Yellow Jacket Nests While Bush hogging, whats your plan?

[DaBear3428]

spent my summers cutting and then raking hay with my father, on one field while cutting i noticed this huge ground bumble bee nest. after the hay dried we came back to rake and bail, i had forgotten about the bees until i'm on the wind row before the bees and as i go around i calculate that if i make a double pass and then come back the nest will be covered up. so after congratulating myself on being so smart and comming back on my next pass i look up to see my father bearing down on this huge pile of hay covered with a swarm of bumble bees, he just looks at me (you know the look) pulls the governor wide open and kind of huddles up in the seat. The tractor was covered with bees fighting everything that moves on the tractor as the tractor lugs down and barely chugs thru, the round baler managed to choke down the lot without stalling the tractor, he never got stung, but it was close. You can imagen the conversation after.

 

[bigtiller]

spent my summers cutting and then raking hay with my father, on one field while cutting i noticed this huge ground bumble bee nest. after the hay dried we came back to rake and bail, i had forgotten about the bees until i'm on the wind row before the bees and as i go around i calculate that if i make a double pass and then come back the nest will be covered up. so after congratulating myself on being so smart and comming back on my next pass i look up to see my father bearing down on this huge pile of hay covered with a swarm of bumble bees, he just looks at me (you know the look) pulls the governor wide open and kind of huddles up in the seat. The tractor was covered with bees fighting everything that moves on the tractor as the tractor lugs down and barely chugs thru, the round baler managed to choke down the lot without stalling the tractor, he never got stung, but it was close. You can imagen the conversation after.

One of the few times I got to work on the hay rack we found some big bumble bees. One of them landed on the tip of my nose...We looked at each other for a moment, and our defenses kicked in at the same time. He got a fist in the side and I got stung inside my nose.

Those bumble bees are HUGE when they are close enough to look you in the eye.

 

[Teck]

My wife puts a few of these traps out in the spring and catches the yellow jacket queens. It cuts the the number of nests down to zero. You can use rotten meat as an attractant as well.

 

[RobertEH]

Remember, know your enemy! Bees are your friends!

 

[Eagle1]

Seems these days most folk call everything bees and want to kill them. I like bees, don't mind wasps and hornets. Yellow jackets are evil. Targeted destruction only.

 

[Smokeydog]

Healthy skunk population helps reduce the abundant Yellowjacket population.

 

[Eagle1]

Armadillos and raccoons will find them as well.

 

[bdhsfz6]

What is your plan of attack? Shut tractor down and run? Downshift and pop the clutch?

I got my first experience of running over a yellow jackets nest while bush hogging. I was in a super low gear so I shut the tractor down and ran. Probably got nailed 8 or 9 times. I was able to wait for 1`0 minutes and was able to get on and drive away without another sting. I am just wondering what everyone else does in these situations. It is not fun, that is for sure.

Close the cab window.

 

[JethroB]

Adolfs meat tenderizer, papayin breaks down the venom, also baking soda and water paste. Never needed it for myself, stinging sensation goes away in a few minutes. Knock on wood that I don't become sensitive or allergic to stings as I get older.

I tried pure Clorox bleach once for yellow jacket stings. It seems I held that soaked paper towel to my neck waaayyy to long. A bad chemical burn as our nurse at work described it. Ugly too. The burn that is.

 

[JethroB]

As teens my brother and I had separate but similar experiences by getting too close to the commercial honey bee hives in the corner of a field on a MF 135. I stopped the tractor and ran. He just jumped off and ran. Dad later found the tractor in the woods where it had stalled against a tree.