Yellow Jackets!

[mapper]

A story about a yellow jacket. This happened nearly 3 years ago. For our firewood we keep it under a shed and have a small rack in the garage that holds about what 1 row across a full-size pickup bed holds. We haul that much to the garage when needed, then carry enough for a day inside as needed and stack on the hearth next to the wood stove. One night I'm carrying wood inside and I grab a split block in the middle on the pointed edge. Soon after I feel something poking in the middle of my palm, but I ignore it at first thinking it's just a splinter. As I'm trying to grab a piece with my other hand the pain keeps getting worse until I realize it's not a splinter. I drop everything and go inside to run cold water on it and get some ice (don't really know why, that's just the first thing I thought about). I start worrying about what it could have been. Was it a scorpion, I've never been stung by one, how bad could this get? Could it have been a brown recluse, would the reaction be that quick? I finally go out to see what it was and this is what I found.

View attachment 492911 View attachment 492912

I don't know why it was in my firewood unless it thought that was a good place to hibernate.

As far as removal, I just just hornet/wasp spray after dark until I no longer see activity. Depending on where it is I may dig it up, otherwise I'll just keep coming back for a few days. I'll typically shine the area with my headlights, they tend to not be able to see me that way and just fly towards the lights.

Yellow jackets queens do hibernate during the cold months and they do like a good woodpile to do it in. I have been stung in the arm and chest by the little boogers and had them wake up in the house and Buzz around. I get in the habit of giving each piece of firewood a quick look and knocking off any I find, they move really slow when cold so however many I find don't get too far before my size eleven descends on them
And remember, each one of them will start a new colony next summer, kill it and a couple hundred aren't going to be pestering you in a few months.
I also find them in the shop fairly frequently, sucking them into the dust collector gives a certain satisfaction, I wonder how they fare spinning around at high speed in the cyclone:confused2:

 

[txndncowboy]

Originally Posted by txndncowboy
They must be different kind here because I've never seen one come from a hole. They build a paper nest here but still attack if you get near them.

Those are probably guinea wasps if the nests are up high or out in the open. Yellow jackets are also a type of wasps and have a paper nest inside of their holes. Most of the time they either dig out a hole in the ground or build their nest inside of an object near the ground.

Well I've found them both high and low. In the open and in bushes. Brush up on the bush they are in and you get attached. Put an open beer out and they find it before you can finish it. Spray that water based but safe for plants quick knock down stuff on them and you'll kill what's there but in a few days others pick up where they left off and continue building that paper nest. Nasty little critters.

 

[scdeerslayer]

I have dug up a couple of those nests that have the hole in the ground type. After they are all dead, used a shovel and those nests are larger, under ground, than any of the paper type wasps except for the hornet nests we have around here. I don't know what makes those little bastages so angry....but they are. They have a sort of quick type of movement jerking up and down and are smaller than the other paper nest type of wasp. They love to snack on my pears and any kind of meat. I wish the fire ants would start snacking on the ground wasps.

Yep, the ones I've dug up have been about the size of a basketball with several layers of paper nests. I saw a video once of a yellow jacket nest that started under a recliner on a porch of an abandoned house, it was bigger than the recliner.

 

[scdeerslayer]

Yellow jackets queens do hibernate during the cold months and they do like a good woodpile to do it in. I have been stung in the arm and chest by the little boogers and had them wake up in the house and Buzz around. I get in the habit of giving each piece of firewood a quick look and knocking off any I find, they move really slow when cold so however many I find don't get too far before my size eleven descends on them
And remember, each one of them will start a new colony next summer, kill it and a couple hundred aren't going to be pestering you in a few months.
I also find them in the shop fairly frequently, sucking them into the dust collector gives a certain satisfaction, I wonder how they fare spinning around at high speed in the cyclone:confused2:

That's the only one I've seen or heard about. I've told the story to others that use wood for heat and none have ever heard of it before. Believe me, I killed it right after taking the pictures.

 

[Pilot]

We get them in the house now & then; they come in with the firewood. The vacuum cleaner works well on them.
As I have posted several times before, I trap the queens in the spring and it really hits the population. When we built our house there were yellow jackets all over the place. Started trapping about 22 (?) years ago and that seems to have slowly reduced the population. I was disappointed this year, I only trapped about 25 queens and was afraid we'd have a bad year, but it was the yellow jackets that had a bad year. Saw very few all summer long.

 

[dragoneggs]

We get them in the house now & then; they come in with the firewood. The vacuum cleaner works well on them.
As I have posted several times before, I trap the queens in the spring and it really hits the population. When we built our house there were yellow jackets all over the place. Started trapping about 22 (?) years ago and that seems to have slowly reduced the population. I was disappointed this year, I only trapped about 25 queens and was afraid we'd have a bad year, but it was the yellow jackets that had a bad year. Saw very few all summer long.

How do you trap them?

 

[mapper]

How do you trap them?

Pheromone traps in the spring when they first start to wake up. I find that the non-disposable traps seem to work a bit better for queen trapping.

 

[JasperFrank]

Shop Vac. with 2 inches of water and some dish soap. Get enough of the workers and the nest will collapse. The Wasp Killer sprays don't work.

 

[JakeLS]

I had them build a huge nest under the siding right next to the main entrance of my house last year. I got a duster and sprayed the h#ll out of them with delta dust one night. The next day there were still hundreds of white powder coated yellow jackets flying around. It didnt even phase them. That night I put sevin dust in the duster and sprayed that in there and they started falling out like rain.
The next time I came across a ground nest mowing I mixed a bottle of sevin dust in about a gallon of water and dumped it down the hole at night. No sign of them after that.

 

[bunyip]

I have found them nesting in trees, in walls, ceiling cavity and underground, they seem quite adept, I'm sure ours are the same but we caLL THEM EUROPEAN WASPS, if I get stung it is time for the epipen and a trip to hospital so I do my best to avoid them.
Seem to come in when the BBQ is going.

 

[Jstpssng]

Shop Vac. with 2 inches of water and some dish soap. Get enough of the workers and the nest will collapse. The Wasp Killer sprays don't work.[\QUOTE]
Results must vary. I have taken out many nests with it. I get as close as I dare in the evening when they are in for the night and start spraying the entrance. When they start coming out keep hitting them until nothing is flying. Hint; it's a good idea to carry two cans in case one fails or runs out.

 

[mapper]

For in ground yellow jackets I have found that one of the most effective treatments (not the approved method) is a couple of ounces of gasoline down the hole. Quick knockdown and the fumes are heavier than air so they sink down the hole. Sprays often don't reach the nest.

 

[Jstpssng]

For in ground yellow jackets I have found that one of the most effective treatments (not the approved method) is a couple of ounces of gasoline down the hole. Quick knockdown and the fumes are heavier than air so they sink down the hole. Sprays often don't reach the nest.

Are you "Thingy" reincarnated? He was a veteran TBN'er who's signature was exactly what you just described.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

A story about a yellow jacket. This happened nearly 3 years ago. For our firewood we keep it under a shed and have a small rack in the garage that holds about what 1 row across a full-size pickup bed holds. We haul that much to the garage when needed, then carry enough for a day inside as needed and stack on the hearth next to the wood stove. One night I'm carrying wood inside and I grab a split block in the middle on the pointed edge. Soon after I feel something poking in the middle of my palm, but I ignore it at first thinking it's just a splinter. As I'm trying to grab a piece with my other hand the pain keeps getting worse until I realize it's not a splinter. I drop everything and go inside to run cold water on it and get some ice (don't really know why, that's just the first thing I thought about). I start worrying about what it could have been. Was it a scorpion, I've never been stung by one, how bad could this get? Could it have been a brown recluse, would the reaction be that quick? I finally go out to see what it was and this is what I found.

View attachment 492911 View attachment 492912

I don't know why it was in my firewood unless it thought that was a good place to hibernate.

As far as removal, I just just hornet/wasp spray after dark until I no longer see activity. Depending on where it is I may dig it up, otherwise I'll just keep coming back for a few days. I'll typically shine the area with my headlights, they tend to not be able to see me that way and just fly towards the lights.

That is what we call a yellow jacket places where I have been and now are. I think they are pretty universal around the country. They are nasty and are meat eaters. Cattlemen hate them because they sting the animal and inject their venom which causes the flesh to die. They then eat the soft parts leaving a sore area that is open, then the flies lay their eggs in the wound which that introduces maggots which make it worse yet because they go on into the live flesh. That is why around their sting your flesh dies and sloughs off. Nasty! Nasty!

They love to hibernate in wood piles. Bring wood into he warm house and soon there are several buzzing around. I have picked up a piece of wood and had them in my hand. they wake up pretty fast but slow and sluggish and easy to kill. I will take a bee sting any day over them. I have had them build nests in many strange places including in the ground. I queen can generate mega thousands of the buggers. queens that survive the winter each start a new colony in the spring. Never go after them in the daytime or warm nights.

Ron

 

[spitter]

Ran out of bee spray my kid tried a can of brake clean and he said it droped them in the spot.:thumbsup::cool2::drink:

 

[widefat]

I have used one of these with great success. And it is indeed quite fun -

 

[Rock Crawler]

Talstar Pro 4 oz per gallon of water in a garden sprayer will kill them. I spray the giant paper ball nest at night, saturate it and have it dripping and soggy. I try to get close and spray up into the hole slightly as well. Within 48 hours it is a dead nest. Even at night, be sure to wear long sleeves, long pants, and be ready to defend yourself from a few groggy sentries that will likely react.

Talstar Pro kills anything. If it creeps, crawls or flies..... it dies. It is a broad spectrum insecticide (the active chemical is available under a few various product names, Talstar Pro is the one I use) that works on almost all insects. I spray my bricks on the house, the edges of the basement, shrubbery and decorative plants, and yes.... I mix 25 gallon batches and spray my 3.5 acre yard from a boom sprayer. It kills just abpout every insect you'll ever want to see and many that you will wish that you didn't see. If I am late in the spring before I do the bricks on the house, I have to use a leaf blower to clean the corpses from the asphalt driveway. I have yet to find an insect that could survive this lovely product, and it is cheap to buy and use. It also lasts around 3 months of effectiveness before UV kills it. It does leave a slightly milky white film on glass, so be careful of that.

Talstar P (Pro) Insecticide | Fast, Free Shipping - DoMyOwn.com

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Don't forget! If you get stung, put some juice from an onion on it and it will stop the pain almost immediately. I didn't believe it either, until I got stung by a bumble bee in the palm of my hand; my 90 year old Dad said "put some onion juice on it". I did, and and it worked!

 

[Alien]

Lots of vids on you tube.
blowing up wasp nests youtube - Google Search

One chap used to post quite regularly but then he stopped. His wife later posted that he had been killed in a car accident. Very sad.
This is the guy here. Bothering Bald faced hornets with an Action Drone AD-1 - YouTube