Bee Aware

[KK4AMI]

Good Grief,
I was mowin' my three acres on my lawn tractor. What a battle. I got stung by those damn ground hornets a total of 14 times from three different holes. Watch out, the bees and bugs are out. Almost makes me want to move to a high rise. Goin' on a secret raid tonight with Hornet and Wasp spray. The little bastards die!

[X-Rated]

Good Grief,
... from three different holes...

Your two ears and what other hole?

[X-Rated]

Sounds like you have yeller jackets. I don't know of hornets in the ground.

Once you have yeller jackets, you will pray for hornets to live and break bread with you.

[KK4AMI]

Your two ears and what other hole?

The hornets came "from three different holes" in the ground, I didn't get stung "in three different holes" ouch, just thinking about that! :)

[KK4AMI]

You might be right, I'm not a stinging insect expert. The bites are really burning my skin now.

[X-Rated]

The hornets came "from three different holes" in the ground, I didn't get stung "in three different holes" ouch, just thinking about that! :)

First of all, I am assuming that you do not have bumble bees. I do what I can to protect bumble bees and avoid them. They live in the ground.
Secondly, I take a kettles of boiling water and pour on the holes in the yard (whew) at night. They don't come back and no chemicals. IF IT IS yeller jackets, chemicals are useless to fending those little bastards off. Those bastards are immune to anything I spray short of a direct hit, and they are so numerous, you cannot directly hit them all.

Yeah. Boiling water. No chemicals.

[X-Rated]

http://ksj.mit.edu/sites/default/files/images/tracker/2008/yellowjacket.jpg

[X-Rated]

Find the holes during the day and pour the boiling water at night. Messing anywhere near those holes during the day will get you attacked. They maintain a periphery of defense around their hives and that periphery is most absent at night, and they are pretty well snug and tucked in at night.

Kill off a few hundred for me.

[KG4CGC]

Pour a gallon of gas down each hole and stand back and toss a match. Enjoy the show.

[W1GUH]

A very, very effective defense against any flying, stinging insect is hair spray. Just one quick spray and they can't fly -- the spray fucks up their wings. Probably not very effective against an army of them, but very, very good against just a small number. Plus, it's not poison like those other sprays and works immediately.

AND -- you can get back at them. A flying insect that can't fly is totally defenseless. You can pick 'em up with pliers or something and pull off their wings watching their stingers going a mile a minute in panic. LOVE to see that -- those MFs have stung me and some friends with no provocation at all.

[W1GUH]

Pour a gallon of gas down each hole and stand back and toss a match. Enjoy the show.

Ooh...I want to see those kiddies try this at home!

[KG4CGC]

Ooh...I want to see those kiddies try this at home!

Oh. I forgot to mention, wait till they go to bed. The yeller jackets that is.

[KG4NEL]

A few weeks ago, I was at the turnaround point on a run and I guess I must have smelled like an attractive target for one. Damn thing chased me for a mile before it got bored of being swatted and took off.

Never had one that persistent before. Would have made a great training tool if the thing wasn't dive-bombing me whenever I'd stop...

[W3WN]

Pour a gallon of gas down each hole and stand back and toss a match. Enjoy the show.I've got a few nests of flying PITA's down in the garden. Some bumblebees, some yellow jackets.

Considering that the garden walls are wood, I don't think pouring gas will be a good idea.

I will try boiling water on the yellow jackets though.

[K7SGJ]

The Buzz out here is, we don't have too many of the lil bastids out where I live. However, when I had to go to one of the pumping plants, the SOBs would have a nest inside the security camera housings. What a treat, four stories up, on the edge of the roof, fucking with those things. They liked it there because of the endless supply of water, and in the winter, the housings were warm inside. Been stung more than I care to remember, but I do remember that their sting is 11 3/4 more painful than a bee sting. Initially, they are even worse that a sting from a bark scorpion. Guess how I know that?

ETA The last time I was curious enough to look it up, the natural enemy of them are coons and skunks, as I recall. I think there was also another flying insect that would kill them, but I don't remember what it was, and it was probably worse than the YJs.

[kf0rt]

Pour a gallon of gas down each hole and stand back and toss a match. Enjoy the show.


That's what I've done before (the gas, not the match). Pour gas, fill hole with dirt. Like Jerry says, make sure you do this at night.

