Yellow Jackets..

[jesnic]

After I get stung, I searched for days for a remedy or poison to carry on the tractor. I found nothing. Everyone basically does the same thing, run, wait till dusk and get revenge with diesel. I wish there was something I could carry with me, like the thermocell for skeeters, to combat yellow jackets.

 

[winston1]

Several years ago my brother and I were cutting firewood and stepped on a yellow jacket nest. One flew up in his nose and stung him. You talk about blowing and snorting, he was for evermore doing it. Didn't have any long lasting effect but wasn't a pleasant experience for him.

 

[Transit]

I used ammonia. It worked well. Good thing I am not allergic. Most of the stings were on my back, some on my ankles. Hurt like you know what for a while. The swelling went down after a couple days.

Having been stung by a Hornet and Yellow Jacket, the Hornet is worse. Both look alike, with the Hornet packing a bigger wallop. Vinegar is acidic and ammonia alkaline, I can't say which is more effective, but the vinegar gives instant relief.

 

[jesnic]

I've never been hit by a hornet. They typically are larger than yellow jackets. The reason I think most people get hit by yellow jackets is because they are ground nesting and all you have to do is disturb them a little and they get extremely aggressive. Hornets are usually in nests above ground and much easier to see and stay away from. I've never been stung by a bumble bee either and when I was kid, we would use tennis rackets and ping them across the road. They never seemed to be very aggressive.

 

[johnrex62]

I am glad we don't seem to have the same species of Yellowjacket in my area of the world. I have never seen a ground nest, they love high places like eaves and gable overhangs here in central and south Texas. The only stinging insect I have ever seen in the ground are bumble bees and red wasp. I have been told that sometimes honeybees will make a ground nest in this area, but I haven't personally seen that either.

 

[westbrooklawn]

I've gotten hit by them in the past while bush hogging... the most painful was 2 stings right on the top of my ear... hurt like #&!! for 2 days and nothing would take the pain away. I am not allergic, but hear that many have not had a reaction and then all of a sudden they will. Since I am often working alone in remote areas, I was thinking about asking my Dr. for a epi pen prescription... just to have one available in case I did have a bad reaction. Has anyone done this before, and what is the shelf life on an epi pen?

 

[edjones72]

About 30 years ago, my family moved to our new farm. I was 7 yrs old. Back in the woods there was an indention in the ground the size of an average bath tub. The story was told to us by our new neighbor that it was the remnants of a yellow jacket nest. He said about a year before an elderly man out walking stepped on the nest and both legs punched through. The bees went up both pants legs and he was stung well over 100 times. He died later that day. I'll always remember that story and I don't bushhog during the warm weather here in south Georgia.

 

[kenmac]

I am glad we don't seem to have the same species of Yellowjacket in my area of the world. .

Your lucky.. Bad thing is, you don't know you've run over them till it's too late....I was lucky to have only been stung 3 times. There is usually an army of them that chase you & keep stinging you

 

[careyo63]

There is usually an army of them that chase you & keep stinging you

Exactly what happened to me on the lawn mower. Chased me off of it and had them in my hair,On my T-shirt and that goodness nobody was around to see me have to SHED my Shorts also

Carey

 

[ninefinger]

Having been stung by a Hornet and Yellow Jacket, the Hornet is worse. Both look alike, with the Hornet packing a bigger wallop. Vinegar is acidic and ammonia alkaline, I can't say which is more effective, but the vinegar gives instant relief.

Do not know where you are from, but around here our hornets are black with a white band on their tail. We do have a Japanese hornet that does look like a GIANT yellow jacket. For the most part the Japanese hornet is generally a solidary creature unless you find their nest and no one I know has ever come accross one. The black ones are of a pack mindset around their nest and more agressive than yellow jackets. Bumble bees nest in the ground and are unforgiving if disturbed, very close to hornet pain. For those not allergic, it is my understanding that one's body can not expell the toxin and it has a culmutive effect... there comes a point when you will feel effects more and more with each time you get stung.