yellow jackets

[Charles]

Well I saw my first yellow jacket nest of the year. Luckly I saw them at the edge of some bushes from my mower. A place that I would have soon weedeated. Whew! Good time to start walking your yards before cutting. Nothing like an attack from these bees to ruin your week and maybe kill you if you are allergic.

[GrassRoots Lawn Care]

Same here. Trimming some palms today and my brother got stung 10 or so times. Luckily we had some Benedryl and baking soda. <p>----------<br>Mike Reynolds,<br>GrassRoots Lawn Care, Florida

[geogunn]

in my area, they nest in the ground. you mow one week, nothing. the next week you get banged on real hard.<p>In '97 I got into 'em 5 times. stung dozens of times. it was a really bad year.<p>I only got hit once last year, and by a wood hornet which was about 2 inches long. I thought I was gonna die!<p>august and september are the worst months here.<p>GEO

[gene gls]

Thats one of the joys of a riding mower. Havn't gotten stung since I gave up walkin, three years now.

[Charles]

You have had about the same luck as I have had Geo. One time I was mowing around a yard and I saw these bumble bees nesting in the ground. They had a wide yellow streak on their backs. Larger streaks than usual. Well that was while I was mowing. I had forgotten about them by the time i had started trimming. I hit the whole where they were at. I saw this shadow on the ground of 2 large objects lol I looked up and there hovering were these 2 large bumble bees(and I use to think they were not agressive. Well i started running and swinging the weedeater at them. They chased me like japanese zeros. They had great team work. One went under my shirt and stung me. Some years I have been stung so much. That I dream about them coming out of my bed. Now I scan each yard and trees and try to spot them first. Doesnt always work. But I have avoided many nest that way. The worst place to be stung is on the earlobe. I fell off my tractor after that one.

[steveair]

Hello,<p>At work, all our trucks are painted 'fluorescent' highway road department yellow.<p>They are like 'ice cream cones' to yellow jackets.<p>We only use the trucks every so often, but when we do, look out! Every other month they seem to build a nest somewhere in them.<p>If you are lucky, you spot the nest,usually between the door jam when you open it up and are able to spray them.<p>Most the time however, they 'Hide Out' for a while, wait for you to get in the truck, start it up, and then start driving, and then bam. Come out of now where and swarm you while you are trying to drive down the road doing 30 with 6 yards of dirt in the pack. <p>steveair<br>

[Toroguy]

Mike,<br>What does the baking soda do?<p>Anyone,<br>Are the &quot;africanized killer bee's&quot; in the South? For the longest time the news reports were saying they would spread across the country. Or are these &quot;yellow jackets&quot; the killer bee's? They sound aggressive. I know the difference between bumble bees, but not Hornets, Wasps or Yellow Jackets.<p>The nightmare about the Bee's was funny.

[1MajorTom]

I'd have to say the eye is the worst place to get stung.<br>Last year Matt was trimming some hedges.<br>The next thing I know I heard him scream. By the time I got there, he was on the ground rolling around holding his eye.<br>A yellow jacket had stung him right in the eye.<p>He yelled for me to get him the cooler so he could put ice on it.<p>Well the customer must have heard the commotion. She came out to see what was going on.<p>She is over 80 years old, hard of hearing, and walks with a cane and has a hard time getting around.<p>By the time I get back with the water, I find the customer sitting on the ground watching Matt roll around, and she is laughing. I mean laughing hard. I can still picture this in my mind today. How she was even able to get down to the grass is beyond me.<p>It took him awhile to get up. When he did, he just got up and told the customer he wouldn't be back to trim the rest of that hedge until the nest of yellow jackets was gone. <br>She never complained, and the hedge didn't get finished till about a month later.<p>Matt's eye was swollen shut for almost a week. It was painful just to have to look at it.<p><br>Jodi

[yardsmith]

I was hoping NOT to hear that for at least another month.<br>Wife was helping last summer & rode over the nest without noticing, & on next stripe on way back they got her. About 10-20 of them, & darned if she didn't run 100 yds away from the nest- they still would absolutely not leave her alone until they stung her! Pissed me off plenty! Couldn't swat at them very well<p>----------<br>Smitty ô¿ô<br>

[SKDCO]

Got lit up yesterday(6-5) did not see nest in the ground, actually past that spot 3 times!!! Got stung once on right ring finger, once on right forearm and last but not least, on right side of neck just below ear. I have never swoll up like this before and it is still throbbing this A.M. The last one (on the neck) waited until I was loading my mower and that was 10 to 15 yards away!!!!!!! So everyone please be real careful they are MEAN!!

