Yellowjackets

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Lots and lots of yelowjackets.
In a hole in the ground - a very large hole.

Little buggers swarmed me while I was mowing.

Ouch

A long soak in brutally hot water & the swelling has gone but not my temper.

Off to the south fourty with a shop vac and about 60 feet of extension cords. Set the nozzle at the hole and turn that sucker on.

A few hours hour later I thought I got all the little biuggers trapped in the vac. I pulled it vac out.

So there!!

Nope.
A few hours later there were some stragglers.

OK I'm really miffed.
Equipped with a gallon of hot water mixed with a plentitude of Sevin and a large funnel I trapes back to the hole. Jam the funnel in, & pour the sevin down the hatch.
It tool all of it.

W-o-W

They are dead now.

I hate hornets.

[Lee Schierer]

An easy cure for hornets in the ground is come back after dark and pour a tablespoon of moth crystals down the hole and immediately stuff a wadded up plastic shopping bag in the hole. Come back in 2 -3 days and recycle the shopping bag.

For your stings, immediately apply a paste of meat tenderizer or plain household bleach to the sting. Both will take away the sting.

Lee

[Dennis Peacock]

Rubbing on some Crest toothpaste will also help take out the sting. DAMHIKT!!!!

[Michael Stafford]

WE gas yellowjacket holes. A cupful of 87 octane poured down the hole has an immediate calming effect as the fumes alone will render them closer to Heaven. Then toss a lit match and the party's over....Not recommended by the EPA or any pest control regulatory agency.......:( :p :D

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

after dark and pour a tablespoon of moth crystals down the hole and immediately stuff a wadded up plastic shopping bag in the hole. Come back in 2 -3 days and recycle the shopping bag.

Way cool.



paste of meat tenderizer or plain household bleach to the sting. Both will take away the sting.

Interesting. I use heat to break down the toxins and increase circulation to carry off the stuff (not a great idea if one is allergic).

When I was a kid the folk wisdom was baking soda - it never did nothing.


Rubbing on some Crest toothpaste will also help take out the sting.

What does toothpaste do? Is it the spearmint do you think?

For that matter what does meat tenderizer or chlorine do?
I mean beside provide some measure of relief What are the mechanics of how they work??

Bleach is a fairly large molecule and ought not to easily penetrate the skin. But, if any did flow into the hole left by the stinger it would quite logically react with the toxin by either break ing it down or create a molecular bond with the toxin causing it to become something else.

I know nothing about meat tenderizer. Possibly the same essential operation merely from an enzymatic perspective??

I have recently heard that Capsacin ( hot pepper juice ) can be used to penertate the skin and relieve pain as deep as a half inch. It works by locally depleting a portion of the nuro-transmittor chemicals. I wonder if it would also solve for a sting??

[Wes Bischel]

Cliff,
I feel for you - I got the first stings of my life about a month ago - the marks are still there!:mad: Last year at my parents place Sam, my 3yo, stumbled into a nest and my parents doberman Penny ran to the rescue - I got Sam away without a scratch, though Penny got a few stings. My Dad did the poison routine (not sure which) and finally got them all after a few days.

I hope you heal fast - and don't find any more nests!!

Wes

[Ken Garlock]

Well Cliff, the first thing to remember with members of the bee family is that they are all at home after dark. Then you find the nest/hole and load it up with wasp and hornet spray. Problem solved, no stings. The nice thing about the wasp and hornet spray is that it will shoot a 20 foot stream. Just think what it will do when placed right up to the entrance to the nest.:)

Too bad about the stings, I know how you feel.:eek: Next time attack after dark.... :cool:

[Joe Pelonio]

You always have some come back after a few hours, they are the guards that are out even at night. They will disperse, go away and die though when they find out the nest is gone. Now in the underground nests there could be 2' deep and 3 feet diameter area covered by that nest, and the poison and boiling water may not have reached all of the larvae. I suggest
a can of the spray made for them that shoots 20 feet, arm someone standing by while you dig it out and then make sure to finish the job.

So far we've been lucky, just a few of the mud daubers, and they don't sting.

[Frank Fusco]

I got swarmed in my yard three years ago, ended up in emergency room. Terrible experience. I poured gasoline down the hole and lit it. Buggers still there. Filled hole with water mixed with a now illegal pesticide. Still there. More gasoline and fire. Still there. Stuffed about six ounces of blackpowder down hole and lit. After big boom, still there. A friend beekeeper said they build multiple chambers quite a ways underground and unless the queen was killed we would always have them. I did more of the blackpowder, gasoline thing then stuffed as much red cedar shavings as I could down the holes. Seems to have worked. But I still have an epi-pen nearby.

[Frankie Hunt]

An easy cure for hornets in the ground is come back after dark and pour a tablespoon of moth crystals down the hole and immediately stuff a wadded up plastic shopping bag in the hole. Come back in 2 -3 days and recycle the shopping bag. Lee

That is an interesting solution that I have never heard of before. We usually fight yellowjackets about once a year. I always pour about a pint of gasoline down the hole and then just cover up the hole with some kicked in dirt. I never set it on fire, just let the vapors do the work.

One year we had an above ground yellowjacket nest which is extremly rare around here. It was in the base of a shrub. I didnt want to use gasoline on this one so I got some plastic and covered the bush and set off an insect bomb under the tent. Didn't work. Did it a 2nd night with the same results. Duh.... I tried to spray bee killer on them but that didnt work either because of the densitiy of the shrub. So..... the next night I got out some gasoline and my water hose. I poured the gasoline on the nest, waited until all the buzzing stopped, then ran water on the bush for about 1/2 an hour. The bush still died.

[Steve Clardy]

I use gasoline on them buggers. Wasps, mud dobbers also.
They are graveyard dead after that!

[Joe Pelonio]

I had a nest in the water meter box, I used boiling water because plastic burns and melts. Just had to be quick, open cover, pour, drop the pot and run. When I went back the 'guards" were hanging around but the next day were gone. Another time there was a basketball sized nest hanging from a tree, used the spray on it, waited an hour then knocked it down and burned it. The worst I saw was underground on a soccer field, where all of the Mom's were getting stung in the rear end as they sat and watched the kids play. That's the one turned out to be a foot deep and 3 foot diameter. We got a case of the spray and I armed 6 guys, then I dug it open while they sprayed.

[Lee Schierer]

For that matter what does meat tenderizer or chlorine do?
I mean beside provide some measure of relief What are the mechanics of how they work??

Bleach is a fairly large molecule and ought not to easily penetrate the skin. But, if any did flow into the hole left by the stinger it would quite logically react with the toxin by either break ing it down or create a molecular bond with the toxin causing it to become something else.

I know nothing about meat tenderizer. Possibly the same essential operation merely from an enzymatic perspective??



The sting venom is a protien base so the meat tenderizer will break it down as does the bleach.

[Brad Schafer]

we have 'em around here, too. i mowed off the top of a dirt mound - which turned out to be a nest - with the Bush Hog last summer and got popped around 20-25 times. :mad: waited till the buzzing died down, then dumped about half a gallon down the hole and no more bees.

few days later i was out in the same field and happened to have a spade and thought i'd give it a dig ... and couldn't believe it. the "hive" was around 24" deep, and about a foot in diameter. it was "tiered" just like a hornet nest - maybe 6 or 7 levels - but a bit less regular due to the fact that it was an in-ground nest.

most amazing thing - there were THOUSANDS of dead bees in this thing (and i'm not exaggerating) ... if they would have called an "all hands" it would have been bad, bad news.

b

[Joe Mioux]

Be very carefull.... I know someone who ran across a swarm, they got in his mouth and he died.

Joe

[Michael Cody]

Gasoline & a match always worked for us.. same routine, after dark, pour gasoline (about 1 quart) down the hole (or holes, sometimes there are more than one). Wait 5 minutes or so then toss in a match. I will burn often for a hour or more, takes all the Oxy out of the nest and kills them dead in my experience.

[Mike Cutler]

As a sometimes beekeeper. I just put on the suit. smoke the hole(s) and spray hornet spray down the hole(s).

I had to mow the yard today in a bee veil, suit, and gloves. I still have two active hives. I didn't know that one was active until I backed into it with the mower. I guess a swarm had moved in sometime in the last few days.

[Gary Herrmann]

For the stings, use meat tenderizer next time. Their venom is protein based. The meat tenderizer works amazingly well, which I learned when I mowed over a nest a few years back.

[Chris DiCiaccio]

I used a 2 litre drink bottle, filled it with gasoline, then after dark I turned it upside down in the hole and left it there overnight. The neck of the bottle fits the hole and so it acts as a plug.

[Vaughn McMillan]

All this talk of gasoline and burning insects reminds me of my experience with a big red ant hill when I was a pre-teen kid. I had poured about half a gallon of gas all over the hill, then got the bright idea to light it on fire. Struck a match, tossed it to the ground, and then realized I was standing on gas-soaked sand. The dance I did would have rivaled Michael Flatley in Lord of the Dance. Sometimes I'm amazed that I survived my youth. ;)

- Vaughn