[LAWNGODFATHER]

Doogiegh, I do that "when" (if) I am trimming when I see a snake.
Well even on the mower, or whatever I am riding for tha matter.

I guess after being bitten by poisonous snakes twice, and gone to the hospital twice, I have devloped a fobia. You think the wasp makes a good impression, the hammer feeling only lasts a few minutes, unlike the hours of a poisonous snake bite. I can halde the wasp sting to a point.

uuuuuuggggghhhhhhh, back to wasp, the snakes just get me.

[Doogiegh]

Here in NJ, we don't have any snakes.

Just pollution. <G>

Glad to hear you're ok.

Gary

[TurfGuyTX]

I've been watching some build a nest at our warehouse for the last week. Once it's big enough, I'm gonna waste 'em.

[yardman1]

Speaking of yellowjackets, One day I was driving a dozer and and pushed a stump out of the way trying to make a new road and before I knew it I was covered with those damn things all over me, I could not get of that dozer fast enough. Before it was all said and done I had 38 bites from head to toe.:mad: :cry:

I had to go to the ER and get some shots. This past spring I got nailed in the face (almost went up my nose) by a red-wasp, my face swelled up like a bowling ball.:angry:

[crawdad]

I generally get stung a few times each season, once per nest. One sting is enough to tell me to get outa there. After a good sting, I run from anything that flies near me, butterflies even , screaming like a girl, for a day or two. :cry:
I'll bet the aerating really gets their attention.
Crawdad

[Mr_Marc]

Originally posted by Doogiegh
Here in NJ, we don't have any snakes.

Just pollution. <G>

Gary

Water Moccasin, Timber Rattler, Copper Heads, I haven’t seen that many when I lived in NJ.

Now for Florida, while mowing at a customers house the other day alligator about 5 feet from shore too close for me. I’d hate to have my back to him. I see snakes on a daily, basis and I get a yellow streak up my back. Man I hate snakes!:eek:

[rodfather]

In 8 straight years of professional mowing, I have never seen the Yellow Jackets as bad as this year (especially the ones who nest in the ground). I think it's been because of the lack of rain in many parts of the country (big time in the NE) most of the summer.

A couple of weeks ago when I was brush hogging a field, I ran over a nest of those suckers in the ground. They chased after me the entire lenght of the field! And the craziest part was they kept flying up front into my tractor exhaust stack. Fine with me as each one became crisp :D

[Green Pastures]

I got stung once this year from a nest of Yellow Jackets in the ground. I know what you mean, every time I even thought I say something out the corner of my eye for like the next two weeks, I was running like a schoolgirl!

They hurt, then sting and feel like it's burning, then the itching :angry:. I hate Yellow Jackets.

I keep some of that wasp and hornet killer spray on the trailer now. I get a big kick out of killing a hive of them :gunsfirin

Scott

[Richard Martin]

I cut a lawn for a month one time for a guy who had been stung a lot of times by Yellow Jackets. He was riding his riding tractor around his lawn and the ground gave way into a huge nest. They literally covered the guy in stings and he almost died from Anaphalectic (sp) shock.

[roscioli]

Man, just this past week I am mowing a new customer, first mow, and oh hey, I just ran over a huge nest! Somehow (thank God) I wasn't stung. So I tell the lady when she pulls in the driveway "oh hey, you have a really large yellow jacket nest over there in the ground" "oh yeah, I know, my dog was stung pretty bad a few times this summer" "um, well, I can't mow around it at all" "oh, thats ok". Boy this lady is dumb.
As long as I dont get close to it i think I will be fine, but she certainly isnt getting that corner of the lawn mowed this year!

[ADMowing]

We mowed a field the other day for a customer -- first time that it had been mowed in three weeks. My husband ran over a nest. I didn't see it happen. I just saw him running straight out in front of me (on the 61" Zero turn). I stopped and helped get them off of him and got stung two times. He got stung over 20 times. We called 911 -- to see if the firefighters could help us get our mower out of the swarming nest area. They came out to check on my husband (which was nice) but they didn't help us with the mower.