[X-Rated]

Hair spray and the such are great on every one of them you can hit. You are only going to be able to hit a few of the thousands that are probably there. The objective is to kill them all off, and hairspray will not get them all. Guaranteed. If you have hornets, hairspray will work, but I hate to torture God's creatures even if they are torturing me. Spraying hornets is easy because they will largely leave themselves in the open. Yeller jackets are crafty and persistent and mean.

Two words. Boiling Water.

[KK4AMI]

The painful part is that I know they dig nests in the yard every year and I know to watch out for them flying around the hole. Unfortunately, I don't remember that from year to year until I've been stung. This year there are a lot more nests then I'm use to.

[kf0rt]

A very, very effective defense against any flying, stinging insect is hair spray. Just one quick spray and they can't fly -- the spray fucks up their wings. Probably not very effective against an army of them, but very, very good against just a small number. Plus, it's not poison like those other sprays and works immediately.

AND -- you can get back at them. A flying insect that can't fly is totally defenseless. You can pick 'em up with pliers or something and pull off their wings watching their stingers going a mile a minute in panic. LOVE to see that -- those MFs have stung me and some friends with no provocation at all.


Anything petroleum based works (this is why gas works well). Petroleum acts as a solvent on their delicate wings and actually dissolves them. WD40 works, too (there's usually WD40 in the garage -- hair spray, not so much).

[K7SGJ]

Anything petroleum based works (this is why gas works well). Petroleum acts as a solvent on their delicate wings and actually dissolves them. WD40 works, too (there's usually WD40 in the garage -- hair spray, not so much).

Ever get them mixed up in the morning while getting ready for work?

[N2CHX]

Pour a gallon of gas down each hole and stand back and toss a match. Enjoy the show.

^^ That right there. We had yellow jacket nests in the 3' terrace around our house when I was growing up. It was great when the Niagara River overflowed its banks because our house became an island of its own while everyone else's in the neighborhood was under water. But dangit, those yellow jackets loved it, and they hated me. I once got stung 16 times on the forehead and arm because I dared go near them. Dad took care of the little buggers with old motor oil, a rag and a match. Not as exciting as using gasoline, I'm sure, but Dad was no dummy and didn't want gas fumes to seep into the basement and set the house on fire. That was the end of the little striped beasts, at least for the summer.

[W1GUH]

Anything petroleum based works (this is why gas works well). Petroleum acts as a solvent on their delicate wings and actually dissolves them. WD40 works, too (there's usually WD40 in the garage -- hair spray, not so much).

Comes down to which is cheaper or less messy?

As for torturing those bastards -- yeah, sometimes I have the "God's little creatures" thoughts...but not for long. Same with mice and roaches.

[X-Rated]

Ever get them mixed up in the morning while getting ready for work?

I heard about that young newlywed couple who confused the Vaseline with window putty. Their windows all fell out.

[KG4CGC]

Got stung in the left arm while cutting grass one day. They swarmed and if I had thought a split second sooner, I would have parked the running mower over the hole.
Ran inside, left mower running in yard, watched the swarm from the window. Tried going back outside but they had their radar on me!
Decided to take a nap. Weird dreams. Dreamed my left arm was giant and angry and in the dream, I could pick people up with it and slam them in the wall and other objects like they were nothing.
Yellow Jacket venom is powerful stuff.

[kf0rt]

Ever get them mixed up in the morning while getting ready for work?

HATE when that happens. :lol:

[X-Rated]

Comes down to which is cheaper or less messy?

As for torturing those bastards -- yeah, sometimes I have the "God's little creatures" thoughts...but not for long. Same with mice and roaches.

Pouring hot water on them is indeed torture, but I will avoid torture as much as possible. And it is not possible for me to allow yeller jackets to live.

[kf0rt]

Comes down to which is cheaper or less messy?

As for torturing those bastards -- yeah, sometimes I have the "God's little creatures" thoughts...but not for long. Same with mice and roaches.

Usually, it comes down to whatever's closer.

[X-Rated]

Usually, it comes down to whatever's closer.

True dat.

EDIT: Killing a wasp or a hornet is a simple task. Killing yeller jackets is a project. Plan wisely.

[WX7P]

We got the little fuckers for first time here in Sac this summer. They built their little nests in PO box cube and inside the front fender of a car that I don't drive that often. That nest was as big as a fist!