[Charles]

Toroguy, yellow jacket usually build nest in the ground in small holes. They shoot up in and out of the ground. They are ver agressive if you step on their nest or hit it with a weedeater or vacumm them up with a riding mower. They usually go after dark places on your body. Like your eyes. But they will chew on you anywhere. The african killer bees are different. They are migrating up the US. Will cover from the center of the US down east and west soon. They will attack more aggressivily than any other bee. You may get stung 500 times. They nest in trees and building. They are already in downtown LA and have attacked people there. Any threat to their nest will get a swift response. But just vibrations or noise from a mower or anything else a distance away will set them off. I think the day they show up in SC is the day I find another line of work lol. The nest for a big ball with the center of the nest able to survive very low temperatures.

[Eric ELM]

From what I've heard, the baking soda is used to draw the stinger and venom out. Get it wet and make a paste out of it and put it on the sting. What works great for a smoker is, take a wad of tobacco out of the end of a cigarette and get it all wet with spit and hold it on your sting. It will draw it all out and take the sting away. Chewing tobacco will do the same thing. A guy from southern Illinois told me about it when I got stung between the eyes by a big hornet when we had a cabin on a lake down there. It does work. If you don’t smoke, carry a bag of chewing tobacco with you. I got it on the ear lobe too one time, but the old tobacco trick fixed my problem both times.<p><p>----------<br>&lt;a href=&quot;http://pages.prodigy.net/eric.erickson/&quot;&gt;Eric@ELM&lt;/a&gt;<br>

[Toroguy]

Thanks Charles and Eric. Last year my only sting was from a bee that came out of the ground...a yellow jacket.

[southside]

Years ago,a friend of mine was slashing a<br>rough block and ran over an old 44 gallon<br>drum.It was full of wild bees.They swarmed<br>him and the tractor.He jumped off the tractor<br>in a real panic,arms flailing,screaming.<br>Tried to get neighbours to help,noone would<br>answer the door.By the time I got there,<br>(I was on the other side of the job)he had<br>basically given up and was just crunched up<br>in a ball on the ground.I got a garden hose<br>that was in front of a neighbours house and<br>hoses the **** out of him and the area.<br>He went to hospital and the doctors said the<br>bees nearly killed him. 1 more sting and he <br>dies. He gave up slashing and now drives a truck.<br>Every time now,that I see a bee hive,I grab<br>some diesel from the tanks,tip it on and<br>light the little bastards up.<p>Karl<br>

[Toddppm]

We had a climber at the tree service i used to work for that was allergic, every time he got stung to the hospital he went. I watched my foreman climbing one day, about the time he got to the top of tree before he could tie in, he shook a branch that some whitefaced hornets had a nest on, he had to sit there getting stung until he could tie in his rope and come down. Got it pretty good, but man i've never seen somone come out of a tree that fast without falling!

[Aspen]

My neighbor's a bee keeper. That guy's got the whole neighborhood upset. He gets mad at someone, and he coats their house in some kind of goo that attracts them. He's a mean one, and so are his bees. He needs to be dipped in molasses.<p>Aspen

[Acute Cut]

Last year i hit a hive in the ground as well. Next thing i knew i was being swarmed. I did the only thing i could. RUN LIKE HELL! As i was running i could feel thiem in my shirt. Needless to say i was almost naked by the time i got to the end of the street. My crew still laughs at that. They said they never seen anyone get undressed at a full sprint before. I didnt get stung, but they got a whole can of raid dedicated thier little home away from home curtousy of yours truly. Ever spray raid then light the last burst with a lighter? House warming gifts are so nice i think.

[yardsmith]

Last year after my wife got stung , I came back that night & used the CUSTOMER'S gas can & gave them a liquid diet of about a gallon & a half, dribbled a trail, & lit the trail, & enjoy the amber glow.<br>No rest for the wicked in my book.<p>----------<br>Smitty ô¿ô<br>

[Barkleymut]

While it is very entertaining to watch the little striped sons a bitches die by flame, don't do it on a customers lawn. What happens if there is a gas line nearby? BOOOOM. Or if the wind catches the flame? I just use some cheap spray from Lowes that shoots a good distance. I tried Ortho but it doesn't spray as far. Kills em in seconds. A few tips about Yellow Jackets: 1. They are meaner than Satan on a bad day. 2. You can't out run them 3. They are most active when it is hot (noon till 5pm) 4. When you go to spray the nest wait until night or early morning.