We called a Pest Control Co and for $50, they came out and got our mower free. They suited up and sprayed for almost an hour before they stopped swarming enough to get the zero turn out of harms way. Well, the guy in the suit didn't know how to run the mower (or steer it). It was quite comical as we were yelling instructions to him. But it was not comical how my husband felt that day and all the next day. He was a mess. He said that he was sore all over in his joints and all. My two bites bruised like I'd been hit with a baseball at high speed. They are not something to fool with. All in all, we were very lucky.

The customer paid us the $50 plus extra for our time. She said that her son had gotten stung and said that it really hurt, but she thought he was being a baby. Well, she found out that he was right and we found out the hard way that the nest was there. She was very apologetic.

We're being very careful now when we mow empty lots and overgrown areas.

P.S. I haven't seen my husband run like that in a LONG time!!!;)

[Tvov]

We've been lucky so far, just ran into one small nest in a bush we were trimming a couple months ago. Now I've done it. I'll probably get swarmed on Monday!

And remember, use lots of gasoline on those nests!

:blob2: :blob2: ;)

[mcambrose]

Yikes Yellow Jackets everywhere. Last year one of my customers on the lake had yellow jackets so bad that we couldn't even get onto the property. The back 0f the yard is about 10,000 sf and had about 4-6 nests. The front of the yard on the lake side had three huge nests. I told the owner he had to get pest control before we could mow again. Next week most of them were gone. I got stung a couuple of times, but I put gas on those that were left. No problem this year. Seems that a wet year makes them worse here.l

[GarPA]

here in the notheast they have been awful this year...I agree its probably the lack of rain...I have not run over any ests but I've been attacked three different times this year...once in the middle of a parking lot!!

Hey Doogiegh...you are dead wrong about snakes in NJ...what about that cold slimy thing called Toricelli????

[TurfGuyTX]

Originally posted by TurfGuyTX
I've been watching some build a nest at our warehouse for the last week. Once it's big enough, I'm gonna waste 'em.

[dr grass]

HAHAHA ... some of these posts are the most comical ive seen on here. but in all seriousness, bee's can be very dangerous. I use to be allergic to them and almost died when i was around 10, from a yellowjacket sting. i went through a series of shots since then and am ok now. ive been hit 6 times this year. 5 of them were within 4 days! 2 within 10 minutes!!! i swear!! 2 of them were those ^*%(%* whit - faced hornets, and let me tell you those puppies HURT! the getting hit with a hammer senireo was close. how about turn the hammer around and use the claw end. i think that would be more accurate. ive found that if you make a paste with baking soda and water and get it on the sting shortly after it happens, and leave it on for at least an hour. the itching will subside greatly. if your out working ive heard gasoline works for this also, but ive never tried it. the bees have been killer this year!! i hope its alot wetter next year. hope this helps.....


shep :angry:

[HLC]

I was getting ready to cut my place this morning and decided to walk out to get my trash can first. As I was walking back I noticed a hole out in the middle of my grass. At first I thought an armadillo had taken a plug out of the grass so I investigated. Yep, yellow jackets. Glad I took that little walk instead of just jumping on the Z cause I would have ran right over them. And just for all the environmentalists.......Yes I poured gasoline on them and yes it worked.:D

[walker-talker]

The wasp were real bad here is Kansas. Experts are saying because of such a mild winter, didn't kill as many as usual. I am very fearful of anything that stings and frankly, you guys are scaring the hell out of me. I have not been stung in the last 10 years, but I read every thread on the subject. I don't suppose there is any kind of shot a person can get to make the things hate you (like mosquitos) or something? I guess the best thing is to just keep some medicine with you to put on the sting, like mentioned before about baking soda. I am sure if a person that stays in this business long enough will go through some tramua such as this. I have heard of somebody on here that got stung 68 times.....I can't even imagine the pain. I have had lacerations and broken bones, but nothing like this.

MATT

[SLS]

Yep the wasps and yellow jackets have been out in force this season.

A couple of months ago we experienced a storm that left limbs in the lawns. While picking up a few of them I felt a powerful sting on the backside of my forearm. My immediate reflex was to swat...which I did. Being that I had my tinted safety glasses on I never saw what bit me but from the looks of it I knew it was a bee, wasp, hornet, ect. I saw nothing else and continued on my merry way.

