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Yellow Jackets?

5K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  herler 
#1 ·
Has anyone in the Philly/Northeastern area noticed an unusually high amount of bees and more particularly yellow jackets in the last few days?

Also, If you are asked to do hedge trimming and you notice that there are a bunch of bees flying around the bushes, what do you do? I am not exactly looking to be attacked by aggressive yellow jackets, is there a way to get rid of them? A spray only works when there is a nest, there doesn't apear to be a nest here, just a bunch of busy working bees.
 
#2 ·
By this time of year the yellow jackets have developed their nests to enormous structures and become more noticeable. There isn't much you can do other than spray the nest and mow over it quickly.

The busy bees around the shrubs could be honey bees collecting pollen. I trimmed some shrubs a week ago that were covered with honey bees. When I started trimming they went away. Didn't bother me at all, although I hated to cut down their source of pollen.
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#3 ·
By this time of year the yellow jackets have developed their nests to enormous structures and become more noticeable. There isn't much you can do other than spray the nest and mow over it quickly.

The busy bees around the shrubs could be honey bees collecting pollen. I trimmed some shrubs a week ago that were covered with honey bees. When I started trimming they went away. Didn't bother me at all, although I hated to cut down their source of pollen.
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Nope these are actually yellow jackets. I know how aggressive these wasps can be and I do not wanna mess with them and risk getting swarmed.
 
#4 ·
Yellow jackets will definitely swarm you. I'm not sure of any kind of spray that won't just piss em off. Some will die but the rest will hunt you down. The best remedy is if you could find the nest it's more than likely In ground or under old debris piles. Wait until just before dark when they are all in the nest, and lay the spray to em. The ones that survive will clear out by the next day then you can trim the shrubs
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#5 ·
Yellow jackets will definitely swarm you. I'm not sure of any kind of spray that won't just piss em off. Some will die but the rest will hunt you down. The best remedy is if you could find the nest it's more than likely In ground or under old debris piles. Wait until just before dark when they are all in the nest, and lay the spray to em. The ones that survive will clear out by the next day then you can trim the shrubs
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I agree with what that, but the issue is that there appears to be no nest....
 
#6 ·
I had a house last year where we couldn't find the nest. The yellow jackets had actually went through a nail hole in the siding of the house and built a nest between the exterior and interior walls. The homeowner didn't find it until they finally ate through the drywall and began to get into the house. they are crafty little insects and hard to find unless your not looking for them.:D
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#7 ·
Wear white and they won't see you. If you do find a nest, don't touch it. The bugs from hell can smell it on you and your gloves.

When I do find a nest, I get the client to pay extra for me to remove it. (75 plus tax)

I go in the evening when the wasps or hornets are all mostly in the nest.
And I watch them for a while.
I count how many sentries there are. On average, there are a couple that will stay on the exterior of the nest guarding it, and up to seven fly back and forth every few minutes.

I have to time my attack in between sentry missions.

I use two types of spray that you can get any-where. One is a liquid that will spray about twenty feet. The other is a foam.

You can't get scared. They can sense it. Have an escape plan worked out in your head and be ready to run like crazy if you have to.

With one hand I spray the heck out of the entrance hole with the liquid spray, and keep spraying. They will start coming out of the hole, so you have to keep spraying them from a distance and keep washing into the hole. It's like a fire hose being spraying on a rioting crowd.

At the same time, you have to coordinate an exterior attack with the foam. Hit the bugs that are walking on the outside of the nest first and then coat the nest.

So, with one hand I am continuing to spray the hole and with the other I am spraying to cover the outside of the nest. The whole time I am watching to see what every one of those bugs from hell is doing.

Then I run like crazy and monitor from a distance...... and go back in a bit and spray any of the crazies that are crawling on the ground towards me, trying to kill me.

When I'm sure it's safe and without touching the nest, I snip the branch it's attached to and put it into a plastic bag and stomp on it for fun. I love the way it squishes under my boots.

If you don't know where they are coming from, use a long shaft hedge saw and just do a quick touch-up from a distance. Those bugs will be gone in September and you can do a better job then. Have fun!
 
#8 ·
If your certain there is no ground nest around the shrubery then you shouldn't have much of a problem mowing around it. They shouldn't bother you that much as they are not there in defense of a nest. Like mowing clover with honey bees on them. Most bees will only sting if they feel their nest is being threatened. If you find a hole in the ground where their entrance is, at dusk (and not before) pour about a pint of gasoline in the entrance hole. The fumes will smother them in the nest. No need to set afire except for the pure injoyment of it. Be mindfull of hornets in the shrubery. They love to build their nest in them. A hornets sting is doublely worse than any other bee sting. Their nest are the characteristic gray ball hanging from a branch or rafter or under an eve somewhere.

Regards, Kevin:usflag:
 
#11 ·
This is the first year I've ever noticed yellow jackets building exterior nests in shrubs. Ran into one last Friday and 3 today. And before you tell me it's not yellow jackets, they are. I know my wasps...

I frequently notice exterior yellow jacket nests under railings, in mailboxes, window frames, etc etc, but I have never seen on in shrubs. I swore the one on Friday was a wasp nest because it was a perfect round gray ball a little smaller than my head. But I watched it closely and alas...yellow jackets were going in and out of it. I found 3 small phone-sized honeycomb yellow jacket jests (The kind I typically find under railings and whatnot) today, but they were easy to take care of.

so my point is that it's very possible for yellow jackets to build nests in shrubs, so start by looking on the tips of the branches for a fist-sized or smaller honeycomb nest.
 
#13 ·
Yellow Jackets also will build massive ground hives too. I did a lawn one summer for a guy that had to recover from an accident involving a ground hive. He was mowing his lawn with a riding tractor and the whole tractor, with him on it, collapsed the ground right into the hive. He was stung several hundred times and was lucky to survive.

The most times I've ever been stung was 13 and they came out of a ground hive when I mowed over it.
 
#16 ·
I've run across ground nests several times while bush hogging. They like to nest in and under piles of old clippings. Usually I notice them before I run over them but last month I hit a nest while I was turning the tractor around and didn't see them until it was too late. Seventeen stings in a matter of a few seconds is not a fun experience. The good news is that I'm apparently no longer allergic to the stings like I was as a child.
 
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