We had tons of them in Tulelake. Since the houses we bought up there had all been vacant for awhile, I easily spent 2 weeks and a Zillion cans of wasp spray getting rid of them. They ARE persistent. I finally figured out two things: 1. ALWAYS destroy the nest either by burning them or taking them to the landfill. They will reuse them even if the nest was sprayed the previous season. 2. Walk the property with a can of jet spray and a broom (to knock down the nests) and you'll if you do that often enough, they find somewhere else to go.

I absolutely hate those things. I'm not clear why they showed up here in Sac all of a sudden.

[K7SGJ]

We got the little fuckers for first time here in Sac this summer. They built their little nests in PO box cube and inside the front fender of a car that I don't drive that often. That nest was as big as a fist!

We had tons of them in Tulelake. Since the houses we bought up there had all been vacant for awhile, I easily spent 2 weeks and a Zillion cans of wasp spray getting rid of them. They ARE persistent. I finally figured out two things: 1. ALWAYS destroy the nest either by burning them or taking them to the landfill. They will reuse them even if the nest was sprayed the previous season. 2. Walk the property with a can of jet spray and a broom (to knock down the nests) and you'll if you do that often enough, they find somewhere else to go.

I absolutely hate those things. I'm not clear why they showed up here in Sac all of a sudden.

Simple, not even those things want to live in LA.

[HUGH]

If you can get dairy (milking parlour) fly spray from a farmers supply shop it should contain Permethrin, synthetic pyrethrum. That does the job without being dangerous. Take care what cosmetics you use (seriously) because I found some flying stingers like shampoo containing mint and other nice things.

Other than that suggestion, many wild bees are totally harmless, I can pick a bumble bee off a plant and replace it with no trouble but run a mile once a wasp has stung to fetch my sprayer. Remember bees are important for pollinating crops, especially fruit.

[X-Rated]

If you can get dairy (milking parlour) fly spray from a farmers supply shop it should contain Permethrin, synthetic pyrethrum. That does the job without being dangerous. Take care what cosmetics you use (seriously) because I found some flying stingers like shampoo containing mint and other nice things.

Other than that suggestion, many wild bees are totally harmless, I can pick a bumble bee off a plant and replace it with no trouble but run a mile once a wasp has stung to fetch my sprayer. Remember bees are important for pollinating crops, especially fruit.

I let bees alone. I will work around them. I will not kill the bees. They are too important.

[KG4CGC]

Yeah. I don't mess with bees. Yellow Jackets and European Wasps are another story. Very aggressive. I should probably carry an epi pen but the degree of issues I have depends on species and where they sting me. Foot, no problem. Eye, possible heart attack.

[K7SGJ]

Bees are your friend. Especially boo-bees.

We seem to get at least one or two hives a year somewhere on the property. Since I don't want the dogs to do something stoopid and get stung all to hell, I call this bee keeper friend of mine. She shows up with her bee-box and shop vac, and sucks them all up and takes them back where she has a zillion and a half hives. She's always glad to get them, and I trade here some fresh eggs for fresh honey. Damn, if the world could just ditch this currency thing and go back to barter, we'd all be better off. And the 1% ha ha ha ha, they have nothing worth while to trade any more. Bastids

[X-Rated]

Bees are your friend. Especially boo-bees.
... Bastids

Those can really sting you. And the recovery is the rest of your money for the rest of your life.

[K7SGJ]

Those can really sting you. And the recovery is the rest of your money for the rest of your life.

Yeah, I don't know about the rest of your life, but you can really "milk" it a long time.

[n2ize]

Pour a gallon of gas down each hole and stand back and toss a match. Enjoy the show.
Even better. Put a few sticks a good ol' fashon dynamite down there and set it off.

[n2ize]

Yeah. I don't mess with bees. Yellow Jackets and European Wasps are another story. Very aggressive. I should probably carry an epi pen but the degree of issues I have depends on species and where they sting me. Foot, no problem. Eye, possible heart attack.

Watch out for them Asian Hornets. Trouble is when you kill one a dozen others show up to come after you.

[NQ6U]

It's them damned Hudson Hornets that worry me. They're the size of a car.

[WX7P]

It's them damned Hudson Hornets that worry me. They're the size of a car.

HA!

6988

[VE7MGF]

you might try a co2 fire extinguisher
freeze the buggers

[kf0rt]

you might try a co2 fire extinguisher
freeze the buggers

Won't they just thaw out and come after you anyway?

I've only been stung once that I know of; hurt like hell. Was launching model rockets in the field next to where I work and had a camera along to take pictures. Swung the camera to my back and must have caught one of the buggars. No idea what kind of bee/wasp/hornet it was.

Mostly just leave 'em alone and do the WD40 thing if they get too pesky or come inside the house. Mutual respect, I figger...

Had a hive of something going under the porch here years ago, and the gas + dirt worked. Still have some paper wasps or something, but if they don't bother me, I don't much bother them.

[X-Rated]

Do yourself a favor and watch for the yellow jackets. Paper wasps and mud daubers are childs play. They all can and will sting, but the yellow jackets are too possessive and too persistent to ignore. If you allow them to grow their population, you will be sorry.

[NQ6U]

Mud daubers are mellow yellow; they won't bother you unless you are trying to destroy their construction. Paper wasps can be a bit more aggressive—they are colonial and getting too close to their nest can trigger an attack if they feel threatened. Yellow Jackets, on the other hand, will hunt you down, get in your face and then sting you multiple times when you swat at them. I hate those fuckers and am glad they are uncommon in these parts.

[VE7DCW]

Mud daubers are mellow yellow; they won't bother you unless you are trying to destroy their construction. Paper wasps can be a bit more aggressive—they are colonial and getting too close to their nest can trigger an attack if they feel threatened. Yellow Jackets, on the other hand, will hunt you down, get in your face and then sting you multiple times when you swat at them. I hate those fuckers and am glad they are uncommon in these parts.

This area is Yellowjacket country!!!! .....I always hope for a damp cool spring because that stops a potential summer army of the little bastards from developing.But the bug that we're sort of at the extreme end of it's range is something called a Bald Faced Hornet ..... it's a large black coloured wasp with a couple of white coloured bands around it's abdomen ..... i've seen one of these SOB's take on a few yellowjackets and it came out as last bug standing!!! ... wow!! fortunately we don't see many of them around here !! :scared:

[X-Rated]

I have seen the crane fly at work killing a hornet. Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly) I don't see them in Illinois, but we had many in Kansas. I could not believe they could kill a horney, er a hornet, but they land on the back and there is nothing the hornet can do about it.

[KG4CGC]

I have seen the crane fly at work killing a hornet. Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly) I don't see them in Illinois, but we had many in Kansas. I could not believe they could kill a horney, er a hornet, but they land on the back and there is nothing the hornet can do about it.

I think I saw a couple of those several years ago after seeing a documentary about them and other insects.

[K7SGJ]

I have seen the crane fly at work killing a hornet. Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane_fly) I don't see them in Illinois, but we had many in Kansas. I could not believe they could kill a horney, er a hornet, but they land on the back and there is nothing the hornet can do about it.

I had a boss like that. Couldn't get him off my back to save my ass.

[X-Rated]

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TLTDNclM18g/RUDl3SCMABI/AAAAAAAABM8/rEp82hFlYLw/s431/Billy%2520and%2520Tommy.jpg

The guy on the left was my worst boss. He would tell me one thing to do and then when he figured out that was not what he really wanted, he said I wasn't listening. He fired me when I required him to put requests in writing. I even provided the writing and all he had to do was to make corrections and sign off. That got me fired. He was an alcoholic.

[KG4CGC]

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TLTDNclM18g/RUDl3SCMABI/AAAAAAAABM8/rEp82hFlYLw/s431/Billy%2520and%2520Tommy.jpg

The guy on the left was my worst boss. He would tell me one thing to do and then when he figured out that was not what he really wanted, he said I wasn't listening. He fired me when I required him to put requests in writing. I even provided the writing and all he had to do was to make corrections and sign off. That got me fired. He was an alcoholic.

Well, he's kind of dressed like a drunk sailor on shore leave.

[VE7DCW]

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-TLTDNclM18g/RUDl3SCMABI/AAAAAAAABM8/rEp82hFlYLw/s431/Billy%2520and%2520Tommy.jpg

The guy on the left was my worst boss. He would tell me one thing to do and then when he figured out that was not what he really wanted, he said I wasn't listening. He fired me when I required him to put requests in writing. I even provided the writing and all he had to do was to make corrections and sign off. That got me fired. He was an alcoholic.


"Ever been to sea Billy??" .....assuming of course Billy is his name .... :rofl:

[n2ize]

My father was a beekeeper for a while. He had 2 hives in the back years that produced copious amounts of honey.

[X-Rated]

"Ever been to sea Billy??" .....assuming of course Billy is his name .... :rofl:

He did actually go into the Navy. His US Rep nominated him for the academy, but he went enlisted. US Rep JJ Jake Pickle. He had a class with a girl at the University of Texas named Kathy Whitman. She didn't make it. But he told us of good times on the ship. They took a tube and dumped uneaten food into it and had new enlistments crawl through this food tube weeks after it settled and rotted. The first ones just had to crawl through the rotted food. The next ones had to crawl through the vomit as well.

But, yes. His name is Billy Bourke. Glenda, the good witch of the North was Billie Burke, I think.

[ka8ncr]

Every spring I set up traps to try to catch as many queen yellow jackets as I can. I am especially allergic to those little bastards, and before the immunotherapy they would have been deadly. To anyone who is allergic to these stings, I highly recommend enduring the four or five years of shots to solve the problem.

The cheap bag traps with chemical attractant work; I catch about 6 queens every spring and that pretty much keeps the problem away in the fall.

[HUGH]

I had this tip which seems to work:

European wasps make nests up to about the size of a filled supermarket carrier bag and these wasps will avoid nests made by another swarm. If you fill a carrier bag with straw, dry grass or shredded paper and spray it a sort of pale grey, the same colour as a wasp's nest, hang it in a nearby tree when you are eating outside, the wasps will ignore you and go elsewhere.

My traps are screw-top glass jars. I make one hole through the lid with a medium cross-head (Philips) screwdriver and put in a little jam, perhaps an over-ripe plum or grapes, add a little water and wasps and flies can't resist entering. They never manage to get out, especially as the hole in the lid should have four sort of prongs pointing down inside.
When the jar is full it will probably smell pretty foul, you won't want to use it again next year!

I keep two beehives and the bees don't go near these traps.

[KG4CGC]

I had this tip which seems to work:

European wasps make nests up to about the size of a filled supermarket carrier bag and these wasps will avoid nests made by another swarm. If you fill a carrier bag with straw, dry grass or shredded paper and spray it a sort of pale grey, the same colour as a wasp's nest, hang it in a nearby tree when you are eating outside, the wasps will ignore you and go elsewhere.

My traps are screw-top glass jars. I make one hole through the lid with a medium cross-head (Philips) screwdriver and put in a little jam, perhaps an over-ripe plum or grapes, add a little water and wasps and flies can't resist entering. They never manage to get out, especially as the hole in the lid should have four sort of prongs pointing down inside.
When the jar is full it will probably smell pretty foul, you won't want to use it again next year!

I keep two beehives and the bees don't go near these traps.

The latter reminds me of the old fashioned glass fly traps. Flies come in, get into the syrup which has been poisoned and even if they don't die right away, it is difficult to get back out.

[KK4AMI]

I bought six cans of Wasp & Hornet Spray, the kind that shoots out in a stream of about 20 feet. Went out on a foot patrol to recon the yard at at 1830. I found and sprayed four ground nests. I shot a whole can in each nest, then plugged it with a piece of log. That way they are marked until I know they are dead..dead..dead! I am sort of allergic to the little critters. The bites are now red spots on my skin that itch like hell. Took lots of Benedryl!

[X-Rated]

I bought six cans of Wasp & Hornet Spray, the kind that shoots out in a stream of about 20 feet. Went out on a foot patrol to recon the yard at at 1830. I found and sprayed four ground nests. I shot a whole can in each nest, then plugged it with a piece of log. That way they are marked until I know they are dead..dead..dead! I am sort of allergic to the little critters. The bites are now red spots on my skin that itch like hell. Took lots of Benedryl!

Glad you didn't use boiling water. Boiling water will fill all of the areas in the ground and kill them all. At least you gave some who are not in a direct shot of your poison a chance to burrow out elsewhere. Jolly good sporting chance for the little buggars.