One week later I was mowing this same lawn, and when riding my Lazer over the same place that I was stung, something flew into the corner of my safety glasses and got trapped in between the glasses and my flesh...yep, a yellow jacket! It stung me in the soft, fleshy area between my eyelid and my eyebrow. Man, talk about pain! :dizzy: I flung my safety glasses off to release the little monster and kept on trucking away from the area.

I waited for the swarm to subside, crept up on the area, and located the hole. It was in an old exposed tree root. I went to my truck, opened the toolbox, and grabbed my trusty can of Ortho wasp and hornet killer.......then filled that hole to the brim! :angry:

The owner of the lawn saw this out of their window, came out, and I explained the situation...as if my rapidly-bulging eye didn't tell the story well enough. The owner brought out the baking soda and made a paste. Worked great for the sting but did nothing for the massive headache I developed. Still, I was able to finish out the day...even though my right eye was swollen completely shut and remained that way for two straight days. It looked more like De La Hoya got me more than some little punkazz yellow jacket. :eek:

Yeah, I too was a bit jumpy for a few weeks afterwards. It got old jumping back and breaking out into a sweat when I would see a butterfly or lightning bug fluttering out of the corner of my good eye. :blush:

[darryl gesner]

Here we go again. Every time there is a post about wasps, someone suggests pouring gasoline on the ground. Really bad idea. It's stupid and illegal to boot.

Also not a good idea to put it on your body for any reason. Do you guys even know what gasoline is? It's main components are Benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylenes. Pretty toxic stuff. Not something you should be pouring on the ground or yourself.

[awm]

got to admit to the gas thing,but they dont fight fair.:) fellas clorox does wonders for a sting if u get it on quick.
ive been waiting to get immune to stings like i did poison ivy. so far not.

[Lanelle]

A couple of days ago, my husband and oldest daughter started planting pansies at a neighborhood entrance sign. Sure enough, the daughter hit a yellow jacket nest with her trowel. They swarmed her head. She reacted vigorously as did my husband who is allergic. When she nearly ran backwards off the curb into speeding traffic, Dad grabbed her by the belt to pull her out of harms way. A soccer mom was driving by and called the police, thinking that he was assaulting this struggling young woman. They both got stung so he put her in the truck, brought her home, took meds and he went back to the area to continue working. Sure enough, the police arrived asking lots of questions about a 'fight'. Good thing he could point to his swelling arm as 'evidence' that it was a yellow jacket fight and not an attack on a young woman.:blob1:

[rodfather]

Geez Lanelle...I bet that is one day you and the family want to forget!!!

Hope everyone is ok.

[Clewsew]

I got stung once years ago using a trimmer. It was in the morning and was cool thank God. I felt some thing on the back of my neck, and just though maybe some thing fell out of a tree, and then felt it again. I flipped out! I shed the trimmer and ran to the guy that I was working with and started shouting "What's on me, what's on me!" At that point I looked down and saw a bee trying to sting me through my jeans and I yelled out "Bees!" He took off running one way, and I went the other shedding my shirt as I ran. One of the ladies working at the camp I worked at said all she could see is the top half of me running, so it looked like I was streaking though the forest....Still makes me laugh. I think that I only got stung once....what luck.

But where I live now, we have Scorpions! I got stung once getting out of bed....talk about the hibi jibis. It took me a while to not get all weirded out when in bed....what was that??? I try to spray around the house, and not let the covers/bed skirt touch the floor.

Be careful out there!

[TurfGuyTX]

I sprayed my place with Talstar and the only thing I ever see are dead bugs. It gets kinda old, but better dead than alive. I can bring one inside and let it loose and watch it die when I'm really bored. Try it at your house and save yourself from so many worries. Good luck.

[LB Landscaping]

I had an older customer ask me to trim a hedge out behind his house today. Started right in on it and noticed alot of "stuff" flying around. I kept going and noticed alot more "stuff" flying. WASP NEST!!! Had them on my sweatshirt but only got stung once. Got me in the ear the little *******. I told the guy that the trimming wasn't going to happen today and he got mad. I showed him all the wasps flying around and he said so who's going to trim the hedge for me??? He was actually mad that I wouldn't finish. :angry: